Prison bosses call for drugs rethink

24 April 2013 Last updated at 23:32 ET

Current policy on illegal drugs creates victims of crime and more prisoners at a cost to taxpayers, the Prison Governors Association (PGA) has argued.

It says blanket prohibition of Class A drugs allows criminals to control the quality and supply of them to addicts, who turn to crime to fund their habits.

The PGA has signed up to the international Count the Costs campaign against an enforcement-led approach.

The Home Office said drugs were illegal "because they are dangerous".

PGA president Eoin McLennan-Murray said it believed "a substantial segment of the prison population have been convicted of low-level acquisitive crimes simply to fund addiction".

"The current war on drugs is successful in creating further victims of acquisitive crime, increasing cost to the taxpayer to accommodate a higher prison population and allowing criminals to control and profit from the sale and distribution of Class A drugs," he said.

"A fundamental review of the prohibition-based policy is desperately required and this is why the Prison Governors Association are keen to support the Count the Costs initiative."

Count the Costs co-ordinator Martin Powell said PGA members witnessed "the day-to-day futility of the UK's current enforcement-led approach to drugs".

"Increasingly, those involved in picking up the pieces of our failed war on drugs want to see alternatives to prohibition explored," he said.

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Prison bosses call for drugs rethink