A New Drug Strategy
Drug Advisory Council of Australia Inc.
Submission to The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family & Community Affairs
A New Drug Strategy is Needed
For the past 17 years our community has experienced a social experiment of normalizing of mind-altering drugs that has been a massive failure. Drug "experts" who support drug normalization and maintaining addicts on drugs have proven that their way does not work. These drug "experts" now admit an explosion in the numbers of addicts, drug deaths, drug related crime and crime victims.
Our community needs a new drug strategy based on world's best practice in reducing drug use. The drug policies of Sweden, Singapore and some parts of the U.S.A. have been successful in reducing drug use in their communities. Sweden has drug prevalence rates five times lower than Australia.
A new drug strategy must emphasis -
- A community free of drugs. A strategy objective of a drug free community sends the message that we care about others and that they matter. The community therefore accepts a reduction in the number of people who are addicted and marginalized. This powerful principle underpins all policies to tackle illegal drug use and provide real solutions to the drug problem.
- The elimination of harm to those who are vulnerable to mind altering drugs. This principle shows that we will not accept illegal drug use because it is dangerous to health, reduces life span, produces dysfunction and death for addicts. The community wants an elimination of the harm from trauma, distress and violence associated with drug related crime.
- People treated with dignity and not written off or abandoned to despair. Addicts, their families, victims and the community benefit from getting addicts' drug free quickly and permanently.
- Real solutions that solve community problems and increase our quality of life. The drug crisis must be tackled in a positive way that provides a multi faceted solution to the issues relating to drug use.
- A reducing numbers of addicts, drug deaths, drug crimes and victims of drug related crime.
- Drugs must never become an integral part of our society and that drug use must remain unacceptable and marginal is a key component of the successful Swedish drug policy.
Drugs are illegal because they are dangerous
Every illegal drug is dangerous to use. There is no safe usage.
Australia has international obligations through treaties and its United Nations International Narcotics Control Board obligations to keep all illegal drugs illegal. Therefore a drug strategy must be in conformity with our international obligations and not undermine efforts to reduce drug supply or demand. There are considerable efforts being undertaken to fight drug cartels that manufacture and smuggle drugs to us.
A new drug strategy must emphasis -
- All present illegal drugs must remain illegal.
- A reduction in the supply of drugs consistent with international obligations. This must be coordinated over all levels of government
- A reduction in the demand for drugs and the number of addicts and their victims
United we can fight illegal drugs
Politicians must agree to fight drugs hard so that drug use is reduced, the community is safer, addicts are helped to get drug free, drug crime is reduced and criminals are stopped.
To achieve these improvements for our quality of life, politicians must put aside their differences and agree to fight illegal drugs in a non political way.
A new drug strategy must emphasis -
- Coordinated policies at a political level to ensure effectiveness. Elected representatives must take responsibility for policies, including a Minister responsible for drug policy coordination.
- Drug use to be treated as a community problem and not be confined as a health problem. All problems associated with drug use must be dealt with in a comprehensive and coordinated way.
- Accurate drug use statistics that provide continuous and historical statistical comparisons with other states and countries to provided a sound base of knowledge for informed decisions.
Functioning families for prevention of drug use and healing addicts
Families are best for the prevention of drug use and for the support of addicts. The love, affection and mutual well being of family members is the best environment for resisting drug use and healing those harmed by drugs. Families want politicians to help them to teach their children to say no to drugs and if their children become addicts to get them drug free quickly and permanently and to come down hard on criminals who supply drugs.
However, there are many dysfunctional families that are incapable of protecting the vulnerable members from using or experimenting with mind-altering drugs or with rehabilitating them into leading a high quality life free of the toxic effects of mind altering drugs.
Families want support with a new drug strategy providing truthful information about the effects of illicit drugs on health, longevity, behavior and risk of death.
A new drug strategy must emphasis -
- A strengthening of families with positive programs providing resources useful to them to assist them to say no to drugs.
- Funding for a comprehensive community education campaign to say no to drugs.
- Funding for education for families to teach them to say no to drugs.
- Funding for families to assist addicts to get drug free permanently.
- Accurate information on the true harm from using illegal drugs to be provided to families, educators, health professionals, police, justices professionals and the community.
- Drug education must teach that use of illegal drugs is wrong.
- An education curriculum teaching resistance to peer group pressure.
- Mandatory detoxification and rehabilitation to replace drug maintenance programs.
- Mandatoty detoxification and rehabilitation to replace syringe distribution.
- Funding of more detoxification and rehabilitation programs.
- Detoxification and rehabilitation providers be funded on success in getting addicts drug free permanently.
- Detoxification and rehabilitation providers have performance monitored.
The community wants to be safe
The most effective drug strategy is one that produces a reducing number of addicts and victims.
Helping addicts to get off drugs quickly and permanently sends the message that the community cares about people and their health. A reducing number of addicts benefit our community by providing tolerance and help to vulnerable people by providing real solutions to human problems which have proven effective overseas. Addicts directed into detoxification and rehabilitation will provide community safety and a reducing number of victims of drug related crime.
A new drug strategy must emphasis -
- Laws that educate against using illegal drugs
- Laws that don't prosecute possession of small quantity of illegal drugs (2 gms of marijuana)
- Laws that prosecute possession of trafficable quantities of illegal drugs.
- Prison sentences for conviction of possession of trafficable quantities of illegal drugs.
- Drug pushers on bail caught reoffending be jailed.
- Effective criminal sanctions for drug pushers that cultivate, produce, transport, sell, finance and possess trafficable quantities of illegal drugs.
- Funding of more police focussed on reducing drug related crime.
- Elimination of drug pushing to be a key police priority.
- Criminal justice focussed on reducing the victims of drug related crime.
- Criminal justice used to direct addicts into detoxification and rehabilitation.
- Drug free justice facilities.
- Former offenders released drug free and rehabilitated into the community.
- Assistance to the judiciary in directing addicts into detoxification and rehabilitation.
Conclusion
The policy of harm minimization is a failure.
Overseas countries that have used the harm minimization policy are now moving to legalization of illicit drugs that will lead to an epansion of use of those drugs. This will have the effect of increasing the number of disfunctional families, more crime, more family and community violence, more road trauma, and decreased workplace and community safety. The other effect is to increase cost to government in law enforcement, health and income support.
Our Council supports harm elimination policies that have proven effective in reducing the number of people affected by illicit drug use, victims of drug related crime and their resulting costs to the community.
Your Committee has a responsibilty to recommend a change of policy and to abide by the international obligations to suppress drugs and to help addicts to be rehabilitated to a drug free condition.
22/7/02
