This is South Wales --
A COUNTER narcotics expert from Swansea is hoping a new project will improve efforts to reduce the harm associated with drugs.
David Bewley-Taylor is heading up the new Global Drug Policy Observatory at Swansea University after being awarded a £235,000 grant.
It will report, monitor and analyse drug policy at national and international levels, and aims to "help improve the sophistication and horizons of the current policy debate".
Dr Bewley-Taylor has done fieldwork in Afghanistan and travelled to Latin America during a career of more than 20 years studying drug policy.
Afghanistan's opium poppies, which are converted into heroin, have an impact here, he said.
"Something like 90 per cent of the heroin in Europe comes from Afghanistan," he said.
"In terms of Swansea and South Wales, effectively there is a direct impact here."
Two years ago, the then South Wales Police chief superintendent Mark Mathias said every heroin addict could cost society "not far off £850,000", factoring in treatment and criminal justice costs.
Dr Bewley-Taylor, senior lecturer at the university's Department of Political and Cultural Studies, said he believed Afghanistan's opium crop will increase over the next couple of years because Governments were focused on troop withdrawal. "That's one of the areas we will be looking at," he said.
The 44-year-old said the notion of a "one size fits all" approach to drugs policy did not tend to work, in the same way that every drug user was different.
The problem, he said, changed shape rather than disappeared.
There have been massive shifts. Voters in Washington and Colorado, in the US, have voted to legalise and regulate cannabis, while the Organization of American States — representing North and South America — have suggested a regulated market as a drugs policy option.
"If you shrink the size of an illicit market, then the harms associated with that market will reduce," said Dr Bewley-Taylor.
Dealing with and classifying legal highs as illegal — as with mephedrone — was a tricky area, he said. "If you change the chemical compounds very slightly you change the legal status," he said. "This is a big issue of concern."
The annual Crime Survey for England and Wales in 2012 estimated that some nine per cent of adults had taken an illegal drug in the preceding 12 months, which was around the lowest level since measurement began in 1996. Cannabis and cocaine were the two most popular. The percentage for 16 to 24-year-olds was 19 per cent, down from nearly 30 per cent in 1996. Asked to gaze into his crystal ball, Dr Bewley- Taylor said he didn't think there would be much change in UK drugs policy over the next five years. "There may be a shift towards a more tolerant approach for cannabis for personal use, but that's as much to do with the costs of policing," he said. Reported by This is 11 hours ago.
A COUNTER narcotics expert from Swansea is hoping a new project will improve efforts to reduce the harm associated with drugs.
David Bewley-Taylor is heading up the new Global Drug Policy Observatory at Swansea University after being awarded a £235,000 grant.
It will report, monitor and analyse drug policy at national and international levels, and aims to "help improve the sophistication and horizons of the current policy debate".
Dr Bewley-Taylor has done fieldwork in Afghanistan and travelled to Latin America during a career of more than 20 years studying drug policy.
Afghanistan's opium poppies, which are converted into heroin, have an impact here, he said.
"Something like 90 per cent of the heroin in Europe comes from Afghanistan," he said.
"In terms of Swansea and South Wales, effectively there is a direct impact here."
Two years ago, the then South Wales Police chief superintendent Mark Mathias said every heroin addict could cost society "not far off £850,000", factoring in treatment and criminal justice costs.
Dr Bewley-Taylor, senior lecturer at the university's Department of Political and Cultural Studies, said he believed Afghanistan's opium crop will increase over the next couple of years because Governments were focused on troop withdrawal. "That's one of the areas we will be looking at," he said.
The 44-year-old said the notion of a "one size fits all" approach to drugs policy did not tend to work, in the same way that every drug user was different.
The problem, he said, changed shape rather than disappeared.
There have been massive shifts. Voters in Washington and Colorado, in the US, have voted to legalise and regulate cannabis, while the Organization of American States — representing North and South America — have suggested a regulated market as a drugs policy option.
"If you shrink the size of an illicit market, then the harms associated with that market will reduce," said Dr Bewley-Taylor.
Dealing with and classifying legal highs as illegal — as with mephedrone — was a tricky area, he said. "If you change the chemical compounds very slightly you change the legal status," he said. "This is a big issue of concern."
The annual Crime Survey for England and Wales in 2012 estimated that some nine per cent of adults had taken an illegal drug in the preceding 12 months, which was around the lowest level since measurement began in 1996. Cannabis and cocaine were the two most popular. The percentage for 16 to 24-year-olds was 19 per cent, down from nearly 30 per cent in 1996. Asked to gaze into his crystal ball, Dr Bewley- Taylor said he didn't think there would be much change in UK drugs policy over the next five years. "There may be a shift towards a more tolerant approach for cannabis for personal use, but that's as much to do with the costs of policing," he said. Reported by This is 11 hours ago.