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Highs of a world where drugs are legal
The global legalisation of drugs would raise the Third World out of poverty, says Duncan Campbell
The recent row over the Government's decision to change the classification of cannabis reopened, for a moment, the weary debate over legalisation of drugs. But what would such legalisation really mean?
What if, a decade from now, the United Nations met to plan their latest drugs strategy, as they will in 2018, and, gazing on events such as the recent drugs-related slaughter in Mexico, the chaos in Afghanistan, the civil war in Colombia, the explosion of crime in Russia, the gulag of 400,000 drug offenders in US jails, decided to legalise the lot - cannabis, cocaine, whatever - across the globe?
At the moment, drug trafficking is an estimated $18bn annual business worldwide. It offers a 2,000 to 3,000 per cent profit margin. Such margins are worth protecting, whether by gun or bribe. What if those margins disappear for the criminal?
In Colombia, in 2018, we might have a negotiated peace with drug money no longer funding either the paramilitaries or Farc and a government no longer embroiled in scandal.
In Afghanistan, we could also have a settlement as poppy farmers, no longer alienated by foreign attempts to deprive them of their living by destroying their crops, might agree to cooperate with the Kabul government. The poppies could be bought for medicinal purposes by the WHO, and pomegranate and almond replacement crops slowly introduced.
In California, the US state with the largest number of drug offenders, there were 21 new prisons and one new university built during a period in the Eighties and Nineties. In 2018, that process could be reversed, with young people being educated in college rather than jail.
If the same happened across the US, it could empower many young black men, who disproportionately make up the prison population, to follow in the footsteps of a recently retired President Obama.
Further south, in Mexico, the legalisation might end the bloody war between gangs and police and inject money into the official economy. In the Caribbean, home to some of the worst per capita violence in the world, the closing down of illicit drug routes might produce profound changes in civic society, with gangs no longer killing each other in drug territory battles.
But what of the scale of the health and addiction problems at home and abroad? There would be a rash of Daily Mail stories about dead teenagers, but around the world governments would adjust to the fact that they will - perhaps only briefly - have to invest in health education and rehabilitation programmes with the same enthusiasm with which they once built jails; after all, health ministers now point to the decline in cigarette use in countries where education programmes have been tried.
In the UK in 2008, there were four million problem drinkers and alcohol was implicated in 40,000 deaths each year; there were ten million smokers and tobacco was implicated in 120,000 deaths; there were a million legalised tranquiliser users and 340,000 problematic heroin and crack cocaine users. In 2018, with legalisation, there would be an initial increase in drug use but the billions released into the public purse by legalisation, through taxes on drugs and the emptying of jails and courts, could swiftly be put into use.
Sadly, there will always be casualties; whether drugs are legal or illegal, you cannot make addictive personalities illegal. But there is no need for the economies and political infrastructures of poor countries to be perverted as they are now by the savage effects of keeping drugs illegal. ·
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Oh Christ, are there really still literate people out there that believe in the prohibition? The author's point's so obvious is doesn't need an article.
Well written piece saying what all sane, intelligent, rational non-bigots have been saying for at least 40 years. It won't happen though because there are always the morons who scream and shout about the 'evil' of drugs as they light up another fag and pour a triple Scotch.
Roger Carter clearly doesn't have the brain power to understand the argument, so resorts to simplistic over-egging to make a useless point.
The bottom line is that no one has any right to an opinion of whether someone else should or should not put any substance in their body, it's totally up to the individual as is committing suicide. So however dangerous one erroneously thinks heroin is is neither here nor there, butt out and mind your own business. The reasons why we have these drug laws are all to do with the fascism of governments, principally the US, which think they can order people's behaviour and control them in every aspect of their lives. They have spread so much misinformation that idiots like Carter don't understand a fraction of it, and go shooting their ignorant mouths off at every opportunity.
At last.we have someone with common sense.The problem is that We have these people who lock up people for taking the Drug of their choice,whilst they themselves consume the drug of their choice! What a load of Hypocracy! Why are these drugs banned? For the simple reason that the governments of this world do not control the market!!
Yes Roger, killing more people with the death sentence - that would really work! You've not looked into the way the crackhead killers in Bogata terminate people for $20! They don't hesitate to kill the police, army or each other, nor any innocents around them, because they are already facing certain death from a bullet (in the short term) or death from drugs (in the mid-term) Making a lot of drugs legal would cut this off totally. Without money, everything grinds to a halt. Just look at what's happening with global commerce! The same would happen to the drug lords. The only risk is that some would go on to other illegal acts. But where do you go from murder? I say try it with the lower classes of drug, legalise small amounts of some stronger drugs, and keep crack illegal.
It is moron's like the the author of "why not legalize Burglary, Rape. etc,etc," Where do you get these Ideas?The amount of Deaths caused by Alcohol consumption,40,000. Deaths attributed to Tobbacco use 120,000.How many Deaths are caused by heroin use? 100? 120? Society taxes these products, so there cool Should we link Alcohol to Burglary as well?If you are going to spout opinions at least research the subject MORON!
I've been maintaining that this should be done since 1966, only to see my beloved United States become a nation of narks and snitches; the nark police have become an industry, and it couldn't exist without snitches. It's a sad situation, and likely to get worse before it gets better. I'm 60, but likely won't live to see things set aright.
I should like some real figures on the islands in the Caribbean where one on one violence is one of the highest in the world, please Mr Campbell. The trait which makes so many journalists unpopular is that they arrogate to themselves a license to print their views and hardly ever facts. This why very few of them are taken seriously.
Yolande M. Agble NY.
I'm with Mr Campbell on this one. Some people will always drink, smoke and/or take drugs, it's been going on for centuries. If drugs were legalised the world would have a lot more control of it and have more funds to invest in proper education to lead young people away from it. It would take a long time to reach this but it's got to be better than us pretending there's not a problem. Traffickers and big dealers aren't nice people, but a lot of the people that work for them are just trying to make a living and stay alive, the fear of death will make most people do things they don't want to until one day it becomes the norm. A lot of these people are the ones who end up in prison, the big people have strongholds that no ones getting through and they don't take risks, they leave that to the workers. I'm all for the death penalty for the traffickers but the chances of getting anywhere near them at the moment are slim to none.
If drugs were legalised they could be put out of business and when they move on to the next big money making thing, Police around the world would have a lot more time to invest in dealing with them as well as dealing with burglary, rape, assault etc. As far as I'm concerned the same goes for prostitution. People trafficking is evil and it's happening more and more, on your own doorstep. Legalisation would free up resources for catching the criminals, who aren't the girls or boys but the pimps/traffickers who are making as much as the drug traffickers. It's never going to be simple but at the moment we're letting the badies win because the 'nice' people in the world like to pretend it's not a problem happening anywhere near them.
A crass and simplistic set of views, Mr Campbell. To use your logic why not legalise burglary, rape or assault - that will keep a few more prison cells available, won't it!
Rather, why not institute the death penalty for traffickers and dealers of drugs......mandatory