It seems that the Home Office have finally started to sit up and pay attention ... to me! Sort of.
Almost similar to concerns I raised here.
Showing posts with label drugs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drugs. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Cocaine
This business was in the news yesterday. Apparently the efforts of drugs enforcement agencies across the world have resulted in an increased wholesale price for cocaine. Prices on 'the street' have remained stable but the purity of the drug has declined. In 2004 the purity of the cocaine seized by police was on average over 50 per cent; it is now just over 30 per cent.
We might imagine (arguably naively) that certain drugs are illegal because we must be protected from the harm that they can do us. The primary reason for enforcing the drug laws must be to prevent us from acquiring these drugs and thus protect us from harm. It is not certain that the rise in the wholesale price of cocaine is causally related to the authorities making it more difficult for those that trade in the drug; the decrease in the strength of the pound may also be a factor. It could be that this is an ill-founded claim made to create good PR for drugs enforcement worldwide. But if the rise in price can be put down to enforcement, it seems that the effect of enforcement has not been to protect the public from a harmful substance but to make the harmful substance that the public are managing quite easily to acquire more harmful by reducing its purity.
This may not be the only the only effect of work of drugs enforcement agencies (cue wild conjecture): it may be that their activities are making the business of trading in drugs more perilous than it already is by frustrating supply routes. Perhaps it has resulted in more drugs-trade-related deaths. If they have been at all successful then it will have resulted in more people having to spend time in jail, more people's lives being branded criminal.
If these are the effects of enforcing the drugs laws then what is the point? How can making cocaine more dangerous be good news?
In Portugal, there are no criminal penalties for possessing personal quantities of drugs. This policy has been successful in reducing the number of people taking drugs and increasing the number of people with drugs problems seeking treatment.
Decriminalising the trade in drugs would be another thing entirely. It is fraught because it would mean that governments themselves were selling or, at least, sanctioning drugs. But if the only effect of enforcing the current drugs laws is to make taking drugs more dangerous and not to decrease their availability, it may be time for the authorities to desist. If the trade were decriminalised then young people would not find themselves inducted into an illicit market and made criminals.
It would be impossible for a country to do this unilaterally. But it seems that much of the harm done by illegal drugs is a product of their being illegal and it must be worth thinking about changing this state of affairs.
I have not previously known what I think about the illegality of drugs. In this piece I try on an opinion that is fresh and new to me. It should not be taken that what is written above is the pure revealed essence of What I Think On The Matter.
We might imagine (arguably naively) that certain drugs are illegal because we must be protected from the harm that they can do us. The primary reason for enforcing the drug laws must be to prevent us from acquiring these drugs and thus protect us from harm. It is not certain that the rise in the wholesale price of cocaine is causally related to the authorities making it more difficult for those that trade in the drug; the decrease in the strength of the pound may also be a factor. It could be that this is an ill-founded claim made to create good PR for drugs enforcement worldwide. But if the rise in price can be put down to enforcement, it seems that the effect of enforcement has not been to protect the public from a harmful substance but to make the harmful substance that the public are managing quite easily to acquire more harmful by reducing its purity.This may not be the only the only effect of work of drugs enforcement agencies (cue wild conjecture): it may be that their activities are making the business of trading in drugs more perilous than it already is by frustrating supply routes. Perhaps it has resulted in more drugs-trade-related deaths. If they have been at all successful then it will have resulted in more people having to spend time in jail, more people's lives being branded criminal.
If these are the effects of enforcing the drugs laws then what is the point? How can making cocaine more dangerous be good news?
In Portugal, there are no criminal penalties for possessing personal quantities of drugs. This policy has been successful in reducing the number of people taking drugs and increasing the number of people with drugs problems seeking treatment.Decriminalising the trade in drugs would be another thing entirely. It is fraught because it would mean that governments themselves were selling or, at least, sanctioning drugs. But if the only effect of enforcing the current drugs laws is to make taking drugs more dangerous and not to decrease their availability, it may be time for the authorities to desist. If the trade were decriminalised then young people would not find themselves inducted into an illicit market and made criminals.
It would be impossible for a country to do this unilaterally. But it seems that much of the harm done by illegal drugs is a product of their being illegal and it must be worth thinking about changing this state of affairs.
I have not previously known what I think about the illegality of drugs. In this piece I try on an opinion that is fresh and new to me. It should not be taken that what is written above is the pure revealed essence of What I Think On The Matter.
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