 Bert's
Story - drugs in and out of prison
This article was published in Criminal
Justice Matters no 30
Alan Dearling is a Research Fellow at the University of Luton,
Vauxhall Centre for the Study of Crime, Neighbourhood and Social
Change.
Effective laws are those respected and obeyed
by the majority of the community. Yet growing numbers of people
regularly disobey the drug laws.
The Criminal Justice System is tied up processing
thousands of minor drug-related offences. Despite increased spending
on enforcement, communities suffer the effects of increasing drug
misuse.
We face a fundamental choice: trying to address
drug misuse through more and possibly ineffective controls or
stepping back to examine the law's real effectiveness.
The Misuse of Drugs Act is 26 years old. It
has never been subject to comprehensive review. A concerted, expert
examination is long overdue: an independent commission to examine
and advise on updating current drug laws.
Standing Conference of Drug Abuse (SCODA),
Point 10 of their 10 Point Plan, 1997.
Until recently, Bert was yet another prison number in Dorchester
jail. He received a six month sentence on a variety of counts
relating to intent to supply cannabis and cannabis resin, and
possession of LSD tabs ("I'd forgotten I had them").
The sentence included one month for production - growing cannabis
plants, and one month for allowing his premises to be used for
drugs use. His conviction came at the end of a seven year period
living in the small Dorset coastal town of Lyme Regis. "I
was grassed up by neighbours," Bert told me.
In the community
Bert first smoked cannabis when he was 15 and says he's been
"on and off ever since." That's 32 years. He describes
his pattern of drug use,
"I popped a lot of pills when I was mod in
the 60's, and I used LSD in the 70's, but I feel I've outgrown
it now. I like a little dabble in amphetamines. I'm not a great
lover of coke, but will mix with amphetamines if offered. I've
never touched heroin or opium. I'm a pretty bad asthmatic and
amphetamines and cannabis help a lot with my breathing. I never
need my inhaler at parties! I'm too old now to experiment with
ecstasy. Alcohol is my worst drug. I become too much a complete
arsehole; so anti-social."
Bert's 'pic n' mix' usage of drugs is not at all uncommon. Neither
is his belief that using cannabis and 'soft' drugs is part of
a lifestyle, not a crime. It is also Bert's belief that the policies
and attitudes of the different local police forces are crucial
in the processing of drug users. Bert says,
"Somerset police are more mellow than Dorset.
They take their jobs too seriously! Up until I was about 36 or
37 I'd only had one charge for drink driving and a £2 fine
in Chard (Somerset) for two-on-a-push-bike. It was about then
that I left my wife and family and moved to a cottage at Windwhistle.
I was picked up in Chard with some amphetamines and magic mushrooms,
but only cautioned, which was quite nice. I moved again, this
time to Lopen, near Crewkerne in Somerset and I was stopped. The
police found some hash in my tobacco tin, but just told me to
leave it at home. Soon after, there was a raid on my house, but
they didn't find anything. I was then living in Chard and I got
busted again. The police had been watching for six weeks and they
found three-quarters of an ounce of hash. I got a fine."
"It was in about 1988-89 that I moved from Chard down to
Lyme. I went to the Poll Tax demo up in London and was charged
and convicted of violent disorder. I got 18 months on a first
offence, and served six months in Wandsworth and six on parole.
I was strip searched at the prison because of the previous drugs
busts, but they didn't find anything."
At the heart of the matter of dealing in a sensible way with
drugs in the community and their users are the twin problems of:
- successive governments who wish to be seen to be giving drug
users and sellers 'a hard time', and who perceive the only publicly
acceptable responses are: punishment, control and enforcement,
and
- an unworkable and outdated legislative apparatus in the form
of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.
Most of the respected researchers and writers on the misuse of
drugs in the UK, such as Nigel South, Nicholas Dorn and Carol
Martin have made regular pleas that harm reduction and an acceptance
of a notion of "normalised drug use" (Martin, 1995)
should become major planks in intervention strategies. Added to
this, are the increasingly vocal opinions of senior police such
as Michael O'Byrne, Chief Constable of Bedfordshire, who has called
for far more resources for tackling drug distribution or for an
end to police involvement. However, it still seems unlikely that
there will be any swift move towards either legalisation of more
drugs on the proscribed list, or decriminalisation of their use.
In the wake of Clare Short's call for a more tolerant attitude
towards cannabis, the Labour government still seems intent on
taking a hard line against all forms of drug use, without differentiating
between the levels of problem caused by the various drugs which
are used. As Simon Jenkins, a member of the new Police Foundation
committee of inquiry, under the chairmanship of Viscountess Runciman,
wrote in The Times 27-8-97,
"The difficulty is that the present coalition
of policemen, social and health workers, two thirds of voters
under 25, and a myriad others who use, sell or tolerate drugs
does not constitute a majority. In a democracy, majorities must
be obeyed, however closed their minds."
One day later, Simon Davies made a similar plea in the Independent
28-8-97,
"Today, each weekend, at least half a million young people
- typically they are employed, law abiding and middle class -
take ecstasy. It may be the biggest mass drug taking experiment
in history."
Simon's argument runs along the lines that recent government
and police action has targeted youth culture and the places where
young people meet for criminalisation.
And it's not just ecstasy. All the available statistics about
the use of drugs in the community confirm that there is a rise
in drug taking across the whole community and across the broad
spectrum of drugs. The Health Education Authority reported the
first findings from a new research survey of 5,020 households
(Drugs Forum Focus, June 1997). These showed that 55% of the 16-19
age group have now used drugs at some time, compared with 46%
in the 1994 British Crime Survey. The use of combinations of drugs,
often called poly-drug use, is rapidly growing: cannabis with
amphetamines and alcohol, or dance drugs like ecstasy and LSD
with alcohol being among the favoured concoctions.
There are other indications that the Labour government is looking
to extend the 'War on Drugs'. In July they announced that they
were looking for applicants for a Drug Czar position, to bring
co-ordination to the UK's rather sad drugs' policies. Then, at
the end of August 1997, came the announcement from Health Minister,
Alan Milburn, that suppliers of the drugs known as 'legal highs'
will, in future, face up to two year prison sentences for selling
drugs with such exotic names as 'herbal ecstasy', 'druid's fantasy'
and 'road runner'. These are extensively available from head shops
and festival stalls, and while hallucinogenic, they are believed
to be comparatively safe. The reaction sounds like another attack
of 'moral panic' unrelated to hard factual evidence of harm, or
any underlying belief that any extensions to the drugs laws are
enforceable.
In prison
These figures can be supplemented with findings from research
in prisons. The 1994 survey in Holloway prison found that over
40% of prisoners in their research sample had previously used
non-prescribed drugs, with 75% having used cannabis; 61% crack
cocaine; 56% opiates; 44% barbiturates; 42% amphetamines, and
34% hallucinogenics. As ever with research based on self-disclosure
interviews and questionnaires, the figures may be inaccurate,
but are more likely to under-represent use rather than present
an exaggeration.
In 1996, it was reported in Hansard that there were 8,120 prisoners
in jail on drug offences. 1,019 for class A drugs; 7,020 class
B, and 81 for class C. With longer sentences and more use of custodial
sentencing the prison population looks set to include even more
inmates on drugs-related charges. This is despite new Labour minister,
Joyce Quinn, saying that " 'Prison Works' is just a mindless
slogan" and that there is a desperate need to reduce the
numbers on remand. Anthony Hewitt reported in Druglink, 1996,
11(3) the ISDD magazine, that of the 53,000 prisoners in
the UK's jails, some 15% are dependent on drugs at time of receptions,
and,
"as many as 70% of all prisoners will use
a controlled drug at some time in custody."
SCODA have estimated that it costs £36,000 a year per person
in the Criminal Justice System and they argue that treatment,
prevention and education, rather than enforcement are the only
pragmatic way to deal with drug misusers. Some commentators have
argued that the use or abuse of drugs in itself is a crime without
a victim. However, maintaining a drug habit can be an expensive
affair and crimes associated with drug use are very common, whether
it is theft, criminal damage or violence to others. SCODA estimate
that crimes committed by drug users cost up to £864 million
per year.
But, is a jail sentence for involvement with drugs a real deterrent?
A second and linked question is, are the current Mandatory Drugs
Tests (MDT) effective in either reducing supply or use of drugs
in the UK's jails?
Returning to Bert, his observations, although anecdotal, do shed
some light on current practice.
On current drug use:
"When I did time in Wandsworth in 1991, heroin
and coke were treated with respect. Now there's much more use,
smoking in the storeroom, exercise yard, even when there's four
screws around. It was really blatant in Dorchester this year compared
with Wandsworth. The prison population's got younger. The youth
have got no respect. But the youth isn't treated with respect.
Parents got nothing, you've got nothing, what a bum life."
"The 4's are the drug free landing, but the
2's and 3's are for getting stoned. No-one is really taking the
drug testing that seriously."
On the Mandatory Drug Testing:
"On arrival I saw a nurse, she asked about
medication, asked about use of drugs outside; 'What?'
I said, 'cannabis and amphetamines.'
'When?'
'Last night.'
I was never tested. I decided to say 'no' to drugs
at Dorchester. I did them at Wandsworth. If I'd been banged up
for 6 months I'd have done some, but 13 weeks...so, MDT did work
as something of a deterrent for me."
"The MDT's weren't having much effect at all
on the longer term prisoners. They're younger and there was much
more open use of drugs; all sorts; use of buckets, a Heinz salad
cream bottle as a bong; amazing little pipes; a squeezy bottle
being used as an inhaler - really ingenious."
"But Dorchester is full of scousers who'd
been working in Bournemouth. All smackheads. Then there's people
coming into prison, they'd only dabbled with cannabis or E or
something outside, they end up getting hooked on heroin and coming
out addicted to smack."
Maggy Lee, reported in Druglink, 1996, that,
"The irony is that drug testing may actually
be creating a drug problem in prisons where there wasn't one before,
as people switch from easily detectable cannabis, to less detectable
opiates."
In Hansard 23/3/97 it was stated that errors had occurred
in the first sets of performance indicator figures showing the
levels of positive tests in the MDT's, and it suggested that there
were no firm indications about whether cannabis use was declining
or that a switch to opiates occurring.
Returning to Bert, he says about the availability of a treatment
programme:
"At Dorchester there is a treatment programme,
but it's for very heavy users. I said, 'I've not got a problem
with drugs - you've got a problem with drugs.' If I'd been offered,
in court, a programme of frequent tests while staying out, I'd
have accepted that."
On dealing:
"The screws know who the dealers are. They
make jokes about it. They don't do much about it. It keeps the
prisoners quiet. I'd say that if they cut out the drugs testing
and allowed everyone, say, an eighth of hash a week, that would
pretty much cut out the heroin and methadone use. Anyway, why
should the smackheads be given methadone and molly-coddled? Put
them in a padded cell 'til they come down. Why should cannabis
users be crucified, when smackheads are left with their crutch?"
Prison Works?
So, how is the Home Office's strategy for Tackling Drugs
Together (Home Office, 1995) working?
That aimed to take action by vigorous law enforcement, accessible
treatment and a new emphasis on education and crime prevention
to:
- increase the safety of communities from drug related crime;
- reduce the acceptability of drugs to young people, and
- reduce the health risks and other damage caused by drug misuse.
The answer is it isn't. Even Raymond Kendal, head of Interpol,
has called for, "an end of prison sentences for drug use."
A thorough look at the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act may lead to more
positive responses to the misuse of drugs both in the community
and our prisons. Criminalising drug users and increasingly extending
their drug repertoire from soft drugs over to hard drugs is no
answer. It may be that the pragmatic responses towards decriminalisation
of soft drugs in places like Amsterdam, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Zurich
and to some extent, Copenhagen, may offer some solutions, albeit,
politically difficult ones.
Or, perhaps as Bert says,
"I think all drugs should be de-criminalised.
Treatment shouldn't take place in prisons; move it to specialist
centres in the community. Why should I change my lifestyle because
they want me to? I'll change it if I want to. I'm just an old
rebel!"
References
Davies, S (1997) The war on drugs is a dialogue of the deaf,
The Independent, 28/8/97.
Dearling, A (1997) Interview with Bert, 30/7/97, personal research:
Lyme Regis.
Dorn, N and Seddon, T (1995) Oh to be in England: Tackling Drugs
Together in the Prison System, in Martin, C, op cit.
Ferguson, J and Feinmann, C (1995) Availability of the Performance
Indicators in Tackling Drugs Together, Camden and Islington Drug
Action Team: London.
Hansard written answers (16/5/97)) Prisoners (drugs), HMSO: London.
Hansard written answers (20/3/97) Prison Service Drug Testing
Programme Statistics, HMSO: London.
Hewitt, A (1996) Drug Testing in Prisons, in Druglink, 1996,
11 (3). ISDD: London.
Home Office (1995) Tackling Drugs Together: A Strategy for England
1995-1998, HMSO: London.
Jenkins, S (1997) Hooked on an unworkable law, The Times 27/8/97.
Lee, M (1996) Proof Positive, in Druglink, 1996, 11 (3). ISDD:
London.
Martin, C, ed.(1995) Dealing with Drugs: A new Philosophy, ISTD:
London.
SCODA (1997) Drugs - A Programme of Action for the Next Century,
SCODA: London
South, N (1995) New and Old Directions in current Drug Control
Policy, in Martin, C, op cit. |