Drug and alcohol policy under New Labour: Pandering to populism? (original) (raw)

New Labour achieved a landslide victory on a 'promise of change', but their drug law and policies offered little change. Instead, they continued the failed 'war on drugs' adopted by the previous Conservative government by further enmeshing treatment within the criminal justice system and attacking civil liberties under the Drugs Act 2005. Not surprisingly this has resulted in a significant increase in the prison population. Buchanan, J. (2011) Drug and alcohol policy under New Labour: Pandering to populism? in Arianna Silvestri (editor) Lessons for the Coalition? New Labour and criminal justice: an end of term report, Hadley Trust, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, London download: www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/opus1830/end\_of\_term\_report.pdf