The drugs policy don't work

It’ll only be a happy Christmas when the war on drugs is over.

Eamonn McCann, 08 Jan 2007

I’d feel happier heading into 2007 if I could be confident this will be the year that we’ll manage to overthrow the government.

Strike down stupidity, raise reason up, overwhelm the laws which prevent us dealing with the drugs problem.

There are two reasons 2007 would be suitable. One, it marks the 40th anniversary of the publication in the Times (of London) of a full-page ad calling for the lifting of the law against cannabis in particular as “immoral in principle and unworkable in practice”. The ad was devised by Steve Abrams, mainly funded by The Beatles and signed by 65 liberal luminaries of the age.

On the subject of drugs, Paul McCartney composed ‘A Day In The Life’ while indulging. Going straight, he wrote ‘Mull Of Kintyre’.

In Dublin in November, the Drug Policy Action Group (DPAG) urged the Government and the Gardai “to completely rethink and liberalise their approach to the illicit drug trade, because current practices are doing more harm than good.” Perhaps we are beginning to catch up with the Brit Baroness of 40 years ago?

The DPAG (www.drugpolicy.ie) includes academics and expert practitioners on addiction, social policy and public health. Its report says bluntly that one of the main reasons the “war on drugs” is being lost has to do with ignorance on the part of government officials, garda chiefs and judges. Among its recommendations are that the Law Reform Commission should “assist” the cabinet committee reviewing drugs-related laws; that a review should be instituted of “the capacity of senior civil servants... to lead a cohesive drugs strategy”; and that gardai and judges should be given classes to acquaint them with the facts about drug use and the law.

The implication is that the people who frame, enact and implement the drugs laws, and deal with those who break them, either don’t know the truth, or don’t want to know.

Last year, Justice Minister Michael McDowell felt no shame going on radio to intone that, more or less, any youngster who takes a toke at tea-time will likely be strung out on heroin by nightfall.

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