Drugs crackdown 'not working'

[nugget]

Author: David Crawshaw

Date: 05 Jun 06

Source: The Hobart Mercury

Copyright: © Davies Bros

 

Drugs crackdown 'not working'

 

AUSTRALIA'S anti-drug policies have failed because they focus too heavily on prosecuting users rather than catching dealers, an inquiry heard today.

 

The parliamentary joint committee on the Australian Crime Commission, headed by Liberal senator Ian Macdonald, is inquiring into amphetamines and other synthetic drugs.

 

The inquiry has been told the Federal Government's "tough on drugs" stance has had little effect on drug use, and Australia now has the highest rate of amphetamine use in the world.

 

Andrew McIntosh, deputy director of left-wing think-tank the Australia Institute, told the committee drug policies focused too heavily on law enforcement and failed to recognise addiction as a health problem rather than a criminal one.

 

He said police were wasting time and resources raiding dance parties to prosecute teenagers carrying small amounts of recreational drugs.

 

 

"Why do we keep putting more and more resources into law enforcement when we know they're not getting us very far?" Mr McIntosh told the inquiry.

 

"Behaviour will not change significantly as a result of law enforcement.

 

"The nucleus of drug strategy must be prevention and treatment programs rather than law enforcement.

 

"At the moment, around 80 per cent of government resources are spent on law enforcement (and) most of this is tied up in chasing down drug users rather than suppliers."

Australia should consider decriminalising, but not legalising, possession offences for softer drugs such as cannabis, Mr McIntosh said.

 

Evidence showed this would free up police resources and ease the social impact of drug use but would not lead to an increase in the number of people using drugs.

"If we kept supply-side drug law enforcement and went to say, a decriminalised scheme (for drug use), I don't think you'd see any noticeable change in the patterns of cannabis use," Mr McIntosh said.

"The evidence on that is really quite strong."

 

He said the Netherlands had only a "mid-range" incidence of cannabis use compared with other European countries, notwithstanding the fact it does not prosecute minor drug offences.

 

Family and Friends for Drug Law Reform president Brian McConnell told the hearing existing drug education programs in schools were ineffective and some were "a waste of money".

 

"You need to provide factual information to the kids, not hype and exaggeration," he said.

 

"If you say to a kid `You smoke cannabis and you'll get psychotic or you'll get schizophrenia', the kid will know someone who is using cannabis and has never been psychotic or schizophrenic. And so it puts the lie to the education."

The hearing continues.

 

Wow, someone who actually seems to have half a brain, and a decent knowledge on the subject

[Frazz]

Well it has taken me a little while to respond to this post nugget, as it took some time to recover from the shock of seeing the truth in print

 

I wonder how much weight this will carry in the final inquiry report, the phrases in bold should be carved in the steps to parliment

[WantDaChronic]

I wonder how much weight this will carry in the final inquiry report, the phrases in bold should be carved in the steps to parliment

 

i agree the bold text should be carved into the steps at parliment house, but sadly this article will hold no weight in the final decision the government makes with howard in complete power of the australian government, we are fully fucked as he is as anti drugs as they come

[raverspec]

Awesome article, but Wantda's right.

[Infinitee]

Don't be too damn positive, guys!

 

(This is the 1 to us, versus the 10,000 to Them, be happy!!)

[pipeman]

Follow up Story: War on drugs proving a success

 

When asked for his response to a previously published article by David Crawshaw in the Hobart Mercury regarding the apparent failure of Australia's "War on Drugs" policies, the police comissioner was quick to disagree.

 

"The war on drugs in Australia has seen many positive results. Drugs are not an acceptable part of our society. The pursuit and prosecution of drug offenders is something the police believe in and the public demands." replied the commisioner

 

"The drug culture is extremely important to the police of this country. Drug offenders are easy to catch, in abundance everywhere, are rarely armed or violent and provide a good source of revenue in fines which all in all makes them a pleasure to arrest. And if any allegations of corruption or abuse are brought up, who is going to take the word of a lowlife pothead against a police officer? No one thats who. So unless they have any evidence we are in the clear, and we always make sure they don't get any evidence."

 

The comissioner then went on to point out that the war on drugs was actually saving the public money.

 

"If we spent the majority of our resources on serious criminals like armed robbers, murderes, rapists etc the results would be terrible for the Australian people. First of all it would make it a lot harder for the police force to recruit new members. Knowing that we weren't bothering with kicking in the doors of potheads anymore but instead were going to face armed and violent criminals on a day to day basis, well its not exactly the money or the box is it.

 

Furthermore when you catch an armed robber or murderer it actually costs the taxpayer money. Aside from the fact that police officers may get injured in the process, if the suspect is successfully convicted he is sent away for years at the taxpayers expense, not even paying any fines. But on the other hand, bust a few potheads and march them off to court and not only is there virtually no chance of the police being involved in any violent resistance, but we get them for some fines and set them loose again so we can bust them again for some more fine money when the time is right.

 

The commissioner finished with this statement:

 

"At the end of the day you need to really ask yourself if the purpose of the police is to protect society against criminals they actually need protecting against, or is it to provide a revenue of fines and good publicity for the politicians. Well, seeing as though its the politicians who allocate our budget I don't really need to spell it out for you do I?"

 

Edited June 8, 2006 by pipeman