Proposals for prisons to try a free marijuana supply scheme to inmates to see if it reduces violence, overdose deaths and stronger drug addiction were supported by the UK’s former chief drug advisor .
Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London said he fully supported the idea and that he was considering a study to reduce drug addiction for marijuana prisoners in an ongoing trial.
“The idea of drug testing in prisons was not fully considered when it was introduced in 1996,” said Nutt, president of DrugScience, which advocates for evidence-based drug policies.
“It was punitive and pushed people from cannabis – which can be found in urine weeks after use – initially for heroin and GHB and then for synthetic cannabinoids that now kill many prisoners a year and are easily concealed by prison officers who smuggle. “
Last month, police and North Wales crime commissioner Arfon Jones told the Guardian that if the judicial authorities were serious about reducing harm and violence in prisons, “they should be addressing the causes”, like cheap synthetic cannabinoid spice that is plentiful and can be deadly, unlike cannabis.
“[Cannabis] it would be an improvement over illegal spice smuggled by corrupt prison officials, ”he said, after more than 300 prison guards and outside officials have been fired or convicted of bringing banned items, which may include drugs, tobacco and cell phones, in the past five years old.
The debate on the proposal has been growing. On Saturday, conservative and Labor candidates in the May CCP elections in northern Wales said they opposed the idea.
Conservative candidate Pat Astbury told the BBC: “There may be other ways to treat prisoners, using alternative drugs that are legal and simulate illegal drugs. No one can be seen breaking the law at the expense of the force you are representing. ”
Andy Dunbobbin of Labor said: “There are many ways to prevent problematic drug use, but this is not one of them – prevention and treatment programs inside and outside the prison must be strengthened and I will work with partners, if elected, to do then. “
He also called for drug, alcohol and mental health services that have been “wiped out” in the past decade due to cuts being properly funded.
However, Ann Griffith, Plaid Cymru’s candidate for the succession of Jones, who is retiring, said a cannabis trial was “something I would be willing to explore with caution” with criminal justice partners. “Any such initiative would need to consider any unintended consequences and would need to be based on solid evidence and robust assessment,” she added.
Anthony Lehane, spokesman for the Drug Policy Reform Labor Campaign, supported by 16 MPs and four MSPs, said: “Through the lens of harm reduction and public health, regular marijuana would be less harmful to prisoners than the potentially lethal seasoning and those who consume it would probably be easier for guards to manage. “
In 2019, an investigative jury found that a “systemic failure” to prevent drugs from entering HMP Berwyn in Wrexham contributed to the death of ex-prisoner Luke Jones, 22, who died after smoking spice in his cell.
A Prison Service spokesman said: “We have a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and we work closely with health to support offenders during treatment and recovery.”
About 13% of men across England and Wales prison property reported during a recent official survey that they developed problems with illegal drugs while incarcerated.
Jones said earlier that it was a national scandal that people were “dying unnecessarily” because governments refused to take a radical new approach to drug policies, such as legal regulation to reduce harm.