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The Green party has proposed the legalisation of drug use in the UK and the establishment of a regulated market with tightly-controlled specialist pharmacies selling currently illegal substances.



It appears to be the first time a UK political party has gone so far as to call for the radical change in drug policy, and it comes amid heightened concern over the exploitation of teenagers by county lines drug gangs and record drug-related deaths. Dr Alex Armitage, the Green party candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington who is leading on the policy told the Guardian:

Our policy stems from the fact that we’re recognising more and more that the prohibition of drugs is a complete and utter failure, particularly for people marginalised in society. It doesn’t matter if you’re dealer recruited into organised crime group after being excluded from school, or a person who was abused as a child who uses heroin to numb the pain or whether you live in an affluent area and worry about your home being burgled by people who need to steal to enable their drug use. It’s an issue that affects everyone in society in one way or another. Particularly in south America, where cocaine originates from, you have murder and disappearances on a mass scale, massive environmental destruction and visible corruption of government. Rather than having short term solution to problems we face, the Greens are taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture. All of this death, harm and destruction stems from the fact that drug use is illegal and unregulated. The only way to regulate drug use is to create a legal system.

Under the proposals, closely regulated specialist pharmacies would be permitted to sell recreational drugs to adults at fixed doses and prices over the counter after a safety consultation.



“People would know exactly what they were taking,” Armitage said. “It solves the problem of drug dealers cutting drugs with unknown substances.”



UPDATE: We have amended the copy above to remove a reference to two class A drugs. The party has now clarified its position and it says its policy to regulate the supply of drugs, including fuller details of the drugs covered, will be released in due course.