1. We declare and affirm our view that the UK prohibition of controlled substances, now embodied in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, has proved ineffective in the achievement of its objects, counter-productive in its side-effects, wasteful of public resources, destructive in its cultivation of criminality and commercial abuse, and inhumane in its operation. The Act no longer constitutes an appropriate form of social regulation, consistent with the UK’s Human Rights commitments.

2. We affirm our view that the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and consequential legislation should be repealed and replaced by a system of licensed retail outlets, supplied by a chain of licensed producers, importers and distributors, incorporating all necessary quality-control provisions. Reform legislation should also prescribe new arrangements for educational, therapeutic and harm-reduction measures to address problematic drug use wherever it occurs. If such action were to require the renegotiation of UK treaty obligations, we would advocate such renegotiation. Suitable licensing arrangements should be made by local authorities, under new legislation, in respect of retail premises, in the light of local demand, local circumstances, and the characteristics of the substances to be sold. UK public authorities have, historically, extensive experience of these forms of public regulation, and we advocate their extension to all the substances currently controlled by the 1971 Act.

3. We affirm our view that the system should operate within the framework of a new National Drugs Agency. With the exception of plant material cultivated domestically in the UK and supplied for personal or social consumption, a premises licence should be required for the retail sale of each primary class of substance, within the framework of guidelines issued by that Agency. In particular, the Agency would issue guidelines upon health risks, medical referrals, and the advisory or other precautionary provisions to be required by way of licence condition. The accessibility of each substance should be kept under review by the Agency (including access by prescription where appropriate) with the aim of minimising detrimental health effects. In the case of certain substances, licence conditions might require the supervision of sales by a suitably qualified person. And the Agency would in particular address the interaction between such retail sales and the prevailing medical prescription regimes for any comparable substances.

4. We envisage a National Drugs Agency as a consultative and advisory Agency, facilitating the participation of all relevant interests, including drug users and those concerned with medical and related services, law and fiscal enforcement, producers, distributors and retailers. We envisage that the functions of the Agency would be to advise the Government and local authorities on the operation of the legislation, to formulate national policy for premises licensing and retail sales, to establish product purity standards and to monitor enforcement, to license and monitor the importation of drugs and all forms of UK production, and to liaise internationally for all purposes.

5. We affirm our view that further measures will in due course be required to achieve an integrated regulatory system, but that the immediate legislative reform should focus on substances falling within the scope of the 1971 Act, and should not extend to alcohol, tobacco, or the current arrangements for the control of medicines. Further, while it would be essential to ensure the competitive retail pricing of relevant substances in order to minimise the incidence of illegal markets and criminal networks, it would be for Government to consider in due course the taxation treatment of this form of regulated supply.

6. We affirm our view that the regulation of drug supply is an entirely legitimate collective purpose, enforceable with all appropriate civil and criminal sanctions. Under our proposed system, all supplies would be either excepted (domestic UK plant production) or licensed. Criminal sanctions should be put in place to prevent all other retail sales, as well as any unlicensed production, import or distribution. Retail licences would also prevent, upon pain of criminal sanction as well as licence withdrawal, the sale of any relevant substance to a minor, or to any person in contemplation of any supply to a minor, or of onward commercial sale of any kind. Licensees would be under a duty to refuse to sell, upon pain of criminal sanction, if either circumstance were suspected. Licensees would be free to sell licensed products in such quantities as were considered appropriate for personal or social group consumption, and in compliance with NDA guidelines.

7. We affirm our view that the end of drug-prohibition should be accompanied by public investment to minimise any harm done, whether individually or socially, by the use of drugs. This alternative approach would reduce drug-acquisition crime, facilitate the education both of the young and of adult users, reduce the incidence of problematic drug use, facilitate the deployment of therapeutic support, disempower the criminal drug-dealing networks, release public enforcement resources for other deployment, constitute a system compatible with the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and generate a new and acceptable source of public income.