Transform hits the nail on the head
Transform has release a report, (here), indicating that the costs of prohibition of drugs overwhelmingly outweight the benefits. Their report (focusing specifically on Heroin and Cocaine) doesn't just attack the government policy, but it makes efforts to estimate or quantify the relative costs of different approaches.
One of the most evident aspects of the initial figures in the report is that the cost of acquisitive crime for funding drug habits outweighs the size of the corresponding drug market several times over.
If legalisation would largely eliminate acquisitive crime with at worst no change in levels of drug usage (as would be expected based on the experience of decriminalisation of cannabis in some countries or areas globally, and also supported by the results of the downgrading of cannabis to Class C prior to its reinstatement as Class B), then you're looking at a net benefit of the order of at least £10billion annually. The report ignored taxation, but when you consider the illicit drugs market as being worth at least several billion a year in the UK, and that the government gets around £8bn a year in tax revenues from cigarettes, it is not entirely implausible that tax revenues and health-related savings of £0.5-1bn would also be able to be added to the figures.
Given that the government is looking at how it can try to find nearly £4bn a year to be able to redress the public finances, perhaps that puts this into perspective. Legalisation could resolve the question of how the public finances can be put in order WITHOUT tax rises.
That Labour is happy to attack the Conservatives as a 'do nothing' party on economic policies, while failing to address a hugely expensive and underperforming policy, the reformation of which could improve public order and crime levels, overall health AND economic challenges, all while they actively go against the advice of their commissions experts, suggests that they are the real 'do nothing' party.
Now I'm just hoping that one of the 2 main opposition parties (sorry, LCA, I agree with your central policy, but I'd rather have Vince Cable argue the economics of this than someone like Mr Nice) can pick up on this as a way forwards in their main policies.
One of the most evident aspects of the initial figures in the report is that the cost of acquisitive crime for funding drug habits outweighs the size of the corresponding drug market several times over.
If legalisation would largely eliminate acquisitive crime with at worst no change in levels of drug usage (as would be expected based on the experience of decriminalisation of cannabis in some countries or areas globally, and also supported by the results of the downgrading of cannabis to Class C prior to its reinstatement as Class B), then you're looking at a net benefit of the order of at least £10billion annually. The report ignored taxation, but when you consider the illicit drugs market as being worth at least several billion a year in the UK, and that the government gets around £8bn a year in tax revenues from cigarettes, it is not entirely implausible that tax revenues and health-related savings of £0.5-1bn would also be able to be added to the figures.
Given that the government is looking at how it can try to find nearly £4bn a year to be able to redress the public finances, perhaps that puts this into perspective. Legalisation could resolve the question of how the public finances can be put in order WITHOUT tax rises.
That Labour is happy to attack the Conservatives as a 'do nothing' party on economic policies, while failing to address a hugely expensive and underperforming policy, the reformation of which could improve public order and crime levels, overall health AND economic challenges, all while they actively go against the advice of their commissions experts, suggests that they are the real 'do nothing' party.
Now I'm just hoping that one of the 2 main opposition parties (sorry, LCA, I agree with your central policy, but I'd rather have Vince Cable argue the economics of this than someone like Mr Nice) can pick up on this as a way forwards in their main policies.