It’s high time we changed our drugs policy

Illegal drugs. Chances are you’ll know someone who’s taken them (half of 16-24 year olds have). It’s very possible you’ve taken them yourself. If so, then under the eyes of the law you are a criminal. Is this a reality we should accept? The continued prohibition of drugs seems to be accepted as a doctrine we cannot, or should not change. Yet this need not be the case.

So firstly, ask yourself if you think drugs should remain criminalised. Perhaps you do; it seems initially reasonable. Secondly, do you think laws should be respected and obeyed, with punishments for dissention? Surely you do, since this is the basis of a stable legal framework. So, you therefore believe that people should be punished for taking drugs: it is after all an illegal activity.

Let’s take ecstasy (MDMA) as an example. Under the law, the maximum sentence for possession is 7 years imprisonment, as with all Class A drugs. Think of someone you know who has used this drug, perhaps once spontaneously among the hedonism of Bestival, or maybe as a regular feature of going out. Now if you believe in criminalisation, and you believe that we should respect the law, then you believe that they should spend up to seven years of their adult life locked away in prison for this offence. Still sure?

Of course, implementation of the law doesn’t exactly run according to this. Unsurprisingly, Frankie Cocozza wasn’t carted off into custody the moment he was unceremoniously kicked off X Factor last week for taking cocaine. If police truly wanted to make arrests then all they need to do is turn up at certain D&B nights at 4am. But they don’t and the reason is this: the police are in a difficult position and fighting a losing war against drugs is a waste of their time and resources. And who do end up with the drugs convictions? People sought out by the police because of other their criminal offences, not us shiny sensible students. The law is failing if it applies in some cases and not others.

Undoubtedly Warwick has its share of drug users, from coked up rich kids to those passing around a joint while watching rubbish (yet somehow hilarious) TV. It’s not a lifestyle that every student wants- or needs- but is it one that deserves a life sentence? Nice people take drugs, and yet current policy ensures that both drug users and addicts (two different groups) are subject to blanket stigmatisation. This is neither helpful nor fair, and simply banning substances is not effective in stopping people from taking them.

There are many good reasons for legalisation. Regulation of the whole market would ensure standardization in strength and purity, in addition to creating huge sums of revenue from tax. Decriminalisation would help drug abusers seek the proper help they need, without fear of legal retribution. The link between drugs and crime is severely misunderstood: drugs themselves do not create crime, but the environment of prohibition creates a whole web of criminal activities to the detriment of our society. As Milton Friedman said of prohibition, ‘the [economic] role of the government is literally to protect the drug cartel’. In bringing drugs under state control, social issues can be properly managed rather than unsuccessfully suppressed.

We need a more intelligent attitude to drugs. Charities like Release (who started the ‘Nice People Take Drugs’ campaign) and others are slowly working towards promoting a more sensible and balanced discourse surrounding the legalisation debate. A major obstacle is the hypocrisy among politicians too scared for their real views to be subjected to scrutiny by the Daily Mail.
The drugs issue is an international one. The Global Commission on Drugs Policy, (whose panel includes former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan) published a report this June supporting legalisation, claiming “the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won”. President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos spoke out this week at the need for a global consensus on drugs policy reform, including decriminalisation. The failure of global drugs policy is evident, not least in the millions of lives lost in Latin American countries like Colombia and Mexico.

It is time to accept that the war on drugs is simply not working. A more effective strategy is required, one that accepts human experimentation with mind altering substances as an inevitability. Our politicians need to follow the example of Portuguese and Dutch leaders, whose decriminalisation of possession is the first step in the right direction, and face up to the effect of this global war on drugs on the world’s poor. Perhaps some people would like to see Frankie Cocozza in jail for seven years, but this sort of legal lunacy cannot continue.