Is it Time to Surrender the War on Drugs?

Should illegal drugs be a thing of the past? The answer’s obvious: no, that’s madness! But is it? When we imagine a world where drugs aren’t some illegal back-alley wrongdoing, we imagine that the world has gone barmy. The end of civilisation as we know it. Legal drugs available on every corner and our society in ruins. But in actual fact, that is a very common misconception. Decriminalising drugs doesn’t mean that all drugs are suddenly legal and available for recreational use, but rather that they are no longer illegal. They exist in a sort of vacuous wasteland, not touched by the light of legality, nor blemished by the shadow of illegality. This no-mans-land exists to help those who need it: addicts. The purpose of this is not to make drugs easily accessible for those who it could damage, but to destigmatise and to help those who need treatment access a safe space. Addiction is designated a mental illness by the NHS and is considered by some a path that an unlucky few are unwillingly thrust down after being dealt a bad hand by the unpredictable dealer we call life. Decriminalising drugs would assist in improving public health overall, as one's physical health can also be impacted by drugs. Often addicts share paraphilia that can lead to the spread of blood-borne diseases. In addition, decriminalising drugs will also decimate prison populations and reduce the amount of money being spend on anti-drug agendas, leaving more money to improving other deserving causes. This issue is exceptionally pertinent in Scotland, which has the highest drug death rate in Europe and a rate of more than three and a half times the UK average.

Addiction has long been considered a mental health issue (or ‘brain disease’ as it is sometimes referred to), yet our society views addiction as a self-inflicted wound. In reality, there is a major genetic component in addiction and addiction is often compounded with other mental health disorders (around 85% of addicts have at least one other mental health condition). We wouldn’t leave someone with borderline personality disorder to just ‘sort themselves out’ as many suggest we do with addicts, which is why it is crucial that we offer addicts access to healthcare that can assist in their recovering. If someone is arrested with an illegal drug on them and incarcerated, they may have to deal with detoxing while jailed. Often, addicts are forced to go ‘cold turkey’ without any preparation which is considered very harmful. On top of that, they must undergo this detoxing process while in prison. Detoxing is meant to be painful regardless of circumstance, but when inmates are left to ‘self-detoxify’ (a process that there is very little research on) it can be one of the worst experiences of someone’s life. But, even after all of this, the issue that the justice system is attempting to target- drug use- isn't reducing. The idea that the threat of prison will curb drug use is flawed and almost Victorian in its ideology. Instead, we should implement addiction treatment. In 2001, Portugal changed its law to mean that unless someone is caught with a ten-day plus supply of drugs, they get sent to compulsory medical treatment. This had myriad benefits including that the rate of people getting sent to court for drug possession has decreased by over 60% annually. Additionally, drug use rates are below the EU’s average, whereas Scotland, a country where there is zero legal recreational drug use, has rates far higher than EU’s average. This highlights that the status quo in Scotland is defunct beyond words and must be changed if we wish to safeguard the wellbeing of our people.

Decriminalising drugs is beneficial not only for mental health, but also for physical health. Blood-borne diseases such as AIDS can be spread through needle sharing. In 2019 there was an outbreak of HIV in the Greater Glasgow area, increasing by 14.5 times among people who use needles to inject drugs. In Portugal, after drugs were decriminalised, needle exchanges and other programmes to help treat people addicted to injectable drugs meant that within thirteen years the number of HIV diagnosis dropped by 1,497, a remarkable number. Due to the very successful treatment programmes, drug overdose deaths also dropped to just 16 in 2017. This demonstrates that by decriminalising drugs, the number of people at risk of developing health issues or dying due to drug use is heavily reduced. Moreover, the access to treatment in Portugal was free. In Scotland, people from the least deprived areas are eighteen times more likely to die from a drugs- related death than people from the most deprived areas. Wealthier addicts often have a stronger support system behind them, with more funds to be able to attend private rehabs, unlike their less financially privileged counterparts. Having this easily available treatment would make a huge difference to addicts from more deprived backgrounds who are disproportionately affected. To misquote the adage: addiction doesn’t discriminate, but recovery does.

Finally, decriminalising drugs would mean that less resources would be wasted on anti-drugs measures. Time and money are being wasted by funnelling them into anti-drugs programmes, and it is becoming more and more apparent that using deterrents is not effective in curbing drug abuse. For example, it is estimated that every year 100 billion USD is spent on police lead efforts to combat drug use. This approach, while not only extremely expensive, is also failing, as drug addiction has risen by 20% on a worldwide scale from 2006- 2013. If the money that is being channelled into funding police was instead being spent on addiction treatment or mental health facilities, I believe that drug abuse would undoubtedly fall. This would also mean that current law enforcement officials would have more time and resources to spend tackling issues that harm the community on a wider level, such as sexual crimes or violent crimes. The decriminalisation of drugs would also reduce prison populations and place less of a strain on the resources available to the penal system. Furthermore, often people will go into prison with a low-level offence such as marijuana possession but then leave prison having become hooked on a hard drug (often heroin) or become gang affiliated. This is highlighted by the fact that 83% of prisoners in prison for drug use globally were non-violent prisoners. Drug misuse within Scottish prisons is already rife, with 70-78% of drugs tests carried out upon entry to prison being positive for illegal drugs between 2010-present. The number of prisoners getting addicted to illegal drugs doubled from 2014 to 2019, emphasising that this problem is getting worse with time. If drugs were decriminalised in Scotland, it would mean less burden on the criminal justice system, more police available to tackle violent crimes, and a decrease in drug use as people would no longer be getting hooked on drugs in prison. All these measures would change our country for the better and make it a safer place for all its inhabitants.

I wholeheartedly believe that for decades Scotland’s approach to drug abuse has been flawed to the core. Instead of treating someone for a mental illness, we locked them in cages. Instead of ensuring drugs were consumed in as safe a manner as possible, users were shunned and stigmatised. Instead of our resources being put to good use, they have been wasted on a system that only exacerbates the problem. As Gandhi said: ‘how a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity.’ If Scotland wants to truly display its humanity and act as the just and equitable country we aspire to be, we must protect our most vulnerable. We must assist people who have been banished from the mainstream of our society for years and help them recover. We must decriminalise drugs.