Drugs in Britain: What’s effective?

The final post of my catch-up blogging on the past few issues of The Economist, I’ll be dealing with drugs yet again.

The report is kindest about treatment for drug-users, which gets five stars (the top mark) for effectiveness; three stars go to education programmes and the referral of arrested addicts. But on law enforcement, the most expensive plank of the anti-drugs strategy, things fall apart. Police-intelligence work scores two out of five, as does that of customs officers. At street level it gets worse: cracking down on drug-dealing and drug-related crime rates only one star, whereas action on “soft” drugs such as cannabis scores none at all…

On intercepted imports, for example, the Treasury noted that although seizures had increased, the ever-falling price of drugs in Britain suggested that “in large measure rising totals [of seized drugs] reflect rising volumes of drug imports.”

So England is facing the same problems with the drug trade as everyone else. Combating drug imports and trade is futile: it’s both profitable and pleasurable – a deadly combination for a government trying to prohibit any activity.

I’ve been trying to come up with a reasonable solution to the drug problem (and I’ll call it that, because of the negative externalities associated with addiction), and this article leads me to (what I think are) some fairly reasonable ideas.

• Don’t waste money fighting non-addictive low-impact drugs like marijuana. Why bother? It’s easy to grow, to obtain, to use, and many people say it has less negative social and personal impact than alcohol.
• Disseminate information, not fear. As terrifying as Arizona’s anti-meth ads may be, too often they appear to be unrealistic propaganda. Providing relevant and factual information about addiction will provide a far more lasting and serious impact. Educate the people on the margins, those “just thinking about it.”
• Help the addicts.  Take the money you would spend fighting the drug war, and invest that money in public infrastructure to help rehabilitate addicts. Stem the spread of diseases like AIDS, invest in methadone clinics, provide “testing kits” to help users protect themselves against foul chemicals cut into the drugs.

As far as I can tell, drug use and subsequent addictions are incurable problems of our society. They’re just too appealing to too many people. Focus on the drugs that cause problems. Hint: marijuana is not one of them. Educate people about addiction, don’t just try to scare them: the truth will do that on its own.

The war in drugs will always end in failure. Always…it’s about time we realize that and change tactics to recognize this fact.