Original subtitles

It's August in West London. I'm on

a dawn raid. I'm getting the chance

to see the war on drugs in

action. Hello, I'm here with

the Metropolitan Police force about to

kick some doors in.

Or if we want.

Wow.

You've got to be aware that you know, I'm

a little bit on edge in this situation.

It's typically when confronted with this,

I've got my hands behind me, like morning

everybody. Operation Concordia is on

today. The bottom line is we identified 5

addresses that's linked to local drug

supply. We're here to make London a safer

place to live in. This is in line with

the Commissioners Total War crime.

Nice to know I've got sat next to the

fellow who goes in and by the back door.

My leg already.

15 years ago I was on the other

side of that door, metaphorically, not

literally. I was in possession of drugs

and guilty.

I'm clean now, not as a result of

prison or the criminal justice system,

but because of abstinence based recovery.

The war on drugs is our government

slogan, ideology and policy for dealing

with drug addicts. 1 billion is spent on

treating drug addicts, 4 billion on

criminalizing them with 1500 drug deaths

a year. Two years ago, I took my

views to Parliament. We need to start

regarding regarding. Addiction in all its

forms as a health issue as opposed to a

judicial and criminal issue. When that

Home Affairs Select Committee reported

that British drug laws failed, that the

war on drugs is lost, and that there's a

now or never moment to reform our drug

laws, David Cameron didn't agree. We have

a policy that actually is working in

Britain, drug use. Is coming down. I

think we should stick at that. Obviously

I disagree with David Cameron. The war on

drugs has to end. I believe the only

way to solve this problem is to listen

to the addicts themselves and end

criminalization. Umm.

Three days before the Notting Hill

Carnival, a comparable festival takes

place of police raids all over London.

This one gives the Metropolitan Police a

couple of problems. Firstly, they tackle

a door that is more than fit for the

purpose of keeping them out.

And second, there is no one in

the property guilty of any crime. Ohh.

That's it.

Cortana.

You're not going to take him into custody

then because he's not the suspect. He's

not the suspect. Well, he would appear to

be the father of religion on

understanding, actually upset, horrible

things like that. So he's in that moment

just that he's just saying dad and his

grandson.

Umm.

Absolutely. It seemed like a good idea to

begin this documentary with the people

that most vehemently oppose my views and

enforce them rigorously. For

the first time, I was like 19, I was

around my mate John's house and it was

this kind of, it was this kind of deal,

front door, back door. Well, you were in

the house when police were coming in at

about 1/4 of an ounce, right? Personal on

me and like it was proper like sort of

like all geared up and everything and my

mate John stagnant. No, it's only

Russell. But then got nicked by the

Met week later, also for possession in

Soho and. And it was in the

back of a van like we were

just in. Yeah.

So like, you know, obviously we've been

on this side of it. You sort of you get a

different side of things and and how we

perform. Normal people were getting

nicked and normal people are doing their

nicking. You don't set the laws, you

carry out instructions. I sort of feel

like in a similar way, people that are

dealing drugs are dealing with a

different kind of law. The law of this

is. How you survive.

Because the first raid didn't go to plan,

no drugs were found. No one was arrested

then or since. The police took us to a

second location which they informed me

was a crack house, but I now know is

actually just a house with poor people in

it taking crack as you can see. Syringes

there and other bits and pieces. You're

right, it was OK. What if it's not a nice

way to start the day? No, I'll tell you

what was mad is that I've not been

anywhere like that since I was a drug

addict. So like sort of going in there

and like that smell as soon as you go in

and then the desperation and the

hopelessness and. In the end, it just

makes you feel a real sense of despair.

Do you ever feel that it's pointless? Do

you ever feel it's pointless? No, I

don't. No I don't. Because the default

for me is we're being positive and we're

being positive with local Community B.

We're trying to get these people, we're

trying to break the cycle. And if we

don't do that, who's going to pick these

people up?For

me, the police pursuit of drug dealers

complicates effective treatment for

addicts. Ohh. Tell you what, our record,

Charlie. I'm thinking this is a health

problem, not a crime problem, just

because they look like they're all

buckled up and emaciated and, you know,

a criminal. Attitude of a criminal is

there's some power in that right? If

you're a sort of a person that's making

dollar from your criminality, but that

that's just I think the people victims,

the ideal situation is no one takes

drugs, especially people that have, you

know, can't handle it. That ain't an

option. People just though. So for me

then it's like, well, how do you organize

it?The people who are going to take drugs

no matter what. In the

best possible way.

There's room for improvement.

Additionally, the policy being enforced

here troubles the neighbors facing the

house with poor people in it that take

crack. It's 8:00 in the morning in this

quiet residential St. and it's not the

first time this flat has been raided.

Like most people in here, when they're

coming out of prison, they ride them and

then take them. Get another suspended

sentence and bring them back again. It's

just as sad for us. It happens to be

opposite us. But if I moved it away, I

suppose it just turn up somewhere. It's

going to be somewhere, somewhere. It's a

tough one, Dell. It is. And they'll say,

I don't know if you'll answer. You don't

know. The answer is no one seems to know

the answer. Just moves it around. Only

one of the three people in the house

has been arrested. No drugs are found.

And 27 year old Samantha hasn't been done

for drug possession or dealing, but for

an outstanding theft warrant. These

outstanding warrants, how come you're the

theft related? Are they? So why? Why did

that happen?Drug use.

Using and talking more methadone.

Nice to see that someone else is giving

them a bit of compassion. We try to, but

they see the uniform before they see the

person. I know this is it. This is why

it's the law that's important. The law,

the law. Underneath this I am one lovely

girl. I can imagine.

You set me up. That's what I do for a

living. You cheeky sausage. Get away with

ya.

I follow Samantha's, not in a weird way,

back to the police station where she's

being held before her court appearance.

Specialist drug workers have been called,

but I want to hear our story directly.

Can you remember why you first started

using? I was 12 when I moved

here, so yeah, the first people that

I've met were using were users, so

just at that age I thought it

was normal. How many times have you

been arrested?

Hello.

Get out of prison, nowhere to live.

So then I'll have to find somewhere

to stay, which is normally smokers

because they're the only people that are

willing to put you up and then

they want paid, spent in drugs. So

yeah, it's really hopeless, isn't it?

Hopeless scenario. This this is the

ongoing cycle for me.

Prison back out to nothing.

So you're still tired,

mate? Yeah. Fed up,

yeah.

Do you know that circumstances are

really, really different than some person

now that's got money and I don't use

drugs and all that? The feeling that you

have now, I understand that feeling. I

understand that feeling. I understand

that feeling. Yeah.

What about all the money what got spent

on like ordered a raid and all that

and all of the Business Today And then

the real problem is housing and

treatment. That's why my focus Casey is

like I I agree, but I'm employed to

do one bit no matter as being. Minion

at the bottom of the pile. I can say

whatever I wanna say, but it's not gonna

change anything. It's gonna be hierarchy.

I've gotta start looking at why we keep

doing this. And it's the same old people,

so they've gotta find their way of

cutting the the cycle and stopping it. We

don't want to see any family or friends

in her situation. There needs to be that

stepping stone to help you and speaking

to people like Sam and say, look, what do

you actually need when you come out of

places where you said you've been in

prison and say, look, right, this is what

I need if you're going to give it to me,

I'll be seeing you again next year.

Realistically, give us a couple minutes.

We'll see you soon.

In that one borough there were a total

of 5 drug raids that day. No drugs

were found in four of them and there

were two arrests, Samantha and a young

lad for possession of cannabis with

intent to supply.

One person who agrees that the war on

drugs is completely unhelpful is the

woman who runs Kids Company. I meet

Camilla today, surrounded by kids at

summer play camp. The organization runs,

but it's not these kids I'm here to learn

about the ones that turn up at our street

centres in London, Liverpool and Bristol.

We have 82% of our children

arrive addicted to substances that are

St. level centers. The children, yeah,

yeah, 82 percent, 80% of the

children, 90% of the children and

young people were introduced to

substances by their immediate carers and

sort of people around us.

Camilla knows life is difficult enough

for kids brought up by parents taking

drugs, but the drugs being illegal just

adds to the stress and tension the kids

feel. A lot of them are traumatized by

everything that goes with illicit

substance taking, so the drug dealers

that first didn't want their debts paid.

The children often see firearms, yeah,

there's threats, you know, so that it's

not just the substance taking that is

the problem, it's the whole lifestyle

that goes with it that terrifies the

kids. Seeing how highly emotional the

children are when they arrive. Camilla

has commissioned research with this

neuroscientist bloke. To test the impact

all the stress has on the children's

behaviour. So the studies show that there

and make a kind of a key part of

the brain involved in threat detection is

over overactive. Really what you're

seeing is that these kids are adapting,

right? But they're adapting in ways which

can increase vulnerability to things like

addiction and to things like mental

health problems. So many people, as you

know, start taking drugs to self medicate

because they've got negative emotions,

they've got hyper arousal and that's what

these kids experience. Yes, well, I did

it. And drugs are one effective way to

kind of manage the pain and manage that

arise. So what these children first need

is at times of distress. To be able

to turn to someone to soothe them and

calm them. And if they can't find the

soother or the person who's going to help

them solve problems, then the next best

thing is to become oblivious to the

problem. Yeah. And drugs. Then do that

for a lot of kids. It's interesting that

there's seems to be at. Least a

theoretical relationship between

conditions of deprivation and poverty

sensitivity and hyper vigilance and drug

use so if you criminalise that it's

like criminalizing poverty by proxy,

isn't it Well that's certainly one

argument I think that the problem about

criminalization is that it feels to look

at why people. Are in this position

in the 1st place. So why, why do why

does somebody get to a point where they

have to use drugs? You can't keep blaming

the individual and say this individual is

irresponsible. You know they're drug

addict or they're criminal. If we have

large numbers of vulnerable individuals,

we are as a society responsible.

Watch where you stand as well.

Yeah, I will. Bloody hell. ***

**** man, it's really brutal.

Philippe's drug worker in Birmingham, who

wants me to see how criminalization of

users has driven them to taking their

drugs in a dirty, unsafe, visually

cliched place just a few 100 yards from

the city centre. People are going to

inject heroin, but unfortunately they've

got nowhere safe to inject people are

using here, so absolutely, yeah. To

remind yourself. I can't

believe this is like in England,

Birmingham, you know, second city, and

this is where people have to. Yeah,

there's lots of needles. Yeah, yeah. And

people have slept here, as you can see.

Ohh, man, good medieval, you know, this

isn't the consequences of addiction. This

is the consequences of criminalization.

But the addicts Phillipe tries to help

him Birmingham know that being viewed as

criminals makes their lives even more

dangerous. You saved my life.

I'm just getting to the point where I

couldn't get myself and please come and

had three in European and stuck it in

your enemy archery. Ohh, I'd like 15

people we know haven't been that lucky.

The thing I can't get past is it's like

when you're using in conditions like

that, you're like an animal. You're being

treated like an animal, not having any

rights and not having any respect and not

having any. Dignity. Dignity.

They're always burn. Burn,

baby, burn.

One country almost 30 years ago decided

to take a different approach. Oddly, it's

Switzerland, a country I think of as

being super conservative. But here in the

capital burn, they set up a drug

consumption room where addicts can

legally and safely get a fix, which in

some respects is a step forward.

OK, not now. Before

yes. Now no.

1200 addicts are currently regulars at

this place, using the smoking room and

injecting rooms. Clean needles and

utensils are all free. But ******

Reffner, who runs the center, knows that

drugs in Switzerland remain illegal.

Absolutely illegal. They're illegal.

Absolutely. Two policemen on the other

side, where do you make that policeman?

When you're outside, the police comes.

When you're inside, police don't come.

All right, So you won't get arrested if

you use in this facility. Exactly. We got

that pragmatic way of our drug policy. We

say better when they use drugs, better

they use it applies. Where it's

clean and good, the good syringes. Not

with the police.

Chasing them.

Our idea is to bring back the needles.

They used needles. Has that affected

disease in their burn? Well, ten years

ago he had 98% of the people here were

hepatitis. Now, Now it's about 6060. Even

too much. So

it does look like this place keeps

addicts healthier. And as if to prove the

point, Booby introduces me to Claude, a

teacher who's been taking drugs for 40

years. So I mean, it's good that this is

you. Keeps. It keeps you young, isn't it?

It's keeps you youthful cloth. There's no

doubt about it. I mean, this is a good

facility. But the problem is, for me,

I was taking drugs for pain because

I was miserable. Yeah, me too. We

all do. There's always a story of

pain behind it. Is it possible, Claude,

that if you were able to process

the pain, that the drugs would not

be necessary?Yeah, I

think the therapy should be always

looking why you take it and

and not with stuff. Now we

know.

Ohh, this is Harry's smoker. Yeah,

I feel you, baby. That's yeah,

that's my thing. Ohh, there she

goes.

Where do you buy your drugs? How

do you buy You buy the drugs

here? How much for a bag? Ohh

23 for this for one burn deal

now I have 11 years still.

Yeah, yeah. OK.

Yeah. Was

that not a problem for you?

Good luck. Thank you.

So why would you want to stop if

you're surrounded by drugs every day in a

place like this? When I meet former

health minister for Switzerland Thomas

Zeltner, I ask him about the efficacy of

this facility to meet you, handsome

devil. Look, it's all very good, isn't

it, down there? But it just breaks your

heart. He said nobody on this

planet knows what to do with these

people. They have been in and out

of abstinence programs. They have been in

and out in methadone. Why not try

something and very modestly and very

scientifically try it? People survive in

these programs. And I'm not dying

of overdoses. Yeah, they are able to

go back to work. It seems very

innovative in one respect. There's a

place where people can come and use

drugs, but this doesn't feel like the

manifestation of a psychological change

where people in Switzerland generally

accept. Here and in their hearts,

drug addiction is not a crime,

drug addiction is an illness that

a move like this is not

the manifestation of compassion, but the

beginnings of ghettoization. Drug addicts

no, no, this is absolutely important

that this center is in the. They

love the title Not Not on the ghetto.

You'd have to be in the middle of that.

People see what's going on because it's

important that people know what we do.

What's happening to this guy at the

window here? It looks like he's getting

shut down. Do you get deals? He's staying

on his phone while he's so relaxed. I'm

just being arrested right now. One

moment. OK? Happy Mother's Day. Once

drug addicts have access to facilities

like this, they're well funded, well

staffed, well situated. The objective

must be from that perspective that you

want people to get off drugs, you

want people clean. We try to get

them out of this, but it seems

hard. You just need to be very

humble. About all of these things and

say let's try it seems to work.

As a recovering addict, I questioned

whether easy access to drugs and a

safe place to use them is ultimately

helpful. Have you ever been

clean? Yeah, of course. Many times. Many

times. I'm actually quite happy. Yeah. A

little bit high and a little dose.

Yeah. But it could be worse, you

know, Could be better, Could be worse.

I say. All in all, I can

consider myself very lucky.

Ohh that is is a well run

crack house. They're sick people. This is

like a modest step to providing some

support. It's nothing. It's nothing

compared to what needs to change, because

what needs to change is spiritual and

emotional perspective of drug. Action and

that I don't feel like that's changed

here.

Whatever flaws there are in these

incremental measures made in Burn, the

charges leveled against their own

government are much more severe. It

doesn't treat the real problem. There

aren't drug consumption rooms in Britain,

but supplying illegal drug to Britain's

heroine addicts is a main plank of our

governments policy. Every day 320,000.

Headaches get a legal fix of methadone.

The policy is called harm reduction. But

this policy fails to bring addicts into

recovery or to address the core issues

behind it, a point I try to make when

journalists question me about methadone.

I mean, there are, you know, 10s of

thousands, well over 40,000 people on

government treatment programs who've been

on methadone. Four years or more, What

would your message be to to ministers

when they look at those kind of figures

on their desks? Well, I don't think that

anyone that's on methadone, as far as I'm

concerned, hasn't been given the

opportunity to get into recovery. Of

course, methadone, Subutex and other

substances can be used to ameliorate the

horror of the active addiction. The legal

substances, but only as part of a private

process leading towards abstinence. A lot

of a lot of addicts will say, well if I

didn't have that actually I wouldn't be

in treatment at all. When you're talking

about, as you've just mentioned, people

for over 4 years, people anecdotally

10/12/15 years, obviously there's no

solution. There's just the decision of

life people off, get them out of the way.

Parking on methadone? And is that what

you think that the government are really

doing? I suppose so. It's not very

popular cause is it? Drug addicts? Bit

annoying flaky looking folk who wants to

be coughing up money for them.

In the first documentary we made about

addiction, I came across Karen, a woman

who'd been on methadone for 15 years,

ever higher doses, but still topped up

every day with heroin and cocaine. As a

result, she'd been in and out of prison

for years too. Yeah, I don't

know why, but I I can't get it, and

it's really, really, really hard. When I

met Karen, she was a candidate for the

bone yard, and I've assumed she'd be dead

within six months. Fortunately, she

agreed to go into rehab.

Every instrument, yeah, that is the plan.

Remember thinking of actually your inner

treatment center. Now we've got you out

of that environment, don't get up. And I

could see that she was going to, and it

made me so angry. It made me so angry. Do

you Remember Me shouting at you

frequently down the phone when I was in

treatment then I've ever got that angry

with the person that I've not been in.

As is common with the disease of

addiction, it took several attempts for

Karen to embrace the principles of

abstinence based recovery. The relapse

that happened after the second time was,

I think the word is, horrific. Why? What

happened? I just felt worse than I'd ever

felt before because I knew I could be

clean. I knew I didn't have to use, but I

was. Mentally and physically addicted to

the game. By the time I decided ohh that

was a bad idea and I was just. Beaten

and broken, now you are clean. When I got

clean this time I just kept a hold of

that memory of how bad it was. 2 of

my friends within the last eight weeks

have relapsed and committed suicide and

one of them had like 2 years clean.

You're going to be listening to Karen.

Helps us to realize how hard. The journey

to recovery is but shows too, that

addiction can be beaten. People can be

saved, but like me, they can never forget

what they're up against. No matter how

long I get in recovery, it's not a given

that I won't use the game. I don't want

to use at the moment, but I wouldn't mind

a drink.

It's knowing people like Karen that keeps

me pushing the abstinence message, and

the first National Drug Recovery

Conference is a natural place to do that.

Here, though, I'm reminded of what I'm up

against, trying to change government

policy. The attitude of those in power

towards addicts is the message one

speaker. An unusual political and drug

expert wants to get across. It does say

on on that card you've got in front of

the programme, it says Lord Mancroft,

House of Lords. But in the spirit that

we're here today, I'd like to say I'm

hello. I'm Benjamin. I'm an addict. I've

been in the House of Lords for 27 years.

I've been in recovery for 30. I have met

and discussed drug policy. With every

single home secretary, although the World

Health Organization, the National Health

Service, and God knows everybody else

tells us that addiction is a disease, in

the world of politics it still isn't

really a disease. It's a moral decision,

which is why it's still a crime. And

until we get over that, we won't make the

progress we need.

A recent drug survey showed how at

odds the government's position is with

what normal British people actually do

take or think 30% of normal British

people have taken illegal drugs. That's

15,000,000 people, 3,000,000 are still

using them and 1,000,000 have a drug

problem. That's a million unnecessary

criminals that the government are at war

with. So what does Lord Benjamin

Mancroft, a former drug addict and posh

person, think underpins the government's

reluctance to change the ultimate weapon

of. Criminalization of them in this

country is the 1970s. We Misuse of Drugs

Act. But if if you look at the papers

that are available, public papers about

what the thinking was at that time in the

late 60s and early 70s, what they were

really saying is we think we've got this

problem with drugs. We don't really

understand it. We don't know what to do

about it. So the obvious thing to do is

to ban it. We'll, we'll sit on it and

bearing in mind at that stage of

proceedings, there were I think between

4:00 and 6000 registered addicts in the

whole of Britain. So it was a tiny

problem and it just kept going since

then. No ones had the nerve to make this

huge change. The first thing that's

stopping it is a generational thing and

that is that people of my parents

generation didn't understand.

When I was using them, and that applies

to politics as well, Margaret Thatcher,

John Major did not come from a drug

taking generation. They had probably

probably never come across a joint in

their lives. But now we have a younger

generation of politicians, Tony Blair,

David Cameron. Probation may have come

across, well, if they haven't, they've

done their argument that they're in touch

goes out the window. It doesn't.

Everybody in this, which is if you're in,

you're a drug addict or you're not in

touch. Yeah, Which one is it, Cameron? We

live in a democracy and our MP's will do

what they think their constituents want.

And currently. Large numbers of MP's

don't think that their constituents want

us to legalise drugs and whereas you

might get an an MP sitting quietly in a

room with the door closed to admit, yeah,

I know, we really ought to legalise and

collectively they won't at the moment

because they perceive that they will lose

votes by doing that. When you're in

politics, language is hugely important.

We were talking about the issue around

criminalization. You said that's what

we're talking about is regulation because

it let us those regulation is a bit more

of an A conservative sound in ohh, I'd

like to regulate like people aren't gonna

go because it's not such an edgy word. If

I said to anybody, do you think we should

regulate drugs more efficiently, They

say, yeah, of course. Yeah, well,

actually that's legalization. Now, if you

were to say to people. Actually we have

between 250 and 350,000 very ill people

in this country and they're wandering the

streets and they're so ill that they've

been driven to crime and they're living

in the most appalling way. Do you think

it's a good idea if we picked them up and

put them into nice clean healthcare

facilities, which would make them better

so they don't have to commit crimes and

actually they can go out and get a job?

Have a family and become constructive

members of society. Who wouldn't think

that's a good idea?

Having found myself temporarily agreeing

with a Tory peer, I rushed to the

Midlands to relax. I came to Burton on

Trent because I've heard about the work

of recovering alcoholic Noreen Oliver.

So some of the people knowing that we're

going to meet here, that are working here

a matter of what months ago were junkies

and Alcoholics, and now they're giving

back to the community. They're not

draining the community. These are cakes

made by drug addicts. Yeah, from coke to

cake. Noreen

asked me to come today to her treatment

center to see the graduation ceremony of

a man called Jamie. Not, it has to be

said, an overnight success story. Look at

him as an addict. He had treatment here,

but then relapsed and was soon living

back on the streets. But Noreen knows the

importance of persistence with drug

addicts and. Now, Jamie completed 18

weeks of rehab, you know, now that the

hard work starts, now you've now got to

look after your recovery, you know, and

that means you've got to attend your

aftercare. You've got to attend your

meetings and let everybody know that in

this community that you can recover from

drug misuse. Yeah. Pleasure. Thank you.

Cheers. All right mate. What I know is

like at the moment you are clean from

drugs and alcohol today, so you've got it

at this moment. What I felt myself when I

was using and drinking is that I didn't

have a choice. Now that I'm in recovery,

I feel like I have got a choice. You've

got that now. So what what I think is

important, James, to know you don't have

to go back now. And I'm glad to be

in recovery with you, mate. Nice work.

Cheers. Cheers, man. Jamie's nephew

Steven has turned up too to welcome his

uncle back into the family and provide us

with the necessary tear jerk moment.

You're my best uncle. Obviously I know

everything you've been through. I'm

really proud of you. We all are. And see

you sat there today's. Brilliant.

Honestly, I can't wait till you're back.

Ohh yeah.

All right. Cheers, Fat Steven.

12 and half.

I've got a dog sitting down there, all

right.

But I don't. Now on a serious note, you

know, me getting through this today is

through you lot, you know. I mean, you

can't do it on your own. With all this

together, we can do anything. I mean that

from my heart.

I suppose this is the moment when

Noreen's own experience of recovery can

really kick in, if addicts just go back

to their old world, their old habits. Are

likely to recommence so she deliberately

breaks the cycle that's allowed to have

his phone back now there you go. This has

been blanked. I mean all the old drug

dealers are gone. I mean it's brand new

so that's the phone you had before, but

it's been cleaned up. You've cleaned up

your phones cleaned up. I've not even

made a call on it yet. I'm not accusing

you.

The next thing Noreen does is stop

recovering addicts returning to their old

horns. She's taken over properties nearby

and turned them into flats for them to

live in. Ohh, you got your own room and

everything was sweet as well.

When he was drinking and using did you

get in a lot of trouble with old billing

that I've never been to prison for like 2

years suspended for?Intense supply with

a Class A drug, which was Aaron. So now I

suppose you're out of that sort of

criminal kind of behaviour as well. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's what this place is

drummed into me. You know, it's, it's not

the drinking the drugs. What the problem

is. It is, is you know, it's down to you.

Time to take responsibility and grow up

entrepreneurial. Noreen also creates jobs

here. She set up this cafe to

give recovering addicts and Alcoholics a

place to work and vital experience. The

result of all this is an astonishing 68%

success rate of people completing rehab

and not representing. That means coming

back again, relapsed and all full of

drugs and apologies within a year. This

is the first time playing for me in 20

years. Wow, you know, been in and out of

jail, just taking basically not caring

about myself, anybody, anything, you

know, living on the street. But I've come

here because, you know, I want to change

and this place just give me that chance.

So Norah's facility is pretty impressive.

All the more so because she does it

without any government funding. We have a

huge waiting list. And when you think

other counties just don't do rehab at

all, you know, there's 50% of the local

authorities have cut their budgets to

rehabs. They're diverting all the drugs

money and using it for other things, you

know, and. I appreciate why. Because they

can. Because they can.

Jamie, you look fantastic from the man

that came in that was just a wreck.

You look absolutely fantastic. What

Noreen does is effective. Think what

difference it would make if she had

proper government funding if other

communities built around recovering drug

addicts could be established. The cops

drug taking is illegal. There is a

stigma around addiction that prevents

progress This is why I think we should

decriminalize all drugs and why in recent

months I've put more and more effort into

taking my argument into the public arena.

But one question is continually asked,

don't you think one of the reasons why

politicians and. By society tends to keep

drugs illegal is one of fear fear that

that kids that young people will turn on

perhaps needlessly. I'm not a big woohoo

let's take drugs type person drugs can be

incredibly dangerous and negative What

I'm saying is making them illegal isn't

working. It doesn't work. It doesn't

prevent. People from using drugs.

I'm sure John Snow is just being a

devil's advocate in his role as a news

journalist, but it's always interesting

to hear the other side of any argument.

So we spoke to Professor Neil Mckegney

from the centre of Drug Misuse Research.

The temptation to use drugs, the allure

of drugs is so great, there has to be

some sort of. Pension, you might say it's

hard to make the case for sanctions

because we're all we're, we're all

humanitarian and we like the idea of

providing treatment and that's socially

acceptable, personally acceptable. But if

you don't have any barrier to use, then

it seems to me you run the real risk

of use increasing. But I also think it's

really important not just to see drugs.

From the perspective of the addict, I

mean, it's true that you are a very

passionate supporter of treatment and

recovery, but it's also true, and, and it

may be unfashionable to say it, that

society still needs protection from the

amount of criminality that's associated

with drug use. So whilst prison may not

be necessary. Welcome option for drug you

who's offending it's nevertheless an

important part of the protection of

society needs to have from those who

actually committing those crimes to be

like you know frankly or for me this is

a personal issue. You're personally

calling me a criminal for something I

help you're sitting there saying I'm a

criminal, but you've accepted that you.

You have already don't accept no, but you

have already accepted but you I think

society is making a massive mistake

calling people that are unwell friendly.

You've already accepted that you have

broken laws. Now in the context of your

own. You made the situation much worse,

Neil, and I'm not going to be an advocate

for the current situation being ripped

roaring success. No, it is not so bad

that you would need to say well, let's.

Actually do away with criminalization

entirely. There is still a role

for the criminal sanction against drug

use. For me, the experiment of

prohibition has lasted a century and

has done nothing but increase at

a black market economy, gangster warlords

across Mexico, suffering and poverty.

Wherever it's been introduced and so on a

personal level and on a political level,

it just isn't working. It's time to try

something else. What I'm saying is that

you can look at drug use from the

perspective of the drug user, but you

also have a moral obligation to look at

drug use from the perspective of society.

The majority of people are not using

these drugs now from the. Aspects of the

drug to use. You can say I don't want all

this hassle in my life, I don't wanna be

criminalised, I don't want the police

knocking down my door. No, I agree with

you, I wouldn't want my door knocked down

either. But at the same time it is

important that society has a standard. I

think the important shift that we need to

make as a culture is to end this sort of

moral judgment of people that have an

illness. And treat them compassionately.

Why This is why what, what, what? I mean,

why what? What's the problem with a moral

judgment? It's not like criminalisation

hasn't been given a fair crack of the

whip. So I hear that. But you know what

you're doing there, Russell. You're

taking a small sector of society in, in

numerical terms, the addict population

and you're saying societies entire drug

laws. Could be shaped to meet the needs

of that small sector of people who have

become addicted, but that doesn't make a

lot of sense because the vast majority of

other people are not addicted.

But it's not just the suffering of

addicts I see, It's the misery, violence

and degradation in communities in Britain

and across the world that current drug

laws exacerbate. So when invited

to speak at a UN conference on drugs

in Vienna, I take the opportunity to try

and persuade the 193 countries that still

criminalized drugs to rethink what

they're doing. Mike Trace runs an

international committee on drugs policy

and has organized for me to meet up

with unusual looking delegates. From all

over the world. You look great. You look

it's like a Star Wars intergalactic

confederation. What I'm most want to

understand is where the debate is

currently and where it would ideally be

in two years time. It's a, I think

an interesting dynamic that's playing out

at the moment. The death penalty has been

a big one. This year.

Mr. Fedotov from Russia, if something

that's now completely legal in Uruguay, I

producing and selling cannabis is, is

100% legal there, but in Singapore it

can get you the death penalty, doesn't

suggest consensus, he said. It's a very

broad consensus.

It's funny, but also appalling that in

some countries you face the death penalty

for cannabis. Reefer Madness was a

persuasive piece of propaganda, but

hanging? That's why it's important to see

whether these fears are realised. When a

country does decriminalise drugs, what

happens? Does drug use rise? In Portugal,

we have. Case study since 2001, drug

possession is no longer a criminal

offence. I want to introduce Russell to

one of my heroes, Joel Gulab from

Portugal, who introduced the big

decriminalisation of Portugal.

11-12 years of of the those

policies in practice. So we acted

as a living laboratory. What are

the most positive and negative surprises?

Most positive is decrease in the

number of 18 infections. That was

really dramatic.

Yes, we have a small increase

in the average use of illicit

substances among general population.

Small increases in recreational use, yes,

but on prime.

There's a decrease in the petty crimes

because I suppose the live experience is

nullify the conservative arguments to

keep things the same. We don't know what

would happen and it's dangerous. There

will be crimes. These places will become

drug havens. In Portugal this hasn't been

the case. So this is really good news

with drug related deaths down an

impressive 75. Percent their policy of

sending addicts to treatment rather than

court and prison seems to be working

well. It's not supported by all the

politics, even even Conservative party.

Those who voted against no one would

go back to here. The other side.

I asked Mike to introduce me to

someone. From a part of the world

extensively involved in drug trafficking

and production, but where drugs are still

illegal. I'm the chairman of what we call

West African Commission on Drug. I wonder

if it would work for the whole planet.

The the experiment has been tried in

Portugal and Switzerland and the

legislation that's been tried in Uruguay.

Where do you think?I believe that

we should keep our eyes on

those experiments. Let. Let's call them

experience. Call them experiments. Yeah,

let's call them experiment. They're

experiments. Now, you see those

experiments succeed. How long? It's too

early. Let's give it five years.

Another five years. After five years,

yeah, we could say this has been a good

experiment. Yeah. Despite his talk of

waiting five years, a couple of months

later I read that the West African Drug

Commission changed policy. It now says

the harms of criminalization far outweigh

those of decriminalization. So all drug

use should not be considered a crime, but

a matter. Of public health, we'll keep

in touch. Ohh, alright.

I was surprised that despite asking Mike

to approach other delegates, no one else

agreed to debate their position with me.

I'm going to ask you about your opinion

on cannabis legalization and if we should

take a similar approach to legalize and

regulate other drugs. I completely agree

with the legalization of cannabis and I

think we should legalize and regulate all

other drugs. That's what I think should

happen globally as quickly as possible.

Shouldn't wait for two years to get on.

Do it now global. Drug laws need to

change because thousands of people are

dying, there's an illicit economy, people

are getting like butchered left and right

all over Mexico. People are getting hung

in Pakistan and all over Malaysia for

something that's not a moral issue. It's

not a moral issue, it's a health issue. I

think we all agree within ourselves,

don't we? We already know the answer.

Knowledge is acting on wisdom. Don't know

why we're pretending that we don't know

what to do. It's like a bizarre facade.

It's peculiar that we would do this as

human beings. Why aren't we? It's

confusing Mike.

Whereas in Britain, obviously and

patriotically, where I want to see change

happen quickly, I asked Mike, who was one

of Britain's drug czar. Which is weird

why he thinks Britain isn't one of the

reformed countries, given that David

Cameron 10 years ago for it should be a

position. 1 was pretty vocal and as I

said, that the drug war wasn't working.

Yeah, he was. He was on a committee 10

years ago that said exactly that the drug

war is not working. And actually he said

the UK should go to the United Nations

and propose reform. Yeah, which nobody

did in those days. So it was quite a good

report. Now in government it's a very

difficult issue because the two parties

don't. Agree on it. And so they they

prefer not to talk about it, which is a

shame because the UK is potentially a

very progressive country, but we are

paralyzed at the moment. It's because

there's no votes in drugs. I think that's

the judgment they're making is, is you

take a big risk if you are looking as if

you want to be into drug reform. So most

politicians will say I don't want to be

criticised by the Daily Mail. My opposite

opponent.

But that feels like it's a utilization of

my skill set. And then here's the voice

over charged by my experiences at the UN.

I went back to confront Cameron knowing

that I had the mandate of most of the

people in Europe like.

Obviously I'm interested to know what

David Cameron has changed his views, so

we requested an interview. Meanwhile, I

want to see how the current criminal

justice system has affected Samantha.

After I left her in the police cell, she

was taken to court and got a six week.

Prison sentence After serving just three

weeks, Samantha was released with nowhere

to go. Extraordinarily, she broke into

the house where she was originally

arrested in. Turfed out of there, she

started living on the streets again, and

I think it's a fair bit, began taking

drugs. I was going to throw you off your

bike. We're gonna grab your fling you

off of it.

Right. Yeah. Absolutely brilliant.

Imprisoned, Samantha became close with

Kelly, who's also a drug addict, and she

insisted that Kelly participate in our

interview. I've smoked a little bit.

Yeah, I have. Yeah. But I suppose I don't

know what it is. Remember when we spoke

on our show, you said that you would you

wanted to get clean. Can you really? Do

you want to get better? Yeah, But I can't

look where I'm living. I'm all over the

place. You know, I don't know what I'm

saying. When that from the next it seems

to be in prison in your life. The same

you're using about the same amount. So

you know, I'll be honest with you. I've

been doing a bag of day. I've been doing

about two white and one bag a day inside

the prison system doesn't really make any

difference to you using none at all. When

when you arrested me, I was on the

second. Can we rephrase that? I didn't

arrest you. I'm not Batman when I chatted

to you. On the phone and you're

like, you know, chaotic and man. Yeah,

no, no, no, I can't understand him.

He's so he's off. He's like, I

thought, what? What? Kill, kill, kill.

Russell Brains on the kill. Waiting,

waiting, waiting. Shots

up what was good. It's like before when

you got when I arrested you. Like there's

time to sort of prepare it so you could

be all kind of yeah, I just want to get

clean and to be yourself. And that's what

you do. But like, the fact is, imagine

you're a person watching this

documentary. You're a person who's never

taken drugs in your life. You don't know

the first thing about. Better score.

You're saying there's a girl that's come

out because then it wants to be clean and

then no, no, you're not seeing that.

You're seeing someone who ain't taking it

seriously. You're seeing someone who's

like, ohh, I suppose Kelly, what is is

you know, if you think about that sort of

the nature of your using.

Bad company. I just said about the year

and a half ago, where's your baby now?

He's going to care where? I don't know.

Soon as you give birth they take the baby

straight away because baby's going to be

clucking. Ohh because you're using things

like that. So what you do is you gets

touching for the first time, skin to

skin, then straight away they take. And

go and assess him. So it takes two weeks

for him to assess him because they need

to see for a whole week how his club's

going to be. And by the end of that seven

days they can tell you whether he needs

it or a morphine or not. By his high

pitched screams, by the way he shudders.

How do you feel about that? I hated

myself, I hated myself. That's so cool

mate. Yeah, it's article.

I just want some help. I just want to be

me again. That would be.

I don't wanna be like this.

I just want some help. I just want to be

human again. You know you're

not.

, paint or decorate or what? A job. I

would, you know, go to work every morning

and think, yeah, I've done that.

Sitting there and drinking. Sitting a

******* Subway smoking this ship and that

ship. I want to show

the world that Kenny could be Kenny

again. You know, I mean, yes, I

just need a bit of help and there's no

help out there.

What can you do as well, Sam? You've got

to do it. Be ready to hear

can yeah if you wanna do your own thing

under your own finger things out and I'll

always be there with you always find you

and make sure you're right.

I don't think you're ready. I don't.

I'd love you to be ready though.

Samantha, she gets nicked, she goes to

prison, she comes out, she uses drugs,

she gets nick, goes to prison. So it's

not like people think that there's sort

of a compassionate and altruistic

perspective is some sort of wet woolly

liberalism. It's not. It's pragmatism. It

doesn't work.

And now for the climactic moment that

we're all awaiting, where I confront

current Prime Minister David Cameron and

ask him why he says the current system

is working. Obviously he didn't agree to

that meeting, so instead I meet the

deputy. Prime Minister Nick Clegg, he's

criticised the government drug policy,

which is a start, but what has he done to

really move it on? Describing it in

military terms, war on drugs, chucking

lots of people into prison only seats

only to see them come out hooked on even

harder drugs clearly doesn't make sense.

You should be treating people who are

addicted as people who need help and

treatment. As it happens in this

particular government, I can't get the my

particular coalition partners now to

agree to further reform. But you're

right, it it has to change because you

quite rightly saying warehousing people

behind bars and simply just injecting

them into normal life and somehow

expecting them to find their feet again

is it's sort of patently absurd. We have

an obligation, we have a. Duty to bring

about change and sometimes also to lead.

The public have moved much further on

this than the political class have. I'll

give you very good example, The Sun

newspaper 5-10 years ago, but The Sun

newspaper would never write the kind of

things they write now. It's fantastic. I

think the best selling newspaper in the

in the United Kingdom is actually one of

the leading advocates of of drugs reform.

That's, you know, that's a big, big

change. Just the pace of it. That's what

makes me sort of sort of somewhat

despondent about the political system.

And I don't suppose it's probably anyone

in this country is more despondent about

the political system than you. But like

what I personally feel is it all takes so

long. I think we'll look back over 50

years time and say what outcome we're

like prepared to sit out a 50 year lump

of bird on it. When we could just go like

this, let's make moves now you'd like it

to go quickly. Course, of course, of

course I'd like to a much quicker. This

is quick broke. Look, it's slow, it's

slow. It's going to happen. I'm just

saying, do you want to do it while you've

got jobs or do you want us to take care

of it? I'm not. I'm not as pessimistic as

you are about because I'm not

pessimistic. And I hate people say

impatient, impatient. I mean practical.

It's just like like sort of once I I know

a thing, now I know a thing. So once I

know it, I don't like all this meandering

and nonsense, right While we cow towing

to and pretending we don't know. What can

I tell you why you might know something.

It might just take other people a little

bit longer to know things. And in a. In a

democracy, you need to persuade other

people. Downpour of democracy. Move on.

Me. I can guarantee you I can have people

sitting in the seat from completely

different places. It's ohh. It's far too

little bit too risky. Yeah, but they're

not drug addicts. They've not been

through it. They're talking from a

position still members of society. That's

the point, you know? That's the point.

You know that you can't, you can't. You

and I might disagree with what they might

say, but you can't somehow sort of

dismiss. Dismissed their responses, but I

think you and I both know that the reason

that this legislation takes so long to

move is because there's certain people

benefit from things being how they are

that a society structures as it is is

beneficial to the people that at the top

of it and the people that say I totally

agree with you there is a ridiculous

outdated deeply sort of. Folds unheroic

cowardice in the British political class,

yes, where people will talk bravely about

reforming drugs when they're not in

office. And at the moment they get in

offices like this, they completely they

completely it's coming. Change is coming.

It's it is happening in in what you would

call baby steps and it will continue.

There's just no doubt in my mind.

Whatsoever that the idiotic sort of

so-called war on drugs that we have today

will simply not persist it, it will not.

That's just not enough, Nick. It's just

not enough. I mean, if we ran some tests

in the toilets over there in Westminster,

I think we'd find out if there's some

interesting powders, you know, So like,

you know, if these people are prepared to

use drugs themselves, if they prepare,

you know, they're not. Subject to the

conditions that are rules, to the

penalties that we're subject to. And so

for us, it is an emergency. Yeah, it's

not an emergency. Some people have got 50

years. Some people are struggling to get

through through the next few seconds,

mate. And that's who we've got to speak

on behalf of. Fair enough. Fair enough. I

like you. I know. So Nick agrees the war

on drugs is the wrong policy. They can't

do anything about it. Then just four

weeks later comes this possible game

changer. Good evening. The Home Office

didn't want its report published, but the

study does confirm that Portugal's decade

long programme of treating rather than

jailing drug users is working. In this

case, David Cameron's response was. And

yet, I don't believe in decriminalizing

drugs that are illegal today. I'm a

parent with three children. I don't want

to send out a message that somehow taking

these drugs is OK or safe. The same

report reveals that 71% of the British

population know that the war on drugs can

never be won. So what do we do?

The disease of addiction is no respecter

of class or race or anything. It affects

all of us. But like at this **** end of

it is poor people going to prison, people

with mental health issues and just the

people messed up, messed up having to get

in the sex industry, having to get into

crime to support their habits just like

this. Is this sort out?The Sabbath is

for the man, the man is not for the

Sabbath. So you know, like these systems

are for us. If these no systems don't

serve us, we get rid of the system.