Our Failed Drug War !

When the government calls for an enquiry into something that is causing public concern there is the assumption that whatever solutions emerge will get serious consideration and will most likely become common practice.

Decade after decade we are hearing the same old refrain on drug prevalence and the damage it is doing to our young people.  The purpose of the Ice enquiry was to dispassionately examine this problem and guide the government in the practical measures that need to be taken to reduce the harm caused.  We were given to believe this would deliver a clean slate on which all practical ideas would get serious consideration.

The five key findings of this four volume report have been rejected out of hand and stand no chance of being implemented.  The government is adamant that there will be no new injecting rooms despite  the obvious success of this venture in Kings Cross stopping drug deaths and bringing order to the drug scene.

Pill testing is similarly rejected despite the main cause of drug deaths arising from botched production by incompetent drug cooks resulting in lethal combinations being sold at music festivals. This runs hand in hand with a recommendation to retire drug sniffer dogs because their presence causes fear and some patrons panic and swallow all; the drugs they intended to ration over the event.

Even the very practical suggestion of introducing a needle exchange system into state prisons has received a rejection.  The fact that needles are shared makes jails a virtual disease exchange and makes this urgently relevant in cleaning up the cess pool our prisons have become.

What is very clear is that the 104 recommendations handed down from the enquiry, none will be put into immediate practice and the key recommendation that the use of Ice and other drugs for personal use be decriminalized, while still under consideration - is most likely to be rejected.

The government held a costly enquiry which was supposed to quell public disquiet at the rampaging drug scene and before it held its first sitting had quietly determined that it would make no changes to either the law of the practices that constitute drug control in New South Wales.

In other parts of the world what is mass public disobedience is seen as a need to change the law. Governments are backing away from harsh intimidation laws covering all types of drugs and bowing to public demand.  In particular, Marijuana is fast becoming a legal recreational substance in a similar manner to alcohol.

The drug enquiry was a complete waste of money.  There is no point in holding enquiries when the intent to change nothing has been set in concrete long before the enquiry holds its first meeting.