The War on Drugs a success?. We are often told that the War on Drugs is a failure and that a zero tolerance drugs policy causes more harm than good. However according to this article, tough drug laws in Australia have created a "heroin drought". According to the article, the shortage of heroin is resulting in falling rates of other crimes often associated with drug use. [kuro5hin.org]

My reaction to this scared the bejeezus out of me. First I read the title and immediately appended a "Pfft... yeah right." I have long been of the mind that the War On Drugs was simply not much more than a tactic used by our government to give us a common demon to fight against, for distraction and unification, etc.

I think zero-tolerance on pot smokers goes beyond laughable into the realm of frightening and that tight regulation instead of complete demonization might be the way to get tendrils more firmly embedded into the illicit drug world (note: I didn't say full-legalization so don't send me lots of pedantic flame bait. I'll just /dev/null it. Comments & thoughtful criticisms, good. Bitching, bad.) That being said...

I read just the couple sentences quoted above (as had come through my news reader) and thought "NO! It's irresponsible to post something like that. You don't want to give people the idea that it might be legitimate! Thinking people know that the Drug War is a load of propaganda-laden crap!" Now that is what I believe. But why?

On one hand it's primarily because of my own experiences with people who used drugs anywhere from occasionally, through habitually straight into addictively and destructively. Drugs don't jump on people walking down alleys. People go find them. They have to get to a position where they want them and I believe "the drug problem" starts there, long before chemistry is involved.

On the other hand it's a display of pretty basic economic principles of supply and demand. Go after drugs tooth and nail, decrease the supply to near unavailable levels ('cause let's face it, does anyone believe it'll disappear completely?) and you proportionally jack up demand exponentially. They're worth more, people will go to greater lengths for them. That to me seems like it would drive a dramatic increase in drug-related crimes.

Color me simplistic.

So my stomach lurched when I read that for those reasons and some that are more baseless than that no doubt. It was an emotional reaction, NOT a rational one. The notion that I might be wrong took minutes of vile absolutist reaction to even occur to me. Holy shit, what if it did work? Is the prospect so incomprehensible to me? Why? I want people to use drugs less. I want them to be forced to introspect a little more before such things are available as an option. I have enough faith in the power of the individual over his or her self to come to a different conclusion than escapism if they're given the chance.

These articles didn't change my mind, and I'm not going to go into why. That's not what this post is about. But I'm much more likely to have let them than I was when I read the headline.

I feel I escaped something narrowly. I'm still not sure what. But it feels good in that way only a good humbling plate of cold crow can.

6:26:51 PM    comment []