LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Drugs and Crime: Problems
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Many inmates will tell you their drug use is a legacy of having been in prison and evidence certainly suggests that use of drugs for the first time only after entering prison is not uncommon. Research undertaken at Long Lartin for example, found that 62 per cent of those using heroin had a specific prison habit. This is consistent with a two year prison service study based on inmate interviews which showed 60 per cent of addicted inmates in high security prisons developed their habit whilst in custody. A report by the East Kent Area Health Authority in 1994 confirmed the use of drugs as currency, pressure on inmates who are allowed home leave to bring drugs back or face reprisals and reports from ex-prisoners who claimed they had been first introduced to drugs whilst in a Kent prison. In addition the nature of the drugs possessed, sold and used are increasingly found to be ‘hard dugs’. The recent annual report of the office of HMCIP provides a graphic picture of the extent of the problem in reference to one establishment where they were so concerned by the high level of drug taking that the inspectorate’s specialist in health care was called in specially.
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In 1969, the Le Dain Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs discovered that hundreds of thousands of Canadians were convicted of illicit drug possession with lifetime barriers to personal freedoms; sweeping police powers were used largely against youth. The Commission recommended a gradual withdrawal from criminal sanctions against users and less coercive alternatives to the use of criminal law. In the 1980s, Canada’s Drug Strategy (1987) was implemented to address both the supply and demand reduction strategies and programs in enforcement, treatment and prevention programming were funded. The new law, the 1997 Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is soundly prohibitionist and does not reflect the experiences of other countries around the globe. The problems related to criminalizing drug users and its failure to reduce drug availability have not been addressed while the financial and human costs of criminalizing illicit drug use continue to rise.
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Low-income problematic users (primarily of heroin and crack) frequently turn to offending to raise money to pay the inflated prices of street drugs. A relatively small number of problematic users are now responsible for well over half of all acquisitive crime. Prohibition creates the conditions whereby drug users are responsible for the majority of shoplifting, burglary, theft from motor vehicles, robbery and nearly half of all fraud. Whilst many of these individuals may have been involved in offending before becoming problematic users, it is clear that the need to fundraise dramatically increases the intensity and volume of offences.
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Besides, the introduction of synthetic drugs and intravenous drug use leading to HIV/AIDS has added a new dimension to the problem. Drug addiction has been found more prevalent among street children and women without patronage and ... those women either deficient in economic resources or self reliant, which is seen as more distressing by the civil society.
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It is now more important than ever that a concerted approach is made to co-operate on an international level to tackle all aspects of the drugs problem and international crime in a comprehensive, co-ordinated and balanced way. The FCO's specific aims include:
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It is now more important than ever that a concerted approach is made to cooperate on an international level to tackle all aspects of the drugs problem and international crime in a comprehensive, coordinated and balanced way. The UK's specific aims include:
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