Illegal drugs

Is the illegal drug industry in this country fuelled by crime gangs, by violence, or by public demand for a product? Or is it simply profit?

We have lost this drug war. The winners' lieutenants live in villas in Spain. The generals? We will never even know their names, they are respectable billionaires now.

We could end this war today: Stop the profit. Do people die from smoking hash? Is cocaine like taking a drink? As in, some take one now and again, and enjoy it, while some take a hit and, like alcohol, are addicted.

I have no idea; I never took cocaine. But I like a drink, and I used to smoke cigarettes. It took me 20 years to break the addiction.

I smoked hash in the States as a kid; never saw it again, never cared! I might take it again now for pain; I am told it should help, but if I do I will become a criminal.

Is hash a gateway drug or an introduction to the savage gangs we allow control this ever-expanding business?

Members of the Kinahan gang were arrested recently. It is being hailed as a great success for our law enforcement agencies, and it is.

Our Gardaí work at great risk, and maybe it is time to ask whether it's necessary to put them in that position of risk?

€1 billion they imported, the Kinahans, €200 million profit. We are told a drop in the bucket over the years. It will be written off on the annual balance sheet of the drug cartels as a one-off loss, an incidental.

We are creating dynasties worldwide just as the British aristocracy did; those whose wealth stem from their forefathers' involvement in the slave and opium trade.

These fortunes we presently see created from drugs, will be cleaned over the years, and a respectable new rich will emerge.

Just for a moment, let's suppose we made drugs legal, all of them, everywhere, in every country. Like we do cigarettes and booze. Legal hash, cocaine, heroin, all of it legal, all of it for sale in a state registered and licensed drug off-licence.

Let's suppose we charged for these drugs, took the profit into the state and away from the scum who now profit.

Let's say you want to buy heroin and you are a registered addict, that you have to; in order to be supplied, in this state-run drug shop undertake counselling and if you still want to remain a drug addict we will help with clean needles and a free supply.

Steady now; let me finish.
No, ok, let's take the point that this is a stupid idea and will encourage drug use. I wonder.

Free heroin to addicts, who in order to access this legal supply have to partake in a service to cure their addiction. No need to rob you or me to find the money to buy the drugs, no need for the huge cost to the state of a Drug Squad.

But most important; no profit for the gangs.
Also no spread of infection, HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis, through the use of dirty needles.

No need for the addict to plague his community: which by a strange coincidence is always those communities most neglected by society. Alcohol, a recreational drug, is a huge contributor to the state coffers. Marijuana and cocaine have been termed in certain circles as recreational drugs: Tax them. If we legalised them, all that income could be directed towards the state.

Alcohol abuse is huge in this country, we speak of it and its effects every day. People are dying in their thousands because of this legal recreational drug. But it is regulated, controlled and profitable to this state and its people. Cigarettes: A recreational legal drug, controlled and of great profit to the state. Thousands, dying from its use. Cancer endemic! We speak of its adverse effects every day.

There is not a sane person in this country who would suggest we should put the control of these legal drugs into the control of criminal gangs. Illegal drugs are no different. We must realise as long as there is a market it will be satisfied.

We must wake up to this fact and we cannot do this in isolation from a geographical or substance point of view.

We must grasp the nettle, there is a market-driven demand. Whatever we do, it will be satisfied, and that is one indisputable fact in this article.

Reason demands we, society should step in, we should satisfy the market, we should control it we should take the profit away from the gangs but we have to do it all.

We have to make them all legal everywhere. Right across Europe. Amsterdam is a disaster because it is isolated, and sucks in victims and criminals like flies. Imagine Cork as the only city in Europe where you could legally buy alcohol!

Profit is what this is about, and who makes that profit. The market is indisputable; it will be satisfied. The real question is, by whom?

Source: The Cork Independent, 15,07/2010