I’ve just come back from spending several months in India, where like Australia; the issue of prohibition is always a hot topic of discussion. Interestingly while relaxing there sitting on a houseboat in Kashmir staring at the Himalaya, I was frequently offered opium and hashish from the vendors who cruise around the lake on their boats, each one a mobile corner store selling everything from soft drinks, local produce and of course opium, hash and other assorted goodies.
Occasionally if the vendor had the right connections and at the right price you could get alcohol but you really had to keep this under the radar as this part of India has a predominantly Muslim society and alcohol is a definite no, no. The point being, as many of you know is that in different countries prohibition can take on many forms. What’s legal here is maybe illegal elsewhere. To highlight this in some states of India alcohol is completely illegal and as a consequence black market illicit moonshine is produced and sold with sometimes catastrophic consequences.
India: Moonshine Deaths Stir Alcohol Prohibition Debate in Gujarat: http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle...ion_deaths_in_gujarat_india_stir_debate?print Quote: “Last week, 136 people died in the Indian state of Gujarat after drinking tainted alcohol, and the incident has stirred debate over the state's alcohol prohibition policy, in existence since 1960. One of India's "liquor barons" has invited the state government to do away with prohibition, and the state government has invited him to shut up about it.”
Alcohol prohibition was once a phenomenon in the west. What it created was an underground illicit industry of alcohol production and the first real makings of organised crime in the modern age. Sound familiar? Since then we have moved from alcohol prohibition to an almost open free market economy of the production and sale of alcohol with devastating consequences. Let’s face it outside of tobacco it’s our biggest killer. From the extreme of prohibition to the current situation, we’ve missed the opportunity of stricter regulations on the sale and production of alcohol in this country; this missed opportunity has been sidelined and has really taken a back seat to an apparent real evil ........ Yes, you guessed it, ILLEGAL DRUGS!!!!!. (Just to get in the mood, please insert favourite government cliché, anti drugs rhetoric and poignant heartbreaking music to highlight the pain and suffering to the youth of Australia and someone shrieking, “What about the children!!!”)
Please don’t get me wrong, I think the prohibition of alcohol or for that matter any substance is fraught with dangers. It’s just dumb! The problem as I see it, Australia hasn’t really grown up; we still rely on mythological scary creatures like prohibition to keep the threads of social order together. As long as we lock the boogey man of illegal drugs out at night we can sleep soundly knowing that our children will be safe. Other countries are a bit more pragmatic and grown up with regard to the issue of drugs, the Netherlands, Portugal and even the bastion of prohibition the USA is starting to question the folly of a War on Drugs.
The question could be asked, “What’s happened in Australia that has stalled the move towards regulation of drugs as an alternative to prohibition?” Why are we stuck in this situation where any politician in this country who dares to question the current drugs status quo risks political suicide? When the best practice principles of harm reduction are placed in question when some redneck, born again politician can’t even read the evidence with regard to drugs and harm reduction, other than groaning on about the tired old principle of, “Just say no to drugs.” Prohibition just doesn’t work and is probably one of the most harmful aspects of drug use; to state the obvious; peoples’ lives can be ruined by the legal implications of dabbling in drugs.
Interestingly I believe that this country was closer to questioning the issue of prohibition in the late 1980’s and early 90’s due to the pending threat of a HIV/AIDS pandemic. This was a very real issue to use as a vehicle in challenging prohibition. Consequently harm reduction principles became the core business of drug and alcohol services and there was an air of optimism that things might change with regard to the law. But then several things happened, firstly John Howard was elected and thus begun the recent dark ages of conservatism within this country with regard to illicit drug use. His 10 year legacy and the subsequent hangover that he has left us with will take many years to change back to a rational and ethical debate around alternatives to prohibition. His legacy was to recreate the culture of fear and the sad thing is that he was very good at it.
Secondly, around 1999/2000 the Australian heroin drought began resulting in a significant drop in overdose related deaths. Howard naturally took credit for this, although anecdotally the word was that as things were getting a bit hot for organised crime with regard to the importation of heroin and as the Australian heroin using population was fairly small compared to the potential market of the affluent, emerging middle class, youth population in Indonesia and other south east Asian markets, the risks in Australia were just not viable. The economic cost benefits did not weigh up and they took their business elsewhere. Whether people believe that or not, either way you look at it, the availability of heroin dropped off significantly in this country and there was a subsequent reduction in overdose rates. Don’t get me wrong, the end result was a great outcome with regard to a reduction in harm. Although I believe it contributed to softening of debate by individuals in questioning the folly of prohibition, after all, the media’s pet big killer; heroin, was no longer an issue.
While all of this played out in the media some of the worlds best harm reduction strategies that were previously introduced; i.e. needle and syringe programs, targeted safe sex initiatives, better access to pharmacotherapy’s were quietly getting fantastic results. On the back of this, conservatism in this country took any good outcomes and stated that they were the results, of the War on Drugs, “Just Saying No, really does work.” The fears of an AIDS epidemic subsided in Australia and support for prohibition once again gathered strength. New drug scourges broke out, Ecstasy, the terrifying drug that would fry your brain and kill. Hydro, not the pot that mums and dads smoked in the 70’s this was 30% stronger and led to psychosis. “What about the children!” The media love it! They’re so good at it and the masses lap it up, it’s my favourite form of popular fiction these days! Can’t get enough of the hysteria! Who said the TV show,’ Lost’, got lost and the plot makes no sense? Prohibition leaves it for dead! It really makes no sense and every time you think you’ve got a sense of what’s happening out of left field a new sinister, more terrifying episode plays out.
The bottom line for me though, is that whatever option we look at from prohibition through to completely unbridled deregulation, there will always be problems. The question is as, Stephen Mugford sums up in, “Least bad solutions to the 'drugs problem'. (Unfortunately I don’t have a link to the paper), “What is the best of the bad options in dealing with the issue of drugs? He questions the rationale in keeping with prohibition and says all of the alternatives, decriminalisation, regulation and open legalisation all have issues and problems inherent with them and that we need to examine them and ask “What’s the best of the bad options?” For me we’ve tried prohibition and it will never achieve anything of value, it’s caused every problem that it was apparently designed to deal with. If aliens exist they must look at us humans and really piss themselves laughing at how stupid we are in maintaining prohibition. And no, I’m not an alien although coming back to Australia after several months in the mountains of India, I’m starting to question whether I am and I just never realised it previously.
Sorry about the ramble, I haven’t been near the net in a while and reading this thread has been a really great welcome back to technology for me, great to hear people questioning prohibition.
