CHAPTER 9: Summary of Conclusions and
Recommendations
EU involvement in drugs policies
178. We agree with our witnesses that the health
aspects, and most other aspects, of drugs policies should remain
within the competence of the Member States. The role of the EU
should continue to be to complement, and where possible to strengthen
and add value to, the actions of Member States. (paragraph 26)
179. Even if this were not our view, the practical
difficulties of obtaining agreement to treaty change and the reluctance
of many Member States to surrender their freedom of action on
issues such as decriminalisation mean that this is the only realistic
position for the foreseeable future. (paragraph 27)
180. We welcome this instance of the practical
application by the EU of the principle of subsidiarity. (paragraph
28)
THE POSITION ON THE GROUND
181. The EU Drugs Strategy and national drugs
strategies should involve and encourage direct cooperation between
cities, local authorities and organisations across national boundaries,
and where possible promote such activities. (paragraph 40)
The EU Drugs Strategy 2005-2012
182. Like the majority of our witnesses, we believe
that the 2005-2012 Strategy has been of some value despite the
fact that neither of its two main policy objectives has been achieved.
Very broad brush objectives such as these are not particularly
meaningful. The next Strategy needs a more focused direction.
(paragraph 57)
The fight against drug trafficking
183. We believe that, when measures against drug
trafficking are being planned, more attention must be paid to
the displacement effect, to other possible unintended consequences,
and to the impact of the measures on those not previously involved.
(paragraph 68)
184. When the EU provides assistance to third
countries in anti-trafficking measures, it must make clear that
the resources are to be used in a way compatible with the human
rights of those involved. It should take steps to monitor the
programmes it supports and to ensure that they do not result in
human rights violations, in particular the application of the
death penalty. (paragraph 69)
EUROPOL
185. The Government should fully support the
Director of Europol in seeking to improve the use of Europol's
unique databases and other facilities, and should urge other governments
to do the same. (paragraph 72)
MONEY LAUNDERING AND SEIZURE OF THE PROCEEDS OF CRIME
186. Yet again, we urge the Government to sign
and ratify the Warsaw Convention on Money Laundering without further
delay. (paragraph 77)
EU DEVELOPMENT POLICY
187. We recommend that the EU and its Member
States give added emphasis in their development policies to well
focused projects for assisting countries to diversify their agricultural
economies and stop growing illegal drugs. (paragraph 81)
MINIMUM PENALTIES FOR TRAFFICKING
188. We remain unconvinced by the case for replacing
the Framework Decision on minimum penalties for trafficking by
a Directive, as suggested by the Commission in its October 2011
Communication, unless and until it can be shown that a Directive
will be effective and will bring added value to this area of national
drug policy making. (paragraph 85)
New psychoactive substances
189. We endorse the importance of the EU's "early
warning system" which exists to facilitate the exchange of
information on newly developed psychoactive substances within
the Member States and beyond. (paragraph 94)
190. However the risk assessment and banning
procedure of the 2005 Council Decision is so cumbersome that we
doubt whether it can be cured by amendment. We believe that decisions
about banning such substances are, in most cases, best left to
individual Member States. (paragraph 95)
191. There is a strong case for the use in the
United Kingdom, and indeed throughout the EU, of analogue legislation
which allows drugs with similar molecular structures and similar
effects to be banned as a group. (paragraph 96)
192. We support the exploration of alternatives
to banning new psychoactive substances, such as placing them within
regulated markets similar to those that already exist for alcohol
and tobacco, which attempt to control use through education and
treatment rather than criminalisation. (paragraph 97)
Harm reduction and decriminalisation
193. We were impressed by the evidence from Portugal
on the effectiveness of their public health orientated national
drug strategy. Harm reduction and public health policies are increasingly
being adopted internationally, nationally and locally. We believe
Member States should study each other's policies and be more willing
to learn from one another, and we recommend that the EU should
promote and prioritise the evaluation of the effectiveness of
these strategies. (paragraph 117)
194. We take no position on whether in this country
a change towards a policy of decriminalisation would be beneficial,
since this is outside our remit, but we believe the debate would
benefit from a clearer understanding of precisely what policy
changes would be involved, and a closer study of the experience
of other countries, particularly other Member States. (paragraph
118)
The European Monitoring Centre
195. We welcome and endorse the universally high
esteem in which the EMCDDA is held. We believe it should continue
to work towards common definitions and a common data collection
practice, and should encourage Member States to do likewise. We
urge the Government to do all it can to assist in this. (paragraph
140)
196. We agree that the EMCDDA should play no
part in grading the success or failure of the policies of the
different Member States. However we believe that the agency, without
compromising its policy neutrality, could do more to indicate
when the evidence points to a particular policy having been successful.
(paragraph 141)
197. During the current negotiations on the Multiannual
Financial Framework 2014-2020, and during the annual budgetary
negotiations, the Government should ensure that the resources
of the EMCDDA are at least retained at their current level in
real terms. (paragraph 142)
STATISTICS
198. We recommend that a major effort should
be made in the context of discussion of the next EU strategy to
improve the quality and comparability of national statistics.
This may require some change in the way that the United Kingdom
and other Member States collect data, but we believe that the
establishment of more consistent statistics would make the work
of the EMCDDA even more valuable than it now is, and would amply
repay the investment involved. (paragraph 130)
199. The Government should seek to ensure that
the reporting of drug-related deaths is consistent across the
United Kingdom, so that reports refer to the year of death and
not to the year of registration of death. (paragraph 132)
DRUG SUPPLY EVALUATION
200. There need to be thorough evaluations of
measures to disrupt drug supply with a view to making them more
effective and better focused, to determining their added value,
and fully to understand their unintended consequences. The Government
should support the efforts of the EMCDDA to take forward their
plans on supply side indicators, and should persuade the Commission
and other Member States to do likewise. (paragraph 135)
RESEARCH
201. We hope that if viable research projects
can be brought forward, ways will be found of financing them through
the EU research programmes. This will help to ensure that future
policies are evidence-based, since one of the weaknesses until
now has been the lack of sufficient evidence. (paragraph 138)
Institutional questions
202. It is not for us to make formal recommendations
about the division of responsibilities within the Commission,
but we believe that the current allocation of responsibilities
between the Justice and Home Affairs Directorates must in the
long term hamper the effective formulation and implementation
of policies in the drugs field, and should be remedied. (paragraph
147)
203. For an EU Drugs Strategy to have any prospect
of success, representation at the Horizontal Drugs Group should
be at a senior level, with expertise to match, and with power
to take decisions across the whole spectrum of interested Directorates
and departments. (paragraph 149)
A new EU Drugs Strategy
204. We do not share the view that a Drugs Strategy
is of no value. We agree with the views of the Council, and concur
in the views previously expressed by the Commission, that there
should be a new Drugs Strategy 2013-2020. In formulating its action
plans, the Commission needs the guidance of the Member States
in showing the direction in which they wish to move. (paragraph
155)
205. We question whether the October 2011 Communication,
which does little more than repeat the intention of the Commission
to bring forward at a later date legislation which has already
been announced, was well timed. (paragraph 162)
206. In particular, for the reasons we have given,
which include the reasons in the Commission's own evaluations,
we are not convinced that there is any benefit to be gained from
new legislation on drug trafficking or on new psychoactive substances.
(paragraph 163)
207. We believe that the formulation and adoption
of a new Drugs Strategy by the EU offers a golden opportunity
to widen the public debate, to consider as dispassionately as
possible the different policies and approaches, and thus to achieve
a better consensus about the best way of proceeding. We urge the
EU institutions, in particular the Commission and the Parliament,
to make sure this takes place. (paragraph 166)
WHAT THE NEW STRATEGY SHOULD SAY
208. We believe the new EU Drugs Strategy should
be better focused and, while respecting the present division of
competences, should seek to give a useful sense of direction to
national policies. (paragraph 171)
209. Reduction in the demand for and supply of
drugs are undeniably highly desirable ends, but they are too broad
brush to be useful as a guide to EU policy formulation. They should
therefore not be treated as the main objectives of the next EU
Strategy. (paragraph 172)
210. The Strategy should concentrate on the three
areas where the EU can make a major contribution towards the work
of the Member States. (paragraph 173)
211. The first of these areas is coordination
of the fight against drug trafficking. On the legislative front,
the EU should better focus on money laundering and strengthen
provisions on the seizure of the proceeds of crime. On the operational
side, through Europol and other agencies, it can directly contribute
to the fight against drug trafficking. (paragraph 174)
212. The Strategy should make clear that anti-trafficking
measures must guard against simply displacing the problem to new
areas not previously affected, and must have regard to the human
rights of those involved. (paragraph 175)
213. Secondly, the Strategy should concentrate
on improvement of the collection, analysis, evaluation and distribution
of information so that Member States, while retaining the freedom
to formulate their own policies, can learn from each other's experiences
and benefit from each other's research. (paragraph 176)
214. Finally, the new Strategy should use the
EU's public health obligations to further the inclusion of harm
reduction measures in the national policies of the Member States.
(paragraph 177)
Conclusion
215. We make this report to the House for debate.
(paragraph 8)
| 
