Welfare Reform Bill

I add my voice to the views expressed, not least because the ascribed identity that makes criminals out of those who use drugs occasionally has several problems. The first is that, without being slanderous, it would include almost all the students I have ever taught, so it would make the labour market a tight place for anybody to get into. Secondly, once people have admitted to being drug users, they are admitting to being criminals. The moment that those criminals are put into prison, they find a university of drug dealing, because it becomes the only paid employment that they can aspire to. It seems about the worst thing that we can do. I beg the Committee’s pardon; I must declare an interest as a member of the UK Drug Policy Commission. One finding of the commission was that, once people have been labelled drug users, they are far more difficult to place in employment than even people with mental disability. By ascribing the identity of "criminal" and asking people to declare themselves to be criminal, we are creating potential criminals, because that is the only way out. Also, we are barring their way to employment. Surely that is not the intention of the Bill.