Drug Reform: One of Many Needed Law Reforms

Casually walking through Tralee Town Park, on the grey pavement I observe many things including leaves, the odd decapitated flower and drug paraphernalia. It is not a rare sight but not a common one either, just the odd syringe here and there. After “yokeapocalypse” several months ago, many Kerry people from Tarbert to Rossmore Island and from Ballyferriter to Rathmore emerged from their fallout shelters and were surprised to not find scenes reminiscent of Mad Max. Personally, I was not surprised the whole incident has reinforced by belief in the need of drug law reform.In my estimation we need decriminalisation. Before you begin to pound on your keyboard frantically to write a letter to the editor, one must understand though we use decriminalisation and legalisation interchangeably, they are not the same. Decriminalisation does not mean drug users get away with impunity, but possessing miniscule amounts of drugs would no longer mean the holder would receive a criminal record or a prison sentence.  Portugal is a role model for drug law reform. In June of 2001 Portugal decriminalised all drugs, adopting a harm reduction policy. Instead of putting drug addicts in prisons they were sent to mandatory classes to help them cope with addiction. In the late 90s Portugal was going through a serious drug problem. Rates of HIV/AIDS infections were increasing drastically, before 1991 there were 73 newly infected drug users with that figure soaring to 505 new cases of infection in 1994.   This number has decreased to an average of 56 a year between 2001 and 2012.  Similarly we can observe downward trend of those seeking Hepatitis C & B treatment in drug programmes, despite the number of those seeking drug treatment increasing. The main reason disease rates plummeted was due to a highly publicised needle exchange programme. Such a programme will not just save lives in Ireland but also save money for the government. The average hypodermic needle costs the HSE .86c meanwhile the daily cost for a HIV patient’s drugs costs the state €45. In Portugal the average heroin addict uses needle exchange programmes every 3 days, this brings their cost per a year to the state around €105.85, nothing compared to the €16,425 annual cost per a HIV patient. It only makes sense to implement more needle exchange programmes here in Ireland to aid in cutting down on transmission rates of certain diseases. Decriminalisation also saw a 20% decrease in drug related deaths in Portugal between 2001 and 2012. Ireland on the other hand tragically has the third highest drug related death rate in Europe. The reason why our drug policy fails is obvious; we treat drug addiction as a criminal issue and not a health one. Hypothetically, if we decriminalise drugs we remove the stigma attached to drug addiction thus allowing drug addicts to seek help without been forced to by the state. This is visible in Portugal where initially the rate of those going to rehabilitation cases on their own accord was quite low with a gradual increase as the years went on.However for me the most the compelling argument for decriminalisation is the fact it takes power away from criminal gangs. Last year alone criminal gangs made a €60 million profit according to the Gardaí.  More information from the Guards can show us that 20% of this revenue is used to fund human, trafficking thus this forces individuals who suffer from the mental illness that is addiction to fund the enslavement of people in the sex industry. Gangs also bring with them increases in other criminal activities. The shooting of Christy Kane on the UL campus by a rival drug dealer brought this to the forefront of the media. We as a nation must understand that the current system in place in Ireland in regards to drug policy is failing us from Ballymac to Ballymun. This is in part due to fact we are sending drug addicts to prisons whose cultures feed addicts into a cycle of destructive drug fuelled lifestyle and refusing to actually address the problem at hand. Also if we were to actually punish all users of drugs we would have to arrest 23.4% of 18-24 year olds due to cannabis use. Looking at the size and profile of the Irish prison population from the 1960s onwards, Liam Herrick of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) noted that it had increased from less than 500 in 1960 to nearly 4,500 today, and that there was a particularly rapid increase in the first decade of the new century. He argued that this increase was partly due to the introduction of mandatory drug sentencing in 1999. He pointed to two statistics supporting this assertion:

• Between 2005 and 2009, the number of charges brought by the Gardaí in most categories, e.g. theft and burglary, remained static but drug supply offences doubled.
• Over the same period, the number of short-term sentences and life sentences remained stable but the number of 3–10-year sentences increased substantially. He linked this to an increase in the number of circuit court and high court prosecutions of drug offenders receiving 3–10-year sentences under the Misuse of Drugs Act (1977)

Further statistics on those who are sentenced show the majority are not really criminals. 1/3 of those serving jail time had no prior convictions and over 3/4 of them were never in the prison system prior to their sentencing. Also of those sentenced 68% are also alcoholics and 2/3 suffer from depression, bipolar disorder or other mental illnesses. Meanwhile those who sell narcotics only make up 10% of those convicted for drug offences. Decrimalisation will help the economy not just because of decreased healthcare costs as the rate of diseases caused by infected needles will plummet but taxes raised from drugs will also can be put into the economy to help those with addictions. The money saved on prisons cost would also greatly benefit society, the average cost to the state of a prisoner in Ireland is €150,000 a year.  According to estimates by the IPRT 2000, 2600 prisoners were convicted for personal drug use or possession for drug use, this means that if we decriminalised drugs on average we would save €3900 million a year.The evidence is clear that our “War on Drugs” is not a war on drugs but a war on addicts and it cost our society both financially and morally.