Policies fail to impact on drugs

There is an "inexhaustible" supply of traffickers

Policies designed to cut the supply of illicit drugs into the UK since the early 1990s have had no significant impact, a government report has said.

The study, by the prime minister's strategy unit, was shown to Cabinet ministers two years ago.

The section referring to drugs supply had been withheld from publication, but has been leaked to BBC News.

It says drug seizure rates need to rise from under 20% currently to 60-80% to put major suppliers out of business.

Overall, the report paints a dismal picture of efforts to thwart the production and supply of drugs and suggests little can be done.

Prices halved

The report says there has been no "sustainable disruption" to the drugs market at any level.

Interventions by western governments are simply a "cost of business" and present no threat to the industry's viability.

The most they have achieved, it says, is to slow the decline in the price of heroin and cocaine, which has halved in real terms in the UK in 10 years.

According to the study, there is an "inexhaustible" supply of drug traffickers, who are "innovative and technologically sophisticated".

The report has clearly influenced government thinking, says BBC home affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw.

Recent initiatives have focused on making people aware of the dangers of drugs and treating those who are already addicted.

David Raynes, a customs officer for nearly 40 years and now with the National Drugs Prevention Alliance, said enforcement was not the answer.

"Drugs enforcement, which I spent most of my career in, doesn't solve the problem and the real problem with drugs use is preventing young people using drugs.

"And what's happened is that we teach kids about drugs but we don't teach them to resist peer pressure to use drugs."

And he said falling cannabis prices might be encouraging drug traffickers to move into heroin and cocaine.