23/12/2007 00:00:00
Ireland: Let's not go soft on hard drugs
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We need a thoughtful approach to tackling our so-called cocaine crisis
rather than overhyping the problem or opting for legalisation, argues
Patrick Kenny
IT IS clear for all to see that Ireland has a growing cocaine problem
which we must face in a sensible and coherent manner. But in the process
of tackling the problem, we must steer a careful path between two major
mistakes that would make the situation worse.
The first mistake is that of normalising the problem by hyping its
prevalence. The recent Prime Time Investigates programme grabbed the
headlines with its findings that cocaine traces can be found in most
pubs and nightclubs. But that is a long way from showing that most
individuals take cocaine. If we create the impression that "everyone"
takes cocaine when they clearly don't, and if we communicate the idea
that cocaine use is now the expected behaviour for young people, we can
make the problem worse because of the powerful effect of social norm
perceptions on human behaviour.
The second, and even greater, danger is to indulge in poorly thought-out
policy reactions that will have the ultimate effect of making the
problem worse. That's why arguments about legalising cocaine and other
drugs, must be rejected.
One of the arguments for legalisation is that state controls would put
the crime lords out of business. But there is absolutely no evidence for
this. Do we really believe that the gangs who have made millions, and
who are prepared to kill to protect their narcotic empires, will simply
walk away and retire?
At what age should children be allowed to buy legal cocaine? One study
released earlier this year indicated that 40 per cent of Irish
15-year-olds have dabbled in illegal drugs. Should cocaine be legal for
kids of this age? Unless we make cocaine more freely available than
alcohol and tobacco, and place no age limits on it, a black market for
underage cocaine will remain. In such a scenario, what's to stop our
drug lords killing each other to capture the teen coke market? And what
if the cocaine magnates diversify into other banned substances, creating
a new, expanded market where they won't have to compete against the
local cocaine-selling pharmacy? Do we really want expert drug pushers
pursuing our teenagers in this way? What about the cost of legal
cocaine? What's to stop the criminal gangs from undercutting the price
of legal cocaine?
But even if, in some alternative reality, the decriminalisation of
cocaine would reduce crime, we still face a choice between two major
evils and must ask ourselves which of them is the lesser: gangs wiping
each other out or the prospect of even greater drug abuse and death in
the rest of the population due to decriminalisation?
Legalising cocaine would inevitably increase drug consumption levels and
with them, drug-related tragedies because the law plays a significant
role in influencing human behaviour. Of course, it is peers that have
the most intensely powerful impact on our behaviour, precisely because
friends help to establish the social norms. But if this potent peer
pressure has already led to a significant cocaine problem, how much
greater would our problem be if the State endorsed cocaine?
Britain, in taking a softer approach to marijuana, has seen a 22 per
cent increase in hospital admissions of cannabis users. The Netherlands,
with its enlightened drugs policy, has seen a dramatic rise in heroin
use since soft drugs were legalised. Meanwhile, Sweden, with some of the
toughest drugs laws has Europe's lowest consumption rate.
After the recent cocaine-related death of Kevin Doyle, 21, of Waterford,
his family said that they "sincerely hope that no family has to suffer
the pain that we are going through".
Can we really believe that a dangerous experiment with legalised cocaine
would help their wish to come true?
Patrick Kenny is a lecturer in marketing in the Dublin Institute of
Technology.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/lets-not-go-soft-on-hard-drugs-1253207.html
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Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13089
Author:
Irish Independent via UKCIA
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