Australia's drug policy 'has failed'

[apothecary]

http://smh.com.au/news/NATIONAL/Australias...1493535832.html

Australia's policy on illicit drugs has failed and the emphasis should be shifted from law enforcement to treatment and prevention, an Australia Institute study has found.

Institute deputy director Andrew Macintosh said the report he authored had concluded Australia's tough on drugs policy had failed to significantly reduce domestic drug markets or confront drug-related mental health disorders.

The report called on governments to shift the emphasis in dealing with illicit drugs from law enforcement to treatment and prevention strategies.

"The issue of drug abuse needs to be confronted as a health rather than a legal problem," Mr McIntosh said in a statement.

"Four out of every five state and federal dollars allocated to dealing with illicit drug issues are going to law enforcement.

"This hugely disproportionate spending of funds has not been accompanied by significant reductions in drug use and drug-related harm but it has been accompanied by increased mental health and other social problems.

"Treatment, on the other hand, has been shown to substantially reduce drug and mental health problems and drug-related crime and corruption."

Mr McIntosh said studies had shown treatment was extremely cost effective, yielding savings of up to $12 for every dollar invested.

He said the Council of Australian Governments strategy to address mental health issues, due in June, should adopt a treatment-oriented approach to drug misuse rather than the counterproductive stance currently espoused by the federal and several state governments.

"We are coming at the problem from the wrong way. Eighty per cent of drug arrests in 2003-04 involved consumption offences and 60 per cent were for using or possessing cannabis.

"This is back-to-front thinking. Users are at the end of the line.

"Moreover, the statistics show that legal threats are not deterring them. Prevention and treatment programs within a health context hold far more promise."

The report found strict drug law enforcement policies had failed to dent illicit drug markets and had exacerbated the social cost of illicit drug use.

[Torsten]

not really news for us , but good to see it in the SMH

[Auxin]

Nice for someone to say it, but will your government listen?

Its hard to 'rehabilitate' people who are helped by drugs, and its not ethical to prevent them from using when drugs extend their lives.

Marijuana, Ibogaine, Ayahuasca, MDMA, etc can only be treated as universally bad if done so under harsh laws- not humanitarian inquiry.

[Legba]

ive read that about 19 000 people died from cigarettes last year. war on drugs, huh? bullshit!

i havent seen the figures but i bet more people die in a year from mis-perscribed legal pharmaceuticals than those from ibogaine, mary j, ayahuasca, ecstacy, and acid added together.

if the 'war on drugs' was about saving lives, shouldnt they make cigarettes and alcohol illegal? a royal commission into perscription fuck-ups, perhaps? burn the vineyards? of course it wouldnt work. remember prohibition?

as for illicit drug arrests, i find it hard to believe that major players in drug distribution, who collectively make billions of dollars a year, could not be found if the powers that be wanted to unless they are making money out of it themselves. so, imho, targeting users, with its track record of no real effect on drug use, is a farce that gives the image that they are doing something.

drug abuse is a problem. no doubt. its never going away. human nature. that shouldnt mean that those who dont abuse the use of ethnogens should be labelled 'druggies'.

(end of rant for now)

Edited March 11, 2006 by Bacchant

[folias]

Well, these are the common sense facts...

But the government still kow tows to the thick, hard and tough stance old nan and pop have about these terrible "drugs!" no matter what the evidence is...

Julian.

[teonanacatl]

yeah the politicians are from that generation, new polies bring a not so rough stance. i would think that if ethnogens were legalised and marketed as hard as alcohol and cigs were there would be a number of deaths, now i know we all see it hard to wanna fight and destroy things on mushies but i know people who are just as violent onmushrooms as when they are drunk. so im not saying legalisation isnt the answer, i think it is. i look at america and europe where lots of entheogens are legal and there isnt big marketing and such and it stays away from common knowledge, which i think is good.

how would one get employed to go around to schools and tell them about drugs? wonder how actually teaching them real stuff would go down with the school.

[Endrogen]

The governement is too mismanaged to agnowledge any more personal freedoms than it has.

But i hope managing the use of recreational/spiritual drugs will be dealt with sometime soon

Edited March 12, 2006 by Endrogen

[Rev]

ive read that about 19 000 people died from cigarettes last year.

LOl

i saw that in the hospital too

made me laugh

no one dies from smoking cigarettes

they die from smoking related illnesses

or else we could quote stats on people who died from eating, jumping, swimming, fucking etc

Edited March 12, 2006 by Rev