Jaime, how long have you had this feeling of entitlement to order people around as if they were herds of milking-cattle owned by you and the State, and have you sought professional help for it?

What a load of socialist baloney, Jaime de Loma Osario Ricon.

Unsurprisingly, Jaime is a social worker who wants more taxpayer money so he can do more social work. Naturally, he presents this as a way of saving taxpayer money. Just cough up more dough and we can send less people to prison. Then comes the usual spiel, which nobody but a socialist believes, that all we have to do is legalise drugs and things will be better.

To begin with Jaime, certain ethnicities, one of which you are a member, are very disproportionately represented in very serious criminal behaviour, especially drug trafficking. The best way to prevent rising drug abuse is to introduce a much more discriminatory immigration policy, which excludes those ethnicities already notorious for their very high rates of criminal behaviour and welfare dependency. But you won't support that, will you? The more dysfunctional minorities, the more work for social workers. And you want your entire extended family to come to Australia, because the Yanks are fed up of Hispanic minorities causing mayhem in the USA, and they won't let you into America.

Another way to reduce drug related crime, is to prevent any media from presenting drug abuse and serious criminal behaviour to our young people as fun and fashionable behaviour. That means banning any pop (and especially rap songs) songs which promote violence, misogyny, and serious drug abuse. Next comes the movie industry which promotes a drug abuse lifestyle as adventurous and fun. If we as a society claim to be outraged at the effects of the drug "ice" on our communities, why in heaven's name did we allow a TV show like Breaking Bad to be shown on prime time TV? It is incredible that we have no hesitation in banning cigarette advertising, then we allow out entertainment media to use on screen heroes to promote drug abuse. Then we wonder why there are now so many "incidental" smoking scenes in movies.

It just goes to show how cigarette manufacturing executives are some much more smarter than today's "intellectuals" .

My only non-prescription drug is coffee. I started drinking it because I thought it would make me cool. Now I drink up to four cups a day. If the government tried to take my coffee away, yes, I'd buy it illegally at an inflated price, and I'd accept the risk.

This article is complete common sense. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of prohibition in the US between 1920-1933 will understand that however you feel about some aspects of human behaviour, legislating against things like addiction just won't work. That's partly because the drugs (e.g. alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, ice) create a physical craving, so people want them more than they want a lot of other things that might be offered as substitutes. But also, the law's the opposite of a deterrent: it creates a culture around drugs, and makes people want these things more. Regulation (e.g. plain packaging, age restrictions) are the best that can be hoped for - along with regarding drug use as a condition or a health issue, not a crime. Look to Portugal for a really enlightened and workable approach.

There's nothing in this opinion piece that doesn't make perfect sense. And clearly the author knows from his daily experience what the problems (and solutions) are.

Very worthwhile insight from someone who obviously knows what he's talking about from years of direct experience.

It's pretty obvious that the current approach is not working, so it has to be time to try something new.

Decriminalisation, a shift to harm-reduction and diverting funds from enforcement/punishment to rehabilitation, can no longer be written-off as radical or risky. There is solid proof that it is effective, evidence-based policy. We just need good leadership to help the electorate understand that and quell the moral panic.

Portugal is a great case study.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Portugal

I would agree with the regulation of prohibited drugs.

How long is it now that drugs have been illegal, and what has that rule proved.

The law can not be enforced , so regulation is the only way to go. These drug addicts are a dead loss, in police and medical terms.
The best idea would be to regulate so the pushers are off the street, at the same time you are accessing and have advantage with the addicts.

Everyone has to agree, making drugs illegal has not worked at all . Neither did prohibition of alcohol.

Instead of alcohol being an illegal substance the govt; now relies on it.

Careful there Jaime, it sounds like a bad case of over servicing there. We should cut the budget for such frivolous activity.

You do make a good case for prisons to be made a hell of a lot less pleasant places. If half the old lags are coming back regularly for a bit of rest & recreation, when ripping off the public becomes too tiring.

Those huge prison costs are a good argument for a return to a chain gang system. Say 10 to a chain, issued with picks & shovels, we could rent them out to road builders. 2 or 3 chains could probably replace a bulldozer & save a lot of emissions

Oh, & if that criminal woman has a toddler, it should immediately be removed, & be given in adoption to someone prepared to put in the effort to raise it properly.