Pubdate: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 Source: Australian, The (Australia) Copyright: News Limited 2000 Contact: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ Author: Phillip Adams Note: "Cutting Edge: Stopping Traffic - The War Against the War on Drugs", SBS at 8.30pm, April 4. PEACE PLAN FOR NARCOTICS WAR MAKING a significant contribution to many a gross national product, the international drug trade turns over $1 trillion per annum. That doesn't count the billions of dollars spent on the policies of prohibition and interdiction, let alone the costs of incarceration. Grieving over the killing of a young colleague, a police officer in Vancouver, Canada, tries to put US president Ronald Reagan's "war on drugs" into perspective: "He died because of a small amount of powder used by consenting adults." It's perhaps time to revive the term the silent majority to describe the bulk of our population who know that the war on drugs is useless worse, counterproductive. "The War Against the War on Drugs" is a documentary to be screened on SBS next month and features many people who have changed their minds on the issue: police chiefs, city mayors, front-line cops, judges and businessmen. One of the most successful capitalists in the US and among its greatest philanthropists, George Soros, has given about $3 billion to good causes and one of them is this war against a war. Soros talks of the unintended consequences of well-intended actions the increasing vortex of drugs and crime. Although conceding that there are no simple answers, he insists that we should begin the process by decriminalising the drugs we've demonised. The poor in the US aren't covered by the health plans that corporations give their executives. They cant afford anti-depressants, let alone the tender care of a therapist. So they finish up prescribing themselves narcotics. Such is the failure of the war on drugs that they have never been cheaper. Whether you're in a US ghetto or an Australian suburb, heroin comes at a bargain price. A few kilograms are seized by Customs, but tonnes make it to the market. Yet out of every 100 drug-related deaths, perhaps two or three are a consequence of heroin use: 90 per cent, at least result from alcohol or tobacco. Reagan liked a good war. There is, of course, much drug-taking among the glitterati, from Beverly Hills to Wall Street, but Reagan's drug war was aimed at people forced on to drugs by deprivation and unemployment. Soros is right: "There are no simple answers." And some experiments in harm minimisation, such as the famous "needle park" in Zurich, have been unsuccessful. But having found that inviting users to hang out in a central park led to a political and medical nightmare, the Swiss learned their lesson and decentralised the approach, away from schools and residences. Addicts can buy their heroin over-the-counter, free of fear of AIDS or adulteration, for "about the cost of three beers". They must inject their heroin on the spot, so that it can't be accumulated or traded on the street. The result? Disease and drug-related deaths plummeted, as did drug-related crime. RESULTS were even better in Liverpool, where doctors can prescribe heroin to addicts beyond the reach of methadone. Not enough for a high, just enough to stave off the pain of withdrawal. Users get their heroin and a set of clean needles or a daily dose of methadone on the National Health Service. Our silent majority knows that current drug policies are a bad joke. As in so many other matters, they look for political leadership. In a country where (apart from South Australia) marijuana is still deemed the devil's weed, where the most timid heroin trials are vetoed with ludicrous objections raised about shooting galleries, this leadership is a lot harder to find than a fix. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck