Law Enforcement and Supply Reduction

The first two reports for the Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme (BFDPP) have raised questions about the effectiveness of current policies for the control of illegal drugs, both national and international. We now move on to examine the reasoning and evidence base that is used to support different policies, initiatives and activities. The next three BFDPP reports will articulate the thinking behind a particular approach to reducing drug-related harm, as well as looking at the objectives set within each drug policy approach, the means by which these objectives have been pursued, and the extent to which these objectives have been achieved (if at all). It makes sense to begin this investigation by looking at the approach to drug policy that has dominated the field for much of the past 40 years, and is sometimes characterised – and, to some degree, caricatured – as the ‘war on drugs’ approach.