Pubdate: Thu, 05 Mar 2015
Source: Herald Sun (Australia)
Copyright: 2015 Herald and Weekly Times
Contact: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/letter
Website: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/187
Author: Eddie McGuire

TIME HAS COME TO TALK ABOUT LEGALISING DRUGS

IT'S nearly three years since I used this literary real estate to 
provoke conversation on the decriminalisation of drugs. I didn't know 
then if it was an appropriate response. I still don't.

Watching convicted Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran 
Sukumaran being driven off yesterday in armoured vehicles to be 
executed was one of the saddest things I've ever seen.

The talkback callers on Triple M's Hot Breakfast also made me think 
many things, none of which I had an answer for. Why should I care 
about a couple of greedy drug smugglers?

They knew the risks, they rolled their own dice.

Sure, they were young, stupid and greedy - but do they deserve to die 
a decade later having suffered extensively and repented? No. Not in 
my book anyway.

So what have we learned since Barlow and Chambers were executed in 
Malaysia in 1986 and Van Tuong Nguyen in 2005? Nothing.

Many of my Triple M listeners were of the hardline variety: "They 
were drug dealers, they cop their whack." But Chan and Sukumaran were 
supplying a demand. Does every person in Australia who has taken an 
illegal or recreational drug have blood on their hands today? No 
demand, no supply.

So either we intensify "the war on drugs", as it was called by 
disgraced US president Richard Nixon, or we look elsewhere for a solution.

Clearly, the staggering numbers of Aussies using drugs means any 
pipedream (pun intended) of ridding Australia of illegal narcotics is madness.

Probably the world's most famous drug lord was Colombian Pablo 
Escobar. He was making a fortune smuggling everything from stolen 
cigarettes and food before moving into guns and then hitting the 
jackpot. Nixon's "war on drugs" had a similar impact on American life 
as the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s: it made it cool, 
dangerous and available for those who wanted it, and it made crooks 
fabulously rich.

In the book, Escobar: Drugs. Guns. Money. Power, Roberto Escobar 
talks of his younger brother's fame, wealth and propensity to extreme violence.

"America wanted cocaine," he wrote. Escobar made sure he supplied it. 
He built his logistics to a point where he had a force of 15 planes, 
six helicopters, ships as well as an army of "mules". Eventually 
Escobar had two submarines running cocaine into the US.

Interestingly, when Escobar started smuggling drugs into the US, he 
believed he would have a window of six to 12 months before 
authorities would drop prohibition.

Said Roberto Escobar: "Once cocaine had been widely and freely used 
in America. A small amount was part of the original Coca-Cola and 
some cigarettes; it could be bought in drugstores. The first laws 
were passed against it in America in 1914. But mostly the police left 
people who used cocaine alone.

"Only in 1970 did the American government make it a so-called 
controlled substance, which caused the police to start making arrests 
for selling it and using it. Doing this made it more dangerous for 
dealers and more difficult for users to find it, which made it more 
expensive to buy. And much more profitable to sell."

It's time to really put the theory of decriminalisation to the test. 
Let's get the best minds working on this. Will it lead to more people 
trying drugs?

Portugal became the first European country to abolish all criminal 
penalties for personal possession of drugs. When the laws passed, 
critics said it would open the country to drug tourists and make the 
problem worse.

But a report called Drug Decriminalisation in Portugal found that in 
the five years after decriminalisation, use among teens dropped, 
rates of new HIV infections from sharing needles dropped and the 
number of people seeking treatment for addiction more than doubled. 
Portugal's drug use rates are now among the lowest in the European 
Union for virtually every substance.

I DON'T know the answers but I know the problems. The spread of 
organised crime in Australia relating to drug supply is huge and 
getting worse. Cocaine, marijuana, ice, amphetamines, ecstasy, heroin 
. they're all readily available.

Young people's lives are being destroyed but the amounts of money 
involved are enormous, so the problem won't stop.

I have never been attracted to drugs. I hate them with a passion. 
Why? Because from an early age I was educated in their real effect. I 
agree marijuana is causing untold damage to users' minds, that meth 
is killing communities, that coke has blown the minds, careers and 
families of plenty. Heroin, is there anything so sad?

I hate this scourge. I wish we were drug-free. But we are not.

Let's turn this into a health issue, educate our nation and give 
those who succumb support and dignity rather than driving the problem 
underground - and filling criminals' pockets

So when you reach for the "fun tickets" this weekend, think of your 
role in the process.

But nothing will change until we have the courage to do something 
different. Let's investigate what is possible.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom