By Bert Hetebry

If you want to hang out, you gotta take her out, cocaine

If you want to get down, down on the ground, cocaine

She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie,

Cocaine.

Cocaine (J.J. Cale. 1976)

Kids are different today I hear every mother say

Mother needs something today to calm her down

And though she’s not really ill, there’s little yellow pill,

She goes running for the shelter of her mother’s little helper

And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day.

Mother’s little helper (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards. 1965)

Let me run with you tonight

I’ll take you on a moonlight ride

There’s someone I used to see

But she don’t give a damn for me

But let me get to the point, let’s roll another joint

And turn the radio loud, I’m too alone to be proud

And you don’t know how it feels

You don’t know how it feels to be me.

You Don’t Know How It Feels (Tom Petty. 1994)

Just a few songs about illicit drugs. The October 2015 edition of Rolling Stone magazine listed 20 Great Narcotic Love Songs. Sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll seem to be intrinsically bound according to Ian Dury and the Blockheads back in 1977. But the attraction is far greater than for people who enjoy sex and rock ‘n’ roll.

The history of drugs is long and interesting, going back to ancient times where indigenous peoples knew of the therapeutic and hallucinogenic nature of the plants in their regions, of Sultans’ cannabis plantations in flower and slaves running naked though them to collect the sap from the flower heads, and today the massive illicit trade in drugs by criminal gangs and international consortiums running this very lucrative enterprise.

Apart from the apparent mountains of illicit drugs being intercepted by the Federal Police, drugs continue to be readily available to any one who wants (or needs) them, and the quality of the drugs being sold is so variable that over doses are frequent, even among hardened addicts, so much so that there are calls out for the overdose drug naloxone be made freely available, without prescription for people who unknowingly have used a drug laced with contaminates. It seems that despite billions of dollars worth of drugs being intercepted the demand is still being met, so it appears that the occasional loss of a tonne or so of uncut drugs is an acceptable loss, the amount slipping through must be profitable enough to offset those losses. The headlines which announce a drug seizure will contain a street value estimate of the seized drugs, but not what value the loss is to the criminal enterprise bringing the drugs in. I shudder to think what the mark up may be.

According to the article in today’s Guardian, more than a million people in Australia have used cocaine in the last year, that makes about 4% of the population, additionally about 400,000 have used ecstasy. It would appear we have a problem that the current laws and system cannot control.

In addition to the illicit drug trade there is a booming economy in legal drugs, and I do not include prescription drugs in that. Alcohol sales continue to grow, the number of beer labels and boutique breweries have made beer drinking a taste experiment, with so many different flavours it’s a bit like a candy store experiment for children. There also appears to be a growing trend of downing drinks as a competition. See how many shots can be downed between the beers.

A recent trip though the wine growing region of our south west demonstrated that a person can go from wine tasting stop to wine tasting stop and get quite merry enjoying the free samplings as they drive from winery to winery.

Additionally, there is the legal and increasingly illegal trade in tobacco products and vapes.

It seems we cannot get enough pleasures without the high a drug can give us, and it also is most apparent that there are enough people willing to risk lengthy terms of imprisonment to capitalise on the insatiable demands.

No class of people are immune to the addictive pleasures drugs give, money or lack of money is not an obstacle, the difference could be the drug of choice, cocaine being the choice for those with a bit of spare cash, alcohol is ubiquitous and freely available, marijuana also readily accessible.

A problem is that when a politician is seen ‘shit-faced’ on a pavement in Canberra, it makes a brief headline and is quickly buried, the jokes of former Prime Ministers either asking for the airsick bag when flying from Melbourne to Canberra before the aircraft had left the ground, or wandering around a hotel trouser-less, or any other time a leading politician has been a bit too full for his own good is just grist for the mill, it’s just what people do, right?

But when as we have here in the west, a politician or a candidate seeking election is a reputed user of cocaine but still is favoured to win the seat he is contesting and is seemingly seeking a leadership role in the party backing him, we would have a politician endorsing criminality, supporting the criminal network which is supplying illicit drugs into our communities.

Enough whinging, Bert, are you going to offer solutions or just point to the insoluble problems?

OK, so what can be done?

Again, history may be a teacher here.

The Prohibition Era in the US failed miserably in curtailing the use of alcohol. For thirteen years, while alcohol was made illegal, criminal gangs proliferated. The quality of alcohol varied and with it the health impacts on the drinking population. But criminals reaped in money hand over fist. To combat the criminal activity of dealing with a drug which had been legal, the FBI was formed. At the end of prohibition, the FBI, instead of being disbanded, was charged with controlling other, newly criminalised substances, including cocaine and marijuana. Coca Cola was forced to change the formula they had used for their popular soft drink, removing the ‘coke’ replacing it with even more sugar.

So could legalisation of the now illicit drugs work? And what benefits could arise out of legalisation?

When we look at the controls on tobacco and alcohol, we see that distribution is through licensed operators, that the quality of the product sold is controlled and clearly marked on the packaging and that sales taxes are applied to help pay for the ongoing health issues caused by the addictions. The closest we get to criminals running these businesses is the board members of major corporations who are more than willing to look like legitimate business people, respectable members of the upper echelons of our society. And they pay taxes, albeit the absolute minimum they can get away with while paying thousands to smart accountants who help write the tax laws to file their tax returns.

In Portugal, the government decriminalised drugs including cocaine and methamphetamine, among others, and initially it seemed to work, the rate of HIV dropped since there was a drop in reusing needles for injections, but there is currently a backlash since theft and housebreaking are increasing. The issue is that the distribution of the drugs has remained with the criminal gangs, street sellers and ‘speakeasy’ types of drug dens.

Much the same in Amsterdam where marijuana has been decriminalised for consumption in coffee shops since 1976 and that has been extended to the rest of the country. Additionally, there are strict controls over the growing, testing and distribution, and the labelling of the amount of THC in the sold product. Possession for consumers is limited to 5 grams.

Objections in recent years has been that Amsterdam has become a tourist destination for ‘pot heads’, but overall the scheme has been successful in controlling the distribution, quality and sale of marijuana. The laws have not changed for other drugs.

The legalising of medicinal marijuana is growing world wide, and that brings with it the control of quality and distribution, but does not address the market for recreational use and limits that legalisation to only one drug where the market is a lot broader than that.

It will be interesting to see, if the politician I alluded to gains the office he seeks, whether he would be brave enough to change the law to decriminalise his rumoured addiction.

(Personal note: The only drug I use is either a statin or placebo for a controlled medical trial conducted by a university. I do not smoke, drink alcohol or consume any other drugs except for a daily dose of coffee.)