Prohibition and the Drug War

1. Prohibition and the Drug War Dr Norm Stamper October, 2009 Australian Tour sponsored by

2. SYDNEY 4 - 10 Oct MELBOURNE 10 – 14 Oct PERTH 14 – 18 Oct BRISBANE 19 – 22 Oct CANBERRA 22 – 27 Oct

3. Founded 2002 • Now over 13,000 members and increasing every day • Police, parole, probation and corrections officers, judges, prosecutors, prison wardens, FBI and DEA agents

4. Why Drug Prohibition? • To prevent individual, family and societal health harms of drug abuse • To protect children from damaging effects on early development • To stop people from injuring themselves, others • To safeguard innocent people against anti-social, criminal conduct

5. Why Drug Prohibition? (2) • To ensure sober, responsible behaviour in the home, at work, on the streets • To cut the economic costs of drug abuse on health care, families, communities, criminal justice and other systems • To promote workplace and classroom productivity

6. Implicit Motives Behind Prohibition? • To keep ethnic minorities, the young and the poor in their place • To protect the profits of Big Pharma, the liquor industry, and assorted other industries • To maintain full employment in the criminal justice system, and maximise profits for private prisons

7. Implicit Motives Behind Prohibition? (2) • To satisfy religious and other morality-based interests • To appear tough on crime • To stop people from having fun

8. Results of the Drug War as Organising Mechanism of Prohibition Enforcement? • U.S. taxpayers have spent $1 trillion since President Richard Nixon declared war (1971); $69 billion per year • Drugs more readily available, at lower prices and higher potency • Children’s access to drugs facilitated

9. Results of the Drug War as Organising Mechanism of Prohibition Enforcement? (2) • Over 2.3 Americans currently incarcerated, more than half a million for drug offences • War on Drugs = War on People • Race, age, class discrimination • Violence, local and global

10. Results of the Drug War as Organising Mechanism of Prohibition Enforcement? (3) • Sick people denied medicine • Otherwise law-abiding people losing jobs, student loans, public housing • Families losing relatives, including breadwinners, to long prison sentences • The spread of infectious diseases • Drug overdose deaths

11. Results of the Drug War as Organising Mechanism of Prohibition Enforcement? (4) • Police corruption (personal use, criminal enterprise, bribery, extortion, kidnapping, murder) • Environmental destruction • Political and economic instability, globally • Financing terror • U.S. hegemony

12. Results of the Drug War as Organising Mechanism of Prohibition Enforcement? (5) • Users stigmatised, treated as criminals • Infringement of civil liberties, widespread violation of Fourth Amendment • Funding law enforcement over prevention, education and treatment at 7:1 • Massive credibility problem for the government (gateway drug, zero tolerance, “winning the war”

13. From Prohibition to Regulation – One Path • 1.Repeal prohibition, end the drug war 2. Transfer drug enforcement responsibilities form criminal justice to public health system

14. From Prohibition to Regulation – One Path • 3. States would issue hard-to-get, easy-to-lose licenses to purveyors (could be doctors), predicated on: • 4. State governments would set and enforce standards, oversee and inspect every aspect: growing/manufacturing, pricing, packaging, strength and purity levels, cleanliness and security of facilities 5. Ban on advertising, marketing of any kind

15. Thank you very much for thinking about this important issue. For more information or to join these organisations and show your support, go to: www. leap. cc www.adlrf.org.au