The RSA Drugs Commission
Is drugs policy working? If not, why not?
The RSA Commission on Illegal Drugs, Communities and Public Policy was set up to take a fresh look at these questions and to try to untangle the complex knot of issues commonly referred to as 'the drugs problem.'
The results of its enquiries are set out in its recent report 'Drugs – facing facts.'
Final report: Drugs – facing facts, PDF file, 1.9MB
Listen: Matthew Taylor introduces the report, MP3 file, 3.2MB
Listen: Anthony King talks about the report's main findings, MP3 file, 9MB
National Drug Strategy
On behalf of the RSA Drugs Commission, the RSA has submitted a response to the government’s consultation on the National Drug Strategy, drawn substantially from the Commission’s report 'Drugs – facing facts.'
Read the RSA Response to the National Drug Strategy (PDF file, 258KB)
Update
The Commission's report, Drugs - Facing Facts, was always intended to feed into the Government review, and the RSA is now exploring innovative ways of responding to the consultation. Read the latest developments and look at how the RSA report may be leading the way.
Read Susie Harries' "Hopes for a new drug strategy"
View the government's drug strategy consultation documents
Drugs policy
The government's current drug strategy seeks to tackle drug abuse first and foremost as a means of reducing crime. Treatment is most easily accessed through the criminal justice system, and the success of the strategy is measured more in terms of crime reduction than by the more general criterion of 'harm reduction' - harm to drugs users and their families as well as harm to communities, the economy and the taxpayer.
Have we got our priorities right?
Problematic drug use is a medical and social problem as well as a problem for the criminal justice system. Thousands of people in different areas of government, local government, the voluntary and the private sector are working to reduce the damage it causes. How can we best balance and integrate their efforts?
Fostering resilient communities
In addressing the RSA's manifesto challenge of 'fostering resilient communities', the RSA Commission has explored the idea that some of the solutions to delivering a coherent drugs policy are to be found where the problems are most directly experienced - in communities.
Drug use continues to rise - but is all drug use necessarily abuse? Is it a symptom of social decline which we should be seeking to eradicate? Or a fact of life which we simply need to manage? Are public attitudes to drug use really as simple and as hostile as the media say and politicians believe they are?
The RSA Commission has examined the 'drugs problem' beyond the bounds of a political context which makes true open-mindedness very difficult. Its report offers some fresh answers to these most intractable questions.
