UK drug laws used as tool of systemic racism, says ex-adviser # 10 | Drug policy

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Britain’s drug laws are racist and cause high levels of mental health problems among blacks, a former No.10 racial counselor has said.

Simon Woolley said the drug laws introduced 50 years ago failed to reduce the use, supply and harms associated with illegal drugs, and had instead been used as a tool of systemic racism.

Although whites reported higher rates of drug use, blacks were more likely to be arrested and wanted for suspected drug possession and were more likely to be arrested, charged and jailed for drug offenses. , did he declare.

Lord Woolley, 59, who was appointed by Theresa May to chair the government’s racial disparity units advisory group and is now an interbank peer, said the failure of UK drugs legislation was having a devastating impact on public health.

This creates anxiety, stress and alienation that contribute to the high levels of mental health problems experienced in our black communities, he wrote in the BMJ, as he called on doctors to help himself. express on the matter.

For decades, politicians of all stripes have either turned a blind eye to drug policy failures or militarized the debate to score cheap political points, he said. This has led to a half-century of stagnation, which has hit our black communities hard, resulting in unnecessary criminalization and undermining relations with the police.

Woolley, who this year became the first black man to be elected head of an Oxbridge college, is calling for a review of whether the drug abuse law is fit for purpose. In his BMJ article, he urged the medical profession to support a thorough review of the law to consider alternative approaches.

Such a review should provide a full and independent assessment of the effects of the Drug Abuse Act and its suitability for its purpose 50 years later, he wrote. It must also examine in detail the options for alternative approaches, including the growing body of evidence indicating benefits both in decriminalizing people who use drugs and in legally regulating non-medical drug supplies around the world.

He said British policy had failed everyone, and black communities in particular. Drug prohibition is racist in its DNA and in its impact on our society today, he wrote. It is rooted in a series of attacks, in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, against non-white communities and the substances with which they were associated, whether or not they used these drugs in large numbers.

Drug-related deaths in England and Wales rose for the eighth consecutive year in 2020. They remain at their highest level in more than a quarter of a century, according to the Office for National Statistics. Separate figures show Scotland continues to have the worst drug death rate in Europe.

Woolley has said that a punitive drug policy is one of the most tangible and damaging ways in which systemic racism is experienced in black communities.

Describing the profound dehumanization of stop and search tactics and strip searches, which he has both experienced, he said: You are laid bare and have to show crudely that you have nothing hidden anywhere. The feeling of being both powerless and humiliated arouses anger and deep mistrust not only of law enforcement but also of the authorities who sanction them.

Woolley added: We have a growing literature on what works and what causes damage in drug policy, including how to tackle racial inequality, which should inform policymakers. We need to base our policy on evidence, not fear and political inertia. We need a mature, informed and open debate on this topic, and we must be ready to discuss all options if we are to resolve the current crisis.

Whatever our views on how we can best do drug policy, without serious open and mature discussion and without the major medical bodies actively supporting this debate, we will face more than decades of stagnation and stagnation. failure.

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