SYDNEY PHOTOART by Carsten Burmeister

• PHOTO GALLERIES & SHOP
• MY TEN BEST PHOTOS
• THE BEST OF SYDNEY PHOTOART
• ABOUT & CONTACT
• BLOGS & LINKS
• ADVERTISING

15 / Let's get real about Drugs

In my newspaper - the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) - an editorial tries to deal with the issue of what we need to do about the drug related violence that Sydney experienced of late, and the world experienced for decades. It is said the War on Drugs costs tens of billions of Dollars per year. And it is widely recognised that this money is wasted - however, neither governments, nor my newspaper can bring themselves to the obvious conclusion: Legalise Drugs! Here's the article, with all its good intentions and tragic short-comings:

The past week has seen a surge of violence, from bikie murders to drive by shootings. As the Herald noted yesterday, such actions are mainly driven by greed for the profits to be made from selling illicit drugs. These are business disputes, even if the business involved, and its methods, are illegal.

While renewed police efforts to prevent acts of violence are to be welcomed, history suggests any respite will only be temporary. This is because of the persistence of demand. There appears to be no way to stop many otherwise law-abiding people from buying illegal drugs. As British chanteuse Lily Allen notes in the title of a song from her recent Australian number one album, Everyone's At It . While that's an exaggeration, there's no doubt the market is thriving and the money to be made there enormous. As long as this is so, the brains and muscle of the criminal class will continue to flock to the drug trade.

We know these things to be true because the evidence is plentiful. The so-called war against drugs has been occurring for decades, in many countries and using a variety of approaches. And yet few nations have been able to put more than a dent in the trade. This dismal record of failure has led to calls to reconsider our approach to illegal drugs by some public figures not previously associated with such a position. Not long ago three former Latin American presidents - Mexico's Ernesto Zedillo, Colombia's Cesar Gaviria, and Brazil's Fernando Henrique Cardoso - condemned the war as a counterproductive failure.

The Economist magazine has noted that in 1998 the United Nations general assembly called for a drug-free world by 2008. In the intervening decade, despite a massive death toll and the expenditure by the United States alone of $US40 billion ($57 billion) a year on the war, the extent of drug use in First World countries has hardly changed at all. The magazine called for legalisation as the "least bad" policy.

Without necessarily supporting such a call, the Herald believes it is time to get real about illegal usage and the violent effects it is having on our society. Is it realistic any longer to believe we can stamp out most illegal drug use? At the moment, if you had to compare the war against drugs with a real war, you would nominate the stalemate on the Western Front. But World War I lasted only four years. This one has been running for decades, and there is no sign of victory.                    

So, all in all a wishy/washy position that does what politicians do so well: At length state the bleeding obvious and make no constructive suggestions, other than more of the bleeding obvious - like: We must fight this - we will do whatever it takes - this can't go on - it's time to get real about illegal drugs. But while it is clear that we cannot stamp out illegal drug use, the solution is right there in our face: Drugs must be legalised. Not freely available, obviously (which is always the conservative reaction to this suggestion). Drug abuse is a health issue. Manufacture, distribution and supply are criminal issues - but if addicts have access to legal drugs via the medical system, lives are saved and crime is stifled. A no-brainer, really.

 

/blog-lets-get-real-about-drugs.aspx