Reducing drug use, deaths
Re Rethink before decriminalizing drugs, DiManno, Aug. 7 When it comes to dealing with addictive drugs as a society, Rosie DiManno misses the point entirely, partly because she based her argument on a bad interpretation of the facts.
She cites Portugal, which decriminalized drugs in 2001, saying there was a “40-per-cent increase in homicides related to drugs, even as overdose deaths have plunged.”
That number is illusory and ancient. The increase in homicides between 2001and 2006 was for all homicides, not just those related to drugs. The statistics do not break homicides out by that category.
This stat gained some notoriety because the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime speculated in a 2009 report that the increase “might be related to (drug) trafficking.” But it offered no evidence, just speculation. Also, Portugal’s homicide rate has since subsided from its high 11 years ago.
Canada’s war on drugs is a failure because it is the wrong approach. People can get illegal drugs now but, when they have problems with them, they have little recourse to seek help without fear of prosecution.
We need to treat addiction as a public-health issue, not a criminal one. Portugal has seen a drop in drug use and overdose deaths since decriminalization, as well as an increase in people seeking counselling.
The people who sell illegal drugs would love to keep them illegal, because that boosts the price by creating a huge risk for people selling them. There’s a lot of money to be made by people willing to risk prison and it is these sellers who create the violence we associate with the drug trade.
This is why there aren’t gangs fighting over beer-selling territories or gunning down rivals to steal cases of cigarettes.
We’re spending millions each year fighting a battle we can’t win. To dismiss the alternatives outright as illogical and irrational is junk journalism. Colin Whitworth, Toronto
“Portugal has seen a drop in drug use and overdose deaths since decriminalization, as well as an increase in people seeking counselling.” COLIN WHITWORTH TORONTO
Rosie DiManno should think twice about decriminalizing drugs. Canada gave the concept serious consideration in 1972 with the Le Dain Commission and thought about it some more with the House of Commons Special Committee on Nonmedical Use of Drugs in 2002.
DiManno’s apprehension seems to boil down to decriminalization sending “the wrong message.” If refraining from criminalizing those who engage in unhealthy activities sends the wrong message, are we remiss in not criminalizing drinkers, smokers and the sports she endorses?
Surely more than 10 per cent of people who play contact sports suffer from injuries and concussions. Surely we should criminalize all junk-food consumers, young and old, fit or fat, to send a message to young people to eat a healthy diet.
Criminal prohibition competes and interferes with education, treatment, harm reduction and research. It drives a wedge between parents and their children, doctors and patients, teachers and students and the police and their communities. It is inimical to public health and safety.
The prevalence and popularity of illicit drugs rises and falls with no statistical relationship to drug laws and their enforce- ment. However, there is a dose-response relationship between money wasted and finite criminal-justice resources squandered on drug laws, and prohibitionrelated harms, such as crime, violence and overdose deaths. Matthew M. Elrod, Victoria, B.C. We lost a son to suicide two years ago at the age of 29. Marijuana is the starter drug that was the beginning of the end. Now we will have to watch many other youth never get started in life and many more die too young. We need to teach our youth, and adults for that matter, to deal with life straight up, not turn to a crutch when life gets tough. Face your problems with a clear head. I speak from experience. Alcohol or drugs do not solve problems; they mask them. Rick Lockman, Orillia If drugs were legal and pure, and users could read the instructions on the packet and ask their doctor or pharmacist how much will give them a good high and how much will kill them, surely there would be fewer accidental overdose deaths. Simon Leigh, Toronto Rosie DiManno’s column is wellreasoned but wrong. This century’s problems aren’t due to irrationality, not that there isn’t a lot of that to go around, but rather to ignoring the facts and evidence.
There have been endless studies concluding that criminal sanctions have no impact on people’s behaviour, yet that doesn’t stop people from arguing the opposite. Nor does the fact that increasingly harsh penalties adopted in the U.S. have reduced neither drug use nor drug deaths.
Conversely, the evidence from Portugal and Spain shows that decriminalizing drug use works. In Portugal, overdose deaths dropped by more than 80 per cent, while HIV infections dropped by 95 per cent since 2001, when it changed its drug laws.
Much as we all like to believe that our reasoning processes are sound, unless we constantly test our beliefs against the facts and evidence, we are really just worshipping our own cleverness. Gary Dale, Toronto