Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential implications for UK drugs policy of the Canadian Government's proposals to change the law relating to illegal drugs in that country.

The Government is aware of decriminalisation approaches being taken overseas. The Government has no intention of decriminalising drugs. Drugs are illegal because evidence has shown they are harmful to human health and are associated with much wider societal harms including family breakdown, poverty, crime and anti-social behaviour.