Blair: Drugs policy is ‘tough and balanced’
Labour’s drug policy focuses both on helping the addict and protecting the law abiding citizen, the Prime Minister has said today.
Speaking after the launch of the Government’s Drugs Bill, Tony Blair told an invited audience in Slough that the core message of the new proposals was “better treatment, more enforcement”.
Outlining plans to increase the level of treatment available to drug addicts, whilst at the same time introducing tougher laws, Mr Blair said that both were “essential ingredients of a tough and balanced package”.
Explaining how his personal philosophy on crime had evolved, the Prime Minister said that he had been shocked by the ‘fatalism’ shown by some civil servants when he came into office that crime will always rise. He also expressed his surprise at the lack of communication between different parts of the criminal justice service.
He rejected the left/right polarisation of the crime debate during the 1980s, whereby the left sought to point to the appalling social backgrounds and deprivation of many criminals, whilst the right focused on harsher and harsher punishment.
In addition, Mr Blair argued that many of the debates on the issue in parliament had lost track of reality. He gave the example that whilst graffiti may technically be a crime, the time and effort required for an officer to take the case right through the courts made prosecution unrealistic.
Fundamentally, local people needed to be given the help and the tools to “take back control of communities and streets”.
Though the Prime Minister admitted that much still needed to be done, he said that the “basic beginnings of those principles [are] coming into place”.
Firstly, that “different parts of the criminal justice system are talking to each other”. That the Crown Prosecution Service has a presence in police stations, and that the prison and probation services are being merged. We are “starting to get to the point where the CPR and the court service.. understand that in part what they are about is delivering a public service to the law abiding citizen”.
Secondly, the Government has “tried to start legislating in a way that accords to the reality”, for example the introduction of ASBOs and giving police the ability to enter and close down crack houses.
This approach, he said, came from asking frontline officers for advice, and listening to their wish for a “swift sanction that doesn’t require a convolute court process”. Mr Blair said that he had been determined to consult with the front line, and listen to what they say will or will not work.
Mr Blair said that he was also determined to provide a “visible uniformed presence” in each community that individuals could turn to and approach. He described this as “modern community policing”, whereby police officers would be assisted by community support officers who would be known to the community and deal with low level problems.
Eventually, the Prime Minister said that there would be a “neighbourhood policing team” in every community.
Moving on specifically to drug crime, Mr Blair said that there must be a focus on both improving society so as to reduce the root causes of criminal behaviour, whilst also giving punishment and supporting the victim.
Labour, he said, would be giving drug addicts a choice. They could either accept the offer of help or find that “it will be made more difficult for you at each stage of the system because we need to protect others”.
As such, testing will become possible at the time of arrest rather than charge, and anybody who tests positive for a class A drug upon arrest will have to attend an assessment interview with a drugs worker. This would then be followed up if the drugs worker believes the problem is serious.
Mr Blair said that he was determined to do more to “break the link between addiction and crime and get more people into treatment”, “structured interventionist treatment”. By April 2005 the drug intervention programme will be extended, and by 2008 there should be the facility for 1000 offenders to enter treatment every week.
Elsewhere, dealing near a school or using children as couriers will become an aggravating offence, and an unreasonable refusal to consent to an intimate body search will count against an individual in court. Finally, those caught in possession of more than a certain amount will be considered as intending to supply rather than as carrying drugs for personal use.
