Peer urges alcohol abuse crack down

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A Lib Dem peer has said the government would be "utterly irresponsible" if it did not crack down on alcohol abuse following a new study that suggested the drug is more harmful than heroin.

During Lords question time, Lord Taverne said the government would be "failing in its duty to society" if it do not provide much stronger disincentives.

He highlighted the report from the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs co-authored by Professor David Nutt, the former government chief drugs adviser who was sacked last year.

Lord Taverne said the report had provided "perhaps the most thorough analysis of the impact of drugs not only on users but on others and society at large".

He told peers: "If the government believes in evidence-based policy, is it not obvious in light of this report and many other reports that make similar conclusions that the present classification of Ecstasy in class A and cannabis in class B is not in any way based on evidence of the physical or the social impact?

"Will the government further accept that it would be utterly irresponsible, failing in its duty to society, if it didn't provide much stronger disincentives towards the indulgence in the abuse of alcohol that comes top by a mile, ahead of all other drugs, in its impact on society."

Responding, Home Office minister Baroness Neville Jones said the government "simply odes not agree" that a system of sliding scales of harms, as seen in the report, "constitutes a good basis of government policy".

She added: "We do not believe that structuring drug harm classification in a way that this report has done is better than the current basis of government policy."

Lord Deben, former conservative Cabinet minister John Gummer, said the judgment from the report is based on methodology that "when looked at carefully, is shown to be entirely flawed".

The minister said she was "inclined to agree" and said the government had confidence with the advice it received from its own statutory commission.

Other questions focused on the Commonwealth Games, private sector jobs growth in Northern England and tourism.

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