Should we end the drug war in NZ?

[alanzs]

Recently, it was announced that 42% of the population in NZ smoke cannabis, second only to the US. Today, in the Los Angeles Times, there was an article calling for the end of the War on Drugs. The parallels between NZ and the US can't be ignored. Here's the article. Hope you enjoy the read. What do you think about this?

This is the U.S. on drugs
Only cops and crooks have benefited from $2.5 trillion spent fighting trafficking.
By David W. Fleming and James P. Gray
July 5, 2008

The United States' so-called war on drugs brings to mind the old saying that if you find yourself trapped in a deep hole, stop digging. Yet, last week, the Senate approved an aid package to combat drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America, with a record $400 million going to Mexico and $65 million to Central America.

The United States has been spending $69 billion a year worldwide for the last 40 years, for a total of $2.5 trillion, on drug prohibition -- with little to show for it. Is anyone actually benefiting from this war? Six groups come to mind.

The first group are the drug lords in nations such as Colombia, Afghanistan and Mexico, as well as those in the United States. They are making billions of dollars every year -- tax free.

The second group are the street gangs that infest many of our cities and neighborhoods, whose main source of income is the sale of illegal drugs.


Third are those people in government who are paid well to fight the first two groups. Their powers and bureaucratic fiefdoms grow larger with each tax dollar spent to fund this massive program that has been proved not to work.

Fourth are the politicians who get elected and reelected by talking tough -- not smart, just tough -- about drugs and crime. But the tougher we get in prosecuting nonviolent drug crimes, the softer we get in the prosecution of everything else because of the limited resources to fund the criminal justice system.

The fifth group are people who make money from increased crime. They include those who build prisons and those who staff them. The prison guards union is one of the strongest lobbying groups in California today, and its ranks continue to grow.

And last are the terrorist groups worldwide that are principally financed by the sale of illegal drugs.

Who are the losers in this war? Literally everyone else, especially our children.

Today, there are more drugs on our streets at cheaper prices than ever before. There are more than 1.2 million people behind bars in the U.S., and a large percentage of them for nonviolent drug usage. Under our failed drug policy, it is easier for young people to obtain illegal drugs than a six-pack of beer. Why? Because the sellers of illegal drugs don't ask kids for IDs. As soon as we outlaw a substance, we abandon our ability to regulate and control the marketing of that substance.

After we came to our senses and repealed alcohol prohibition, homicides dropped by 60% and continued to decline until World War II. Today's murder rates would likely again plummet if we ended drug prohibition.

So what is the answer? Start by removing criminal penalties for marijuana, just as we did for alcohol. If we were to do this, according to state budget figures, California alone would save more than $1 billion annually, which we now spend in a futile effort to eradicate marijuana use and to jail nonviolent users. Is it any wonder that marijuana has become the largest cash crop in California?

We could generate billions of dollars by taxing the stuff, just as we do with tobacco and alcohol.

We should also reclassify most Schedule I drugs (drugs that the federal government alleges have no medicinal value, including marijuana and heroin) as Schedule II drugs (which require a prescription), with the government regulating their production, overseeing their potency, controlling their distribution and allowing licensed professionals (physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, etc.) to prescribe them. This course of action would acknowledge that medical issues, such as drug addiction, are best left under the supervision of medical doctors instead of police officers.

The mission of the criminal justice system should always be to protect us from one another and not from ourselves. That means that drug users who drive a motor vehicle or commit other crimes while under the influence of these drugs would continue to be held criminally responsible for their actions, with strict penalties. But that said, the system should not be used to protect us from ourselves.

Ending drug prohibition, taxing and regulating drugs and spending tax dollars to treat addiction and dependency are the approaches that many of the world's industrialized countries are taking. Those approaches are ones that work.

David W. Fleming, a lawyer, is the chairman of the Los Angeles County Business Federation and immediate past chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. James P. Gray is a judge of the Orange County Superior Court.

[Luckylegs]

Fark me, sounds like whoever was collating the results of that study (poll) might have used a few "Important" pages to Roll up, cos...... That cant be right surely... "You big bunch of Stoners"

[Mikkel]

Interestingly a recent survey found that the country in the world where the least people have tried cannabis is Holland. One of the few countries where it's legal - funny that eh.

I suppose is has always just been a matter of time before people started pulling their heads out of their arses and started thinking about such issues in a rational and informed manner. Hopefully that time is near.

Information not prohibition is the answer.

[RC1]

DRUGS ARE GOOD

[Reckless]

Its a little hard to believe 42% of our total population, are regular smokers!! That's just under 1/2 the population (men, women and children), "ye right"! I can accept 42% have used at one time or the other!!

But that said? Make it legal, produce what we need, tax the shit out of it, and lessen the tax on petrol!!!

[mowgli]

42%!!! Really? Perhaps that many have tried it at least once in their mis-spent youth but to call them 'users' is a bit rich. This argument comes up regularly in various guises.

Another interesting version is that all traffic laws should be abolished. No road markings either. Everyone taking responsibility for their safety with no assumptions as to what other road users might/might not do. Apparently this has actually been done in some towns.

The social consequences of drug abuse are too great for decriminalisation IMO. I think the NZ approach is too slanted towards policing and agree with Mikkel that education/information is the key to balancing the scale.

[alanzs]

Information not prohibition is the answer.

I couldn't agree more...

[slofox]

"Recently, it was announced that 42% of the population in NZ smoke cannabis"

This should read HAVE SMOKED cannabis.....which may have been only once....

[alanzs]

42%!!! Really? Perhaps that many have tried it at least once in their mis-spent youth but to call them 'users' is a bit rich. This argument comes up regularly in various guises.

According to the esteemed NZ Herald,
8:22AM Wednesday July 2, 2008
Updated: 10:56AM Monday July 7, 2008

A recent World Health Organisation survey using data from 17 countries found cannabis use was highest in the United States, at 42.4 per cent, closely followed by New Zealand at 41.9 per cent.

The study also found New Zealand ranked second behind the US in terms of cocaine use, with 4.3 per cent of participants reporting having used the drug, compared with 16.2 per cent in the States.

You are correct, 42% is a bit rich. It was only 41.9%. Prohibition doesn't work. Personally, I don't smoke cannabis, but feel like we are spending too much time on policing those NZ'ers who do. My uncle died a horribly painful death due to pancreatic cancer and was able to smoke medicinal cannabis, recommended by his oncologist, in his last dying days. It was the only thing that helped the nausea. He was being treated at a hospital in Los Angeles. Why would anyone want to deny someone who is dying relief, no matter what chemical form it takes? Compassion is what it's about.

Maybe the police should focus on real criminals, those that make people live in fear of their property or lives being harmed, not those smoking pot. Grow it for personal use, tax it when grown/sold commercially, use the tax money for rehab/treatment/education, let the police put away real criminals.

[alanzs]

"Recently, it was announced that 42% of the population in NZ smoke cannabis"

This should read HAVE SMOKED cannabis.....which may have been only once....

Criminal activity nonetheless, according to the law.

[Flatcap]

Despite my slightly right wing leanings, I think Cannabis should be legalised and regulated like alcohol. The policing dollars would be better spent on the likes of P, and the income stream needs to be taken away from gangs

[madandy]

I'd be interested to hear how things have worked in South Australia where they decriminalised pot and allowed 3 plants per household a decade or more ago.

I agree that regulating the drug industry would solve a few problems.
I wouldn't like to see Heroin made mnore easily available. Addicts are already catered to [mediaclly] in prison.

A lot of people that get hooked on the hard drugs do so because the people they go to for the dak often suplly the hard stuff and they push that shit to the pot heads and create terrible addictions.

P should remain banned though!!!!

[mowgli]

What about party pills? Have gangs gone into supplying these now that they are outlawed?

[Flatcap]

What about party pills? Have gangs gone into supplying these now that they are outlawed?

Nah - the formula was changed

[alanzs]

I'd be interested to hear how things have worked in South Australia where they decriminalised pot and allowed 3 plants per household a decade or more ago.

I agree that regulating the drug industry would solve a few problems.
I wouldn't like to see Heroin made mnore easily available. Addicts are already catered to [mediaclly] in prison.

A lot of people that get hooked on the hard drugs do so because the people they go to for the dak often suplly the hard stuff and they push that shit to the pot heads and create terrible addictions.

P should remain banned though!!!!

I agree that drug abuse has had significant costs to society. But, if a shot of heroin or P was a dollar, people sick enough to use those chemicals wouldn't have to rip off our houses or kill our elderly to get the money to use it. I think that would make more sense. I realize it is a stretch for many people, myself included, to put aside the moral certainty that we should tell others what to do with their bodies, but drug addiction is an illness. Making it criminal just seems to have made its effects on society worse, as the article in the LA Times stated.
Even the DEA, the largest drug enforcement agency on the planet, in their own studies have debunked the gateway theory of drug use, i.e., that smoking pot leads to other drug use. Even if it was true, that would make the argument of legalization even more compelling. Do we want our 18+ year old youth going to the gang tinny house to get their pot, where they are exposed to many nasty things, or to the local "coffee shop" like in Holland?

By the way, Charlton Heston died this year as I recall....