Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the findings of the report Drugs: International Comparators, published in October 2014, if she will review her Department's policy on drugs.

The UK's approach on drugs remains clear: we must prevent drug use in our communities; help dependent individuals through treatment and wider recovery support; while ensuring law enforcement protects society by stopping the supply and tackling the organised crime that is associated with the drugs trade. There are positive signs that our approach is working: there has been a long term downward trend in drug use over the last decade, the number of heroin and crack cocaine users in England continues to decline, and more people are recovering from their dependency now than in 2009/10. Drugs: International Comparators provided a summary of evidence on the policy and operational effectiveness of other countries' approaches to drugs. It is clear that in many cases the difference between the approach other countries have taken illustrate the complexity of the challenge of drug misuse, and why these approaches may not be replicable or relevant in the UK.