THE tens of millions of pounds and hundreds of thousands of man hours successive governments have ploughed into drug-prevention initiatives since the 1980s have failed dismally, according to a new in-depth report by the UK Drugs Policy Commission. More young people than ever are using recreational substances such as a cannabis and harder narcotics such as cocaine and heroin, and the UK's chronic drug problem is intensifying rather than reducing. Even more worrying is the fact that the introduction of punitive laws targeting dealers and traffickers has not made the slightest dent in the flow of "product" to a booming buyers' market. The bottom line is that both deterrence and preventive persuasion have been a waste of time and money, and it is time for a radical rethink on intervention at every level.

THE tens of millions of pounds and hundreds of thousands of man hours successive governments have ploughed into drug-prevention initiatives since the 1980s have failed dismally, according to a new in-depth report by the UK Drugs Policy Commission. More young people than ever are using recreational substances such as a cannabis and harder narcotics such as cocaine and heroin, and the UK's chronic drug problem is intensifying rather than reducing. Even more worrying is the fact that the introduction of punitive laws targeting dealers and traffickers has not made the slightest dent in the flow of "product" to a booming buyers' market. The bottom line is that both deterrence and preventive persuasion have been a waste of time and money, and it is time for a radical rethink on intervention at every level.

Predictably, the Home Office has already rejected the findings and claims that drug use among adults has fallen by 21% and among young people by 16% since 1998. It is not an argument supported by British Crime Survey figures, which state that 40.4% of 16 to 19-year-olds have experimented with drugs at some point, a figure rising to 49% for the 20-24 age bracket and 51.6% for those between 25 and 29. Nor would the Home Office view be recognisable in any inner-city estate or job-starved community from the Garnock Valley to Southampton. Posters and initiatives targeting schoolchildren and other vulnerable groups, and mass-media campaigns urging everyone to "just say no" have been largely ineffective, despite the hype. More people are saying "yes" and Britain currently holds the unenviable record of having the worst addiction and use patterns in western Europe.

The new report reiterates the link between social deprivation and drug use. It is hardly a blinding revelation. But it underlines the fact that it is always easier for governments to launch high-profile publicity campaigns rather than tackle root causes. That can only be done by redistributing real wealth in the forms of educational opportunity and worthwhile job prospects. Only by instilling a measure of hope could any meaningful impact be made in basic demand. That demand exists because of despair. It cannot be eliminated by catchy slogans or by jailing a few dealers, or by juggling statistics. Equally essential would be the realistic targeting of the sometimes influential culprits behind the trade in Turkey, Kosovo, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Cutting the supply at source would achieve more than any publicity campaign yet devised. It might also help to define why Britain has 7000 troops fighting - and often dying - in Afghanistan against a Taliban insurgency funded largely by profits from the heroin trade. As this paper has advocated in the past, legalising poppy production for medical use would go a long way towards meeting the immediate needs of poor Afghan farmers while simultaneously cutting out the middle men who process and traffic the refined heroin.

The unspoken sticking point to date has been that members of the Afghan government are involved in the trade.

The question for Britain then becomes one of how much loyalty to a puppet regime is worth by comparison the damage to its own citizens by allowing the trade to continue unchecked.