Pubdate: Sun, 03 Jun 2012
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Colin Kenny
Note: Liberal Senator Colin Kenny is former deputy chair of the 
Special Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs.

LET'S INJECT SOME SANITY INTO THE WAR ON DRUGS

The war on drugs may outstrip Iraq and Afghanistan as failed 
campaigns. Lives are being destroyed. Money is being squandered. And 
the enemy isn't going away.

North American leaders Stephen Harper, Barack Obama and Felipe 
Calderon are clearly addicted to a worldwide strategy to wipe out 
drug abuse. Despite the fact that this war - initiated by the late 
U.S. president Richard Nixon - is now more than 40 years old, drug 
use continues to escalate in North America and just about everywhere else.

There are an estimated 250 million drug users around the world. Use 
of opiates rose by 34 per cent between 1998 and 2008; cocaine use was 
up by 27 per cent. In the words of the Global Commission on Drugs, 
"Arresting and incarcerating tens of millions of (drug users) in 
recent decades has filled prisons and destroyed lives and families, 
without reducing the availability of illicit drugs or the power of 
criminal organizations."

Not only is the war on drugs a failure, it causes collateral 
failures. The destruction wrought on countries in Central America and 
Africa because governments have left the distribution of illicit 
drugs in the hands of the cartels amounts to the reverse of foreign 
aid - rich countries are spending huge amounts of money to create 
anarchy in poor countries.

It is arguable that world hunger could have been wiped out by now if 
the funds spent on the war against illicit drugs had been diverted to 
more constructive uses. I would also argue that far fewer North 
Americans would be using illicit drugs if the drug war money had been 
spent on education, treatment and setting up controlled sources of 
supply run or supervised by governments, rather than drug cartels and dealers.

The United States is spending $25 billion a year to eradicate illicit 
drug sales, not including the huge cost of imprisoning drug users and 
drug suppliers; Canada is spending $2.5 billion. The usefulness of 
Canada's police services, border control officers and prison guards 
is constantly being undermined by the attention these institutions 
are required to devote to snuffing out the sources of illegal drugs.

Like the attempted prohibition of alcohol in the United States 
between 1920 and 1933, the war on drugs has been about as effective 
as shooting rifles into the air. It took 13 years for the Americans 
to recognize that alcohol wasn't going away and to begin taxing sales 
to make money, rather than losing money trying to eliminate supply.

You say illegal drugs can't be compared to alcohol?

Surely drugs like heroin and cocaine are more likely to inflict 
permanent damage on individual users than is alcohol in terms of 
average use. Still, alcohol kills a lot of people. The Global 
Commission on Drug Policy ranks heroin first, cocaine second, 
barbiturates third, and alcohol fourth in terms of their potential to 
harm users. Marijuana? It ranks 10th.

Some illicit drugs are dangerous. Others are very, very dangerous. 
Illicit drugs can destroy lives. The use of these drugs demands 
society's attention, to be sure.

But are we paying attention in the right way? The Canadian government 
is introducing a crime bill that will make possession of as few as 
six marijuana plants an indictable offence, punishable by a minimum 
of six months in jail and a maximum of 14 years. Meanwhile, liquor 
stores around the country are promoting their products with ever 
increasing advocacy and sophistication.

Remember, alcohol ranked fourth on that list. Marijuana ranked 10th. 
So you have to wonder if our failed approach to discouraging 
marijuana use among young people makes any sense. Young people are 
rebellious, and their rebellions feed off older people's hypocrisy.

Most young people are also smart - they may be able to smell 
propaganda a mile away, but they're open to honest education. For the 
past decade, federal governments have been funding education about 
the effect of tobacco on health. The campaign has been a spectacular success.

The government's investment helped drop the percentage of Canadians 
who smoke to 17 per cent in 2010 from 25 per cent in 1999, with the 
teenage smoking rate falling to 12 per cent from 28 per cent. Young 
people listened.

So is the government proudly trumpeting the news of its success? 
Nope. In the wake of the happy news, it has decided to kill the 
entire grants and contributions program of the Federal Tobacco 
Control Strategy, leaving organizations like the Non-Smokers' Rights 
Association, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada and the Canadian 
Council for Tobacco Control in free fall.

Prohibition and punishment has clearly failed as an anti-drug 
strategy. Education is clearly succeeding on the tobacco front - and, 
remember, some experts rank the difficulty of quitting tobacco use 
with quitting the use of narcotics. But we're sticking with 
prohibition and punishment on marijuana.

Harper has acknowledged that the war on drugs isn't working. Speaking 
to reporters at the Summit of the Americas in April, the prime 
minister said, "What everyone believes and agrees with, and to be 
frank myself, is that the current approach is not working, but it is 
not clear what we should do."

He might consider experimenting with programs that don't involve the 
use of the word "war," which is what The Global Commission on Drugs 
is recommending.

Portugal decriminalized the use and possession of all illicit drugs 
more than a decade ago. The rate of usage in Portugal has climbed at 
about the same rate as it has in the rest of the world - only the 
Portuguese aren't wasting money trying to stem the tide.

Sooner or later, we voters are going to have to be open to a new 
"smart on drugs" approach. If we don't, all the violence and 
squandering of resources will continue.

We'll have only ourselves - and our leaders - to blame.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom