The use of drugs is embedded in the human experience – both now and historically – yet it's arguably one of the most socially controversial human habits. In the UK, controlling drug use has become a key policy issue for every government since the 1960s.
However, there is a growing consensus that the current approach has failed, with the Home Office's own evidence demonstrating intense criminalisation of drug use and a crackdown on those that grow or distribute drugs is not reducing drug use nor addressing the harms that the criminal market creates. In fact, it is making things worse.
That is why we’re incredibly concerned by the Home Secretary’s previous comments on drugs. Not only has Suella Braverman continued her predecessor’s vendetta against “middle-class” recreational drug users, but she has apparently also gone further by supporting the reclassification of cannabis from a class B to a class A drug (via The Sunday Times). While No. 10 Downing St has since distanced itself from these reports, it's still concerning that the laws around drug use in the UK show little sign of reform.
Here, we explain why the UK's criminalisation of drug use will most likely increase harm for those already stigmatised within society, including women who are particularly vulnerable to tough drug policies.
The lowdown on drugs in lockdown.
It is true that men generally use drugs at much higher rates than women: the latest Crime Survey for England and Wales highlights how around 7% of women used drugs in the last year, compared to 12% of men. Men are also usually more vulnerable to health problems arising from drug use due to more extensive and heavier drug use.
However, what's particularly worrying is the increase in drug-related deaths for women: from 2010 to 2020, the drug-related mortality rate for women in England and Wales has increased faster for women than for men, with a 62% increase in a decade.
“An effective drug policy should, at its foundational level, aim to reduce harm, not increase it.”
Similarly, rising rates have been seen across Scotland and Northern Ireland. Such an increase in harms are important to focus on, as an effective drug policy should, at its foundational level, aim to reduce harm, not increase it.
Women, like men, use drugs for various reasons: to have fun, unwind, explore their creativity, or many other non-problematic reasons. In fact, global UN research has shown how only 1 in 10 people who use drugs worldwide will develop a problem from their drug use.
However, people who do develop drug dependency often do so as a way of self-medicating trauma; this can be as a result of physical or sexual violence as a child or adult. Women who have experienced domestic abuse have been found to be eight times more likely to develop an issue with drugs than those who haven’t. Their exposure to drug-related harms, as well as the lack of treatment services geared towards their needs, has meant that women are feeling the harms of harsh drug policies in increasingly specific and difficult ways.
Time to call quits.
Often, government policy will generalise that all drug use is criminal, that drugs destroy lives, and should therefore be punished with harsh sentences. The reality is much more nuanced and fails to reflect that tens of thousands of people use illegal drugs daily, often with no health or social issues.
For those who supply drugs, it’s important to remember that many women become involved in the drug trade due to economic precarity. The premium that illicit substances offer on the market, coupled with a spiralling cost of living crisis, create the conditions that make drug-related profits all the more alluring for those struggling to make ends meet. In the UK and abroad, women are either coerced into the drug trade by their partners or willingly engage in drug production or trafficking to support themselves financially. These are increasingly attractive options when jobs and social support are few and underfunded.
The Lammy Review, investigating ethnic disparities in the British criminal justice system, noted that Black and Mixed ethnicity women are disproportionately policed in England and Wales and are more than two times more likely to be imprisoned for a drugs offence than their white counterparts. This reflects the disproportionate impact of the drug laws on racialised communities and is an indication of the intersectionality of structural racism and structural poverty.
The racial disparities are also apparent in the policing of drugs, from stop and search to high-profile cases of police abuses of power, such as the case of Child Q, a young Black girl that was strip-searched by police while menstruating at school. This case shedded further light on the racist policing of British drug laws, drawing attention to the level of traumatic abuse that the country’s drug laws enable.
From having a partner or family member arrested for drug use or being arrested due to their own drug use, the consequences for women can be vast. The arrest of a mother can be particularly destabilising for a family, more so for single-parent families where the mum has primary responsibility.
The officers forced Child Q to bend over, spread her legs and cough in order to search for drugs.
Drug treatment also creates certain barriers to those seeking support and can be a daunting ordeal for women. Three-quarters of drug treatment service users are men; with addiction services already hamstrung by years of funding cuts, the capacity to accommodate women’s or more diverse needs is limited. It's common for women to be in support group settings with a former partner or abuser, having to share trauma in mixed-gender groups. And in many settings, total abstinence is seen as the sole condition of drug treatment success, which for many may not be a desired or optimal outcome.
“Women accessing treatment will often have their parental capacity questioned, criticised, or entirely removed by police or drug treatment services if they admit to any drug use, whether it is problematic or not.”
Often defined first and foremost as mothers, women accessing treatment will often have their parental capacity questioned, criticised, or entirely removed by police or drug treatment services if they admit to drug use, whether it is problematic or not. The loss of child custody is possible if a mother undergoes drug treatment, while fathers rarely face the same stigma when presenting with the same issues with drug use.
In fact, the vast majority of British treatment services will not allow for children on site, creating its own specific barriers to uptake; this is in stark contrast to services in other countries that support women in drug treatment in a more pragmatic fashion. One of the authors of this piece visited a drug treatment clinic in Casablanca, which provided a creche for children – practically unheard of in the UK.
The cost of living crisis is forcing survivors of domestic abuse to stay with abusive partners.
Ultimately these harms cannot and will not be addressed by the current criminal justice approach to drug control. This has been the UK’s approach for the past 50 years, with very few successes: the number of drug-related deaths is at its highest since records began in 1993.
Implemented in over 30 countries, decriminalisation removes criminal penalties for the possession of drugs, which is one of the most significant drivers of contact for people’s contact with the criminal justice system. Instead, it can divert funding from drug policing to support public health and harm reduction initiatives such as drug testing, better funding of drug treatment services, as well as additional psychosocial support services.
Ultimately, decriminalisation not only protects people from the potential harms of drugs or from a large part of their policing, but it respects the autonomy that women have over their own bodies.
If you are concerned about your or another person's drug use, it's always recommended to book an appointment with your GP to discuss diagnosis and treatment. You can find your local GP here. You can obtain free and confidential legal advice on anything drug-related from Release's helpline on 0207 324 2989 or by email at ask@release.org.uk.
Niamh Eastwood is the Executive Director of Release, the UK's national centre of expertise on drugs and drug law.
Andre Gomes is the Communications Lead of Release, the UK's national centre of expertise on drugs and drug law, and Editor of the news platform TalkingDrugs.
