| Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 | |
|---|---|
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| Parliament of the United Kingdom | |
| Long title: | An Act to make new provision with respect to dangerous or otherwise harmful drugs and related matters, and for purposes connected therewith. |
| Statute book chapter: | 1971 c 38 |
| Territorial extent: | England and Wales; Scotland; Northern Ireland |
| Dates | |
| Date of Royal Assent: | 27 May 1971 |
| Status: Substantially amended | |
| Official text of the statute as amended and in force today within the United Kingdom, from the UK Statute Law Database | |
The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971[1][2] is an Act of Parliament that forms the central piece of legislation around which the United Kingdom's drug policy is built. It represents UK action in line with treaty commitments under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs,[3] the Convention on Psychotropic Substances,[4] and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.[5]. No such Treaty is however in any way binding on the UK Courts or Parliament and these have not been incorporated into UK law.
The Act aims to control the possession and supply of ANY drug which is causing or may cause harm to society, such drugs become controlled drugs" under the Act. The Act covers ALL drugs or drug-like substances although the scheduling of various drugs (and the failure to so schedule any drug)is a function designated to the Secretary of State for the Home Department. Although, for example, cannabis is listed under the schedules to the Act (as a class B drug since 26 January 2009), tobacco, another herb or plant source of drug material and alcohol are not listed despite the Act's neutrality in respect of its objects and purposes.
Offences under the Act include:[6]
- Possession of a controlled substance unlawfully
- Possession of a controlled substance with intent to supply it
- Supplying or offering to supply a controlled drug (even where no charge is made for the drug)
- Allowing premises you occupy or manage to be used unlawfully for the purpose of producing or supplying controlled drugs
It is often presented as little more than a list of prohibited drugs and of penalties linked to their possession and supply. In practice, however, the act establishes the Home Secretary as a key player in a drug licensing system. Therefore, for example, various opiates are available legally as prescription-only medicines, and cannabis (hemp)[7] may be grown under licence for 'industrial purposes'. The Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001[8], created under the 1971 Act, are about licensing of production, possession and supply of substances classified under the act.
The act creates three classes of controlled substances, A, B, and C, and ranges of penalties for illegal or unlicensed possession and possession with intent to supply are graded differently within each class. The lists of substances within each class can be amended by order, so the Home Secretary can list new drugs and upgrade, downgrade or delist previously controlled drugs with less of the bureaucracy and delay associated with passing an act through both Houses of Parliament.
Contents |
List of controlled drugs
The Act sets out three separate categories, Class A, Class B, and Class C. Substances may be removed and added to different parts of the schedule by statutory instrument, provided a report of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has been commissioned and has reached a conclusion, although the Secretary of State is not bound by the council's findings.
- Class A includes heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, LSD and psilocybin mushrooms
- Class B includes cannabis, amphetamine, codeine and methylphenidate ('Ritalin')
- Class C includes GHB, ketamine, diazepam, flunitrazepam and most other tranquillisers, sleeping tablets and benzodiazepines as well as anabolic steroids
Penalties
The penalties for drug offences depend on the class of drug involved. It should be noted that these penalties are enforced against those who do not have a valid prescription or license to possess the drug in question. Thus it is not illegal for someone to possess heroin, a class A drug, so long as it was administered to them legally (by prescription).
Class A drugs attract the highest penalty, and imprisonment is both "proper and expedient".[9] The maximum penalties possible are as follows:[10]
| Offence | Court | Class A | Class B | Class C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Possession | Magistrates | 6 months / £5000 fine | 3 months / £2500 fine | 3 months / £500 fine |
| Crown | 7 years / unlimited fine | 5 years / unlimited fine | 2 years / unlimited fine | |
| Supply | Magistrates | 6 months / £5000 fine | 6 months / £5000 fine | 3 months / £2000 fine |
| Crown | Life / unlimited fine | 14 years / unlimited fine | 14 years / unlimited fine |
International cooperation
The act makes it a crime to assist in, incite, or induce, the commission of an offence, outside the UK, against another nation's corresponding law on drugs. A corresponding law is defined as another country's law "providing for the control and regulation in that country of the production, supply, use, export and import of drugs and other substances in accordance with the provisions of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs" or another drug control treaty to which the UK and the other country are parties. An example might be lending money to a United States drug dealer for the purpose of violating that country's Controlled Substances Act.
History
The Drugs (Prevention of Misuse) Act 1964 controlled amphetamines in the United Kingdom in advance of international agreements and was later used to control LSD.
Before 1971, the UK had a relatively liberal drugs policy and it was not until United States influence had been brought to bear, particularly in United Nations circles, that controlling incidental drug activities was employed to effectively criminalise drugs use. However, it is important to note that, bar opium s8, under the 1971 Act drug use is not an offence.[citation needed]
Criticism and controversy
Notable criticism of the act includes:
- Drug classification: making a hash of it?, Fifth Report of Session 2005–06, House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, which said that the present system of drug classification is based on historical assumptions, not scientific assessment.[11]
- Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse, David Nutt, Leslie A. King, William Saulsbury, Colin Blakemore, The Lancet, 24 March 2007, said the act is "not fit for purpose" and "the exclusion of alcohol and tobacco from the Misuse of Drugs Act is, from a scientific perspective, arbitrary."[12][13]
The Transform Drug Policy Foundation offers rational criticism of the harms caused by the Government's current prohibitionist drug policy.[14] The Drug Equality Alliance has launched legal actions against the UK Government's partial and unequal administration of the Act's discretionary powers, making particular reference to the arbitrary exclusion of alcohol and tobacco on the subjective grounds of historical and cultural precedents contrary to the Act's policy and objects.[15]
Classification of cannabis has become especially controversial. In 2004, cannabis[7] was reclassified from class B to class C,[16] in accordance with advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). In 2009, it was returned to class B,[17] against ACMD advice.
In February 2009 the UK government was accused by its most senior expert drugs adviser Professor David Nutt of making a political decisions with regard to drug classification in rejecting the scientific advice to downgrade ecstasy from a class A drug. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) report on ecstasy, based on a 12-month study of 4,000 academic papers, concluded that it is nowhere near as dangerous as other class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine, and should be downgraded to class B. The advice was not followed.[18] Jacqui Smith, then Home Secretary, was also widely criticised by the scientific community for bullying Professor David Nutt into apologising for his comments that, in the course of a normal year, more people died from falling off horses than died from taking ecstasy.[19] Professor Nutt was later sacked by Jacqui Smith's successor as Home Secretary Alan Johnson; Johnson saying "It is important that the government's messages on drugs are clear and as an advisor you do nothing to undermine public understanding of them. I cannot have public confusion between scientific advice and policy and have therefore lost confidence in your ability to advise me as Chair of the ACMD."[20][21]
References
- ^ Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (c.38), the text of the act, OPSI website, accessed 27 January 2009
- ^ Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 - original version, UK Cannabis Internet Activists website, accessed 28 January 2009
- ^ Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime website, accessed 6 February 2009
- ^ Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime website, accessed 6 February 2009
- ^ Convention against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime website, accessed 6 February 2009
- ^ Misuse of Drugs Act, Home Office representation of the act, Home Office website, accessed 27 January 2009
- ^ a b All varieties of cannabis, including those grown as hemp, are controlled under the act, not just drug varieties.
- ^ The Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, OPSI website, accessed 28 January 2009
- ^ R v Aramah (1982) 4 Cr App R (S) 407, per Lord Lane CJ
- ^ Class A, B and C drugs, Home Office website, accessed 27 January 2009
- ^ Drug classification: making a hash of it?, Fifth Report of Session 2005–06, House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, accessed 29 January 2009
- ^ Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse, David Nutt, Leslie A. King, William Saulsbury, Colin Blakemore, The Lancet website, 24 March 2007, accessed 31 January 2009 (free registration required for full access)
- ^ Scientists want new drug rankings, BBC News website, 23 March 2007, accessed 27 January 2009
- ^ Transform Drug Policy Foundation website, accessed 30 January 2009
- ^ "Drug Equality Alliance - Mission". Drug Equality Alliance. http://www.drugequality.org. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
- ^ The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Modification) (No. 2) Order 2003 (No. 3201), OPSI website, accessed 27 January 2009
- ^ The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Amendment) Order 2008 (No. 3130), OPSI website, accessed 27 January 2009
- ^ Travis, Alan (February 2009). "Government criticised over refusal to downgrade ecstasy". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/11/ecstasy-downgrade-drugs-class.
- ^ Kmietowicz, Zosia (February 2009). "Home secretary accused of bullying drugs adviser over comments about ecstasy". The British Medical Journal. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/feb13_1/b612.
- ^ Easton, Mark (30 October 2009) Nutt gets the sack, BBC News.
- ^ Tran, Mark (30 October 2009) Government drug adviser David Nutt sacked, The Guardian.
See also
External links
- UK Misuse of Drugs Act, Steve Chapman website, access 28 January 2009
- Controlled Drugs, Patient UK website, accessed 30 January 2009
- Drugs Act 2005 (c. 17), OPSI website, accessed 2 February 2009
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