Pubdate: Sat, 23 Feb 2013
Source: Economist, The (UK)
Copyright: 2013 The Economist Newspaper Limited
Contact:  http://www.economist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/132

Winding Down the War on Drugs

TOWARDS A CEASEFIRE

Experiments in Legalisation Are Showing What a Post-War Approach to 
Drug Control Could Look Like

Denver, LA Paz, Lisbon and Madrid - FROM the Colorado state capitol 
in Denver, head south on Broadway, one of the city's main arteries, 
and before long you find yourself in "Broadsterdam", a cluster of 
dispensaries with names like Ganja Gourmet and Evergreen Apothecary. 
They peddle dozens of strains of pot, as well as snacks, infusions 
and paraphernalia, to any state resident bearing a "red card": proof 
of a doctor's recommendation.

Landlords in the area were struggling, says William Breathes (a 
pseudonym), whose reviews for a local paper make him, he says, 
America's first mainstream pot critic.

But when Colorado began to regulate the sale of marijuana for medical 
use in 2010, they saw an opportunity.

Broadsterdam of 2013, and many places like it in America and Europe, 
would have been unimaginable in New York in 1961, when diplomats 
hammered out the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which aimed to 
counter the "serious evil" of addiction. That treaty, with 184 
countries signed up, underpins the prohibition policy of the past 
half century. Though an international debate on legalisation has 
barely started, experiments are already showing how the production 
and consumption of drugs could be regulated.

Change is coming because the "war on drugs" is being convincingly won 
by drugs, and the powerful criminal gangs who deal in them. Since 
1998, when the UN held an event entitled "A drug-free world: we can 
do it", consumption of cannabis (marijuana) and cocaine has risen by 
about 50%; for opiates, it has more than trebled.

And a swelling pharmacopoeia of synthetic highs is spinning heads in 
dizzying new ways. The UN reckons that 230m people used illegal drugs 
in 2010. They and their suppliers (usually the humblest ones) fill 
prisons in rich and poor countries alike.

Drug convictions account for almost half of American prisoners in 
federal jails.

Burned at both ends

If efforts to stem demand have been futile, trying to control supply 
has been disastrous. The illegal-drug industry's revenues are some 
$300 billion a year, according to the very roughest of guesses by the 
UN, and flow untaxed into criminal hands. Drug-running mafias corrupt 
and destroy the places where they operate.

Of the world's eight most murderous countries, seven lie on the 
cocaine-trafficking route from the Andes to the United States and 
Europe. Only war zones are more violent than Honduras. More than 
7,000 of its 8m citizens are murdered each year. In the European 
Union, with a 500m population, the figure is under 6,000.

Latin American leaders are tiring of this. Trying to stop the flow of 
narcotics is akin to the legendary Sisyphus futilely pushing a 
boulder uphill, says Fernando Carrera, Guatemala's foreign minister.

In recent years his country has laboriously cleared its San Marcos 
region of opium crops, only to see it replanted five times. The 
president, Otto Perez Molina, now wants to see global legal 
regulation of all drugs, from hashish to heroin, albeit with strict 
controls. Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia, favours 
legalisation, but says that his country cannot lead the way. Last 
year Felipe Calderon, the outgoing president of Mexico, declared it 
"impossible" to stop the drugs business and called for "market 
alternatives". Uruguay's government has sent to congress a bill to 
legalise the sale of pot through state-backed dispensaries. Smokers 
would be allowed to buy up to 40g per week, with profits funding 
crime-prevention and anti-addiction schemes.

In parts of the United States, change has already come. In November 
voters in Colorado and Washington backed proposals to legalise, tax 
and regulate cannabis for recreational use. State officials are now 
scrambling to draft the practical rules.

On February 28th a task force charged with producing recommendations 
for the Colorado legislature will issue its report.

Though non-binding, this will be the first glimpse of what a fully 
formed regulatory regime for legal cannabis may look like. Although 
plenty of countries (and 15 American states) have decriminalised 
cannabis possession, in many cases treating it as no worse than a 
traffic infraction, nowhere has fully legalised its supply. Within a 
year the entire supply chain in Colorado and Washington, from 
cultivation to manufacture to retail, will be within the law. State 
coffers will gain tax and fee revenues and save in law-enforcement 
resources (maybe $60m a year in Colorado). Licensed outlets will 
appear on the streets.

Assuming, of course, that the federal government consents. Marijuana 
remains illegal under America's Controlled Substances Act, the 1970 
law that implemented the Single Convention in the United States and 
that is still the foundation of federal narcotics policy.

The CSA classifies it as a "Schedule I" substance, meaning it can 
easily be abused and has no recognised medical value. (A federal 
appeals court recently rejected an attempt to have it reclassified.)

In December Eric Holder, the attorney-general, said that the justice 
department would issue a response to the state laws "relatively 
soon". But for the time being the department says only that it is 
reviewing the state initiatives, and that marijuana remains illegal 
under federal law. Shortly after Mr Holder's statement, Barack Obama 
told a television interviewer that he would not make it a priority to 
prosecute pot smokers in the two states.

But the federal government has never had the resources to target 
users, only big traffickers.

One clue to the future comes from the 18 states plus Washington, DC, 
where medical marijuana is legal. The Feds have come down hard on 
some growers and distributors in states that have drafted their laws poorly.

In 1996 California was the first state to approve medical marijuana 
but lawsuits clog the courts, competing regulatory ballot measures 
confuse voters, and in some cities pushy dispensaries unnerve residents.

In better-regulated places (like Colorado) the federal authorities 
have done little.

A big issue will be leakage of legal marijuana from Colorado or 
Washington to other states.

After meeting Mr Holder in January, Jay Inslee, the governor of 
Washington, told reporters that the state would pay particular 
attention to this.

For some, that is a futile gesture. "We'll become the source for most 
of the rest of the country," says a weary Tom Gorman, of the Rocky 
Mountain High Intensity Drug-Trafficking Area, a federal anti-drug 
outfit in Denver. Last year it tracked dozens of cases of diversion 
of Colorado's medical marijuana, finding it in 23 states.

Legalisation will add to the flow.

Yet diversion also makes life more difficult for the criminal gangs 
of Mexico, which are reckoned to supply anything between 40% and 70% 
of America's pot. Their trade reaps profits of $2 billion a year 
according to IMCO, a Mexico City think-tank; cocaine profits are $2.4 
billion. Part of the business model is murder: of around 70,000 
people over the past five years.

But IMCO reckons that once Colorado and Washington's growers get 
going, the Mexicans could lose nearly three-quarters of their 
American customers (though others question these numbers).

Much will depend on how the state laws take shape. The Colorado task 
force has already suggested letting retailers serve non-residents, 
possibly in limited amounts.

It also wants to relax restrictions on financial services for the 
industry. Many dispensaries struggle to obtain even basic banking and credit.

Trying to stay upright

Jack Finlaw and Barbara Brohl, who chair the task-force, are also 
pondering the "vertical integration" rules that have shaped the 
state's medical-marijuana industry.

Dispensaries must grow at least 70% of the marijuana they sell. Some 
cultivate it in-house; most grow it in off-site warehouses. This 
hampers distribution and wholesale markets.

Rob Corry, a pro-legalisation lawyer, terms it "absurd, like a 
supermarket owning apple orchards". As elsewhere, tight rules have costs.

But they have also helped citizens get used to an unfamiliar trade. 
"We've shown that we can make the industry work here," says Ean Seeb 
of Denver Relief, a leading dispensary.

Public acceptance, plus a clever campaign (paid for partly by outside 
money), led to victory in Colorado. Washington's medical-marijuana 
industry is less advanced, but opponents of legalisation there were 
even more widely outspent.

More changes are looming.

As with gay marriage (see chart), something that seemed revoltingly 
decadent to many Americans in past years has rapidly won acceptance. 
Campaigners are seeking further wins, mainly in the relatively 
liberal states of the west and north-east. Some dare to dream of 
changing federal law.

Their foe is the mighty prohibition industry: officials and 
bureaucrats who have spent their professional lives combating illegal 
drugs. Law-enforcement officers and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) 
officials have written to Mr Holder urging him to uphold federal law. 
Yet others counter that legalising pot will boost consumption, 
particularly if it can be advertised and marketed.

That brings fears of health and other risks.

Others counter that smoking more dope would mean people drank less 
alcohol, which is arguably a more destructive drug. But the effect 
could be the other way round.

What legal pot would mean for tobacco and cocaine use is also unknown.

Cannabis policy is changing in Europe, too. At Santa Maria, a shop 
across the street from one of Madrid's main hospitals, customers 
queue to buy fertilisers, potting earth and imported Dutch cannabis seeds.

The owner, Pedro Perez, cheerfully warns customers not to plant until 
late in March when the frosts have gone.

Spain's approach now rivals that of the pioneering liberal Dutch. 
Though selling is illegal, buying is not. One result is hundreds of 
cannabis "social clubs", which allow members to pool their purchases.

These range from small co-operatives where new members must wait six 
months for new cannabis to be grown before joining, to huge 
semi-commercial organisations, with thousands of "members" buying cannabis.

One in Barcelona even made a euro1.3m ($1.74m) deal with the country 
town of Rasquera to grow supplies on local land, better known for its 
almond trees. Similar experiments are under way in France, Belgium, 
Italy and Germany, says Tom Blickman of the Transnational Institute, 
a think-tank based in Amsterdam. In much of Britain, especially its 
big cities, the risk of prosecution for those using small quantities 
of soft drugs is vanishingly low.

But the most comprehensive policy comes from Portugal. In 1997 
opinion polls rated drug use the country's biggest social problem.

Now, 12 years since the decriminalisation of personal use of small 
amounts (meaning less than ten days' worth) of all drugs, it ranks 
13th. All parties now support the policy of treating drug use as a 
health issue, not a crime.

HIV rates have plummeted, too, says Joao Goulao, the national drugs 
co-ordinator.

But decriminalisation is not the same as legalisation. Portugal uses 
"dissuasion boards", made up of doctors, psychologists and other 
specialists. They aim to get addicts into treatment and to prevent 
recreational users from falling into addiction.

When necessary they can impose fines and community work. By removing 
the "fear and stigma" of criminal punishment, says Mr Goulao, drug 
users are encouraged to seek the help they need.

Brendan Hughes, of the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for 
Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), an agency of the European Union, 
says Portugal stands out for its "consistency and comprehensiveness". 
Other countries wanting to focus on health have only "tweaked" their 
criminal laws, he says.

In 2009 the Czech Republic decriminalised possession of most drugs 
along Portuguese lines. In December it went further, fully legalising 
medicinal cannabis.

The plan is for imports--probably Dutch or Israeli--to be sold in 
pharmacies, says Jindrich Voboril, the head of the government drugs council.

If that works, it will then license a number of competing companies 
to grow supplies locally.

The elusive molecules

The other big policy innovation in Europe has been to drop punitive 
policies in dealing with heroin and cocaine addiction, in favour of 
harm reduction (see article). But a much bigger worry now is the rise 
of legal highs.

The EMCDDA reports that a new psychoactive substance is found weekly, 
on average.

These concoctions are openly marketed as "plant food" or "research 
chemicals". Mephedrone and ketamine--both legal highs until 
recently--have become mainstream clubbing drugs in Britain, taken 
alongside ecstasy and cocaine.

Tim Hollis of the British Association of Chief Police Officers says 
that the police are "flat-footed" trying to keep up. Many of the new 
drugs do more harm than the illegal narcotics that they are replacing.

The legal regime governing cocaine is more controversial. Some 
countries, including Portugal, Mexico and Colombia, have 
decriminalised the possession of small doses of the drug, referring 
users to treatment rather than giving them a criminal record.

But the harm cocaine does to health and its addictive nature make 
governments queasy about legalising its sale.

High in the Andes, regulated cultivation for "traditional" use (coca 
leaves give a mild caffeine-like buzz and suppress hunger, cold and 
altitude sickness) has been going on for decades. In Trinidad Pampa, 
a tiny village in Bolivia's mountainous Yungas region, the hillsides 
are divided into neat terraces, where coca saplings are planted after 
being cultivated in beds enriched with rice-husks and sand. The whole 
village is involved.

Children and even toddlers help their parents.

The 1961 narcotics convention banned coca along with cocaine (albeit 
with a long transitional period). But on January 11th Bolivia became 
the first country to negotiate a partial opt-out from the treaty.

It was readmitted with a get-out clause for coca, having resigned 
last year over the ban on what its president, Evo Morales, calls the 
"sacred leaf". A former coca-grower and union leader, he enjoys 
grandstanding against America (he expelled its ambassador in 2008 
along with DEA officials).

In 2004, following protests by coca growers led by Mr Morales (then 
in opposition), Bolivia brought most of its 28,000 hectares of coca 
fields within the law. The government claims that increases in 
population and heavy use among miners and truckers justify the extra 
growing-permits. But sales figures suggest that in fact most coca 
goes elsewhere.

Leaves must be sold in state-controlled markets, which in 2011 bought 
just over 18,000 tonnes from farmers.

The UN estimates that potential production was about 48,000 tonnes.

Most of the missing 30,000 tonnes leaked into the cocaine business, 
reckons Cesar Guedes, head of the UN drugs office in La Paz.

This alarms Bolivia's neighbours. Brazil believes it has the world's 
second-biggest market (after America) for cocaine and the largest for 
crack; most of Brazil's cocaine imports come from Bolivia. Usage of 
crack is up in Argentina, too.

Yet keeping Bolivia outside the treaty was "infinitely more 
dangerous" than bringing it in, says an official from a nearby country.

Supply increased a little after the regime was relaxed in 2004, 
before levelling out in 2008 and dropping by about 12% in 2011, to 
beneath 2004 levels. Letting farmers get on with it has allowed 
Bolivia to focus scarce police resources on organised crime.

In 2011 it destroyed more than 5,000 cocaine processing factories, 
five times more than a decade earlier (though that could also show 
that trafficking has increased). Coca farmers still have a difficult 
relationship with the authorities in some parts of the country, but 
the abuses that accompanied the military-led eradication efforts of 
the 1990s have lessened.

Partial reforms have their limits.

Most drug crime is not cannabis-related. Moving from punishment to 
harm reduction may help drug users, but it leaves gangsters in 
control of supplies and revenues.

Many countries still stick to prohibition.

The votes in Colorado and Washington were hardly imaginable ten years 
ago and make deeper change likely. They weaken the Single Convention, 
the illegal trade, and the prohibition industry that feeds on it. 
Peter Reuter, an expert at the University of Maryland, says America 
should "evaluate the experiment and put up with international 
condemnation for a couple of years." Even that counts as progress.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom