30 Apr Russell Brand wants drugs decriminalized in England
Russell Brand called for addicts to be treated with “love and compassion” as he urged an overhaul of drugs policy during a flamboyant appearance in Parliament.
Brand told MPs that more money should be devoted to treating and educating drug users, instead of punishing them, and suggested that ministers should consider decriminalisation.
He said existing policies were failing to prevent addiction and drug abuse and added a “change in the law” offered the best solution.
Joking that he would be seen by some as “recalcitrant former addict” who had “rambled on” he said his key message was that the “spiritual” and mental problems of drug users needed to be tackled if their issues were to be solved.
“We need honesty and authenticity about this issue,” he told MPs. “We need to give love and compassion to everybody involved, not because it is airy-fairy, let’s hold hand liberalism, but because it deals with the problem.”
Asked by committee chairman to confirm that he had been arrested “roughly 12 times”, Mr Brand replied: “it was rough, yes”.
He said police had been doing a “necessary” job, but later added that money spent on arrests would often be spent better used on treatment and education.
On the law, he said that he was not advocating legalisation, but that the experience of Portugal and other countries showed that decriminalisation could work and allow resources to focus on treatment, not punishment.
Brand added that the death of Amy Winehouse last year must not be “in vain” but instead become a “force for change and good policy”.
He also called for abstinence programmes to treat both drug and alcohol addiction, which he described as “inextricably linked”, and warned that the easy availability of drink was making it “impossible” to escape temptation.
Brand is making a BBC documentary about drug abuse and the possible solutions.
Brand has spoken of how he struggled for years with drug addiction before undergoing detoxification and rehabilitation.
He told MPs that he had been “in recovery” for nine years and had become a patron of the drug charity Focus 12, which had helped him overcome his problems.