• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Drug Policy and Law
  • Harm Reduction
  • Activism

Drugreporter

News and Films from the Frontline of the War on Drugs

  • News
  • Café
  • Videos
  • About Us
  • EN
    • HU
    • RU

Can Legalising Drugs Fix All Problems?

August 26, 2017 | Author: Péter Sárosi

Tweet

The legal regulation of drugs is more effective and just than prohibition. But does it really fix most problems? Not without social justice. (This article is available in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian)

“Stop the Drug War and Legalise Drugs!” – More and more people identify with this message. I am a strong supporter of drug policy reform myself. I believe that it is immoral to punish someone for using drugs. I am convinced that a regulated legal market, adjusted to specific types of drugs and risky behaviours, is much more beneficial for humankind than a global black market.

I don’t like prohibition because it proposes an over-simplistic solution to a complex problem. However, I feel that arguments based on the assumption that legalising drugs will fix most problems are just as over-simplistic. Don’t get me wrong, several problems we experience in this field are directly connected to the war on drugs, including over-incarceration, infections, overdoses, and organised crime. The black market of drugs is like a beast which is fed and fattened by efforts to repress it. Legally regulating drugs, on the other hand, would starve the beast.

But simply legalising drugs will not kill all the beasts.

There are even bigger predators, often hiding in the shadows, lurking, looking for prey. Poverty, racism, domestic violence, homelessness, unemployment, bigotry, corruption, inequality, and so on. Without these beasts, repressive drug policies could never prevail in the first place. The war on drugs is an institutional tool for those with power and money to discipline and repress those with no power and money. Why? To gain more money and power.

It is not accidental that marginalised people who live in poverty suffer the most from drug-related harms – and from the war on drugs as well. These are the people who fill prisons but have no access to basic health care. They get infected with hepatitis C and HIV, die of overdose and AIDS, at much larger rates than well-integrated middle class drug users. In many countries they are imprisoned, tortured, killed and detained in boot camps. While rich people sniff cocaine, avoid prosecution, and access luxury rehab centres, poor people inject methamphetamine, smoke crack, and go to prison, especially if they are not white. The victims of Duterte’s death squads, Mexican drug cartels, or South-East Asian executions are all predominantly poor people.

Inequalities even manifest themselves in the drug market itself: crime lords, bankers, and corrupt politicians – most of them rich white people – benefit the most from the exploitation of poor farmers and consumers, on both sides of the illicit market.

The beasts of social inequality and racial discrimination nurtured drug prohibition and, unfortunately, they will also outlive it. When cannabis markets are legalised in the US, it is again rich white people who profit from cultivating and distributing the product. Poor communities, devastated by the war on drugs, stay marginalised and excluded.

The war on drugs is only a manifestation of a greater social injustice. Simply ending the war on drugs will not stop those underlying forces that fuelled it for many decades. Therefore we cannot reduce the drug policy reform movement to a legalisation movement, as its opponents often label it. This movement is about so much more than legalisation. We acknowledge and promote legal regulation – but we aren’t fighting for a small elite to profit from legal drugs. Our movement is first and foremost a movement for freedom and social justice. We are fighting for a drug policy that protects the weak from the powerful, safeguards the rights of consumers from profit-seeking companies, and gives back the self-esteem of people who are stigmatised.

Beyond legalisation, drug policy reform has to embrace efforts to end the exploitation of farmers in producer countries, invest in development programs, and make sure they have a fair share from legal drug profits. Drug policy reform must go hand in hand with interventions addressing institutional racism, sexism, and discrimination, not only in the criminal justice system but in the public health and social care systems. We have to stop residential and educational segregation, provide decent housing and jobs for drug users in poor neighbourhoods. We have to provide access to treatment and harm reduction programs, sensitive to age, gender and sexual orientation. We have to involve marginalised communities in the making of decisions about themselves, as well as mobilising them to enjoy the same rights as everybody else.

At the end of his life, Martin Luther King realised that simply abolishing legal segregation and adopting laws protecting civil rights would not end the oppression of black people. He worked tirelessly to expand the civil rights movement into a movement for economic justice, to eliminate poverty. Similarly, our drug policy reform movement does not end by making drugs legal. It is a necessary – but not sufficient – step to reforming drug policies and creating a social environment where the benefits and risks of drug use are equally distributed.

Peter Sarosi

Filed Under: Articles Topics: Criminalisation, Drug Policy and Law, Regulation and Control

Access to this article is free - but to produce articles and videos is not. Drugreporter is a non-profit website that needs your support to provide you with high quality contents.

Become a supporter and make a donation of 5 $ today!

Kapcsolódó cikkek:

The Italian Anti-Rave Law Violates Human Rights – Interview with Susanna Ronconi

February 1, 2023 - Péter Sárosi

Decriminalisation in Portugal: Through the Lens of People who Use Drugs

December 5, 2022 - István Gábor Takács

Drugreporter News | 2022 November

November 24, 2022 - István Gábor Takács

Kapcsolódó videók:

Decriminalisation in Portugal: Through the Lens of People who Use Drugs

December 5, 2022 - István Gábor Takács

Drugreporter News | 2022 November

November 24, 2022 - István Gábor Takács

Harm Reduction in Athens – With the Eye of an Outsider

November 23, 2022 - Péter Sárosi

You can browse our topics here:

Activism COVID-19 Criminalisation Dose of Science Drug Consumption Rooms Drug Policy and Law European Drug Policy Harm Reduction Hepatitis HIV/AIDS Marijuana Policies Medical Marijuana Needle and syringe programs New Psychoactive Substances Opiate Substitution Overdose Prevention Psychedelic Medicines Regulation and Control Russian Drug Policy Sex Work United Nations Drug Policy US Drug Policy

Primary Sidebar

BECOME A SUPPORTER OF DRUGREPORTER! INVEST THE PRICE OF A COFFEE MONTHLY AND MAKE SURE DRUGREPORTER KEEPS RUNNING!
Subscribe to the Newsletter!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Search

Drugreporter Video Database

Hundreds of videos on drug policy, harm reduction and human rights for streaming and download, also on a world map!

DRUGREPORTER NEWS

Monthly drug policy news from around the world

Drugreporter café

In our new online video show, we regularly discuss new developments in the world of drug policy with professionals, activists and decision makers. You can also listen to the Drugreporter Café in Podcast format on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

COVID-19 Harm Reduction Update

On this info page Drugreporter provides regular updates about resources and news on how harm reduction service providers respond to the COVID-19 Epidemic.

Drugreporter Video Advocacy Network

Browse videos produced by members of our Drugreporter Video Advocacy Network, from all around the world!

DRUG USERS NEWS

Russian language videos on drug policy, harm reduction and human rights.

Our award winning animated documentary movie is based on the original audio recording of Kostya Proletarsky, a drug user and HIV activist who died as a result of mistreatment and torture at a Russian prison. Festival appearances, news and resources are available here!

Footer

Rights Reporter Foundation
Hungary, 1032 Budapest
San Marco Street 70.
Email: rightsreporter@rightsreporter.net

Search

Our other websites:

The Rights Reporter Foundation

The Autocracy Analyst

Room for Change Campaign

Room in the 8th District Campaign

A Day in the Life movie website

Drugreporter