Professor Alex Stevens:

There is quite a lot of research from the United States that shows that decriminalising the possession of drugs is effective in reducing the arrests and therefore criminal records, fines and other punishments people have to experience for drug possession. The effect on stop and search activities is less certain. One of my PhD students has been doing some research on this recently and one of the experienced police officers she interviewed told her that if she put someone in front of them that they would find a reason to stop and search them. There is no automatic link between removing criminalisation of drug use and eliminating all the stop and search activities that are done for drug use. In England, more than half of stop and search activities are done for simple drug possession. It is therefore likely that by decriminalising drug possession, we would see a reduction in stop and search activities and the people who would benefit most from that are those who live in marginalised and working class communities that are over-policed. However, it would not eliminate stop and search activities or the ability of the police to get their hands in pockets because the police are pretty skilled at doing that, no matter what the legal basis is.