Links
View online
Both the poster and the booklet are available to view online:
The Drug Laws Booklet
The MoDA Poster
Moda T-shirt
Seen the poster? Read the booklet? Get the T-shirt, featuring the MoDA monster.
Tremble before the tentacles of terror of the MoDA monster
"The Misuse of Drugs Act is a modern day 'Moloch'*. It ensnares its victims in 'tentacles of terror' before feeding them into one of its three slavering mouths. Hundreds of thousands of people are sacrificed - losing their liberty, dignity and careers - in the belief that this monster protects us from the most dangerous 'controlled' drugs".
- Michael Linnell
Lifeline's Director of Communications
*A mythical demon that demands the sacrifice of its followers' children (see note 1 below for more about the Moloch).
We are calling for a rigorously evidence based review of the Misuse of Drugs Act to start immediately before any more prison sentences are handed out on the basis of such a flawed and unjust system.
We have launched a poster and booklet designed to give people who use drugs up to date information about the drug laws.
Background
The original Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 was designed to make it possible to control particular drugs according to their comparative harmfulness either to individuals or society at large when they are misused. The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report "Drug classification: making a hash of it?" stated that the Misuse of Drugs Act is 'Not fit for purpose' (note 2), was highly critical of the Governments advisory body the ACMD and highlighted the lack of any evidence to support both the classification of drugs and indeed the entire premise of the Act acting as a deterrent to use (note 3). The report urged the Home Secretary to honour his predecessor's promise and order an immediate review of the Misuse of Drugs Act and called for the Government to "decouple the ranking of drugs on the basis of harm from penalties for possession and trafficking".
"There is no evidence that the class a drug is placed in works as a deterrent. When it comes to possession for personal use, how can we justify handing out harsher punishments to those people who risk harming themselves by using the most dangerous drugs. It's a bit like hanging people for attempting to commit suicide"
- Kate Buchanan: Lifeline Senior Manager.
Notes
1. The Moloch has been used as a metaphor (for everything from Hitler to American consumerism) many times in popular art and literature, from Milton 'Of human sacrifice and parents tears' (Paradise Lost) to Flaubert and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. More about the Moloch can be found at Wikipedia
The image of the Moloch used in the poster and booklet was inspired by Glen Duncan's novel 'I Lucifer', in which the devil talks about the problems of what to do with all the souls:
"The only thing they seem to respond to is suffering. These days I delegate. Belial's got a real taste for it. Moloch, too, though he's got no imagination: he just eats them, shits them out, eats them, shits them out, eats them, etc. Does the trick, mind you."
2. "The classification system purports to rank drugs on the basis of harm associated with their misuse but we found glaring anomalies in the classification system as it stands and a wide consensus that the current system is not fir for purpose."
3. " We have found no solid evidence to support the existence of a deterrent effect, despite the fact that it appears to underpin the Government's policy on classification. In view of the importance of drugs policy and the amount spent on enforcing the penalties associated with the classification system, it is highly unsatisfactory that there is so little knowledge about the classification system's effectiveness."