XPost: uk.politics.drugs, uk.legal   
   From: drjohn@NOSPAM.hotpotmail.com   
      
   Call for 'smarter' drugs policy   
      
   Police should take a "smarter" approach to tackling drugs to reduce levels   
   of violent crime, a think tank has said.   
      
   The UK Drug Policy Commission's report says the government's strategy   
   focuses too much on seizures and arrests and not enough on reducing harm.   
      
   It says new dealers often take the place of those arrested and can bring   
   new problems such as violent turf wars.   
      
   The Home Office said: "Harm reduction underpins every element of our   
   approach to tackling this complex issue."   
      
   The commission cites the example of the US city of Boston, where murder   
   rates fell when police offered not to prosecute gangsters for dealing   
   drugs if they stopped killing each other.   
      
   It said in the UK's entrenched drugs markets arrests can lead to damaging   
   unintended consequences.   
      
   For example, the arrested dealer may be replaced by someone who is more   
   violent.   
      
   Or if a backstreet, city-centre hot spot is shut down, dealers may move to   
   a suburban area where the impact and fear imposed on the community is much   
   greater.   
      
   And arresting one king-pin drug dealer also raises the possibility of   
   creating a power vacuum with the resulting turf war and spike in violence.   
      
   A commission spokesman said enforcement was important and has reduced   
   availability.   
      
   Sustainable impact   
      
   But he said beyond a certain point, when you impose greater enforcement   
   you do not necessarily see an equivalent reduction in harm.   
      
   "Where drug markets are established in this country you are going to   
   suffer from diminishing returns," he said.   
      
   Therefore it could be better not to focus on eradicating the markets   
   altogether, but on making sure they take the least harmful form possible,   
   he said.   
      
   The spokesman said that for example, it may be better that dealers are   
   pushed out of local parks - where they create fear in the community and   
   stop children wanting to play - and into a dealer's home.   
      
   "It doesn't mean don't arrest and seize, it means you do it in a smarter   
   way so that you constantly think of how it will have a sustainable impact.   
      
   "What we all want to do is make communities safer."   
      
   But the Home Office said "tough enforcement is a fundamental part" of   
   their strategy, but also acknowledged the complexity of the problem.   
      
   A Home Office spokesman said: "We are not complacent; communities do not   
   want to be blighted by the effects of drug misuse and drug dealing.   
      
   "That is why police, local authorities and communities must continue to   
   work together so that our streets and communities can be free from the   
   crime and anti-social behaviour they cause."   
      
      
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8175550.stm   
      
   --   
   Dr John Watson   
   Baker Street   
      
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