Fixing Drugs: The Politics of Drug Prohibition
Sue Pryce
Language: English
Pages: 194
ISBN: B01K0TMT5E
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Drug use is an inherent part of our culture. Since the Sumerians wrote of the 'joy of the poppy plant' in 3000BC to the crack dens of today, people in every society have wanted to use drugs. Drug policy cannot be effective until this basic fact is acknowledged and incorporated into policy-thinking. Until we recognize that drug use is an integral feature of society, it cannot be eliminated. In this unique and engaging new book, the former chair of DrugScope Sue Pryce tackles the major issues surrounding drug policy. Why do governments persist with prohibition policies, despite their proven inefficacy? Why are some drugs criminalized, and some not? And why does society care about drug use at all? In a highly polarized debate, in which emotions run high, Pryce illuminates these questions and guides us through the problems, possibilities and realities of drug policy around the world.
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otherness 10.1057/9780230368835 - Fixing Drugs, Sue Pryce Which Drugs Are Problems for States? 13 and xenophobia. ‘New’ drugs (for example, tobacco in the seventeenth century), imports whose properties are not well understood and whose use is associated with immigrants (Murji, 1999, 49–65; Musto, 1999, 244–50) arouse fear of the unknown in native populations. They are often seen as foreign threats. In the 1920s, for example, the Alabama Congressman Richmond Hobson claimed that America had an
recreationally and in sacred ceremonies. It was even used as a medium of exchange. When the Spanish conquistadors conquered the Inca Empire in 1572 they banned the use of coca leaf. Its pagan associations 10.1057/9780230368835 - Fixing Drugs, Sue Pryce 30 Fixing Drugs were considered to be incompatible with Roman Catholicism and anyway, to the incomers, it was an unknown, foreign substance and therefore a potential threat. In common with most prohibitions, this one failed, use continued and
approximate street value of £100,000. Enforcement of prohibition of plant-based drugs has also had the unintended economic consequence of causing depletion of the natural resources in producer countries. Producing coca for cocaine is an illegal activity and therefore beyond the reach of government regulation. The early stages of processing the leaves from coca into coca paste take place in remote areas and makes use of a variety of chemicals. The toxic waste this produces is then disposed of
Policy Commission Report points out that most people regard drug users and former drug users as ‘dangerous, unpredictable and crucially having only themselves to blame for their predicament (Lloyd, 2010), so it is no surprise that their job prospects are slim when they also have a criminal record. Some of the unintended economic costs of prohibition were predictable – wars cost money – but what was perhaps much less 10.1057/9780230368835 - Fixing Drugs, Sue Pryce 98 Fixing Drugs predictable
cannabis. Drugs are still illegal in Portugal. The penalties for people caught dealing or trafficking drugs are unchanged, dealers are still prosecuted, imprisoned and fined, but those caught in possession of small quantities of drugs for their own use, up to ten days’ supply, are not prosecuted. Instead they are directed, by citations issued by the police, to special panels composed of medical professionals, lawyers and social workers whose purpose is to persuade the user to give up drugs.
