Tough drug laws have 'no impact on use' Government study finds
Treating drug possession as a health problem rather than a criminal matter has no impact on levels of substance misuse, an official Government study has found.
The "toughness" of enforcement does not persuade drug users to take less, according to the Home Office report.
The Home Office looked at a variety of different countries in the wide-ranging study to see how they dealt with illegal drugs.
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The study looked at Portugal's drug laws, where possession of drugs is treated as a health matter rather a criminal issue, and saw no increase in use.
It also looked at the Czech Republic after drugs were criminalised, only to cause a rise in the crime rate.
The Government is to also monitor results in Uruguay and some US states that have recently legalised possession of cannabis, the report says.
However, the Home Office has already said it has "absolutely no intention" of relaxing drug laws.
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Liberal Democrat Home Office Minister Norman Baker said its findings show that the Government needs to be "brave enough" to change UK drug laws.
Ministers are also expected to reveal plans for a blanket ban on brain altering drugs in a bid to crackdown on so-called "legal highs".
A separate drugs report wants to look at the Irish model, after legislation was introduced four years ago that bans the sale of all "psychoactive" substances and then exempts some, such as alcohol and tobacco.
Currently, when a legal high is outlawed, illegal-drug chemists are getting around the law by tweaking the chemical compound and creating a new substance.