Drugs about turn today?

Changed world?

This will be a remarkable day for me.

For 20 years I have been challenging British Governments on their drug policies. Rarely in those dozens of debates with a scores of ministers, has there been any agreement.

Today a new document I am moving will be considered by the Council of Europe. Briefing is produced by the  Government to advise British delegates. To my astonishment, I discovered today that they support my document without qualification.

Some four years ago there was outright opposition to a similar proposal I made. In the debate then , the proposal  was amended so badly, I ,as the proposer, voted against.It was so mangled, it would have done more harm than good. The present government's attitude  is a very strong signal that the debate has changed.

In the sixties there was a united world view that illegal drugs use would disappear when confronted by common world use of the criminal justice system. Harsh laws were introduced in many countries to imprison drugs pushers and users. Then in 1971 in the UK,` there were fewer than 1,000 addicts. Now there are 280,000. It's a world story of inexorable increase.

For the past 25 years, countries have been divided between those who believe in strict prohibition and those who favour policies of pragmatic decriminalisation. The Netherlands have argued with Sweden, UK with Switzerland. Agreement is not possible and the energy devoted to a sterile debate has distracted attention away from the new tragedy of the spread of the scourge of drug use across the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe. I was due to visit a Moscow childrens' hospital three years ago. All the children had been born with HIV-AIDS. Almost all were the children of drug addicts. Attempts to cut off drugs at the supply side  in Colombia and Afghanistan have been expensive tragic failures that have spread drug corruption and led to increased supply and cheaper prices.

But there is hope. In the UK, the forty years continual increase in drug use has slowed and has started to reverse. Our emphasis has shifted from imprisoning  addicts, treating them like criminals to offering health outcomes`, treating them like patients. The numbers in treatment has doubled. What I am urging today is that we continue to shift our anti-drugs activity to substitution treatment, needle exchange programmes and psychosocial treatment. These will have a long term effect of rehabilitation of drug users and their rehabilitation into society.

These response have been applied throughout Europe on a fragmentary basis even though their utility and cost-effectiveness have been widely and independently validated. According to the European Monitoring Centre every Euro invested opioid dependence treatment programme will yield four and five euro in reduced drug related crime.When health savings are included that total saving can be a ratio of 12:1.

The geographic sphere of influence of the Council of Europe is enormous. We have a powerful message for the world when they consider the UN ten year strategy in six months time. This report has the backing of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Society and the Pompadour Group. A positive vote tonight could have a profound effect in many countries with the creation a European Harm Reduction Convention.