Alternative drug report

Australia is losing the War on Drugs, according to a report released this month by the UN showing Australians are one of the biggest recreational drug users.

The UN World Drug Report said drug abuse and illicit trafficking continued to negatively impact development and global stability, and called for greater international co-operation in combatting drug-related crime.

But the alternative report launched by the UK-based organisation Count the Costs to coincide with the annual UN report has called for a different approach.

“The global War on Drugs costs an estimated $100 billion a year,” said Count the Costs spokesman Danny Kushlick. “If we run this policy for another ten years, it will cost the world $1 trillion, and will just produce the same harm that we see year in, year out.”

Mr Kushlick said the Alternative World Drug Report highlights seven areas which have been harmed by the impact of the war on drugs, and is an “objective call for an evidence-based approach.”

“The effects of having one of the largest commodity markets on Earth in the hands of organised criminals and unregulated dealers is fundamentally destabilising and corrupting,” he said. “[Prohibition]
provides cartels with the power to destabilise entire nation states.”

But executive officer for Drug Free Australia, Jo Baxter warns against making Australian drug policy more lenient. “We are very disappointed that Australia’s drug policy, for the past 27 years, has been one of harm minimization or reduction rather than harm prevention,” she said.

Ms Baxter, who is also Vice President of the World Federation Against Drugs, said these policies normalise drug use and mislead people into thinking that drug use is safe, “They need to get help to get better, not to continue their drug use – which is what harm minimisation has tended to do,” she said.

Mr Kushlick thinks the drug problem lies with prohibition: “Until we recognise those problems emererge from applying a global system of prohibition … there is going to be no way of finding a solution dealing with the fact that 270 million people worldwide use illegal drugs.”

By Ruby Prosser Scully