Legal News

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is calling for an overhaul of Britain’s drug laws – including the possible legalisation of cocaine – after he returned from a fact finding trip to Columbia.

Mr Clegg is arguing that “robust” anti-drug legislation has failed to combat increasing usage of Class A drugs – with cocaine use in the UK tripling in just 20 years.

In Columbia Mr Clegg met Columbian President President Juan Manuel Santos and saw at first hand the effects of the drug trade on the country. He also met aid workers and former paramilitaries and guerrilla fighters.

Columbia is among several Latin American countries which say trying to limit drugs using military tactics is not working and alternative drug strategies are needed.

Mr Clegg is now calling for debate over drugs legislation in the UK. In an article in The Observer he said few people in the UK realised the impact the drugs trade had on the countries where drugs originate.

“If Britain were fighting a war where 2,000 people died every year, where increasing numbers of our young people were recruited by the enemy and our opponents were always a step ahead, there would be outcry and loud calls for change,” Mr Clegg wrote.

The United Nations is due to hold discussions about the drugs trade in 2016 – and Mr Clegg says he wants open debate on the issue in the UK by then.

The declassifying of drugs in the UK was a major stumbling block for New Labour, which declassified cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug – only to reclassify it as a Class B drug.

New Labour’s former drugs tsar Professor David Nutt claims that alcohol is more powerful than Ecstasy, crack cocaine and heroin, which are classified as Class A drugs.

Prof Nutt was sacked by former Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson in 2009 after he clashed with New Labour over its plans to reclassify cannabis from Class C to Class B. At the time he was sacked, Prof Nutt was also calling for the declassification of Ecstasy from a Class A drug.

Prof Nutt famously once said that the banned stimulant mephedrone (4-methyl methcathinone, 4-MMC, MCAT or Miaow) should be handed out in small quantities in nightclubs.

In 2013, he also blamed cocaine use by bankers for the global financial crisis, saying cocaine use had potentially made financiers “overconfident” and more likely to take risks.

Class A drugs can, however, include commonly prescribed drugs such as the sedative temazepam – a member of the benzodiazepine class of drugs often prescribed for anxiety or as a short-term medication for sleeping problems.

Temazepam is also used to wean drug users off the synthetic opiate methadone, a painkiller which is prescribed as a substitute for heroin.

Cocaine is also a Class A drug – and an investigation by council officials in the London borough of Kensington & Chelsea in 2008 found cocaine traces present in 95% of clubs across the borough.

Duncan Lewis Criminal Solicitors

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of criminal solicitors and can advise on charges involving supplying Class A drugs or possession of Class A drugs.

Duncan Lewis can advise at any stage of a charge – and our crime team lawyers are available 24/7 and during public holidays.

In London, Duncan Lewis has four offices and a criminal solicitor can be with you in 45 minutes if you are facing drug charges or police questioning under caution for drug offences.

For expert criminal law advice or representation, contact Duncan Lewis criminal solicitors on 020 7923 4020 – or for urgent criminal law advice, call the Duncan Lewis crime team’s out-of-hours number 07920 077057.