Criminology Commons^™

Drug And Alcohol Policy Under New Labour: Pandering To Populism?, Julian Buchanan

Julian Buchanan

Coming to power with an overwhelming majority in 1997, New Labour had the opportunity to lead the world by adopting a much needed progressive, pragmatic and scientifically informed approach to the management of substance use and misuse in the twenty-first century: by some distance, they failed to deliver on the election promise of change. Instead, they mistakenly continued the pursuit of eradicating drugs through prohibition, perpetuated the misleading distinction between legal and illegal drugs, and failed to overhaul the much criticised and outdated Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, which continues to inform (or some would argue misinform) the public about …