Narco Wars: Can the war be won?

The price tag for the Government’s drugs policy is £1.5 billion each year but UK has the worst drugs problem in Europe.

The estimated £5 billion UK drugs market has hardly been dented by the £380 million a year spent on attempting to control the supply of drugs and Class A consumption and ‘problem drug use’ has risen dramatically in the UK.

SOCA, the agency established in 2006 to confront the drugs trade, is considered to have been a failure.
Is the war on drugs a ‘phoney war’ as critics have argued?

Despite the current emphasis on harm reduction, drug abuse is on the increase and increasing numbers of children admit to taking drugs.

With drug prices at a record low should more be spent on attempting to stop the supply of drugs into the UK rather than on treatment programmes?

Or is more fundamental reform needed and is there strategy of legal regulation required as campaigners claim?

Join us at the Frontline Club where a panel of experts will discuss this important issue.

The event will be moderated by Paul Lashmar, a freelance journalist and TV Producer, author and journalism lecturer.

Panel: David Raynes, a former HM Customs investigation officer, and a member of the International Task Force on Strategic Drug Policy

Professor Neil McKeganey, founding director of the centre for Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow

Danny Kushlick, head of policy and communications of Transform Drug Policy Foundation