Rise in Drug-Related Deaths

UK drug deaths are currently at their highest since records began, with 4,335 people losing their lives in 2020.

This has been a year on year rise, with drug deaths having risen by 60 per cent in the past decade.

Decriminalisation

Since decriminalising the use of all drugs in 2001, Portugal has seen a decline in all drug usage, the rate of which is now far below the European average. There have also been dramatic drops in drug-related crime, overdoses and HIV infections.

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Racial Injustice

Despite being no more likely to use drugs than white people, Black people are nearly ten times as likely to be stopped and searched.

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Drug Policy and Young People

​​Children and young people killed or injured in drug-market violence, criminal convictions or deaths from contaminated street drugs are all the direct result of the drug war.

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Mexico

Countries of drug production and transit are some of the most affected by the drug trade. What is produced in countries like Mexico and trafficked is consumed in Europe and the US, and demand will not go away, so crises will continue.

Illegal Drug Trade

An online report published by the UK Home Office in 2007 estimated the illicit drug market in the UK at £4 – 4.6 billion a year; funding for organised crime.


County Lines

County lines is a complex problem that involves social exclusion and lack of resources in social services and education. It is a network of exploitation that links international crime networks to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. However, we must also recognise that the emergence of such supply networks is a consequence of our current drug laws’.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates there are over 2,000 county lines in the UK, and The Children’s Commissioner estimates 4,000 teenagers in London alone are being exploited by county lines networks each year.

Canada

The sale of cannabis was legalised in Canada in 2018. Two years on, researchers saw no indication of the feared increase in use.

In fact, they saw the opposite: cannabis use in the 15 to 17 age bracket was cut in half, down to 10 per cent from the 20 per cent it was before legalisation. Cannabis use in 18 to 24 year olds remained consistent post legalisation at 33 per cent. About 6 percent of the population reported consuming cannabis on a daily basis prior to 2018 – a percentage which also remained unchanged’.

Heroin Assisted Treatment

Heroin Assisted Treatment (HAT) involves the provision of medical-grade heroin – also called diamorphine – to registered patients as part of a treatment programme. Patients attend a clinic once or twice a day, and use their prescriptions on site, under medical supervision. It is normally for people who have not had success with other treatments’.

Each £1 spent on drug treatment will save £4 from reduced demands on health, prison and law enforcement emergency services.

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Trafficking and the
Drug Trade

At least one-fifth of human trafficking and slavery cases in the UK happen within the illegal drug trade.

We need to reform drug policies to reduce the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable people. Click here to learn more.

Honduras

Honduras, through which an estimated 79% of cocaine passes on its way to the US, had, as of 2011, the highest murder rate in the world.

According to the International Crisis Group, the most violent regions in Central America are highly correlated with an abundance of drug trafficking activity.

The Cost of the War on Drugs

A report by the UK government’s Drug Strategy Unit that was leaked to the press stated that, due to the expensive price of highly addictive drugs heroin and cocaine, drug use was responsible for the great majority of crime, including 85% of shoplifting, 70 – 80 per cent of burglaries and 54% of robberies.