Knowledge Base

Here you will find useful research resources on the issue of "drug equality".

Hansard: Misuse of Drugs Bill and related parliamentary debates (full text)

Hansard refers to the official transcripts of the UK Parliamentary debates from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords - it provides valuable insights into the intention behind legislation from the drafting of Bills, to the passage through Parliament and the final enactment before it is brought into law. We have collated into a single document all the debates relating to the enactment of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 dating from 1970 and 1971. We believe that these debates (and the analysis of the Act itself), reveal that the current administration of the Act runs contrary to the wishes of Parliament, particularly with respect to the monumental failure to implement and adhere to a rapidly responding evidence-based system of drug control.

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Drug Discrimination

Drug discrimination is the unequal treatment of those involved with equally harmful drugs. The following is a collection of essays and other papers which look at various aspects of this often ignored form of discrimination, focusing primarily on legal issues.

All files are in Microsoft Word format:

• Introduction to drug discrimination
• International evidence of drug discrimination
• UK evidence of drug discrimination
• New evidence of Drug Discrimination in 2006
• Drug classification: making a hash of it?
• Pathways to Problems - Hazardous use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs
  by young people in the UK and its implications for policy
• Government reply to Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee
• Legal analysis summary
• Background to the legal system
• Equality before the law and the rule of law
• Facts of law disputed by the UK Government
• The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 - interpretation
• Common Law
• Human Rights - an introduction
• Human Rights Act and European Convention on Human Rights
• United Nations Drug Conventions
• Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 - text
• Case law quotes
• Report quotes
• German equality before the law case (1994)
• Evidence of drug discrimination from academics
• Political opinion on drug discrimination
• UK Government guidance on decision making
• Ways of changing a system - twelve leverage points
• Myths and misconceptions about drug laws
• Drug discrimination timeline
• Rational distinctions
• Grounds of discrimination
• Voluntary vs. involuntary risks
• Public attitudes to drugs