Clegg frustrated by Tory approach to war on drugs

The Deputy Prime Minister said the war on drugs was not being won but he was frustrated at the Conservatives’ resistance to any change in approach.

The comments come after he used this week’s reshuffle to move Norman Baker to the Home Office. He has promised to make Theresa May’s department “more liberal”.

Mr Clegg told BBC Three’s Free Speech: “I don’t think we’re winning the drugs war; I think we keep banging our head against the wall and in fact I find it very frustrating that my Conservative coalition partners are not prepared to look more openly, imaginatively.

“You’ve got very senior police officers now coming out saying that the war on drugs is failing, that we should treat drug addiction as much as a health issue as a criminal justice one. All these kinds of things we need to look at.”

But the Lib Dem leader added: “I don’t actually think waving a magic wand and making everything legal is necessarily the right option.”

Lib Dem Jeremy Browne had been carrying out a review of drugs laws around the world until he was sacked by Mr Clegg.

Mr Baker said he will take an “evidence-based” approach to drugs policy, telling BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “Where I want to get to is making sure that when people do use drugs they can be persuaded out of that habit and we don’t end up with people committing crime in order to feed their habit.”