Crime, Drugs and Alcohol

(coverage: UK Wide)

Whilst some ‘drugs’ are legal, like medicines and alcohol, others are not. Which substances are made illegal depends on official perceptions of their harmfulness, which are in turn informed by social, cultural, political as well as medical judgements.

It is commonly assumed that drugs and alcohol misuse are linked to committing crimes (for example, alcohol use and violence). However, the relationship between drugs and criminal behaviour is more complex than it can appear at first. Whether drug use is linked to crime depends on a number of factors, including the type of drug used, the frequency of use and the user’s socio-economic status, which, for example, affects the capacity to support a habit without resorting to illegal means. Also, studies suggest that the link between drug taking and committing crimes to pay for it is overstated.

Criminal behaviour, drug and alcohol use all tend to be most common in young adults, and to decrease with age.

Some definitions

What are drugs?

The term ‘drug’ can be used to refer to any substance that can modify physical or intellectual functions. It is usually meant to describe products used in the context of medical treatment, but can also refer to chemical or natural materials which are taken for purely recreational reasons.

Is alcohol a drug?

Although alcohol is legally available (to people who are 18 or over) and is generally not considered to be a ‘drug’, its biological effects are similar to some (prohibited as well as legal) drugs: it acts as a depressant on the central nervous system and is classified as a ‘sedative-hypnotic’ substance.

Which drugs are illegal?

Simply, those are drugs which use is prohibited by legislation. In the UK two main pieces of legislation define the legal status of drugs:

the Medicines Act 1968 (dealing mainly with the manufacture and supply of medicinal products); and
the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, which defines ‘drug offences’ – see below.

Drugs and crime

‘Drug offences’ relate to importing, exporting, producing, supplying or possessing illegal drugs. They are distinct from ‘drug-related offences’, which refer to criminal activities in some way caused by drug use. For example, it is often assumed that people addicted to illegal substances may commit acquisitive crimes like robberies, burglaries or shoplifting in order to finance their drug use.

‘Alcohol-related crime’ refers to behaviour in which alcohol use is involved as a contributory factor to the unlawful activity. This can include street disorder, fights or lewd behaviour associated with drinking.

The law

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 classifies illegal drugs into three main categories, according to their perceived harmfulness. (These categories have been amended over time.)

Class A drug types include heroin and other strong opioids, cocaine, ecstasy (MDMA) and LSD
Class B drugs include amphetamines, barbiturates and some opioid painkillers like codeine
Class C covers sedative and anxiety-relieving substances like temazepam and diazepam (Valium), as well as some mild stimulants. In 2004 cannabis was added to this category, having been downgraded from Class B. (However, the maximum punishment for supplying Class C drugs was raised from 5 to 14 years). Four years later, the Government is considering whether to reclassify cannabis back to Class B.

Sanctions

Possession is generally treated less harshly than dealing. For example, 82% of those found guilty of dealing in cocaine, crack or heroin were sentenced to immediate custody in 2004. Of those convicted of possessing a Class A drug in the same year, only 5% were sentenced to immediate custody, while 44% received cautions, 22% fines, 11% conditional or absolute discharges and 9% community sentences.

A ‘Drug Rehabilitation Requirement’, introduced under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, can be imposed by the courts as part of a community sentence. For more information, see the ’Community Sentences for Adults’ Factsheet.

Enforcement measures have tended to impact disproportionately on ethnic minorities, most notably black people, who are more likely to be arrested and imprisoned for drug offences than white people.

What about alcohol?

The use and sale of alcoholic products is regulated by a number of laws:

The Licensing Act 1964 governs where and under what conditions alcohol can be bought and consumed.
Under the Road Traffic Act 1988 it is forbidden to drive a vehicle under the influence of alcohol.
Other rules restrict the age at which it is legal to have alcohol. In the UK it is an offence to give it to a child who is under five years old. Before the age of 18, it is not allowed to buy alcohol in pubs or shops, drink alcohol in pubs or in public places. Young people over 14 can go into pubs as long as they are accompanied by someone who is of age, but they cannot be served alcohol until they are 18, unless they are 16 or over and are having beer or cider with their meal.
There are also laws controlling drunkenness in public places.
An ‘Alcohol Rehabilitation Requirement’ (introduced under the Criminal Justice Act 2003) can be imposed by the courts as part of a community sentence. For more information, see the 'Community Sentences for Adults' Factsheet.

Have drugs always been treated in the same way?

That drugs should be subject to legal control is a relatively recent notion. For much of the nineteenth century drugs markets throughout Europe and North America were based largely on the principle of free enterprise and received little external regulation. It was not until 1868 that Britain restricted the sale of opium and morphine derivates to pharmacies, with the Pharmacies Act. Substances like cannabis, cocaine, morphine and heroin (together with injecting kits) could be bought over the counter from chemists in Europe and North America as late as the end of the nineteenth century.

The rise of prohibition

The Opium Wars of Britain against China in 1839-1842 and 1856-1858 had a significant impact on changing attitudes to drugs in favour of greater control. The wars had been instigated in the pursuit of free trade, with the British authorities seeking to prevent the Chinese from enforcing a ban on imported opium. Britain grew opium in great quantities in India, generating huge revenues. The wars met with considerable hostility and opposition at home, fuelled by (exaggerated) reports that Britain’s flooding China with opium had impoverished and enslaved the Chinese to the drug.

This episode of imperial history became linked in the popular conscience to fears (again exaggerated by sensational reporting) about the corrupting influence of Chinese ‘Opium Dens’ in the East End of London. Alongside these anxieties, the emergence of a powerful public health lobby, of an assertive medical profession and of the temperance movement all helped to redefine opium use as a problem.

Vice or disease?

By the early twentieth century two broad schools of thought had emerged about how drugs should be regulated:

morally-infused conceptions of drug use as a vice to be controlled by the law
medical views of it as an addiction or ‘disease’ requiring treatment.

These contrasting sets of views are still evident in Western societies today. For example, drugs policies in the USA have tended to follow the former tendency, with a long history of prohibition dating back to the 1914 Harrison Act and culminating on the ‘war on drugs’. The US imprisonment rate for drug offences alone is higher than that of most Western European nations for all crimes put together. In the UK the balance between these different views about drug control has shifted over time.

The UK: a bird’s eye view

Early controls such as the 1916 Defence of the Realm Act, followed by the 1920 and 1923 Dangerous Drugs Acts, criminalised the unauthorised possession of opiates and cocaine but permitted their possession under prescription from a doctor. These arrangements provided the basis for a so-called ‘British System’, which prevailed from the early 1920s to the late 1960s.

The late 1960s saw concerns about new drugs (like LSD) and about increasing use, which led to an emphasis on the role of the police and the criminal justice system. This tendency hardened in the early 1980s, following a perceived wave of heroin ‘epidemics’. By the mid-1980s British policy had also come to be defined in terms of a ‘war on drugs’. Governments took an increasingly active role, with a concomitant politicisation of the debate about drugs. As medicine became displaced from its former central role, more emphasis was placed on law enforcement. A political consensus along these more punitive and control-based lines has been largely maintained ever since.

Drug use in the UK today

The UK has one of the highest levels of recreational drug use in Europe, and the highest number of people with a drug dependency. In 1975 around 5,000 people were estimated to be dependent heroin users. By 2007, the number had increased to about 281,000 in England and over 50,000 in Scotland.

However, most people use illegal drugs only for a short period of their lives. Moreover, drug use has recently tended to either decline or stabilise. Use of cannabis appears to have been decreasing since 2001, regardless of its reclassification. Use of LSD, amphetamines and ecstasy has also fallen, while cocaine use has increased.

Drug related harm

Drug related harm (illness and mental health problems, death, crime and other social problems) is mostly associated with people who are dependent on Class A drugs, particularly heroin and cocaine. Problems associated with drug use are overwhelmingly concentrated in the poorest and most socially deprived areas.

The rate of drug related deaths in the UK is the second highest in Europe. There are about 34 such deaths for each million people aged 16 or over. In 2005, 1,644 deaths were identified as being drug related.

The level of HIV infection is much lower among drug users in the UK than in most other comparable European countries. Around 1.6% of injecting drug users here are HIV positive. However, it is thought that about 42% of injectors in England, and 64% in Scotland, were infected with Hepatitis C in 2007.

What about legal drugs?

Prescriptions and over-the counter medications are widely marketed and easily available. Together with alcohol, tobacco and solvents, their use may lead to dependency and ill health.

Tobacco and alcohol-linked death rates are considerably higher than those caused by illegal drug misuse. Alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales increased from around 2,500 in 1979 to about 5,540 in 2000. Drug-related deaths went from about 860 in 1993 to about 1,620 in 2001.

Does drug use cause crime?

Although the exact proportion of crime that is committed by users is not known, research shows that drug use is not necessarily linked to crime. Only a small percentage - about 3% according to some studies – of all drug users commit crime. These tend to be people on heroin and/or crack cocaine, who commit mostly non-violent, acquisitive crimes like theft, shoplifting, burglary and forgery, or who resort to prostitution to help fund their habit.

However, other studies have shown that some heroin and crack cocaine users were committing crimes before they started using such drugs. This would support the view that drug use does not necessarily cause crime; in these situations, a delinquent environment may facilitate drug use, not the other way round.

Moreover, some commentators have pointed out that drug related crime tends to be over-estimated. This is due to a number of factors, including that users of illegal drugs (especially heroin and crack addicts) tend to be arrested more often than non-users.

Although drug use is supposed to be causing a high proportion of property crime, the latter has in fact declined whilst the former has not. According to official government figures based on surveying victims of crime property crime fell by 44% between 1995 and 2007, but there is no evidence of any reductions in the use of heroin, cocaine and crack. It is therefore difficult to maintain an inevitable link between drug use and crime. However, illegal drugs are also linked to crime via the operations of the black market that exists to sustain their availability.

What about alcohol and crime?

Whether alcohol abuse causes crime is similarly debatable.

Some commentators stress the high economic and social costs of alcohol-related violence and disorder, which is most in evidence in town centres at night and weekends. Alcohol abuse is often associated with instances of domestic violence, drink driving, assaults and other violent crime. Alcohol intoxication can repress inhibitions and dampen judgement, which increase the chances of undesirable behaviour. It lessens the capacity to recall one’s actions, thereby decreasing the likelihood of being deterred from committing further undesirable acts. However, what part alcohol plays in criminal behaviour occurring, when weighed against other factors, like one’s personality, emotional and psychological history, family background etc., is difficult to ascertain.

A variety of social and cultural factors are also thought to affect the apparent connection between drinking alcohol and aggressive behaviour, for example expectations around enjoyment and leisure time and notions about masculinity, territoriality, honour and respect.

Although the majority of young people do not drink, under-age binge drinking is an issue of increasing concern, with a minority drinking more, at a younger age.

Moreover, the extension of licensing hours in 2005 has been criticised for encouraging alcohol over-consumption.

How should problematic drug use be dealt with?

The government’s current drug strategy focuses on tackling drug abuse first and foremost as a means of reducing crime. Consequently, treatment for drug addiction is currently most easily accessed through the criminal justice system. This means that there are a significant numbers of problematic drug users who are not accessing treatment at all, either because they do not come into contact with the criminal justice system or because they are not committing any crimes.

Strategies also focus on disrupting the supply of illegal drugs through intelligence led policing, and the involvement of a variety of bodies, including HM Customs and Excise, the Central Drugs and Illegal Immigration Unit, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). However, given the great quantities of drugs that are produced and transported internationally, it is often argued that enforcement efforts are unlikely to affect their availability or cost on the street.

A different school of thought considers problematic drug use primarily a social and medical problem. It seeks to divert drug users away from being criminalised and into treatment and counselling. Research has shown that treatment can lead to significant reductions in both drug use and crime.

Proponents of this ‘diversionary’ approach would also argue that imprisoning drug users is not an effective way of dealing with addiction, as drugs are widely available in prison. A recent Home Office Study found that four out of ten prisoners admit to having used drugs at least once whilst in prison.

Legalisation or prohibition?

There is an argument that some (or all) drugs should be de-criminalised, on the basis that:

‘soft’ drugs, like cannabis, are relatively harmless (e.g. compared to alcohol and some prescription drugs)
law enforcement is costly and unsuccessful in deterring use and stopping supply
prisons should not be treatment centres for users of ‘hard’ drugs (i.e. heroin, cocaine and ecstasy).

The legalisation argument also relies on assumptions that:

legal supplies would improve the purity of the substances, therefore reducing the health risks involved in consuming adulterated goods
legalising drugs could also mean the introduction of ingredient lists, health warnings and quality control
legal supplies would be taxable and such revenues could be used in socially beneficial ways
legalisation would remove the existence of a black market driven by criminal enterprises
legalising ‘hard’ drugs like heroin may also reduce their costs, therefore reducing the need for addicts to commit acquisitive crime.

Those who take a prohibitionist line, on the other hand, would argue that legalisation would increase use and be therefore socially as well as individually detrimental.

Did you know?

The first steps towards legal control were taken with the introduction of the 1868 Pharmacy Act, which gave pharmacists a monopoly over the distribution of opium and morphine derivatives.

The Drug Harm Index aims to measure the harmful impact of illegal drug use. The harms it takes into account include drug-related crime, community perceptions of drug problems, drug nuisance, and the various health consequences that arise from drug abuse (e.g. HIV, overdoses, deaths). It is used by the British government to assess the effectiveness of its drug strategies.

Offenders who use illegal drugs are over twice as likely to be arrested by the police than non users.

The maximum penalty for supplying, dealing, producing (including cultivating) or trafficking a Class C substance is 14 years imprisonment. This includes cannabis, GHB (Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, a substance in liquid or solid form which has euphoric and relaxing effects) and Valium. The minimum penalty for possessing a Class C drug is two years imprisonment.

Despite concerns that reclassifying cannabis would lead to an increase in its use, its consumption has in fact continued to fall since 2001/02.

Sweden has a tougher stance on drugs than the UK, whilst the Netherlands have more liberal policies. Both countries have lower rates of problematic drug use (that is, use which is associated with crime, disease, death and other problems) than the UK.

Useful contacts

Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
An independent body advising the government on drugs related matters.
http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/drugs-laws/acmd/

DrugScope
Centre carrying out research and policy work, as well as information provision. Their website contains a useful ‘Resources’ section.
www.drugscope.org.uk/

Alcohol Concern
Works to reduce alcohol misuse and related harm. Their website includes a services directory.
www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/servlets/home

Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust (RAPt)
Provides support to offenders with chemical dependencies.
www.rapt.org.uk/index.php

http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/drug-strategy/
Gives details of the government’s ‘drug strategy’.

Transform Drug Policy Foundation
Transform campaigns against prohibition and carries out research, policy analysis and development. www.tdpf.org.uk/

Release
Release runs national helplines and offers advocacy and advice on drugs, the law and human rights. Useful information can be found on their website, including an outline of the history of UK drugs and drug laws. www.release.org.uk/