Clarke: UK losing war on drugs

3 July 2012 Last updated at 11:48 ET

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has told MPs that the UK is "plainly losing" the war on drugs.

He said those working to reduce addiction were "disappointed" by a lack of progress over the last 30 years.

However, government departments were working together better than ever before to fight the problem, he added.

Mr Clarke told the Commons Home Affairs Committee that he was not convinced by arguments for decriminalising drugs.

The committee is compiling a report on drugs use in the UK, focusing on the effectiveness or otherwise on the government's strategy, published in 2010.

Mr Clarke, who served as home secretary, education secretary, health secretary and chancellor in the Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s, said: "I've not reached a stage of that blinding insight about exactly how we're going to improve our record, is the honest truth.

"We've engaged in a war against drugs for 30 years. We're plainly losing it. We have not achieved very much progress.

"The same problems come round and round but I do not despair. We keep trying every method we can to get on top of one of the worst social problems in the country and the single biggest cause of crime."

Mr Clarke said: "What has improved is the co-ordination between departments. I was once given the thankless task of co-ordinating the government's whole approach to drugs, pulling together the work of the different departments in the late 1980s.

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Clarke: UK losing war on drugs