Transform gave oral evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into the cocaine trade this morning - which is available to view online, in full here.*
The session, which was 45 minutes long involved Transform's research director Steve Rolles , alongside Neil McKeganey from Glasgow University, being questioned by the committee on various aspects of cocaine production, supply and use.
Transform's contributions were essentially in line with the written submission from earlier on the year available here.
Immediately following on from the Rolles/McKeganey session, was a second set of witnesses, Mitch Winehouse (Amy Winehouse's dad and drugs worker Sarah Graham. A third set of witnesses followed immediately afterwards - Evan Harris MP, John Mann MP and Lord Mancroft. All interesting but the final session particularly worth checking out.
There's plenty to discuss about the session and the inquiry more generally - but it should perhaps wait until the inquiry report is published in the new year and we know what they actually have to say.
Media coverage
predictably, most focused on the Amy Winehouse angle, but Transform's contributions did get some coverage:
Guardian
Metro
*annoyingly requires either windows media viewer or installation of the Microsoft Silverlight viewer
6 comments:
It's possible to view the video using the Windows Media Player plug-in (available on both IE and FF)... this can be achieved by clicking here
Good work Steve - the question on teh armed forces was daft, good point if they should be dismissed for smoking and drinking - so, all he was alluding to apparently was the illegality. You could have made the point that taking drugs is not illegal, and the key to the daft question must surely be how compromised their performance was under the effect of the drugs. I don't know how you did it, the self-control - I mean it must be a defendable in law as in the public interest to allow you arm to swing accidentally sideways towards Mckeganey when given such an easy target.
yep - in retrospect I should have mentioned that the issue was workplace competence rather than legality - but I was thrown a bit by the fact it was completely unrelated to the inquiry's remit, and by his strident tone.
The first half of the session is great Steve you gave a great account and left it in no doubt that prohibition and drug law reform is required. It all went down hill with the next to people to give evidence who obviously are in favor of prohibition. No challenges to some of the things they spoke about that are not facts i.e. addiction being a progressive illness and that it takes year to get into drug treatment. Why is the assumption always that people should not take drugs for the purpose of pleasure? The oppressors search for policy that work will be more enforcement and repressive punitive measures. Mr Mann is the point in case here what a plonker.
Agree with this :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/23/celebrity-parliament-winehouse-vaz-lumley
working link to the Marina Hyde piece:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/oct/20/amy-winehouse-drug-addiction-problem
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