Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
Most people take drugs. Just ask your kid’s school teacher (pot), financial adviser (coke), or local politician (all of them).
From our morning coffee, to our wind down wine, to the occasional line or puff for a good time. Something so widespread should be considered rather ordinary and unexceptional, given that illicit drug use is a majority experience and the majority of that is unproblematic.
It’s common amongst conventional, successful, and privileged people. And most common amongst rich, university educated young people.
The paper-thin line which separates legal and illicit substances is as confounding as it is cruel; the law deems convicted illicit drug users criminals, so we treat them as such. We use demeaning labels, like ‘junkie’ and ‘deadbeat addicts’, to separate them from the normal people who take drugs.
Applying criminal penalties to people who possess and use drugs causes more much harm than than it prevents. It makes criminals of people who aren’t, leads to the stigmatisation of people who use drugs, and creates barriers to treatment and rehabilitation.
Our government refuses to reshape policy to respond to evidence and statistics, outcries from Alcohol and Other Drug experts, and needless drug related deaths. So what is the basis of our drug policy?
In Victoria alone, there have been four previous amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substance Act 1981 since 2010. Each change claiming to reduce or prevent drug-related harms in the community. And yet there remains no evidence that these interventions have been effective at reducing drug-related harms in the community.
Our drug policy is outrageously flawed, outdated, and it’s dragging down people who use drugs down with it.
Drug use can be safer through standard dosages, transparent labelling and no contaminants.
Drug use can be as positive as it can be by decriminalising and de-stigmatising people who use drugs and addressing the drivers of problematic drug use.
Drug use as can be more ethical by taking drug profits from organised crime to fund services like schools and health care, and promoting personal responsibility among people who use drugs.
Drug use can be more honest if we provide drug and health education that teaches the pleasures and excitement alongside the potential harms of use.
We can advocate that drug use should not be a crime by voting for political parties with a drug law reform policy platform. We can publicly support the idea that drug use should not be a crime, pointing to Portugal as a successful, living model of decriminalisation. We can also donate their time and money to organisations that are fighting against blanket drug prohibition, stigmatisation of people who use drugs, and better drug policy. And most importantly, We should not look down our nose for what people choose to put up them.