Following is the text of a letter sent to
the editor of the Daily Telegraph on
11 February 2014, in response to an article by Miranda Devine, published in the
Telegraph on 8 February. An edited
text of the letter was published by as a news item by the Telegraph on 14
February (see Fighting
drugs a complex issue).
Begins
Letter to the Editor,
Daily Telegraph.
11 February 2014
As a 33 year career police officer. I am neither a
promoter of illicit drug use nor an apologist for illicit drug users.
The fervent nature of Miranda Devine’s article (It’s high time to end drug culture, Daily
Telegraph, 8 February 2014), however, prompted me into comment.
The issue of illicit drugs is difficult and complex
but it really is high time we started discussing the question of illicit drugs
unemotionally and realistically and that informed people began really trying to
make a difference.
Ms Devine is right to say that Hollywood glamorises
illicit drugs and shouldn’t, but, equally, wider society demonises and
criminalises illicit drug users when the very vast majority of such users are
simply victims.
Hollywood
glamorised tobacco smoking for decades. And still glamorises alcohol. Every
death matters. But we have to remember that the number of deaths from legal
drugs in Australia is 15-20 times the number of deaths from illegal drugs. Even
among young Australians there are more deaths from alcohol than there are from
illegal drugs. And most of the people who die from a tobacco-related illness in
their sixties started smoking in their late teens or early twenties.
Without, in any way wishing to minimise the illicit
drug use problem, my experience tells me that
Ms Devine is on shaky ground when
claiming that the rises and falls in drug use in Australia are due to cycles of
tough and laissez
faire governments.
Firstly,
government drug policy behind the scenes is much more complicated than the
slogans and political posturing might suggest. The Howard government launched
its ‘Tough on Drugs Strategy’ in 1997. Yet behind the scenes the Howard
government was the first Commonwealth government to help fund the needle and
syringe programmes run by the states and territories. The Howard government
also allocated a lot of funding to help move drug offenders from the criminal
justice system to drug treatment. And Minister Downer in the Howard government
made sure that Australia gave generously to Asian harm reduction programmes to
slow the spread of HIV among people who inject drugs. In my opinion, these were
all excellent policies but they were all harm reduction rather than simply
‘Tough on Drugs’.
Secondly,
it is important that we focus on the harms from drugs rather than on estimates
of drug use. For most parents and most members of the community, deaths,
disease and crime are even more important than the number of people estimated
to be using drugs. Although there is a close connection between the consumption
of legal drugs by individuals or communities and the risk of harm, the
connection between the consumption of illegal drugs by individuals or
communities and the risk of harm is not as clear.
Let’s
just think about our use of cars in Australia and deaths from road crashes.
Compared to 30 or 40 years ago, these days more Australians own cars, we travel
longer distances each year in our cars and there are many more of us. Yet road
crash deaths are a small fraction of deaths in the 1970s thanks to things like
seat belts, safer vehicles and random breath tests. Harm reduction initiatives
which have made a real difference.
I
have spent decades of my life in law enforcement and was the Commissioner of the Australian Federal
Police for a period of 7 years, including during then PM Howard’s Tough on Drugs period. As part of my
responsibilities I was accountable for working closely with the Department of
Prime Minister and Cabinet in oversighting and implementing many aspects of the
policy.
As I
have said publicly before, Australian police are now
better trained, generally better equipped and resourced and more operationally
effective that at any time in our history. But, on any objective assessment policing
of the illicit drug market has had only marginal impact on the profitability of
the drug trade or the availability of illicit drugs.
I am not alone in this view. Many serving and
retired senior police have the same opinion. The Global Commission on Drug
Policy, which includes former UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, former US
Secretary of State George Shultz, former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve,
Paul Volker, the former Presidents of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Switzerland,
and Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines, accept that the War on Drugs has
been an expensive and complete failure. My personal experience convinces me
that these assessments are correct and that we must seek another path.
In this regard I was saddened by Ms Devine’s attack
upon Dr Alex Wodak for his advocacy of drug law reform. Dr Wodak is well able to defend and speak for
himself but, in my view, attacking the man rather than the ball is not only
poor form but generally is a sign of fundamental weaknesses in the arguments of
the alleger.
Where does this leave us? I agree with the commentators who argue that
the health, social and economic costs of alcohol consumption in Australia are
too high. Like most Australians I have been angered and sickened by the continuing
spate of alcohol related violence and cowardly and unprovoked conduct that has
underpinned much of it. I am ashamed and
angry that so many Aboriginal Australians still die far too young from the
effects of alcohol and tobacco and from glue and petrol sniffing. These are critically serious problems and
there is much that is wrong and much more that needs to be done.
But I also believe we must to do better with
illicit drugs in Australia. This will
require a calm, sensible and respectful discussion based on real evidence and a
focus on reducing the harms from illicit drugs. Reducing the consumption of
drugs is one way of reducing the harm from drugs but the HIV epidemic showed us
that being smart about drugs is much more effective than simply being
tough.
Mick Palmer
Former Commissioner of Australian Federal Police.
Ends
