General Article UK drug policy: how seizing passports will not stop illicit drug use

Topic Selected: Drugs Book Volume: 444

UK drug policy: how seizing passports will not stop illicit dug use

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Tammy Ayres, University of Leicester and Stuart Taylor, The Open University

In an attempt to clamp down on recreational drug use, the British government recently set out a three-tier system for dealing with people caught in possession of illegal substances.

A scale of punishments would be introduced for those caught in possession once, twice or three times. These would begin with a fine and culminate in a variety of deeply punitive options such as tagging offenders, suspending their driving licence and even confiscating their passport.

All this is being promoted as part of a government plan, entitled Swift, Certain, Tough: new consequences for drug possession, which aims to bring overall drug use down to “a historic 30-year low” by “delivering a generational shift in demand”.

Other nations, including the US, Jamaica and Thailand are modernising their drug policies and moving away from criminalisation...

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