The Message: Why do so many people take illegal drugs?

We have written a lot here in Hot Press about the Rescue Industry. When it comes to matters of public policy, members of this strange caste seem to be interested only in information that consolidates their own prejudices. And frequently, they are so focused on serving their own interests, that they ensure that any study which is carried out is neatly stacked in their favour. Or alternatively, they present very limited surveys as if they tell you a lot more than is really the case.

We made the latter point last issue in relation to the survey into the attitudes of “sex buyers” carried out as part of the Stop Traffick initiative, which was given a considerable amount of airtime on radio here in Ireland – and generally treated as if it were representative. In fact, only 58 people had completed the survey.

Let’s forget that for now, however, because what is most conspicuously absent from any form of official consideration in relation to prostitution is the attitude of current sex workers. As a result, it is possible for the Rescue Industry to make all sorts of assumptions, and similarly to draw conclusions, which fly in the face of the lived experience and the openly declared views of the women – and sometimes men – who willingly provide sex services in return for cash.

Which is one reason why public policy fails again and again. The response of the authorities will be always be inadequate if you omit from consideration those people who break the law, and deny them the opportunity to explain why they do it – and how it affects their lives.

This is particularly true in the context of the use and abuse of drugs. The conventional view is that drugs are a very bad idea from start to finish. The establishment position is summed up in the immortal catchphrase “Just Say No.”

The problem with this view, however, is that hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland have actually experimented with drugs. A huge number of people have willingly taken a few tokes, dropped an E or snorted (what they believed to be) a line of cocaine at some stage in their early adulthood. And equally, most people who do, go on to live perfectly normal, non drug-dependent lives. And yet there is a huge amount of time, effort, resources and money invested by the State in trying to enforce a policy of prohibition that has clearly failed.

Would a different set of policies be pursued if there was a real understanding of what those who do enjoy the use of drugs on a recreational basis feel about mind-altering substances? The truth is that forming drugs policy without understanding this is like trying to fish without a rod. You can dive in and flounder around all you want chasing fish, but the vast majority will slip through your fingers...

Which is why Hot Press decided to participate in the Global Drugs Survey 2014. Carried out on an international basis, the survey offers a fascinating insight into the experiences, attitudes and habits of recreational drug users all over the world. It was, Hot Press felt, about time we took a snapshot of Irish drug users – and how their attitudes, experiences and habits compare with their international counterparts.

This is precisely what the Global Drugs Survey provides: a hugely illuminating snapshot. Because the use of drugs, including Cannabis, MDMA, Cocaine and Magic Mushrooms is illegal, normal market research tools are not going to work as a way of gathering information. Would you speak to someone over the phone or at your front door about experimentation with illegal substances? Most certainly not. Instead, what the Global Drugs Survey provides is a process of Purposive Sampling. Through this mechanism, it delivers a context in which people with personal experience in the use of drugs can illuminate an otherwise hugely misunderstood area of human experience. The relatively high number of Irish respondents (at 838, the sample ranks eighth out of the 20 participating countries in relative size), the detailed nature of the questionnaire, and the time it takes to fill it in, gives the survey a higher than normal level of reliability.

The results are fascinating in all sorts of ways. The Global Drugs Survey paints a picture of drug consumption as a mostly rational choice on the part of those who do indulge: this is emphasised by the fact that a high proportion of respondents confirmed that they would take the option of a safe, Government approved legal high if one were available. But the survey also underlines a worrying willingness among drug users to take what the questionnaire described as “mystery white powders”. There is, in other words, no room for complacency on any side of the drugs debate.

So what are the key learnings from the Irish strand of the Global Drugs Survey 2014?

• 1. That cannabis remains the drug of choice for the majority of recreational drug users in Ireland and that it is followed in popularity by MDMA and cocaine;

• 2. That, compared to their international peers, Ireland’s drug users seem to have a particular fondness for MDMA, to the extent of being 100% more likely to have used it over the past 12 months than the global average;

• 3. That Irish drug users are also 20% more likely to have consumed cannabis and 33% more likely to use cocaine than their international counterparts;

• 4. That there is a relatively high satisfaction rating with the quality of cannabis and MDMA in Ireland – but that users feel that the cocaine they get is of an inferior quality;

• 5. That of all the drugs the one with the highest satisfaction rating is MDMA;

• 6. That there is very little evidence of adverse medical reactions that can be ascribed directly to cannabis, MDMA or cocaine;

• 7. On the other hand, that the very illegality of drugs leads to a number of significant issues – including the fact that 1 in 25 of the respondents has been subjected to violence when making a purchase;

• 8. That people are concerned with the quality and purity of the drugs available in Ireland;

• 9. That they are willing to pay for better quality or purer recreational drugs – and believe that paying more does indeed deliver a better “buzz”; Looking at the way in which people interact with the law, there are other important conclusions to which the survey points.

• 10. In effect – where recreational drug users are concerned – it seems the Gardaí have begun to apply a type of informal decriminalisation, with only a small proportion of those caught in possession of illegal drugs (other than heroin) reporting that they were subject of any kind of legal sanction;

• 11. Conversely, those who are sanctioned suffer disproportionately, with 16% being affected in their ability to travel freely;

• 12. While informal decriminalisation is clearly a sensible approach for the Gardaí to take, it is inherently unfair, in that any two people can be treated differently as a result of the personal approach of an individual Garda. The obvious conclusion is that full decriminalisation would be a far better, fairer and less costly approach. Other big lessons for the authorities, meanwhile, are in relation to the likely effect of decriminalisation.

• 13. Countries with liberal drug laws – including The Netherlands, Portugal and New Zealand – characteristically have lower levels of drug usage than Ireland and the UK;

• 14. Only a very small proportion of Irish drug users say that they would use more drugs in the event of their being legalised.

• 15. Of potentially even greater significance, a hugely higher number of people would seek health or medical advice about their consumption of drugs if they were not illegal.

• 16. The fact that drugs are illegal makes them far more dangerous than would be otherwise be the case.

• 17. And finally, the prices that Irish drug users are paying for high potency hydroponic cannabis are the highest in the world.

Needless to say, the Rescue Industry is unlikely to want any of this information to be taken on board. Instead, they will continue to insist on imposing their own brand of puritanism on Irish citizens. But as the former Chief Constable in the UK police service, Tom Lloyd, says in an interview elsewhere in this issue, the war on drugs has failed. Making drugs illegal is good only for the criminal classes.

As the song says, it is time to make a change...