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The War on Drugs. (extract from To Hell and Back - a thesis in progress.)

The traditional discourse on the subject of drug addiction focuses traditionally on two models: the judicial and the medical-based disease model. The first has led to the War on Drugs and conceptualises the addicted user as a criminal who needs to be punished and removed from society. Addiction, or rather any illicit drug use, is viewed in this model as a moral failing, or a lack of willpower . According to Gabor Mate the basic misconception of this approach is that the cause of addiction resides in the drugs themselves, thus to eliminate addiction extreme measured are justified in eliminating the drugs or to prevent people from having access to them. Appropriate treatment is therefore seen as punitive, with jails or militaristic “boot camp” type institutions being the preferred destination, not only of addicted users, but all who have fallen foul of the drug laws. In many countries, notably India, China and many other Asian countries drug users are sent for mandatory “treatment” in facilities that amounts to little more than detention facilities without trial or due process of law. In America, in 2016 a total number of 2,205,300 were incarcerated - the highest incarceration rate in the world. Out of these 456,000 were for drug law violations. Out of 1,632,921 people arrested for drug violations in 2017, 1,394,514 or 85.45% were arrested for possession only. ( stats from www.drugpolicy.org/issues/drug-war-statistics).
The UN Global Commission on Drug Policy, made up of imminent persons including former heads of states, business leaders and renowned artists, states quite plainly “The global war on drugs has failed (…..) policymakers believed that harsh law enforcement action against those involved in drug production, distribution and use would lead to an ever-diminishing market in controlled drugs such as heroin, cocaine and cannabis, and the eventual achievement of a ‘drug free world’. In practice, the global scale of illegal drug markets – largely controlled by organized crime – has grown dramatically over this period.” ( The Alternative World Drug report). According to UN estimates global usage of illicit opiates between 1998 and 2008 grew by 34.5% .In addition the World Drug report 2019 estimated that in 2017 29.2 million people worldwide had used opiates such as heroin and opium. This was up 50% from the 2016 figure of 19.4 million. The increase was not due only to increased usage, but also to advances in the collection of data on drug use.
The annual cost of the War on Drugs exceeded R100 billion dollars, while profits from the annual trade in illicit drugs exceeded 330 billion dollars which largely goes to enriching criminals and funding international crime networks. (stats from The Alternative Drug Report)
Other negative consequences of the War on Drugs are outlined in the Alternative Drug Report. These include the undermining of international development and security, causing of deforestation and pollution, threatening of public health and spreading disease, undermining human rights and promoting stigma and discrimination.
The fact that the War on Drugs continues to be waged in spite of these negative outcomes has led to the conclusion that it serves vested interests and continues to be used as a political tool of control. As the USA is the prime instigator of this war, it is thus the most appropriate place to look for evidence of this. Michelle Alexander in her book "The New Jim Crow" has pointed to that fact that in the USA black men are imprisoned on drug charges at a rate of 20 to 50 times higher than white men to argue that anti-drug laws are used to police and control minority groups and connect directly to earlier forms of racial segregation and oppression. Further evidence of this is the disparity in sentencing for the possession of crack cocaine as opposed to cocaine powder. Although it is essentially the same substance sentences handed down for crack were far more severe. This is attributed to the fact that crack was predominantly used by black people. Kenneth Nunn, former Professor of Law at the University of Florida’s Levin College, argues in his article Race, Crime and the Pool of Surplus Criminality: or Why the "War on Drugs" Was a "War on Blacks" , that race and crime are linked in a cycle of oppression. What is defined as a crime, he claims, determines who is oppressed and simultaneously legitimates that oppression. Racial oppression can then be justified as legitimate response to wrongdoing, and animosity towards particular groups can be created by portraying them as prone to criminal behaviour. These groups can then be use as scapegoats for perceived threats to the dominant, mainstream (white) culture, and to justify increased surveillance and police crackdowns on these communities. Black people then become subject to racial profiling and black communities to over-policing. The military rhetoric is used to justify aggressive law enforcement measures, and the use para-military units in routine policing operations, such as the use of SWAT (Special Weapons and tactics) teams to conduct drug sweeps in black neighbourhoods, and the use para-military units in routine policing operations.
In fact anti-drug laws have always had racial undertones. The first major campaign against opium smoking took place in California in the 1890 and coincided with anti-Chinese sentiment. Chinese immigrants were blamed for low wages and depressed economic conditions and much was made of the perceived threat to European women, who were, so the stories went, being lured into sexual slavery through the use of opium. In the same way Blacks were identified with cocaine use in the early 20th century, and were said to use it fortify themselves for criminal activity, making them bolder, more aggressive and oblivious to pain. The fact that both these substances were readily available as ingredient in many over-the–counter remedies, and in the case of cocaine was an ingredient in the earliest commercial soft drinks, was conveniently overlooked. As a result of these campaigns, the Harrison Act outlawing cocaine and opium was passed in 1914.
Later in the century President Nixon used the supposed affinity of black musicians with marijuana and heroin and hippies with LSD and heroin to discredit both groups. John Ehrlichman, President Richard Nixon’s assistant for domestic affairs, in a interview with journalist Dan Baum, from Harper’s Magazine had the following to say:
‘You want to know what this was really all about?’ he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. ‘The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the anti-war left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t
make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.’
In other words anti-drugs laws were knowingly used as a means of to discredit and criminalise these communities and as a tool for political control. Or as Noam Chomsky put it in an interview with John Veit in High Times: “The Drug War is an effort to stimulate fear of dangerous people from who we have to protect ourselves. It is also, a direct form of control of what are called "dangerous classes," those superfluous people who don't really have a function contributing to profit-making and wealth.” Internationally it has been used to the same ends. It has been used to justify military interventions in South America, to criminalize any opposition to American policy, and to provide cover for illegal activities by American forces.
Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper had the following to say in his book "Breaking Rank" : “Think of the war’s real casualties: tens of thousands of otherwise innocent Americans incarcerated, many for 20 years, some for life; families ripped apart; drug traffickers and blameless bystanders shot dead on the city streets... The United States has, through its war on drugs, fostered political instability, official corruption, and health and environmental disasters around the globe. In truth, the U.S sponsored international War on Drugs is a war on poor people, most of them subsistence farmers caught in a dangerous no-win situation."
In this country anti-drug legislation has been used to similar ends, to criminalise the poor and the homeless and particularly to justify the use of apartheid style policing and surveillance tactics.
It is still however the dominant model for dealing with addiction both at a global level and in this country. This however is changing rapidly as many countries are opting out of the drug war and are seeking other solutions. These will be discussed at a later date.

If it is true that addiction is not only about drugs. That our society is addicted: to money, to oil, to instant solutions, to religions, to shopping. to the internet, to status, to things we don't need but supposedly make our life easier . As part of an addicted system we are in a sense all addicts. Then it follows that recovery is not just about recovery from drug addiction, but about the recovery of our society from the disease off addiction which affects us all.

Bruce Alexander on The Globalisation of Addiction - An extract from my still in progress thesis

Bruce Alexander attributes addiction to what he calls “inadequate social integration” or “dislocation”. Those suffering from dislocation construct “substitute lifestyles” which may focus on dangerous and excessive drug use. The famous Rat Park experiment is a powerful demonstration of this effect. Alexander took the traditional experiment, which found that rats, when given the choice between morphine and food or water will choose morphine every time,and turned it on its head. Alexander took the rats out of the individual cages in which they had been housed and created what he termed ” a quasi-natural colony” for them. They were provided with space and mazes to run around in, empty boxes and canisters to hide and nest in, and most importantly other rats to socialize and mate with. In his own words he found that: “Rats housed in a quasi-natural surrounding drank much less morphine hydrochloride solution than rats in standard laboratory cages.” This effect extended also to rats that had been previously exposed to morphine, even to the point of addiction. In essence what he had discovered was that it was not the morphine causing the addiction, but the isolation and alienation of being forced to live in a cage. If this is true then the solution to problematic drug is use is re-connection.

In his more recent work, Alexander, goes further than this. Elaborating on his rat park experiment, he sees drug addiction as the manifestation of a greater problem in our society. The problem he sees is that addiction, in all its forms, not just drug addiction, is a way of adapting to the sustained dislocation of globalization. Our society, he believes, deliberately obscures the link between free markets, mass dislocation and addiction. Mass media and political leaders celebrate the achievements and innovations of the free-market, while attributing its failings to individual immorality and weakness. Advertising urges people to keep consuming, regardless of the consequences. Millions are spent distracting people from ‘the truth’. Research funded by government and industry is designed to confuse and obfuscate the truth. Educational institutions no longer teach critical thinking. Fake news abounds, to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to find the truth. In this milieu, drugs become the scapegoat, the reason for all that is wrong in the world. In truth it is dislocation that is at the core of what he refers to as “the modern poverty of the spirit”, and is the root cause of addiction

For the individual the dislocation that causes addiction can be overcome by finding a secure place in a real community. This can be either through reconnection with family and friends, or through a created community such as a 12 step fellowship group.
The only way we can really tackle this problem, at a societal level and in the long term, he believes, is through large scale social and political changes aimed at rebuilding community and promoting psychosocial integration at individual and community level. He highlights particular issues that he feels need to be addressed. Firstly the overcoming of indoctrination through the media, and its domination by corporations and capital. The mass media in his view indoctrinates us from earliest childhood with individualistic, competitive and acquisitive values that undermine psychosocial integration. They prepare us to accept the inevitabilty of free-market dominance, obscure its negative effects, distract from the grinding devastation that results from its policies through focusing on overblown, grotesque scandals and everyday lives of so-called celebrities, and mock alternative ideas as naïve and unsophisticated. Another issue that Alexander feels needs to be addressed to increase pychosocial integration (and of particular relevance in this country) is that of land claims. Many native peoples remain severely dislocated and Alexander attributes one of the main reason for this to instability which comes with the loss of land.

Reviving community art is also seen as an important factor. Art contributes to people’s and community’s sense of identity. It also plays a crucial role in raising people’s awareness of local issues and of their neighbours. He cites the example of the Hastings Corridor, a run down drug-plagued area in his home town of Vancouver, where a series of community art projects has led to a renewed participation by residents in social activism and revitalized the area. (p375) In 2003 one project, a play named In The Heart of the City, drew on real life stories of inner city living and drew in over 2000 residents as volunteers to work on the play, most of these were unemployed and either still using drug, or in recovery. The play performed to sold out houses, and was attended by the cities elite, including the mayor. Also important are sport and social clubs which can give people a sense of belonging.
Other issues he feels need to be addressed are the changing of drug laws to halt the criminalization of people who use drugs, a re-thinking of the role of religion and spirituality to challenge oppression and suffering in society, rather than supporting the status quo, the reclaiming of the university from being turned into corporate training centres, and a return to the teaching of critical thinking.

TIME FOR RADICAL CHANGE IN DRUG POLICY (published by the Daily Maverick 1July 2019)

It is time for a major re-assessment of drug policy and practice in handling individuals who use drugs.  This is major crisis in our society, and a serious threat to our youth. By keeping certain drugs illegal, we are providing a major resource to criminal networks. Drug money is a major source of power for these networks. If you remove this you take away a major resource out of their hands, seriously undermining their power. It is also then possible to regulate and control the sale of these drugs, ensuring they do not fall into the hands of minors and other people at risk.  The war on drugs, totally contrary to the stated intent, has created a situation where these drugs are more freely available than ever before to anyone at any time. Their use and sale has extended even to the smallest villages and most isolated areas of the country, putting a whole generation of youth at risk. They are often introduced by unscrupulous dealers to youngsters who do not know what it is they are using, and are unaware that they will become dependent.

 
The experience of Portugal and other European countries has shown that decriminalization and even legalization does not necessarily lead to increase in drug usage. Under a system of regulation, users should be allowed to register and use in a controlled environment, where they would at the same time be encouraged and enabled to enter treatment and offered alternatives to using. This would minimize deaths through ensuring the quality of the product and ensure that new addicts are not created through exposure to these drugs. Locking  up users with hardened criminals only ensures that they receive further training and encouragement in criminality. There should be programs in place, alternatives to imprisonment, in which youth whose education has been interrupted through drug use, can receive training in useful skills, not just job skills but including life skills and psychological counselling, to ensure that they do not have to resort to crime. The money which is at the moment used in policing and imprisoning users could then be better used to invest in such programs. At present the cost of treatment is unaffordable to all but the most wealthy segment of the population, and public programs are overcrowded and inaccessible.

There is a perception of all whoonga and tic users are criminals and beyond redemption. I have spent much time on the streets working with and getting to know some of these people. Many of them work very hard to maintain their habits. If you have seen the young people walking around the city carrying huge mounds of plastic or cardboard, you will know what I mean. Many are friendly and likeable, helpful individuals, who astound by their capacity to maintain a positive and cheerful attitude in the most dire of circumstances. Among the chores they do are collecting and recycling of rubbish, helping people with carrying and unloading shopping, garden work, “ piece “ work in the building trade, washing windows, cars etc. They are capable of working, and performing a useful role in society in spite of their drug use. Perhaps  ways can be found to formalize some kind of business around the work they do.  A new model would have to be created, one in which they are able individuals to work for short ( Perhaps 3-4) hour shifts, to allow for the need to score and use their drugs,  and to be paid  immediately on completion of a task to allow for the same. There are many ways they could be put to work.  Some of the ideas which have come to mind would be to clean up the natural environment, removing invasive plants etc They can be made responsible for cleaning up and maintaining of public parks and other public spaces. Formalising the recycling work that they do, by providing drop off points where people can be paid for the materials they have collected would be another. Former addicts and street people who have stopped using for some  time could be put in charge of such enterprises, providing employment for them. This would provide a solution to another problem of the present treatment system, where a person coming out of treatment, after getting clean, ends up back on the streets because he has nowhere else to go, and eventually starts using again. Many would say that in doing this we are enabling addicts to keep using. My argument is that by setting up such enterprises, we limit the users need to resort to crime, we  are providing a means for them to ensure an income, they are better able to take care of themselves, and perhaps even keep themselves alive, while they are using. By engaging with them we allow them to feel valued, to feel connected to society, and give them the motivation and help they need to transition to a life free of addiction.

 Dr Gabor Mate, Johan Hari and others have shown that addiction is a reaction to trauma, pain and disconnection.  The war on drugs is actually a war on the most vulnerable members of our society. In a society that is considered the most unequal in terms of wealth distribution on the planet, where youth unemployment is close to 50%, is it any wonder that people turn to drugs for comfort? This is a problem that affects us all. We can make a change by the way we interact with people on the street. Listen to them, engage with them, get to know them, help where we can. I believe the disease of addiction infects our whole society, and it is the addicts who carry the symptom of the disease. They are despised because they are a constant reminder of the sickness of our society. But perhaps like the survivor of a rare virus who carries the antidote to the disease, they also carry the cure. Perhaps by starting with healing of the most vulnerable and damaged members of society, we can find a path to healing of the ills of society itself. To turn the old struggle slogan on its head: “a healing to one is a healing to all.”

I know these are radical suggestions, but present policy is failing dismally. Times and circumstances call for radical change.

The coming collapse

We need to realise that a time might be coming when we cannot rely on governments, police, corporations to protect us and supply our basic needs. We also need to stop seeing that as a tragedy as the author of this article does. We should see it as an opportunity to build a new society. We need to start to prepare now, by become less reliant on the role the government and corporations play in our lives and becoming more self-reliant. We need to start growing our own food, developing our own communications networks, we need to move away from reliance on gadgets, quick solutions and unsustainable growth, We need to build networks of people that can be relied on not to turn on each other in crisis but willing to work for the common good, people that are not corrupted by materialism and capitalism, people that are not buying into a fantasy of redemption from some external force, like a coming messiah, or a miraculous rapture. We need to move fast, as like the author of this article, I believe this time is coming faster than we realise.
This is not Armageddon or Ragnarok, the judgement of the gods for our imagined ungodly behaviour, This is a situation of our own design,
We have made it, and only we can unmake it

The Problem with Protests

The problem with protests in this country is they all take place in little bubbles of insularity..... The government will not take us seriously until we learn to Stand together.... Black. White. Straight. Gay. Rich. Poor. Communist. Capitalist. Anarchist. We all want a better society. We are all sick and tired of the way things are. We need to identify the issues which concern us all and unite around those issues. To do that we need to get to know one another no matter our differences. Talk. Listen. Communicate. Make an effort today to get to know someone different to yourself. Someone you wouldn't usually talk to. Lets begin to stand together for real change.