The so-called

[grace]

The so-called ‘War on Drugs’

The following is a guest post by Alan Salt, Vice-President of the Hemp Embassy.

10 August 2008

Thoughts on Freedom

Australian Libertarian Society Blog

http://alsblog.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/th...d-war-on-drugs/

 

 

I’m the current Hemp Embassy Vice-President, a drug user of thirty eight years experience, who decided eighteen years ago to limit himself to cannabis and try no more new drugs, ever. I came to Nimbin in 1974 and initially lived as a shareholder at Tuntable Falls on the Co-Ordination Co-Operative, which taught me why we have private property. I also learnt about self-appointed, self-promoting “leaders” who thrust themselves before cameras claiming to speak for all, and using our community to leapfrog into newspaper pages and political office. That taught me why voting developed. Unfortunately voting does not always affect outcomes. I learnt about governments that empty their mental clinics on the promise of outpatient services that never arrive, and tell them to go to Nimbin where they are “more likely to be accepted”. Shortly after comes a revival of “reefer madness” rhetoric to avoid the blame for putting these people out on the streets by sheeting their madness home to “drugs”.

 

 

The “War on Drugs” and “Zero Tolerance” are propaganda worthy of Goebbels, that endorses active discrimination against drug users and makes a virtue of intolerance. It might as well be code for “Feel free to druggy/hippy bash” because as criminals their word won’t stand up in court.

 

New South Wales missed its chance to break with the institutionalised corruption of its Police when Ryan was sent home, and the rotten old guard was re-instated. Since 2006, in collaboration with the local National Party member, Richmond Local Area Command has devoured public funds in paramilitary show policing via assemblies of weaponry and force, playing directly to the media. Policing for media cameras works to portray an image of good policing rather than being good policing. It lies and deceives.

 

The “War on Terror” too is little more than an orchestrated fear campaign to justify the centralisation of political powers and the denial of individual human rights. When voters are sheep, they can expect to be governed by wolves. The bigger a government the narrower its intent. Nice dividend on our stocks, shame the boy came home in a box. I just hope it does not all come to some monumentally stupid “final solution”.

 

Personally, I think all drugs should be legalised and regulated. While that may not seem anything like a “perfect” solution to some, to me it seems the most sensible and least costly answer on all levels. Prohibition merely magnifies the problems, and expense without positive result.

 

Do me a favour, all of you. Gentlemen, please attend MardiGrass in your suits and ties, and ladies, please wear your twinsets and pearls. Hippies are obviously not enough.

 

2 Comments »

I gave up caffine this week. It was my drug of choice but I’ve gone cold turkey. The first 48 hours were hellish. The headaches quite intense. But the worst of it seems to have passed and I’m now a hot chocholate man. I suspect that I’m the most prudish liberal on the block.

 

Properly understood (or maybe just understood one way instead of another) the philosophy of “zero tolerance” is a good policing measure. It is not incompatible with more warm and fuzzy notions such as “community based policing”. Zero tolerance simply means that every breach of the law should carry a consequence. It does not mean that every breach of the law should entail 30 years hard labour. Zero tolerance means when the cops pull you over with a blood alcohol limit outside what the law allows you won’t be allowed to drive home simply because you seem like a nice bloke or a because the cop thinks it’s a petty issue. However community based policing means that whilst they detain you they make you a nice cup of tea (or hot chocolate) and make sure that the wife and kids know where you are and that you get home to them as soon as the proper measures have been taken. Zero tolerance simply means cops should not turn a blind eye. It does not mean punishment should be draconian. Of course good policing of bad laws will still create bad outcomes but the problem then is with the laws and not the method of policing.

 

Alan - thanks for a great post. I hope we hear more from you. And I hope the Hemp party manages to get back on the ballot for the next election.

 

Comment by TerjeP | August 9, 2008

 

Media reports on the latest big drug seizure got me thinking about this topic.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...5013404,00.html

 

I am always suspicious when law enforcement organisations bring out their heads for a bit of public bragging. Both the AFP and Customs were unable to contain themselves over this one. The AFP particularly needs to turn public opinion in its favour after screwing up the Haneef business and now stonewalling the judicial inquiry.

 

I then wonder how much it cost to catch these naughty drug importers. A year’s investigation involving dozens of agents, thousands of phone taps and no doubt massive overtime all add up to a very expensive charge on taxpayers.

 

Then there are the laws that allow these public servants to snoop around, tapping phone lines, covertly spying on people and then arresting a whole lot of people, some of whom will ultimately not be charged or convicted. Inevitably they will have also listened to and watched people who were not involved in drug importation.

 

And after all that I struggle to think what the benefit will be. The price of ecstasy and cocaine might rise perhaps, due to reduced supply. But what is the benefit to the community of that, exactly? There will be no change in the number of people who want to buy the stuff. Perhaps there will be few more burglaries to help pay for it, but not likely. It wasn’t heroin they found.

 

So I find myself in general agreement with Alan. I don’t like drugs at all. I don’t take them and I wouldn’t recommend anyone did. But I also don’t like the loss of liberty or the waste of public resources in the pursuit of suppressing them.

 

[Alan, ignore Terje's last comment. Single issue parties are a waste of time - join the LDP.]

 

Comment by DavidLeyonhjelm | August 10, 2008

 

Leave a comment

[Infinitee]

A very interesting post, but I wanted to pick a bone ..

Personally, I think all drugs should be legalised and regulated. While that may not seem anything like a “perfect” solution to some, to me it seems the most sensible and least costly answer on all levels. Prohibition merely magnifies the problems, and expense without positive result.

 

Do me a favour, all of you. Gentlemen, please attend MardiGrass in your suits and ties, and ladies, please wear your twinsets and pearls. Hippies are obviously not enough.

 

While I agree VERY wholeheartedly with the former (legalisation and liberal regulation is the answer imho) the latter I find very disheartening.

Mardigrass, to me, is a hippy freakfest where we can all revive the swingin' spirit of the sixties and seventies (even if we weren't alive for the first rendition). It's a time when convention, when the business and the materialism of modernity is out the window and we can all get high and relish the individual within.

 

To conservatise the drug movement is to undermine what makes it enjoyable in my opinion.

Let us keep our integrity and bide our time for the leaders and sheeple to come round.

They too, shall change.