|
Angela Watkinson (Upminster) (Con): I support the amendment, which widens the scope of clause 7 to include testing for the presence of class B drugs. As we all know, many drug users are poly-drug users, although most have a preferred drug. On the day of testing, they may have used a class A drug. Others will sometimes be class A users and sometimes class B users. Such people may have taken a drug that does not fall under the clause and may therefore not be caught by its provisions.
If we assume that the purpose of drugs legislation is not only to deal with trafficking and dealing, and as the hon. Member for Bassetlaw said, the collection of data, but to direct drug users into treatment, then missing someone under the provisions of the clause who takes class B drugs may mean missing an opportunity to direct that person to treatment. The policy of focusing entirely on class A drugs is misguided. I know that one reason for it is the enormous amount of police time that was used in dealing with class B drug offences, but we do not want policy to be founded on expediency rather than advisability.
If cannabis is reclassified as a class B drug, which I feel it should be, it would be captured by the clause, should the amendment be accepted. That would give us an opportunity to divert large number of people from their drug-taking habits before they acquired the habit for class A drug or harder drugs.
For those reasons, I support the widening of the provisions of the clause to include class B drugs.
Dr. Iddon: I oppose the amendment. My hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlaw has great knowledge of drug misuse, and I understand that he is trying to simplify the law by making the three classifications simpler. The problem is that most drugs in classes B and C, with the possible exception of cannabis, are medicines. I do not want to increase the penalty for people who are accidentally caught in a positive drugs test.
Column Number: 116
I gave the example on Second Reading of one of my constituents who was in the Army. On a random drug testing procedure, he tested positive for amphetamines. The Army assumed that he was misusing amphetamines, and he was sacked. I tried to get him reinstated, but unfortunately it was not possible. In fact, the gentleman was on medication for flu or flu-like symptoms, and the medication contained amphetamines. He had been caught out by that.
The Runciman committee suggested that the Government keep to the classification of drugs according to the harm that they do to a human being, male or female. I think that the present classification, including the reclassification of cannabis from B to C, is correct, bearing in mind what that committee thought, having taking wide evidence on the point. I shall say more about the classification of drugs when we come to the mushroom difficulty at the end of the Bill.
Caroline Flint: Some interesting points have been made and have opened up discussion about different types of drugs and their effect on people. By testing on charge—of course we hope, under the Bill, to test on arrest—the Government have, with increasing success, been attempting to identify what we know about the types of drugs that lead to addiction and the huge range of acquisitive offences that are dealt with in police stations and the criminal justice system.
At the heart of our strategy is the wish to find better and quicker ways to identify a drug problem, and I shall talk more later about the relationship of class A drugs, namely heroin and crack cocaine, to crime. We want to do that not as a means to prejudice someone's trial for burglary or another crime, but to find a better way to engage them in taking up treatment, even before they reach court, and so that the treatment plan, if they take advantage of it, can follow them through the criminal justice system, whether it be into custody or a community sentence. We can thus try to stop our justice system's revolving door of people on drugs committing offences, not getting treatment and committing offences over again.
I understand the underlying intention behind the amendments to extend the power to test people for drugs, on charge or on arrest, to include testing for class B drugs. However, there would be several implications. Drug testing is at present used as a screening tool to identify those who use specified class A drugs—heroin and crack cocaine—because research has shown a strong link between certain offences and the misuse of those drugs in the UK. That is important, because different countries have different patterns of misuse. As my hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlaw will know, Australia and Asia have a big problem with amphetamines, particularly methamphetamine, which they have tried to tackle through their drug laws.
In the UK, the link has not been shown for other class A drugs or, for that matter, for class B drugs. The NEW-ADAM survey showed that 85 per cent. of illegal income generated by arrestees is generated by users of heroin, crack and cocaine. Only 13 per cent. of illegal income is accounted for by arrestees who use only drugs other than heroin, crack and cocaine.
Column Number: 117
There is a proviso: obviously people who use heroin or crack cocaine often use other drugs. I have met people in that situation, and they have been known to have alcohol problems, too. I have often mentioned the story of the person receiving treatment for crack, who said, ''I'm off the crack, but I'm still an alcoholic.'' People involved in substance misuse may use several things, but it is class A drugs that are particularly tightly linked to criminal activity and behaviour, and particularly to the range of acquisitive offences to which the testing in question relates.
Following reclassification of cannabis, most class B drug offences involve amphetamines, and the latest available data show that there are few such offences. In 2002 only 5,820 offenders were found guilty of committing amphetamine offences, from more than 110,000 drug offenders. They make up only 5 per cent. of all offenders, and the number for other class B drugs is so small that separate analysis is not carried out. Given where we are in the UK on the use of drugs, the links to crimes and the harms to individuals in society, we believe that it is unnecessary to extend the scope of drugs screening on arrest or charge to include class B drugs. The available evidence does not suggest a causal link between trivial offences and the misuse of class B drugs. There would have to be an evidential basis for such a link. Without that, it would be necessary to justify the cost of such an extension. From where we are now, the cost would be disproportionate to the benefit and could not really be justified.
Furthermore, if no strong link is established between the taking of class B drugs on their own and the commission of crime, it would be difficult to justify the interference that such testing would entail with a person's privacy, under article 8 of the European convention on human rights, on the grounds of preventing crime. That is important, because when we introduced the powers to test on charge—we are now discussing testing on arrest—we rightly had to make a case and say why we thought that appropriate in terms of an individual's human rights. Obviously, if the situation changed, and if there was evidence of new synthetic drugs being used in the same way as heroin or crack, as my hon. Friend suggested, and there was a shift in patterns of drug use, we would, as with anything else, keep things under review, and seek to reclassify the drug in question as a class A drug or, by order, seek the House's support for an extension of the legislation.
I understand part of my hon. Friend's desire in the amendment, but although we can consider other countries, we should recognise that situations sometimes differ and that we must deal with how things are in this country. For the reasons that I have outlined, to do with the justification for testing—an important change is being made in how such issues are tackled—and to do with the evidential basis to justify the cost, I do not think that we can accept the amendment. I therefore ask my hon. Friend to withdraw it.
Column Number: 118
John Mann: The Minister has given part of an answer, but in many ways the Government's thinking—perhaps the Home Office's thinking would be more accurate—is given away by the use of the word ''only'' with regard to the use of amphetamines. The evidence that I have seen suggests that few amphetamine users in this country use only amphetamines; we can track the users in my area, who are well known. Those people are therefore just as liable if arrested to test positive for another drug, even though amphetamines are their drug of choice and the one that creates the behaviour that leads to acquisitive crime.
That is the fundamental point about amphetamines that I think the Minister has not fully addressed. Even if the figure was only 5 per cent. and remained so—I dispute the statement that our information base says that the figure is only 5 per cent., because of the nature of testing and poly-drug use—the direct link with acquisitive crime would still demonstrably exist. That is what distinguishes amphetamines from other class B drugs and, indeed, from class A drugs such as ecstasy.
Dr. Iddon: I might not have made myself completely clear. My hon. Friend is dwelling on amphetamines, but class B includes drugs such as codeine. Codeine is regularly taken by a lot of people; it is the main constituent of cough mixture, for goodness' sake. If people are being tested in police stations for hard drugs, on which we ought to be hitting down hard, as the Government are, the tests will pick up people who are on cough mixture. That would surely be a waste of resources.
John Mann: My hon. Friend points clearly to the mess that the Government inherited with drugs classification. Clearly, the idea that codeine—even when used New Zealand-style, baked and turned into morphine—should be classed with amphetamines is nonsense. However, that is an issue for another day and is not the purpose behind the amendment. Even if the figure is just 5 per cent., it seems that the causation link with acquisitive crime is sufficient to merit consideration. However, I ask the Minister to reflect on the point that the shift to amphetamines and methamphetamines came in within a mere three months in New Zealand and Australia. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
3.41 pm
Sitting suspended for a Division in the House.
3.56 pm
On resuming—
Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.
|
