Sir, Concerning drugs policy, can someone please tell me what reality altering drugs our politicians are on?
I recently received from a Fianna Fail candidate in Dublin South East his "radical plan to tackle drug related crime". Amongst his proposals, the candidate pledges "to increase in patient detoxification beds from 25 to 100". Considering we are supposed to have some 8,000 plus addicts in this country, does he really believe 100 beds will solve the problem? He then goes on to advocate a minimum 10 year sentence for anyone caught with £10,000 worth of drugs, as part of his "punishing dealers with an iron fist" policy. Again, considering the multi millions been made on drugs in this country, and considering that addicts are so desperate as to share needles and risk HIV infection, does he really believe that been seen to be tough will have any effect on the entry and distribution of drugs in this country?
One thing I will not accuse this particular candidate of is being stupid. He's not, hut like the vast majority of our politicians he refuses to come out from behind the media sound bites and tell the public what, maybe, they don't want to hear. The fact is that as a country we cannot stop drugs coming in. As long as it is profitable enough for drugs couriers, for example, to carry cocaine into this country in condoms in their stomachs, and to risk death through massive accidental overdose, we cannot seal this country from drugs. That is a fact that many of our politicians, for reasons of political expediency, will not admit.
In order to eliminate the drugs supply we'd have to seal this country in a way unseen in human history. This is not possible. What's more, if we were to attempt such an endeavour in a halfhearted way, we might reduce a proportion of the drugs supply, but this would in turn raise the price of drugs, causing addicts to steal even more in order to feed their habit. At best, the security forces of this state can punish those who inflict this cancer on our society, utilising resources such as the Criminal Assets Bureau. We need to increase the resources for initiatives like this but not to hide behind the false hood that they alone hold the answer.
So what is the answer? Well we need to be honest that the key to solving this is not the supply. We need to eliminate the demand. Not reduce it, as this will just increase the street price. But eliminate it and make it unprofitable for pushers to import drugs into the state. The one thing we should consider, as a society, is the role addicts and frequent drugs users play in the whole scenario.
If we can separate the drug users, who are, effectively, the market, from the supply, we'll inflict a far greater blow to the pushers that thousands of extra gardai could. We need to consider giving addicts a choice between going clean and being monitored on a weekly basis, and incarceration in a controlled facility out of the reach of the pushers. Not treating them as criminals, but recognising that their status as drug users inflicts damage on society and therefore requires their temporary removal from society.
Our politicians won't admit this, of course, because such a proposal must be implemented in full and would cost, in capital and current expenditure, billions of pounds, and would require cuts in other areas of expenditure to pay for it. The other fact is that the Irish people would have to decide whether we are willing to make those sacrifices to pay for it. A nice tough sounding sound bite, on the other hand, is far cheaper and doesn't require any dangerous political costs such as providing leadership. Yours, etc.
Merrion Strand, Sandymount, Dublin 4