Controlling substances: Voz Faragher on a call for decriminalisation
‘We feel strongly that the present drug policy causes harm.’
A long, long time ago a Friend from Cornwall brought a concern to his Local Meeting. This concern was accepted by the Area Meeting and then was tested at Meeting for Sufferings, where unity was elusive. Cornwall Area Meeting continues to carry the concern for the decriminalisation of the possession of all drugs for personal use. The concern is founded in the context of the harm that the prohibition of drugs creates. Prohibition exacerbates the social exclusion of vulnerable individuals. It creates barriers to drug treatment and support, and it presents a large-scale contemporary problem that affects the lives of whole communities locally, nationally and globally. It also ensures that the production and supply of drugs is in the hands of organised crime, and so is associated with other areas of criminal activity such as human trafficking, the arms trade, prostitution, gambling, pornography and money laundering. In the UK there have been 3,427 drug related deaths so far this year.
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