When the gruesome Francisco Pizarro encountered the extraordinary empire of the Incas in 1532 one of the many things that fascinated him was the Inca’s postal service. The Incas had an elaborate system of runners who ran for up to eights hours from zone to zone bringing messages from the rulers to their subjects. The speed and endurance of these runners amazed the Spaniards. Of course, the runners were chewing cocoa leaves, rudimentary cocaine.
A Shaman’s grave excavated in western China dating from 3,000 BC was discovered to have contained significant amounts of cannabis; of course, the ancients used cannabis for recreational purposes.
Archaeological evidence indicates that magic mushrooms have been used by people who want to get off their heads since at least 7000 BC.
We know that opium was first cultivated for heroin by the Sumerians, the world’s first urban civilization, in about 3,600 BC. It was widely used by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Indians and Romans.
The evidence is overwhelming: there is something within human nature that encourages some of us to want to distort our brains and alter our reality. Up to now the insistence of the authorities has been that, unlike booze and fags, illegal drug use is a preserve of a tiny minority. This is simply not true. The latest EU report on drug taking estimates that around a quarter of Europe’s adult population has taken an illegal drug in their lifetime.
Drug use is as old as religion. It is, whether we like it or not, part of the story of humanity. All efforts to prohibit drug use have failed. So why do we think our present policies will succeed?
Let’s have a serious discussion. Is it time to legalise drugs? Why do we go along with a “war on drugs” policy that isn’t working? Why do we slavishly allow criminals to control this business? If making drugs illegal was supposed to stop drug use, it has failed miserably. What is the point of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?
The reason criminal gangs are killing each other in Ireland is because the drugs business is highly profitable. It’s all about money. Why not make it legal, tax it and eliminate the gangs?
Here’s the reality. The war on drugs has failed. What we have now is not the “war on drugs”, but the “war of drugs”, where the profits central to the drug trade are controlled by a small but violent knot of Mafiosi whose illicit cash gives them their power. Take the cash away and they’ll have no power.
The war on drugs has failed by any logical economic metric. Prohibition doesn’t work; people take risks and get around prohibition even if it means breaking the law. Despite the so-called “war on drugs”, there are now more drugs available than at any time in human history.
Irish people, and indeed people all over the world, are taking more drugs than ever. The policy isn’t working, so stop it. The Mafia came to power in the 1920s in the US because they sold illegal booze, and the fact it was illegal during Prohibition made it more expensive and thus more lucrative. This is so obvious that it doesn’t need explaining.
When you make something illegal, but don’t change people’s habits because people use drugs anyway, you drive the trade underground and you push the price up, dramatically.
But four other specific implications flow from the high price of drugs. Addicts must shell out hundreds of times the real cost of drugs, so they have to steal to feed their habits. Petty crime goes through the roof. The higher the price, the more crime occurs just to buy the same amount of gear.
At the same time, those who deal find themselves carrying extremely valuable goods. Therefore, among the low-level dealers, crime, assault and murder increase because they are carrying extremely valuable cargo.
The streets of the city become a battleground for turf among competing dealers. In Ireland, we see what happens when these battles get out of control. When the returns are so substantial, criminals will do anything to dominate the business.
When drugs are legalised (and I believe it is a matter of when, not if), their price will collapse, and so will drug-related crime. Users will no longer need to steal to support their habit. Drug-related crime will fall to the same level as off-licence-related crime. When was the last time you heard about a person being shot at an off-licence for a bottle of vodka or being stabbed for a packet of 20 Major?
Legalising drugs would also lead to a dramatic and permanent fall in our prison population. The majority of prisoners in Ireland are there because of drug-related crimes.
A few years ago, I went to Mountjoy Prison to talk economics to prisoners who were doing the subject in the Leaving Cert. These men were trying to get their act together, which must be almost impossible when you are inside. The vast majority of them were doing time for drug-related offences. These are only offences because, unlike fags and booze, drugs are illegal.
If the prisons are clogged up with drug-related offenders, so too must be the courts. Legalising drugs would thus also free up huge resources wasted in the legal system to enforce the war on drugs, which isn’t working at all. And think about the amount of Garda resources that would be available for other work.
Maybe the most obvious prize would be that legalising drugs would destroy the drug gangs. There would be no reason for them to be in business. This result alone has to be worth considering. The only reason why these guys kill is because they are making a fortune.
Why not accept that prohibition is not stopping people wanting to get out of their heads? We can agonise about why this is, and we can rightly warn families and friends of the dangers of addiction, but making drug use illegal has not reduced drug use. In fact, all the evidence is that drug use is increasing rapidly.
Standing back, we need to accept that the war on drugs is not working at all. It is creating, not stopping, criminality. How many more innocent people will have to be gunned down before we begin this conversation? The economics of this debate are straightforward — so why not start the discussion?
In theory destroying the market is viable: but will it work in practice? I have my doubts.
Either legalise or take the Singapore approach.
Agree 100% David. The logic is inescapable.
“Something to consider is that the current drug dealing criminals will look for an alternative source of revenue which will probably be illegal.”
Yes Mike, it is called banking and it is LEGAL fraud. It is central banking policies of fraudulent production of money and the fractional reserve policies of the commercial banks who lend what is not owned and charge for it . They have a government granted monopoly on legal tender currency production.
No discussion about drug consumption in Ireland would be complete, without a reference to the main brewing oligopoly that promotes it’s mind altering, belly bulging, diabetes inducing, liver pollutting “product”. If you want to know, who is getting a dangerous level of power, ask yourself who is it that never gets their deserved level of criticism. Well, Ireland dominant brewing oligopoly escapes criticism. It is obvioous to me that for 30 years, they have managed to get bailed out repeatedly by the hospital system. A HSE that rarely dares to criticize the consumption pattern that makes that oligopoly rich, and… Read more »
Hi all
Way too much money being made from the drug trade for them to do anything other then keep them illegal
War on drugs has been failing for years..the above sentence was said to me verbatim by a barrister. I agree with David.
However , not that that will make much difference.
if and when they are legalized, this will only occur when Governments have a plan in place to replace the relevant departments and jobs,careers etc that are dependent on a War on drugs.
what do you think ?
I agree with the proposal to allow drug consmption. The War on drugs has failed. I would suggest allowing each local authority have one area, where cannabis consumption is allowed, on location, within a defined, limited special location. Cannabis (and only cannabis) to be sold to people, based on their PPS Number, without any questions asked about how much they want. As long as it is consumed within a the defined area. So that people are not driving under the influence on the roads. A “safe-space” for going to get spaced. Each local authority can decide where on it’s own… Read more »
Portugal also decided that the war on drugs was a failing policy, and decided to reduce consumption by allowing it, rather than by prohibiting it. By allowing drug addicts to be in the open, and it was obvious what drugs were doing, consumption gradually decreased. The irony, is that if you want to drive down consumption of these abusive, unhealthy substances, you have to organized a managed decline, with people who are consuming them in the open for the rest of the population to able to see up close what happens. Drugs actually make people underperform. Pretending that the underperformers… Read more »
Granted opting for outright decriminalisation would significantly decrease irelands drug related crime and even violent crime to some degree. But i think we are ignoring a major function of the law, and that is to discourage or encourage , in this case discourage. If the law wasn’t a major deterrent to use drugs then I believe everyone would be strung out on cocaine or wired on MDMA every Friday night, as is the case with alcohol and cigarettes. Despite alcohols potentially severe mind and body altering consequences, consumption still lingers very much in the mainstream.Why is that? Well i hypothesise… Read more »
Subscribe from Tobago – just sat down in my house in Tobago after a 12 hour flight and thd mosquitos are biting me already!
Yes Bro, I’m starting to see it. Me sitting back in the Hogan Stand at Croker, smoking hash, feeling all cool, watching my main man Joey C ( that’s big Joe Canning) bringing it. Michael D sitting two rows down lighting up some mean Moroccan shit…….yo Mickey D now that’s what I be talking about dog……… The GAA President and some clergy snorting some lines off the big drum from the Artane Boy’s Band……. Why on an occasion like this it’s time to draw out McFadden and Whitehead……..take it away boy’s. Goodnight Ireland. Sleep Well and their ain’t no stooping… Read more »
Interesting letter in today’s Sunday Independent. “The long, healthy life of our forebears Sir — I recently visited my grandfather’s grave. He was born on a small farm in 1879 and never moved away from that place. He lived in a house that had no BER rating or no central heating. He drank untreated water from the local well and raw, unpasteurised milk from his cows. Anything he ever ate did not carry a ‘best before’ date. He lifted eight-stone sacks of flour on his back and his main mode of transport was his horse and cart, but he also… Read more »
We had a prominent public figure on the state propaganda quango, consuming high levels of mind altering substances for two decades. And nobody in that propaganda quango would dare speak about the problem. Yet, everybody in Malahide, Howth, and environs knew about it. The gardai new about it. And they never arrested him. He was the most lucrative person in the state to stick in the slammer, and stay silent about. And HSE personnel knew about it. In the end, he was skint. Even though he earned vast sums of money. And there was an organized official silence about it.… Read more »
http://mashable.com/2017/09/04/china-bans-icos-bitcoin/
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/south-korea-tightens-bitcoin-regulations-will-punish-icos-report/
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-29/russia-backpedals-bitcoin-unveils-plan-ban-cryptocurrency-sales-ordinary-people
@David McWilliams -> THIS IS ONLY HALF OF THE ARGUMENT -> IT CAN BE SUMMED UP -> “REMOVE A LAW IF VERY PROFITABLE TO BREAK IT” => CRIME THAT NEEDS LOW SKILL & GIVES HIGH RETURN => CAUSES TURF WARS . . . BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REASONS TO KEEP THE LAWS? -> DO THEY PROTECT ENOUGH TO OUTWEIGH THE COSTS? -> YOU CANT STOP SOMEONE WHO WANTS THEM -> CORRECT => BUT DO LAWS PROTECT MANY FROM HARMFUL ADDICTION? . . . CAN WE APPLY THIS RULE TO OTHER CRIMINAL ACTIVITY? -> A SIMPLE WAY TO REDUCE PRISON POPULATION… Read more »
As there has never been a war on drugs then it cannot have been said to have failed. Peter Hitchens published “The War We Never Fought” five years ago and proves it. Any chance of seriously tackling illegal drugs was lost when Jim Callaghan’s rather half-hearted attempts to do so were out-manoeuvred. The Wootton Report of 1969 classed cannabis (without any scientific backing) as a less dangerous drug compared to others and it also recommended that the stator penalty of imprisonment for its possession be removed. Around the same time many of the great and the good in British society… Read more »
As an aside. China moves to replace the US petro dollar for trade and to replace it with a gold backed Yuan. Gold is now moving to be money yet again.
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/china-begins-to-reset-the-worlds-reserve-currency-system/
Terrorist left organization moves to quash “Fake News”
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/08/whitehouse-gov-petition-officially-declare-george-soros-terrorist-fire/
I’ve just watched this very sad documentary on Ireland’s property crisis from April this year and it’s so scary that I cannot sleep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4XrOGuAdWo&t=80s It’s really worth watching. Oh my God, this is the scariest thing I’ve seen since I’ve seen the ball lightning right in the front of me as a child. Oh this will haunt me – especially that homeless man who used to work for an IT company. Yes, I remember those viewing queues when I moved to Dublin in 2006 and I found it really, really sickening when the young and jaded potential landlord told me… Read more »
https://realityzone.com/inconvenient-lie-day-1-03853/
Tim Ball on deception, lies, truth and propaganda and climate change.
Addicted to credit? When credit is withdrawn the the resulting withdrawal sicknesses will be a sight to behold. —————————————————————— “”The central banks’ prescription for boosting the economy out of the Great Recession has been: print $15 trillion worth of fiat credit to purchase distressed bank assets, dramatically reduce debt service costs for both the public and private sectors, and to vastly inflate asset prices so as to create a trickle down wealth effect. But now, central banks are in the process of reversing that very same wealth effect that temporarily and artificially boosted global GDP. Therefore, by the middle of… Read more »
Bilimori. This is a shameful article by DMcW, I see no moral space between him and the British suppliers of product for the Chinese opium dens. All drugs impair judgement, some for a short time, some eventually will impair forever. A Philosopher in Economics should be striving to help society find the road to a national Utopia ( Eutopia?). Not to advocate policies that will make drugs cheaper and legal. Legal drugs ?, OK for airline pilots, bus drivers, school teachers, police, food preparers, jurors, fourteen-year-olds, etc.,etc., to use whenever? What kind of society will we be in thirty years… Read more »
For a very useful assessment of the current debacle in NI, a read of Eoghan Harris (yes, he is a very controversial figure) might prove useful. With regard to the article, can the Irish state fight off both the corporate empire, with Marxist revolutionary footsoldiers, posting as a social democratic party, and the drugs empires ? I would argue, that given the state of the gardai, it is not possible. So, we need a non-standard approach to de-escalation of the drugs problem, so as to prevent the state being eventually taken over by PSF. I regard marajuana as an un-safe… Read more »
Coveney is in Belfast, almost apologising for having an opinion, when in fact the opinion is useless.
If really wanted to do something useful, he would castigate the Northern nationalists for supporting a criminal racket masquerading as a political party.
The economic policies being pursued currently are clueless.
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.ie/2017/09/the-insanity-of-pushing-inflation.html
They are also designed to benefit those in corporate and state power – or close to either.
This is the relentless centralization of power and money that is occurring on our system currently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC4vS5bPGpw
What are the limits? “Mom I’m having a heroin party this weekend” “OK honey” The war on drugs is absolutely not working. The alter argument to the mafia example you used, whereby they made serious money during prohibition, is the one time in history where the mafia was on its knees and almost eradicated. That was the Mussolini era. The solutions are left wing legalise / right wing enforcement and draconian laws The war will always be lost on the fence of the centre. So as a society. Do we want drugs? Or no? That will indeed be an interesting… Read more »
Drugs should not be legalised ; Drugs harm society. Parts of the push for the legalisation of drugs : 1. 1.1 Drugs loosen sexual inhibitions 1.2 Drugs enable people to be unwillingly controlled Re; their sexual integrity by other people 1.3 Drugs enable people to become sexually corrupted ; Part of the conspiracy by the elite & individuals acting on their own personal motivation TO HOMOSEXUALIZE THE YOUTH 1.4 Drugs enable people to become sexually compromised PERVERTS WANT ALL OF ABOVE IN THEIR TARGETS SPY-MASTERS WANT ALL OF ABOVE IN THEIR TARGETS 2. The persons involved in the drug-trade would… Read more »
Of course, there is the much admired official Duterte of The Philippines current response to the Drugs Crisis ;
But, shooting to kill is immoral.
And, … another “But, ” ;
http://aanirfan.blogspot.com/2017/09/drug-lord-duterte.html
Drug addiction is a symptom of the pain that the person experiences because “something vital is missing” & / or “something wrong is being carried [ this obviously includes the drug-addiction itself ]” with that person, & the challenge of facing these “Lackings” & / or “Baggage” is avoided by the person habitually using drugs.
Perhaps these 2 links offer insight & solutions of current Lackings & Baggage :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O1cmw8BeRk
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608580/eliminating-the-human/amp/
This Link is from David Byrne ;
Famous musician-composer of Talking Heads
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