By LSW
In 2020 Aotearoa will vote in a referendum on legalising the recreational use of cannabis for adults. While the pro-legalisation campaign #makeitlegal promotes the economic and social benefits of legalisation, prohibitionist campaign Say Nope To Dope offers stark warnings of potential health risks and possible social costs.
The cannabis referendum is a start, but we must also have a public conversation about the criminalisation of other drugs. Drug prohibition is an issue of social justice, and therefore an issue for social work. Prohibition has a history rooted in racism, as a tool used to criminalise and incarcerate marginalised populations. In the United States, cannabis, opium, and cocaine were criminalised to target the respectively Latino, Chinese, and black populations that favoured their use (Drug Policy Alliance, 2019). In the 1970s, US President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs, acknowledged by senior administration members as a tactic to criminalise and marginalise his opponents via an engineered association with illicit substances (Drug Policy Alliance, 2019). In Aotearoa, Māori are disproportionately arrested, charged, and convicted for cannabis-related offences (NZ Drug Foundation, 2016). The current system where drugs are prohibited but offenders charged at the discretion of officers of the institutionally racist police contributes to this disproportionality, with Pākehā drug users significantly more likely to receive pre-charge warnings than their Māori counterparts (NZ Drug Foundation, 2015).
On top of its dubious history, drug prohibition has failed. Prohibition has not eliminated the use of illicit substances, instead succeeding only in creating significant stigma toward drug users and pushing the problem of drug addiction underground. Harmful language towards and a negative media portrayal of drug users have othered the group, with addicts noting strong feelings of social exclusion and discrimination (GCODP, 2017). The fact is, drug use is not uncommon. 44% of New Zealanders will try an illegal substance at some point. Those that do not will know someone who has, often without realising. The vast majority of this substance use is non-harmful and most people will go on to lead entirely normal lives. Harm that does arise will usually be a direct result of prohibition: through a criminal conviction, causing untold personal hardship to those unfortunate enough to be charged by the police, or through untreated addiction, compounded by social stigma preventing the seeking of help.
Drug prohibition is ineffective, unjust, racist, and harmful, and I challenge it in accordance with the IFSW global social work statement of ethical principles . Social workers must add their professional opinion to the public discourse around drug-law reform.
Is this the right way to treat drug-related harm?
Photo by Tom Blackout on Unsplash.com
I personally advocate for a shift to a different model based on harm-reduction. An effective and proven way to reduce the harms of drug use is via a health-based approach facilitated by decriminalisation. Removing criminal penalties in conjunction with expanding education and addiction treatment services corresponds with a lessening of stigma around drug use and empowers those with addictions to seek help. Health-focused approaches have proven successful in countries such as Switzerland and Portugal , which have both seen significant reductions in hard drug use and related harm, particularly deaths from overdose, since adopting such models.
In those countries and others, Supervised Consumption Services (SCS) function as a safe place for users to consume substances. SCS additionally facilitate contact between users, who may otherwise be socially isolated, and professionals employed in the facilities such as social workers. Support for problems with substance use and addiction, or (emphasis on) possible correlating issues such as social deprivation and mental illness respectively, can thus be offered to users in a non-coercive, non-judgemental manner.
Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash.com
Minister of Police Stuart Nash has acknowledged “we cannot arrest our way out of our drug abuse problems”. Decriminalisation is a more effective, efficient, and empathetic alternative to prohibition for addressing drug-related harm, and deserves the support of not only social workers but all who are tired of the harm brought about by the failed war on drugs. Further potential harm-reduction via ‘cautious, incremental and evidence-based’ legalisation and regulation as supported by the Global Commission on Drug Policy (2018, p. 7) must also be explored; a topic for another post.
References
Drug Policy Alliance. (2019). A brief history of the drug war. Retrieved from http://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/brief-history-drug-war
Global Commission on Drug Policy. (2017). The world drug perception problem. Retrieved from http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/GCDP-Report-2017_Perceptions-ENGLISH.pdf
Global Commission on Drug Policy. (2018). Regulation: The responsible control of drugs. Retrieved from http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ENG-2018_Regulation_Report_WEB-FINAL.pdf
New Zealand Drug Foundation. (2016). There’s something wrong with the sentences. Matters of Substance. 27(4). Retrieved from https://www.drugfoundation.org.nz/matters-of-substance/november-2016/sentencing-wrongs/
New Zealand Drug Foundation. (2015). How well are pre-charge warnings working? Matters of Substance. 25(4). Retrieved from https://www.drugfoundation.org.nz/matters-of-substance/november-2014/pre-charge-warnings-working/
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