Jay Jackson argues that Keir Starmer has a unique opportunity to seize the drug policy reform agenda and concludes that, as a former Director of Public Prosecutions, the Labour leader has the experience and credibility to bring the public with him.
It's easy to criticise the government for its complete failure to address the drug death epidemic that has been consistently growing over the last decade, increasing by 88 per cent since 2010 to a record 6,189 deaths in Britain last year. Despite attempts to enforce our nonsensical prohibitionist laws, drugs as a whole cost our economy over £22 billion per year - the equivalent of building a Crossrail-sized infrastructure project every year. But finding the appropriate amount of criticism to direct at the government at any one time has been a sore point for Keir Starmer throughout his time as Leader of the Opposition.
During the early days of his leadership - at the height of the Covid pandemic - Starmer was criticised by the public for being too critical and oppositional, rather than rallying around the government at a time of national crisis. Meanwhile, those within the Labour Party voiced their frustrations at the lack of bite in his attacks on the government's approach to the pandemic, which saw billions wasted on questionable procurement contracts.
While Starmer has become notably more cutting in his rhetoric since then - particularly in recent sessions of Prime Minister's Questions - his brand of magnolia managerialism requires the focus to be on process and personality. He also avoids engaging - I would argue he kowtows to cultural conservatives - on policy debates that might be seen as fringe, controversial, or simply unnecessary. Enter, drug policy.
Questions about our drug laws, how they are enforced, and how we conceptualise drug use are, perhaps understandably, not top of the agenda for politicians who are dealing with a cost of living emergency, climate breakdown, and a nationwide health and social care crisis. Nevertheless, the impact that our chosen approach to drugs has should not be underestimated.
Drugs policy isn't just about drugs - it's a combination of economic, social, health, education, justice, and even foreign policy, that comes together when formulating our legal and political positions on drugs. Most people who use drugs choose to do so in an 'unproblematic' way - that is to say, at little or no cost or harm to themselves or society. However, a minority of drug users - including the 300,000 problematic heroin and cocaine users who contribute 86 per cent of the total cost of our 'war on drugs' - are stuck in a quagmire of addiction, mental health issues, poverty, trauma, and criminality.
The potential savings, most importantly in human lives, but also in billions of pounds of public money and countless hours of police time, are staggering. This political opportunity is a gaping open goal for the Labour Party as the Conservative government pursues a populist-authoritarian drug agenda that is ridiculous yet sinister.
Sadly, when Starmer's Labour has dared broach the topic of drugs and the people who use them, their approach has been to try and out-Tory the Tories. Steve Reed (Shadow Justice Secretary) has advocated for a policy of 'naming and shaming' drug users and engaged in a puerile 'witch hunt' over Sadiq Khan's plans to establish a 'London Drugs Commission' to explore what evidence-based cannabis policy might look like. Reed told the Daily Telegraph that he 'wouldn't let Khan turn London into a drugs supermarket'.
This misguided focus-group-think is even more jarring in the context of consistent non-denials regarding Starmer's own drug use, and the on-the-record confessions of senior Shadow Cabinet figures such as Yvette Cooper and Lisa Nandy. Starmer's 'tough on drug use, disinterested in the causes of drug use' approach is both insubstantial and ineffective, and risks looking downright insulting given the cognitive dissonance inherent in his 'bad-boy' stock answer when asked about his own usage.
Despite this, Starmer has the best opportunity of any Labour Party leader in history to reshape our approach and response to drugs and people who use them. Having been a criminal barrister and Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013 and with the added gravitas of being a knight of the realm, Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC has the requisite experience and authority to highlight the urgent need to reform our drug laws.
With crime levels at an all-time high - and crimes solved as well as public confidence and trust in the Police at all-time lows - Starmer has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to discredit the Conservatives' 'law and order' agenda and advocate for a radical new vision for justice in the UK. Replacing our myopic focus on punishment and morality, Starmer could develop a reforming agenda that puts prevention, rehabilitation, and harm reduction, at the heart of our drug laws.
The truth is that, while drug reform is already happening, it is coming from below and outside of Westminster. Police forces - including elected Police and Crime Commissioners - are increasingly implementing schemes that divert drug offences away from the toxic effects of the criminal justice system. It is particularly noteworthy that the number of former senior police officers, ex-politicians, and prominent public health organisations, advocating for systemic change continues to grow.
Tinkering around the edges of a system that criminalises vulnerable people can only achieve so much, but Starmer has an opportunity to implement radical change by committing to the decriminalisation of drug possession and the widespread establishment of overdose prevention facilities and drug checking centres - all of which have been proved to be highly effective.
Public opinion would also be behind the Labour leader if he chooses to do so. Polls have consistently found majorities in favour of the legalisation of cannabis and 60 per cent of the British public think it is 'futile' to criminalise drugs. In the House of Commons, a staggering 77 per cent of MPs think that the UK's drug policy isn't working, with 76 per cent particularly concerned about a lack of evidence in policymaking.
Other recent polling found that support for certain measures - such as drug checking services, naloxone provision, and research into the potential medical benefits of currently illegal drugs - was higher in the so-called 'Red Wall' than in the country as a whole. This polling lays to rest the myth of the socially-conservative 'Red Wall' and leaves Keir Starmer 'out of excuses' on drug policy reform.
A suitably minded politician needs to jump on the front of the bandwagon, take the reins, and spearhead the charge for change from the cockpit of the House of Commons. For Starmer, his 'law and order' clout could propel the reform movement from an aspirational quest for justice to an era-defining agenda, akin to the permissive consensus of Starmer's favourite Labour leader, Harold Wilson.
Starmer must learn from his party's history if he is to overcome his instinctive social conservatism on drugs. New Labour found themselves mired in multiple cannabis reclassification debacles and the infamous sacking of their chief drugs advisor, while both Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn unneccessarily sacrificed drug law reform at the altar of 'electability'.
While both Ed Miliband and the former Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, have voiced regret about their approach to drugs when they had the power to affect change, the political context for reform is so much better now - and so much worse for Starmer, who would not be forgiven by campaigners should he make the same fatal mistake.
I would argue that Keir Starmer's unique opportunity to seize the agenda and change our national conversation about drugs is not really about classifications, schedules, and statues. It is primarily about equity, power, and justice. If Starmer, as he claims, is a man 'who can't stand injustice ... and always wants to fix problems', then finding the courage to advocate for a radically new approach is an opportunity he cannot afford to miss, and one that thousands of vulnerable people in the most deprived areas of the country are relying on him to pursue.
Jay Jackson is Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Volteface and Secretariat of the Labour Campaign for Drug Policy Reform