§ 5. Mr. Ormeasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made by the Advisory 1726 Committee on Drug Addiction in their consideration of the need for a publicity campaign to help to stamp out the use of drugs.
§ Miss BaconThe Committee began consideration of the general question of publicity at its second meeting on 2nd March and intends to study the matter further.
§ Mr. OrmeDoes not my right hon. Friend agree that there is growing evidence of concern about the matter? There was a death only recently in my constituency. Would she consider consulting the medical profession in the inquiry so that differentiation might be made between the more harmful and less harmful drugs?
§ Miss BaconYes. As my hon. Friend will realise, and as was evidenced in the debate a week or two ago in the House, my right hon. Friends the Home Secretary and the Minister of Health are in constant communication about this very grave subject. We are given to understand by the Committee that it is treating publicity as a matter of urgency, although, as my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science said last week, we must be very careful about publicity in this matter because some of it can perhaps be bad.
§ 6. Mr. Ormeasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state the number of convictions during 1966 of people found guilty of trafficking in drugs, and the average fines and sentences arising from them.
§ Miss BaconThere is no specific offence of trafficking in drugs and it would be impracticable to extract from official records of convictions of unlawful possession or supply of drugs those cases which might involve trafficking.
§ Mr. OrmeWould not my right hon. Friend agree that this trafficking, or "pushing" as it is called, in drugs is a most detestable thing—
§ Mr. Frank AllaunFor money.
§ Mr. OrmeYes, for money, or gain, and would she consult my right hon. Friend to see whether stronger action may be taken against the people involved?
§ Miss BaconThe offences are unlawful possession. In 1966 there were 1,153 convictions of unlawful possession under the Drugs (Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1964, and in the same year there were 1,100 convictions for possession under the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1965. As my hon. Friend will have seen, a great deal is at present happening to try to bring the people concerned to book.
§ 17. Mr. Moyleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will so amend the law that it will become unnecessary to endorse on a drugs search warrant the name of every person who is to carry out the search.
§ Miss BaconI am not aware that the requirement causes any serious difficulty, but my right hon. Friend will ascertain the views of chief officers of police.
§ Mr. MoyleWhile thanking my right hon. Friend for that reply, may I ask her if she is aware that the police in my part of London regard this as a very serious obstacle in the searching of premises for drugs? Will she bear that in mind during her inquiry?
§ Miss BaconYes, certainly. I have heard of the difficulties experienced in my hon. Friend's constituency. We will consult with the chief officers of police and, if necessary, something might be included in the Bill on drugs which is to be brought before Parliament this Session.
§ 35. Mr. Kenneth Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what instructions he has given to the Metropolitan Police and what advice to other chief constables to intensify the search for persons carrying on the drug traffic.
§ Miss BaconNone, Sir. Chief officers of police are fully aware of the importance of this matter, and the deployment of their available strength is a matter for them.
§ Mr. LewisDoes not the right hon. Lady think that special action should be taken, particularly at the ports and airports, to prevent these drugs from coming in?
§ Miss BaconI think that the action taken by chief officers of police in the last few weeks has shown that they are fully alive to these dangers and are doing 1728 everything they possibly can about this very serious problem.
§ 36. Sir C. Taylorasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action was taken by the Metropolitan Police, in information supplied to them by the hon. Member for Eastbourne, to charge the three self-confessed pedlars of drugs interviewed on the B.B.C. 1 television programme Twenty-Four Hours on 27th February; and what steps have been taken to trace the drug pedlar, of whom details were then supplied by the hon. Member.
§ Miss BaconI understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that inquiries to trace these men have so far been unsuccessful but are continuing. The Commissioner informs me that he has no record of detailed information about an alleged drug pedlar having been supplied by the hon. Member.
§ Sir C. TaylorIs the right hon. Lady aware that directly after the programme on television I telephoned Scotland Yard and asked them whether they were prepared to pick up these self-confessed drug pedlars outside the B.B.C.? I gave full particulars, not only of the programme, but of a further drug pedlar who had been keeping one of the people on the television programme in a 15-guinea a week flat?
§ Miss BaconI will certainly make further inquiries about this matter, but I assure the hon. Gentleman that the police are doing everything they can to trace those who were on this programme. They have had help from the B.B.C., but some of these people had given fictitious names.
§ Later—
§ Sir C. TaylorOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I wish to give notice that, in view of the unsatisfactory answer to Question No. 36, I shall seek leave to raise the matter on the Adjournment at the earliest opportunity.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Gentleman has lost his opportunity to do that.
§ Sir C. TaylorFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. I had thought that you were going to call on my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for St. Marylebone (Mr. Hogg). I did not 1729 want to waste the Prime Minister's quarter of an hour for answering Questions in raising the point at the time. I ask leave now to do it, and for your further consideration. I think that if points of order are raised at the end of Questions, it will afford time for more Questions in future.
§ Mr. SpeakerI note what the hon. Gentleman says. However, a point of order to raise a matter on the Adjournment must be made at the time. But, in view of the nobility of the hon. Gentleman's motives, the House has heard what he has said.