Pubdate: Sun, 21 Aug 2005
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 The Observer
Contact:  http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Henry McDonald
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

ZERO INTELLIGENCE

Muddled Thinking Over Drug Use In Prisons Will Help The Criminals

Is there anyone in either the Dail or the Seannad with the courage and
imagination of British Liberal Democrat Chris Davies? The Welsh MEP
raised a row in the UK when he suggested that perhaps it was time to
rethink the Western world's policy on drugs. Davies put forward the
idea long advocated by libertarians that legalising all narcotics
would drastically slash the profits of drug smugglers and dealers
while reducing crime rates caused by addicts prepared to pay
astronomical prices for their fix.

Davies is, in a sense, stating the blindingly obvious: the West is
losing the so-called 'war on drugs'. Demand for drugs such as ecstasy,
cocaine and heroin in the EU and North America is, if you'll excuse
the pun, at an all-time high. For instance, even in Afghanistan, the
presence of thousands of American and Nato troops has not halted the
growing of the poppy and the subsequent production of heroin. In fact,
it appears that the 'war on drugs' is probably even less winnable than
the 'war on terror', both of which are being prosecuted in that same
country.

So far, no one within any of the Irish political parties has taken up
the Lib Dem's imaginative proposal. Only the Greens favour the
legalisation of certain soft drugs such as cannabis, while the others
maintain a prohibitionist stance.

The underlying absurdity of Irish prohibition has led the present
government down some ludicrous cul de sacs. In the autumn, justice
minister Michael McDowell is going to fulfil the promise he made at
the annual conference of the Irish Prison Officers Association last
year and introduce a 'zero tolerance' policy regarding drugs in the
republic's jails.

Last week, a virtually unreported joint statement from the
International Red Cross and the Senlis Council, a Paris-based
think-tank on drugs policies, denounced this new 'zero tolerance'
position. The Red Cross condemned Ireland's plans to eliminate
clean-needle distribution in prisons as a serious threat to public
health in the republic, arguing that it will only encourage the spread
of Aids and hepatitis C. Both the Red Cross and Senlis urged McDowell
to reconsider what these 'damaging policies'.

This is what Dr Massimo Barra, vice-president of the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said about
McDowell's plan: 'Zero tolerance has generally never paid off.
Public-health promotion is in the interest of us all. Such measures
have been proven to be key elements in strategies targeted at the most
vulnerable groups, like drug users. Interventions should be cautious
and based on evidence rather than ideology.'

Both the Red Cross and the Senlis Council said the new legislation
disregards the recommendations of the World Health Organisation about
distributing clean syringes and disinfectant to drug users in prisons.

Emmanuel Reinert, executive director of Senlis, pointed out: 'This new
law will encourage the spread of disease in the penal system and will
have serious consequences not only in prisons but on society in general.

'We cannot ignore the dangers of HIV/Aids and hepatitis C transmission
within the prison system, but by introducing a "zero tolerance"
approach, that is what is being done. Drug injection will continue,
whether inmates are tested or not, and whether they have clean needles
or not. It is vital this problem is approached differently if HIV or
hepatitis C epidemics are to be avoided.'

In Ireland, 90 per cent of drug-injecting inmates have been shown to
be infected with hepatitis C, according to a 1999 survey. The same
study revealed that between 40 to 70 per cent of drug-injecting
prisoners have shared equipment, including needles, while in Irish
jails.

Meanwhile, a World Health Organisation study in May stated that
public-health measures such as distributing clean needles does not
increase the range of drug use in jails. Instead, the WHO concluded
that such policies bring infection rates under control. Yet if the
republic pursues its 'zero tolerance' of drugs in jail, it will result
in the very opposite: more inmates suffering from HIV/Aids and
hepatitis C, many of them eventually released back into wider Irish
society.

The muddled thinking highlighted by both the Red Cross and Senlis over
the 'zero tolerance' of drugs in jail is but a symptom of the wider
confusion and intellectual dishonesty caused by the overall drugs
prohibition policy. By contrast, legalisation would almost immediately
wipe out the profits of the drug cartels at home and abroad. Thus the
Irish criminals running their drug empires by remote control from
southern Spain or the narco-terrorists such as Farc would be unable to
hike artificially the price of narcotics which would be subject solely
to the laws of supply and demand.

In the meantime, as prohibition reigns, more addicts both inside and
outside the Republic's prison system are doomed to die because of
political opportunism and cowardice.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin