October 28, 2014

Dear Mr Editor:

I am writing this letter because health matters to me, and we have a very unhealthy situation in the use and distribution of illegal drugs.

These drugs short-circuit the pathways in our brain so that we can avoid the unpleasant.

By numbing ourselves, we don’t give our mind and body a chance to find healthy ways of facing the many challenges of life.

Point number one: Legalisation does not mean everyone should go out and get high.

The war on drugs started in the 1960s in the USA.

This war on drugs has been playing itself out like a drawn out version of their alcohol prohibition in the 1920s with an increase in crime and users going underground into cool, glamorous clubs.

Today the cost of prosecuting and incarceration of persons for drug offences has gone off the charts and it has had no impact on reducing illegal drug use.

Point number two: What we have been doing for the last 50 years isn’t working.

Drug abuse and use is a medical issue.

Drugs are a substance, whether prescribed by a doctor or not, that we inhale, ingest or inject for an effect.

The range of effects can go from saving our lives to killing us. They aren’t glamorous or cool, but have the potential of destroying our bodies and minds.

Street drugs, being uncontrolled and unregulated are particularly dangerous.

This is a health issue. We need to get it out of the courts and into healthcare. Resources currently going into policing, prosecuting and incarcerating would be better spent, in my opinion, on health programmes, clean needle clinics and family support programmes.

An example of the cost is incarceration.

It costs taxpayers about $6500 a month to house one person at Westgate. $6500 would go a long way in health care for that individual and their family.

Point number three: Drug management is a healthcare problem.

To make this sea change would be very challenging: legislation, putting programmes in place to support these individuals and managing the distribution of drugs — all an enormous task.

This is not about what is right and what is wrong.

That argument just keeps us arguing.

This is an argument for using our financial resources more effectively and for taking a medical problem out of the court system. Finally, this is an argument in support of families and communities that have been hijacked by the effects of drug abuse and the illegal drug trade. This problem is not going away.

For our community to stay on the same path we have been going down for the last 50 years is no different from the drug abuser who thinks the next hit is going to make things better.

RONDA JAMES

Paget