Need to revise drug policy

THE fatal stabbing of a loving dad, family man and ANC councillor by his teenage son is a tragedy. This could have been avoided if we reviewed our policy on substance abuse and crimes a long time ago.

The Ellen Pakkies story, where she took the life of her child in a fit of insanity caused by her drug addict son’s incessant violent demands on her for money to feed his addiction, has not helped to force the policy makers to review the policy on drug addiction.

It is a pity that the formulation and oversight of drug policy is solely in the hands of the Department of Social Services. In 2012, the World Health Organisation declared drug addiction a disease. They urged member countries to decriminalise addiction.

The health ministers of SADCC also decided to decriminalise addiction, so why is our country dragging its heels?

Portugal led the way in 2001, when it decriminalised addiction . They had about 100 000 known heroin addicts. They decided to send addicts, via the law, into rehab and put them on opioid replacement therapy. The number of heroin addicts was reduced by 50% in 10 years.

Canada adopted the policy of offering heroin-users clean needles to contain the spread of hepatitis B and C, and HIV.

At the clinics, addicts were exposed to literature on their addiction. These clinics were user-friendly and supportive. A number of them used the services to give up their addiction.

Many other countries have followed Portugal’s example and decriminalised addiction.

In Portugal and in New Zealand, substance users with fewer than five fixes are taken in a firm but friendly way to detox centres by the police. This approach saves enormous sums of money by avoiding the judiciary.

Anyone with more than five fixes is regarded as a dealer and dealt with by the law.

Prisons are not places for addicts because this is where they get inducted into gangs. Ideally, substance users who are aggressive and refuse to seek help should be forced by the courts into rehab.

Contrary to the view of some psychiatrists that addicts can think, in my experience, addicts cannot think rationally when it comes to giving up their addiction, no matter how intelligent they are.

Many teenage gangsters can kill more than six rivals in a year. This is only possible when they are under the influence of drugs like “tik” amphetamine and cocaine. Under the influence of these drugs they become totally blunt, emotionally.

When these gangsters end up in jail they experience severe flashbacks in their sleep and are filled with remorse.

Several approaches to various government departments to review the policy have proved futile over the past decade. I hope this recent tragedy will force them to get all stakeholders involved in the formulation of a drug policy.

We need the public to put pressure on the government to address our drug policy as a matter of urgency before we read about more gruesome deaths of parents at the hands of their drug addict children .