Narcotics do not simply kill those people stupid enough to take them. They also destroy families and friends. They do this by destroying trust and then destroying hope. Everything about drug-taking and drug takers comes back to the single word: “Destruction”.
It must be wondered if those who are arguing for the liberalization of anti-narcotics laws at the current three-day UN meeting in New York on drugs policies have ever seen up close the disastrous effects of addiction. Habitual users discover that they can never get enough of the poison. There is always the need for more and that means finding the money to pay the dealers.
Those whose lives are wrecked by their cravings, lose jobs as well as self-respect. With no other source of money, they steal, even from members of their own families and from friends who trusted them. And they also take their criminality onto the streets, shoplifting, burgling, attacking poor and vulnerable old people for the few dollars they may have in their purses. And there is worse. Addicts sent on rehabilitation programs by friendly judges all too often return to their depraved ways. But with infinite cunning, they will assure family and counsellors that they are “clean” when absolutely the opposite is true.
What some country delegations at this UN conference are proposing is that law officers and courts around the world should go easy on the addicts and even their dealers. Incredibly, some are suggesting that all anti-narcotics legislation should be swept away. Without their secret markets and with drugs readily obtainable at the corner store, the drugs lords who have amassed huge fortunes from their wicked trade would be forced out of business.
It has to be wondered what planet these people are on. If the criminal narcotics networks lost their markets of death, would criminality really plunge? Or would the ready availability of dangerous drugs cause yet more, predominately young, people to become hooked and launched on a deadly downward spiral of dependence? Western societies already know the corrosive and health-damaging effects of alcohol. Is foolish liberal opinion going to compound this by unleashing tens of thousands of tons of currently illegal substances onto already intoxicated societies?
It is notable that many of the liberals advocating decriminalization are also to the fore in the battle against tobacco. They hate smoking and have vowed to defeat smoking addicts. Yet at the same time they are perversely suggesting that an even greater addiction should be unleashed.
The reason countries like Colombia and Mexico, which jointly called this UN conference, are pressing for profound changes to drugs laws is that they have tried and failed to stem their own lucrative drug producers and smugglers. Their’s is a counsel of despair. If the drug lords cannot be defeated and if young people cannot be educated successfully to stay away from narcotics, then it is time to give up the fight.
This is wicked nonsense. The crackdown on the evil drug peddlers has failed because it has not been good enough. The answer is not to throw in the towel but to work out what mistakes were made in the past and then redouble the drive to eradicate the drugs business. There is no other solution if the world wants to save its children from destruction
