Election 2010: Brighton Pavilion candidates tackle the subject of drug abuse

One of the most important issues for Brighton voters at this week’s election is the problem of drug abuse in the city, particularly by teenagers and young adults.

Brighton has previously been dubbed the ‘Drug Death Capital of Britain’ and its problem with drug use has returned to prominence in recent months following at least one death related to the use of methadrone (or Miaow).

News From Brighton asked all the major parliamentary candidates in Brighton Pavilion about their party’s policy on dealing with the problem of drug abuse to give the voters an opportunity to compare the parties.

We asked: What is your party’s policy with regards to reducing drug abuse amongst teenagers and young adults, which is a particular blight on this city?

The candidates answered:

Charlotte Vere (Conservatives) – That Brighton & Hove is the drugs death capital of Britain is shocking and we must do all we can to change it. I have met so many former addicts over recent months and the one thing they tell me is that drugs should not be legalised – most of them started on cannabis. I support more funding of total abstinence programmes which deal with poor mental health as well as drug addiction. So many people with addiction issues have poor mental health and if we can’t deal with one, we can’t solve the other.

Caroline Lucas (Green Party) - The starting point is how we best protect people from the harmful effects of drugs. It’s clear the UK’s current drugs policy is not working as shown by our prisons being overwhelmed by inmates with drug problems. Under prohibition, illegal drugs are made not only more attractive to some, but also tend to be more poisonous and expensive. Consequently users become unhealthier and more likely to steal and deal. The cost of enforcing prohibition by making drug use a criminal offence is becoming increasingly untenable and new ways to regulate and reduce the problem must be found. The Green Party therefore seeks to open up the whole issue of drug use to the public and regards the supply of adequate, clear, free and accessible information as vital to the process of both reducing drug-use and minimising harm from drug use.

Nancy Platts (Labour) – We need a grown up debate. The Green Party wants to decriminalize cocaine and ecstasy. I want to talk to the people at the sharp end: the drug treatment people, the doctors and nurses, the police. Brighton’s top of the table when it comes to drug deaths and that’s one league we don’t want to win. I suspect education is critical but I want to bring experts together to tackle this massive problem for our otherwise wonderful city.

Berni Millam (Liberal Democrats) - The Liberal Democrats will always base drugs policy on the independent scientific advice of experts. This will involve making the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) completely independent of Government. We will also spend less police and court time on the unnecessary prosecution of users and addicts, with a focus instead on getting addicts the treatment they need. Police attention should focus on drug pushers, who will be made easier to prosecute by the introduction a new offence of “drug dealing”. We will give people a direct say in how petty criminals and those who engage in anti-social behaviour are punished in their area by setting up Neighbourhood Justice Panels, like the one run by Liberal Democrats in Somerset where 95% of offenders have been turned away from further crimes

Nigel Carter (UKIP) - Boost jobs by financing an expansion of hi-tech manufacturing which has halved over the last 13 years. Paying student grants again but not just for uni also for vocational courses AND increasing the power and wealth of local councils so that they can build more homes. This way young people can begin to settle down and build a future for themselves as 1 no student debt, 2 jobs 3 affordable homes. I call this the golden path which has been blocked for so many young people leaving them stressed and hopeless and inclined to ‘drown’ their sorrows. Hope and opportunity is required.

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Posted by on May 3, 2010. Filed under Brighton Politics,Conservatives,Labour,Liberal Democrats,UKIP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
  • Daisy Henning

    Caroline Lucas is absolutely right. The drugs policies pursued by successive government haven’t worked and it is time to take a fresh look and develop a new approach. We need to take the best scientific advice available unlike Labour who have rejected the advice from their own advisers and always cave in to the hysterical right wing press. The Tories will only ever jig on the strings pulled by The Express, The Mail and the Murdock empire so don’t expect anything constructive from them. The LibDems appear to have a more constuctive approach but lack the courage of whatever their convictions happen to be this week.
    Only by voting Green can we be sure of a principled and radical voice in parliament ready to argue for the practical measures necessary to address this perennial problem.

  • Annie Shyndig

    So, Caroline Lucas wants to nationalise, kind of, the recreational drugs market? Because that’s what I thought I’d read. Cheaper, better, and more accessible for all. Oh, but I imagine they’ll come with a government health warning on the container – like perfectly legitimate tobacco and alcohol consumables do, and we know of no problems there.

    I appreciate the Greens for their efforts and actions towards informing and saving our environment, maybe they should stick to what they do best.

  • mark

    to my point of view a good way is to decriminalize drugs at list cannabis and permit the people to grow their own in this way the illegal market of cannabis is not used to found criminal organization and terrorist groups so the green look like understand this point . about other drugs like cocaine and heroin they are too dangerous drugs to decriminalize but i do not find humanly correct to arrest user and addict .at the moment English prison system is fool or user and addict when the dealer are outside i know of many cases of dealer getting Court in Brighton and hove with 100 0f plant of cannabis and piratically they never sow a prison cell he was even aloud to live the country to go to India with the risk of him not coming back at the time he was out on bail and when they decided what to do with him he got only 400 hours of community service . to me this is unbelievable it make me think to live my job and start to grow cannabis in an industrial way make some good money for my self if i get Court 400 hour of community service is nothing compere to the money one person can make if he dose not