Pubdate: Thu, 30 Apr 2015
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2015 Telegraph Media Group Limited
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/114
Author: Ian Birrell

IT'S CONSERVATIVE TO WANT TO LEGALISE DRUGS

Decriminalisation Would Safeguard Families and Drive the Gangs Out of Business

Outside of their families and friends, few tears will have been shed 
for the eight heroin smugglers just executed by firing squad in 
Indonesia. They may have claimed to have become reformed characters 
in jail, but they knew the Indonesian penalty for trafficking drugs. 
Yet the pantomime of death played out in the full glare of the global 
media reminded us of two things: first, the hideous barbarity of the 
death penalty; and second, the dreadful futility of the war on drugs.

The gang was caught attempting to smuggle heroin from Bali to 
Australia. Their seizure demonstrated that even the most draconian 
penalties are no deterrent to those seeking fortunes from the UKP200 
billion drugs trade. Despite the death penalty, Bali is renowned as 
both a party place and an important Asian transit point for the 
distribution of narcotics, with traffickers slipping in and out of 
the island among its three million tourists.

Yet even as Indonesia upsets allies with its hardline stance on 
drugs, there is a shift going on around the world. Slowly but surely, 
countries are coming to their senses and realising that the 
prohibition of drugs is just as damaging and self-harming as the 
prohibition of alcohol once was in America, widely broken by 
otherwise law-abiding citizens and only serving to enrich crooks  as 
we all know from those old black-and-white gangster movies.

Like it or not, there is a massive market for drugs and many people 
enjoy them without coming to any harm, some even going on to become 
presidents and prime ministers. Just as with alcohol, there are 
casualties  although rather fewer with some widely used drugs than 
with booze. But as one country after another is starting to realise, 
the best way to protect users is not to create a lucrative black 
market controlled by lethal gangsters with little concern for the 
safety of customers. It is to do precisely the opposite: legalise and 
regulate the use of drugs.

This is a big step for any state to take, an admission that the 
absurd war first unleashed by President Richard Nixon has been both 
wrong and wasteful of resources. But in the past few days Ireland has 
become the latest nation to contemplate reform, appointing a minister 
with special responsibility to examine the relaxation of drug laws. 
"Someone who has an addiction issue should be dealt with through the 
health system and not the criminal justice system," said the minister 
Aodhan O Riordain, adding that the police would agree with him.

Mr O Riordain was echoing President Barack Obama, who has encouraged 
the tilting of US policy away from prohibition by rightly saying he 
supports science over ideology. Already 23 states have sanctioned 
medical use of marijuana and four have legalised cannabis for 
recreational use; several more, including California, could follow 
suit after ballots of voters.

Cannabis is said to be the fastest-growing US industry, worth about 
$3billion and creating tens of thousands of jobs, with states finding 
a new source of revenue while enabling police to concentrate on more 
serious criminals than student potheads.

Now the impact can start to be seen across the border, where drug 
cartels created bloody havoc for decades as they fought over huge 
profits from supplying North American drug users. In Mexico, the 
number of murders fell from a high four years ago of almost 23,000 
deaths to 15,649 last year. Meanwhile, Mexican security forces have 
seen a sharp drop in cannabis seizures, down by almost one third in a 
year, while prices have halved. "If the US continues to legalise pot, 
they'll run us into the ground," one man in the trade told a radio 
station recently.

The Central American countries sandwiched between southern suppliers 
and wealthy users to the north have been devastated by drug gangs, 
turning cities into the world's most dangerous urban zones outside of 
war. Similar corrosion can be seen in West Africa, as new trade 
routes to Europe opened up, undermining struggling states, corrupting 
politicians and enriching terror gangs. Drug-trafficking was a key 
reason for the collapse of Mali three years ago, which allowed 
militant Islamists to grab two-thirds of the country.

Little wonder the world is slowly waking up to the stupidity of 
prohibition. More than 20 countries from the Czech Republic to 
Uruguay have brought in forms of decriminalisation, which makes sense 
on economic, social, political and moral grounds. Yet Britain, with 
the highest rates of drug use in Europe, still gives 80,000 people a 
criminal record each year for doing something some Cabinet ministers 
have confessed to enjoying in their youth. It's one more reason for 
the disconnect between Westminster and the electorate, especially 
younger voters, while victims die needlessly from the uncontrolled 
market in narcotics.

In this election, both the Greens and Liberal Democrats propose 
decriminalisation, while a pro-reform party is standing in 32 
constituencies. But it should really be the Tories leading the way by 
demanding legalisation of drugs  and not just to connect with 
sections of the electorate they struggle traditionally to reach. 
After all, this reform is tough on crime, fiscally responsible, 
safeguards families and strengthens global security. It is a policy 
that is highly conservative while also potentially transformative to 
the party brand - something to ponder as those smugglers' corpses are 
placed in their coffins, symbols of a war that can never be won.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom