By Claire Duddy, William Downs

What are controlled drugs? Controlled drugs are substances that are considered harmful to human health and subject to legal controls. In the UK, these drugs are categorised as Class A, Class B or Class C according to their potential harm. Class A drugs like heroin and cocaine are considered the most harmful. They are subject to the strictest legal controls and penalties for misuse. Controlled drugs legislation The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 regulates the production, supply and possession of controlled drugs in the UK. The act is complemented by the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, which set out exceptions that allow the lawful possession and use of certain controlled drugs for medical, dental and veterinary use. The regulations categorise drugs into five schedules, according to their medical usefulness and the potential harms of misuse. Schedule 1 drugs are considered to have no legitimate current medical use and are the most tightly controlled. Classification and scheduling decisions The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is an independent expert advisory body that advises the government on the classification and scheduling of drugs. The Home Secretary can make changes to the classification of a drug after consultation with the ACMD. However, the government is not required to take their advice. The Library Insight Nitrous Oxide becomes a Class C drug describes how nitrous oxide was classified as a Class C substance, despite ACMD advice that it should become a controlled drug. Drug offences and enforcement It is an offence to import, produce, supply or possess a controlled drug, except in circumstances specified in law. The maximum sentences available are specified in schedule 4 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. In England and Wales, sentencing guidelines set out the appropriate sentence for convicted offenders. The drugs market is dominated by serious and organised crime groups, with several UK enforcement agencies involved in seeking to tackle the production, supply and importation of drugs. The National Crime Agency and Regional Organised Crime Units work with regional police forces and the British Transport Police, to tackle drug supply operating across police force boundaries, including county lines. The National Crime Agency also leads on cooperation with international agencies oversees to tackle international supply lines. Border Force is the lead agency for seeking to intercept drug shipments from crossing UK borders. Responding to drug possession The possession of any controlled drug is an offence under section 5 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, carrying a penalty of up to 7 years’ imprisonment. However, in many cases people found in possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use will not be prosecuted. The police have a large degree of discretion when deciding to arrest and prosecute an individual for drug possession or whether instead to issue an out of court resolution. In some areas of England and Wales, drug diversion programmes are being trialled to refer people into drug treatment services as an alternative to criminal justice sanctions entirely. There has also been debate about whether the government should go further in embracing a health-led approach to people who use drugs. For example, the Home Affairs Committee in 2023 called for responsibility for misuse of drugs to be jointly owned by the Home Office and Department of Health and Social Care, and for a wider use of drug diversion schemes and harm reduction measures. Changes to controlled drugs legislation There have been multiple calls for reform of controlled drugs legislation in the UK, including calls to change how drugs are classified and scheduled under the legislation. In December 2024, the Controlled Drugs (Procedure for Specification) Bill, a Private Member’s Bill sponsored by Alex McIntyre MP, is due to have its second reading in the House of Commons. This bill proposes changes to the processes used to change drug classifications. It aims to allow the government to make changes more quickly and allow corresponding changes to the classification of drugs (under the Misuse of Drugs Act) and scheduling of drugs (under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations) to be made at the same time.

Research Briefing, London: House of Commons Library, 2024. 36p.

By The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)

This report is based on information provided to the EMCDDA by the EU Member States, the candidate country Türkiye, and Norway, in an annual reporting process.

The purpose of the current report is to provide an overview and summary of the European drug situation up to the end of 2022. All grouping, aggregates and labels therefore reflect the situation based on the available data in 2022 in respect to the composition of the European Union and the countries participating in EMCDDA reporting exercises. However, not all data will cover the full period. Due to the time needed to compile and submit data, many of the annual national data sets included here are from the reference year January to December 2021. Analysis of trends is based only on those countries providing sufficient data to describe changes over the period specified. The reader should also be aware that monitoring patterns and trends in a hidden and stigmatised behaviour like drug use is both practically and methodologically challenging. For this reason, multiple sources of data are used for the purposes of analysis in this report. Although considerable improvements can be noted, both nationally and in respect to what is possible to achieve in a European level analysis, the methodological difficulties in this area must be acknowledged. Caution is therefore required in interpretation, in particular when countries are compared on any single measure. Caveats relating to the data are to be found in the online Statistical Bulletin, which contains detailed information on methodology, qualifications on analysis and comments on the limitations in the information set available. Information is also available there on the methods and data used for European level estimates, where interpolation may be used.

Lisbon: EMCDDA, 2023.

By James Gray

Veteran trial judge and former federal prosecutor Judge James P. Gray believes drug prohibition remains one of our country's biggest failed policies. In this updated edition of his bestseller, Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What Can We Do About It, Judge Gray provides startling information about drug-related crimes from escalating incarceration rates to drug-related kidnappings. Judge Gray also examines the latest experiments in drug legalization. The thirteen states that have adopted medical marijuana have seen a reduction in crime and an increase in revenue. Judge Gray explains how and why we need to take the profit out of the drug trade. There are viable options at work in other countries. Portugal saw a drop of 50 percent in drug usage by problem users after decriminalization, as well as a drop in children's drug use! This incendiary book will anger readers, but it also provides hope. We can solve some of our medical and social problems by repealing our failed drug laws.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2012. 302p.

By Jason Eligh

The flow of heroin from Asian production points to the coastal shores of eastern and southern Africa is not new. Whereas the first heroin transit routes in the region in the 1970s relied heavily on maritime transport to enter the continent, a number of transport modes and urban centres of the interior have increasingly become important features in the current movement of heroin in this region. Interior transit hubs and networks have developed around air transport nodes that use regular regional and international connections to ship heroin. As regional air routes proliferated and became more efficient, their utility and value for the heroin trade increased as well. Heroin is also consolidated and shipped over a frequently shifting network of overland routes, moving it deeper into the African interior in a south-westerly direction across the continent.

Consequently, a shallow flood of heroin has gradually seeped across the region, and this has had a significant impact on the many secondary towns found along the continent’s transcontinental road networks. These places, in turn, have spawned their own small local heroin markets, and become waypoints in rendering sustainable the now chronic, metered progression of heroin’s resolute geographic diffusion across the region.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2020. 100p.