There is little doubt whenever the subject of recreational drug use is raised, otherwise sensible people respond in one of two ways, they either dive for deep cover or spout the most reactionary claptrap. This is especially true of the political and media elites.
The two letters I publish below highlight as far as drug use is concerned ordinary folk are streets ahead of the media and political elite. In the first letter Jim Jepps deals with the media generated brouhaha after two young men died after allegedly taking legal drugs which contained Mephedrone, an amphetamine like substance which can be extracted from the leaves of Qat, or Khat, which is used extensively by Somalis, both at home and in their communities in London.
As is always the way when they face a problem which is more than a two piper, our brainless politicians and their media gofers call for new laws. Never mind the current laws covering illicit drugs are now recognized as being a major part of the problem by most of those who are required to deal with the debris of recreational drug use, including senior police officers, academics, addicts and those who man the frontline services.
This knee jerk reaction whenever problems with drug use arise, has proved disastrous in the past, especially for the minority of drug users who develope problem due to their drug use. In the 1960s when media big shots like David Frost exposed a tiny number of private doctors, who were abusing the English system of treating drug addicts. The government of the day went down the road of legislation and banned all GP’s from prescribing Heroin and Cocaine. The result of this legislation was to destroy decades of the most successful drug treatment practice in the world, in which addicts were prescribed their daily needs by their GP, and in return were expected to get on with their lives without manufacturing lame excuses as to what lay behind their drug use.
In its place government ordered the NHS to set up drug treatment clinics, (DDU) which had a psychiatrist consultant at there head. These DDU’s exist to this day, and mainly treat addicts by prescribing them an inadequate daily dose of oral methadone, a synthetic opiate, which is far more addictive than heroin. To justify their practice these doctors overnight moved drug addicts from having an uncontrollable habit similar to smoking, to having a psychiatric illness which later came to justify and excuse the most wretched behaviour on the part of addicts.
There seems little doubt, due to the media induced panic, Mephedrone will be place on the controlled substances list and it will become a criminal offense to possess it, making it inevitable Khat will soon follow, creating a new black market for the drug and in the process criminalizing thousands of Somalis who use this drug daily.
The question we should all be asking is who gains by making the supply and possession of Mephedrone a criminal offense. I would suggest not the users of this substance who will be forced onto the black market, not the police and criminal justice system which are already snowed under with countless minor cases and investigations into illicit drugs 'crimes.' The main victims of which are the very people the police and the courts are there to protect. Is it any wonder the majority of the UKs prison population are incarcerated for what is a victimless crime, i e possession or supply of drugs.
Yes, it is true that peoples lives can be ruined by drug taking, but no more so than over indulging alcohol or smoking tobacco, which whilst increasingly frowned upon is rightly seen as a matter of personal choice. The use of Mephedrone seems to be restricted to a smallish number of users, although whether this changes due to the current publicity remains to be seen, but given time its popularity will in all probability wain, as users returned to the more reliable illegal substances like Amphetamines (speed) and Cocaine, and theres the rub.
Drugs like cocaine, heroin and speed have been illegal for decades, has this stopped people in their millions from using them, has it made these substances any safer to use, of course not. Unlike when they were legal and manufactured under the same regulations as other pharmaceutical drugs.
For many young people the very illegality of these drugs is part of the attraction, for them it is like cocking two fingers at the grown ups. This was proved when cannabis use declined during the short period it was categorized down from class B to C. This experiment was stopped in its tracts after the government bowed to a media generated brouhaha over skunk, similar to the current one over Mephedrone and reclassified cannabis back to class B before the experiment had run its course.
When they first came on the market Heroin, Cocaine and speed were all legal and thus there was no need for users to turn to the black market. It was not until these drugs became illegal that a black market developed and we got where we are. Our prisons overflowing, our young people criminalized, some of our streets unsafe. No matter what stance one takes on illicit drug taking, whether one is for, against or neutral, only someone wilfully blind to the reality of life in the UK today, would deny the fact, the major problems which flow from illicit drug use, are due to the illegality of these comparatively harmless substances.
Make no mistake, the British establishment being the creature it is, it will not be long before some of todays major drug dealers and importers, join the likes of the Guinness family watching the Derby from the Royal box alongside the English monarch.
MH
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The deaths of Louis Wainwright and Nicholas Smith (Drug experts will urge ban on legal high mephedrone after link to teenage deaths, 18 March) are a reminder that drugs – both legal and illegal – are among the most pressing public health issues in this country. Every week millions take prohibited drugs that are subjected to no controls, no safety checks and no regulation. Meanwhile the public debate on drugs is sensationalist, ill-informed, and often serves to increase dangerous behaviour, advertising new substances, rather than decreasing it.
This has been particularly clear this week as the government has begun moving towards banning mephedrone, before we know whether it caused these tragic deaths, or what other drugs these boys had taken that night. Why is it so difficult to wait for the postmortem before drawing conclusions about these deaths? Why is it so hard to wait a whole week before making kneejerk pronouncements?
Jim Jepps
London
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The discovery of the plant genes for producing codeine and morphine "opens the door" to alternative ways of making these two drugs – at some non-specified time in the future (Painkiller gene discovery ends need for opium poppy fields, 15 March). Meanwhile 2,500 hectares of British fields have been turned into opium poppy farms to meet NHS demand for morphine, and Tasmania has become the world's largest producer of legal opium, raising concerns about the impact on wildlife. Is there a stronger argument for buying the produce of Afghan poppy fields at a fair market price, providing a legitimate cash crop for poor Afghan farmers, instead of costly and hopeless attempts to eradicate it? At the same time diverting whatever is bought away from the warlords whose operations it funds – and the whole chain of highly lucrative and violent criminal endeavour that delivers it to the streets of cities the world over? Or is that just too simple?
John Saddington
London
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