The billion euro industry that needs to be nationalised

We penned a piece here many years ago under the heading; ‘Time to Separate the Drugs from the Thugs’. I remember making a strong case at the time as to why illegal drugs should be made legal, and most importantly, taken out of the hands of ruthless criminal gangs.

We made the case that the battle to curtail the distribution and sale of illegal drugs was well and truly lost. That point is 10 times stronger today than it was at that time. May I once again fall back on one of my favourite aphorisms; ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting a different result’.

The certain fact is that when people want to take drugs, they will find them and they will use them. It isn’t just the unfortunate street addicts we are talking about, as taking cocaine under the ill-chosen term ‘recreational drug use’ has become an acceptable leisure habit in ‘respectable’ society.

A publican friend of mine remarked to me recently; ‘what can I do; I would have to bar half the customers in the pub’. This is a successful, upper-end of the market, respected businessman. I remember when he, like me at the time, would ‘smell’ an individual up to that sort of ‘no good’, before they found themselves outside the door on the street.

Criminal drug cartels have become more powerful than some governments. Take the drug business away from them and they will be easily managed. Prohibition of drugs is a dead duck; it has failed, same as it failed with alcohol in the 1930s in America.

Drugs have become easier to find in every town and village in Ireland. They are cheaper, stronger and most often more dangerous.

Criminalisation does not stop use and it makes the habit more dangerous.

Only this morning I listened to Dr Brendan Fennessy, a consultant from Tallaght University Hospital, give a startling update on the consequences of cocaine use, and in particular the dangers posed by added substances.

When I lived in Canada, I found that in Manitoba all liquor sales were controlled by ‘Manitoba Liquer and Lotteries’ and that included all importation, wholesale, retail sales and distribution. There’s your blueprint for dealing with drugs.

Think of all the hours of police time taken up by the illegal drugs trade all over the world. What a safer planet we would live on if we brought in legislation to allow regulation. Think of all the suffering drug addicts who, for a start, would be better off with a regulated market, known doses, clean supply, strict labelling and follow-up help for those who can be persuaded to quit.

When drug use is a criminal offence, people hide their use and are more likely to avoid seeking help.

I know a thing or two about addiction. My drugs were alcohol and nicotine. My point here is that there are no pushers on the streets selling poisoned alcohol because alcohol is regulated. The same thing needs to be applied to eating the stuff as well as drinking it.

It may surprise some of you to learn that drug-taking is far from being a modern phenomenon. Researchers have found that ancient humans chewed on betel nuts as a stimulant and pain-killer 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. So drugs were always with us.

Nature developed alcohol from fermented fallen fruits and animals likely got drunk before humans did!

The oldest chemical evidence of alcohol being humanly dished out goes back to China around 7,000 BC. We will take it that there were no ’bootleggers’ or pushers controlling the trade in those days.

So back to the present… our primary concern should be for the vast numbers of people addicted to drugs. Apart from individual health of the user, entire families are destroyed through the problem. Homelessness, housing, vandalism, crime and multiple deaths can all lead back to the one problem of illegal drugs.

The millions of euro that would be brought into the exchequer could have an enormous impact if the money were to be channelled to where it should be. First and foremost, clinics, specialised hospital units and rehabilitation centres would be accessible in all areas to aid the recovery of suffering addicts. More money could be spent on education and enlightenment on the dangers of taking drugs in the first place.

Greater emphasis on providing sporting facilities in every town and village would go a long way towards providing a healthier people. Let us take back the lost tennis-players, champion athletes, boxers and footballers currently lost to our society because of the misuse of drugs. Think of all the necessary police work gardaí could concentrate on if the drug gangs were no longer the great threat to society that they are now.

Separating the drugs from the thugs might not solve every problem… but it would make things an awful lot better than they are now.

Don’t Forget

Prejudice is being down on something you’re not up on.