Drug Prohibition: Lies, damned lies and semantics.
If you wanted an evidenced based scientific discussion about psychoactive drugs, you would of course talk about psychoactive drugs, wouldn’t you?
If we talk about the ‘war on drugs’ you wouldn’t be alone in mistakenly thinking, we are talking about a war on psychoactive drugs. But we are not.
If the war on drugs was opposed to the use of psychoactive drug use, proponents would fiercely oppose the use of all psychoactive drugs, including caffeine, alcohol and nicotine products, and a wide range of pharmaceuticals, — but they never have!
Indeed, most proponents of the drug war really enjoy using state approved psychoactive drugs. Even within their meetings to plan and enforce the war on ‘drugs’ they’ll build in breaks for psychoactive drug use — mid morning and afternoon tea, coffee and cigarette breaks, maybe a glass of wine at lunch, or enjoy a beer after the meeting.
There is clearly no war being waged on psychoactive drugs. There is however, a war against specific psychoactive drugs used by specific people This is an important distinction. The proponents of the so-called War on ‘Drugs’ are ensuring drug exceptionalism is maintained, by duping folk with smoke and mirrors.
It is also widely proclaimed society is not ready to accept drug use. This misguided delusion illustrates just how much the prohibitionist propaganda about ‘drugs’ has successfully confused and misinformed us all. We’ve been indoctrinated.
Let’s tell it as it is. Society not only accepts drugs, society loves drugs.
We build periods of psychoactive drug use into almost every social occasion — meetings, birthdays, weddings, meals, New Year celebrations etc virtually any social event. We even send greetings cards encouraging drug use — bottles of champagne being a permissible and popular favourite.
What we have a war against the use of a range of psychoactive drugs that has little to do with science, risk or harm, and everything to do with politics, prejudice and power. But this bifurcation of psychoactive drugs is kept hidden from us. We are led to believe what ‘they’ use are drugs, what ‘we’ use are not drugs.
Maintaining this façade is vital to prolonging the war against public enemy Number One -’Drugs’. We’ve been duped, hoodwinked and brainwashed.
If we think there is a small section of society that enjoys using drugs, and we refer to them as ‘people who use drugs’, our thinking has again been tricked by prohibitionist semantics.
We all use psychoactive drugs. Starting the day with a psychoactive stimulant is hugely popular across all age groups. I am talking about tea and coffee. Some people prefer to use prohibited drugs. What’s the difference — besides illegality? Prohibited drugs are not different to the state approved psychoactive drugs, except our laws drive prohibited drugs underground, making possession illegal, the drugs unregulated and the purity and content uncertain.
There is no war on drugs. We are in the middle of a raging global war against people who are using psychoactive substances that governments refuses to regulate. Law enforcement and the government are more than happy for us to use state approved (and taxed) psychoactive drugs. Indeed, Members of Parliament themselves use psychoactive drugs — some even have subsided ethanol consumption rooms (a depressant psychoactive drug) in their Parliamentary building to help MPs relax, wind down and chat.
If there is a war on drugs, then we should describe it as a war between drugs, or a war against certain sections of society who can be stopped, searched, arrested, criminalised, punished and imprisoned for using unapproved drugs.
The war on drugs masquerades as a moral crusade, but there is no moral high ground in prohibition. Government approved psychoactive drugs are kept under the drug radar so that its users don’t see themselves as ‘druggies’, as if somehow they are not using drugs. The fact is, state approved drugs pharmaceuticals, ethanol and tobacco are significantly more harmful than many of the psychoactive drugs governments refuse to approve and regulate.
There is no moral high ground approving, promoting and using some of the most harmful psychoactive substances while punishing people for choosing safer alternatives.
The so called war on ‘drugs’ is a sham. It’s a hypocritical. It’s riddled with double standards. It fails to have any significant impact reducing drug supply or use. What it does do is make the use of prohibited drug quite dangerous because users have little idea of what they are using.
The war on ‘drugs’ is not about keeping people safe from psychoactive drugs. It is about power, prejudice, vested interest and social control. The war on ‘drugs’ strategically targets the poor, indigenous people, ethnic groups, people of colour, and those struggling with severe chronic unmet needs.
In grappling with this ‘drug apartheid’ we are not dealing with a dispute between two equal groups who see things differently but need to find some pragmatic or compromised solution. No, the war on ‘drugs’ is an unscientific politically driven worldwide system of oppression rooted in the early 20th century. As you read this article people are being excluded, stigmatized, strip searched, urine tested, blood tested, subjected to dawn raids, denied employment, insurance, housing, have their children removed, arrested, punished, imprisoned — and in some countries killed — because they prefer to use a substance their government refuses to regulate. It is a serious human rights abuse.
Human rights need to be fought for. We should not engage in reconstructing or tweaking prohibition, any more than we’d tweak Transatlantic Slavery or the South African Apartheid. Tweaking prohibition is not reform — it is the metamorphosis of prohibition. Prohibition needs to be exposed for what it is. It should be dismantled piece by piece, condemned and abolished.
Be on the right side of history, realise the indoctrination, see the injustice and do what is right.
Dr Julian Buchanan
Retired Professor in Criminology and Ex Advisor to the UNODC
