Let young have drugs instead of drink, says peer as she compares taking substances to drinking coffee

Crossbencher Baroness Meacher calls for heroin, ecstasy and crack cocaine to be decriminalised

She heads cross-party group which says licences could be issued to allow drug dealers to sell so-called 'legal highs'

Senior police officer says arresting drug users was often pointless

Crossbench peer Baroness Meacher said that like illegal drugs, her morning coffee was not safe

Youngsters should be encouraged to switch from drinking alcohol to taking drugs, the head of a powerful parliamentary group said yesterday.

Baroness Meacher also compared taking banned substances to drinking coffee.



The former social worker insisted some drugs are ‘a good deal safer’ than tobacco and alcohol and said it may be a ‘very good thing’ if teenagers stopped getting drunk and took some types of legal highs instead.

Her comments came the day after the All Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform, of which she is chairman, called for the possession and use of heroin, ecstasy and crack cocaine to be decriminalised altogether, which would relegate it to the status of a minor driving offence.

The report suggested that giving criminal records to young drug users creates ‘higher levels of unemployment, homelessness and relationship problems’.



It also called for licences to be issued to allow chemists to sell so-called ‘legal highs’, which have been blamed for causing more than 40 deaths in a single year.

Baroness Meacher told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘No drugs are completely safe.



Coffee is not safe. I have just had a cup but it isn’t safe.

‘The fact is some of these drugs are a good deal safer than tobacco and alcohol. It may be a very good thing if we could get some young people to switch from alcohol.



‘As you know, a lot of young people are drinking far too much. Get them to switch to something rather safer.’ The cross-bench peer, who is paid up to £50,000 a year by the NHS, said many young people are ‘determined’ to take drugs but there was ‘nowhere’ for them to do so.

If hard drugs are decriminalised users would escape with a fine, confiscation and no criminal record

Under existing laws users of drugs such as heroin, cocaine or ecstasy face a maximum sentence of seven years in jail, along with a criminal record, but the new report calls for a weakening of these regulations

Under the group’s plan, chemists would have to show that the substances carried only an ‘agreed low risk of harm’. They would be given licences and regulated by council trading standards officers.

Yesterday, Baroness Meacher suggested they could stock ‘legal highs that are a substitute for ecstasy’.



Taking drugs would remain illegal but users would escape with a fine, confiscation and no criminal record.

The report drew an angry response from anti-drugs campaigners.

Tory MP Michael Ellis, a member of the home affairs committee, said: ‘It is balderdash to say that we should legalise drugs. We would see increased A&E admissions, increased criminal justice incidents as well as far more deaths and injuries.’



Mary Brett, of Cannabis Skunk Sense, said drugs would fall into the hands of minors if made readily available. She added: ‘Does she think the drug dealers will just pack up and go home?



‘They are criminals, they will smuggle them in and undercut the price. They will still target the under 18s.’

The Lib Dems want a major review of Britain’s drug laws, but the idea is being fiercely resisted by the Prime Minister. Yesterday, David Cameron’s official spokesman said: ‘[His] very strong, clear view is that the approach we currently have is the right one and is working.’

A CAREER IN QUANGOS Molly Meacher has held a string of public sector and quango posts in her career which have granted her significant influence over public life. The ex-wife of the Labour firebrand Michael Meacher, she worked as a social worker before becoming a commissioner for the Mental Health Act in 1987.

She was a senior adviser to the Russian government on employment in the 1990s, while filling key roles on London health trusts. She is also a former deputy chairman of the Police Complaints Authority and chairman of the Security Industry Authority – a hugely controversial quango which granted hundreds of illegal immigrants permission to work as bouncers.



