Strange Bedfellows !

Many people will get a laugh at the alliance between a Woolworths subsidiary and an organization trying to promote an alcohol free July.  The BWS chain of shops is specifically an alcohol outlet and their income and profits come from the sale of this product.  The " Dry July Foundation " challenges people to abstain from alcohol for the month of July to raise money for cancer patients.

BWS is promising to encourage customers to sign up for " Dry July ", provide donation points in its stores and promote alcohol free drinks.   Critics have compared this alliance to the link between alcohol and cancer. A long term study by Latrobe University found that thousands of cancer deaths each year would be prevented if Australians slashed their alcohol intake each week by about five standard drinks.  If drinkers reduced their consumption by thirty percent, about 5,500 lives would be saved.

Another mysterious amalgamation of interests came when the Bar Association, which is the body claiming membership by most lawyers in this state presented a proposal to the Commission of Enquiry into the drug Ice that personal possession of that and other illicit drugs should be decriminalized.   It is these same lawyers that make their living appearing for the accused in the numerous drug cases that clog our courts.

Under the Bar Associations plan, the  production, trafficking and supply of illicit drugs including ice and amphetamine-type stimulants would still be criminalized.   A new, non-criminal regime would be introduced to deal with personal drug use. This tribunal would be staffed with lawyers, social workers and psychologists and would  require users to undertake treatment and rehabilitation.  Non criminal sanctions would result from failure to comply.  This model draws on legislation in place in Portugal, where personal drug use was decriminalized in 2001.

Unfortunately, Ice has become the drug that is now the most widely used addictive substance that is present in all aspects of Australian society.  It is equally found in both the cities and the most remote country towns and those in its grip present a huge danger to paramedics, doctors, other hospital workers and the police. Car chases in which drivers exhibit maniacal behaviour are often attributed to Ice addiction.

The drug menace can not be beaten while ever demand remains.  That first law of commerce applies. Supply will always find a way when demand delivers a willing market, and every effort to close the nation's borders has proven to be a failure.  What seems to go unrecognised is the huge number of people who manage to use drugs responsibly and manage to avoid chronic addiction..

One of the great attractions that lure people to drugs is the attraction of the forbidden.  How many youths seek alcohol before they attain the legal age to drink ?  Some may wonder if the very war on drugs is not the stimulant that produces the demand for their supply.  That is a thought pattern that is starting to emerge in many jurisdictions.