How Reid got Lib Dem drug policy wrong

14 April 2005
Party won't declassify crack and heroin John Reid made his allegation as part of a Labour strategy of portraying the Liberal Democrats as soft on crime and soft on drugs.

And he's not the first to make it. In advance of the Lib Dem manifesto launch, Labour campaign spokesman Fraser Kemp made the same point.

But it is not accurate.

The Lib Dems do want to downgrade ecstasy from a class A to class B drug and to keep cannabis as class C, rather than its former status of B. But they do not want to declassify heroin or crack cocaine.

They do propose ending prison sentences for anyone convicted of possessing any drugs purely for their own use.

Mr Reid's allegation has confused the two policies.

Ambiguous wording

The Liberal Democrat policies were outlined in their law and order manifesto, released in advance of the full manifesto launch.

The document said the party would reform "unnecessary and counter-productive criminal penalties" by:

"Ending the use of imprisonment as a punishment for possession for own use of illegal drugs of any class. Instead, non-custodial sentences such as community sentences and Drug Treatment and Testing Orders could be used.

"Reclassification would allow for a more credible education-based approach to deterring users."

The Lib Dems admit that the last sentence could have been made clearer. It should have specifically said that reclassification would apply only to ecstasy and cannabis.

The proposal to drop jail sentences for possession for own use was passed by the party conference in 2002. It aims to deal with drug addicts by making them have treatment, rather than putting them in prison.

"Simply not true"

However, any user given a compulsory treatment order who refused or stopped treatment could then be jailed, so there would still be circumstances when class A drug users would end up in prison.

Courts would still also be able to levy fines, and possession of all drugs other than cannabis would remain a criminal offence.

The Lib Dems say they would increase jail sentences for dealers in a policy that is aimed at breaking the "cycle of crime committed by heroin and crack cocaine addicts".

Labour's attack is "simply not true", said a party spokesman.

Labour said it would continue to attack the Lib Dems' drugs policy. A spokesman told FactCheck Lib Dems defence was "academic" because ending jail sentences for all drug use effectively declassified them.

Source
Liberal Democrat manifesto for law and order, March 2005

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