When drugs meet crime

Illustration: Andrew Dyson.

Being tough on criminals may be a vote-winner, but putting addicts behind bars only causes other problems.

EACH country gets the drugs problem it deserves.'' This is the view of Antonio Maria Costa, the former head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. His explanation is blunt: countries that rely primarily on law enforcement to deal with drug addicts and their associated crimes, rather than treating users as sufferers, perpetuate an expensive cycle of addiction, crime, incarceration and recidivism.

By that measure, Australia deserves its big problem with drugs. Illicit drugs cost the national economy some $9 billion a year. Three-quarters of that is spent on law enforcement of drug offences and crimes committed by drug users. Prevention, treatment and harm reduction account for 10 per cent, 7 per cent and 1 per cent respectively.

''Drug addiction is a health condition,'' says Costa. ''It's a pathology that needs to be addressed not in prisons, therefore not by incarceration of the addict, but in hospitals. Prevention, treatment, rehabilitation programs, and then reintegration into society work better than the criminal justice system.''

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He is not alone in campaigning for a tectonic shift in attitudes from the community and policymakers to recognise the health implications of drugs - in the same way that psychological problems have gradually become recognised as a health concern.

Last year, four decades after US president Richard Nixon launched a law-enforcement-focused ''war on drugs'', a damning report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy declared that approach, which has been adopted internationally, an abject failure. It concluded that ''arresting and incarcerating tens of millions of [lower-level drug offenders] in recent decades has filled prisons and destroyed lives and families without reducing the availability of illicit drugs or the power of criminal organisations''.

Last month, Australia21, a think tank supported by universities, as well as state and federal government departments, followed up with a report compiled by a group of prominent Australians including Foreign Minister Bob Carr and former federal health minister Michael Wooldridge.

They called for a fundamental rethink of drug policy, including a discussion about legalisation and decriminalisation. ''Discussion of drug policy in recent years has been largely absent from the Australian political agenda except as an excuse for being tough on law and order,'' the report said, noting that ''courts and prisons continue to be dominated by those involved in drug-related crime, with few positive results''.

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When drugs meet crime