Clegg and Branson team up to push for drugs law reform

The BBC reports:

The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto will include a pledge to hand drugs policy from the Home Office to the Department of Health, Nick Clegg is to say.

His party would also shift resources away from prosecuting drug-users.

Mr Clegg’s comments are expected at a joint appearance with Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson, who has long called for reforms to the drug laws…

[Clegg] will pledge to end the “nonsense” of jailing people for possessing small amount of drugs for their personal use, and say young people should not be penalised in later life because of a criminal record.

“If this was your child and you found those drugs would you go to a doctor or police officer to help them? I think nearly all of us would call the health expert,” he will say.

“And, in the same way, I just don’t think it is right for us as a society to write off these young people who haven’t hurt anyone else, just made the wrong choice, so early.

“We need to put an end to this ludicrous situation. Our focus should be on getting them the help they need, not punishment, so they can go on to realise their ambitions and make a positive contribution to society.”..

In a joint newspaper article, Mr Clegg and Sir Richard said the global war on drugs had been an “abject failure”, with criminals making “unimaginable levels of profit” from the illegal market.

They called for British pilots of the approach taken in Portugal, where possession of drugs was turned into an “administrative offence”, sending those caught with drugs for personal use to a “dissuasion board” rather than facing prosecution.

Credit too to Julian Huppert MP and the chair of the party’s recent crime working policy group, Geoff Payne, who have played key roles in the party’s policy making on this ahead of the 2015 election.

You can read the Branson/Clegg piece in full here.