I believe we need to take a leaf out of Portugal's book. Simply because they and their paradigm has proven vastly more successfully than our unending and growing war on drugs!

A war that has been going on for around 80 years with no possible victory in sight, ever just ever increasing cost and human toll! With no conceivable end in sight or a diminution in offenders,or the veritable tide of addicts!

Time for a new and vastly more rational approach that brings the overwhelming bulk of the community back onside.

That said, ice addiction can't be tolerated ever and the addicted need to be humanely incarcerated by law whether or not they are willing to comply, then treated as if their addiction was a health related matter.

The folks we need to go after, with every tool at our disposal, are the Mr bigs of the underworld, and one does that by following the money trail, rather than interrupting it, leaving these monsters to invent another way to remain a couple of steps ahead of self congratulating law enforcement and endlessly reoffend!

Law enforcement have, to be fair, done a good job stopping a single shipment this time!

And so the endless, pointless, war continues as does the ever increasing carnage, lost lives and property; and the monumental law enforcement bill!

And money far better directed at dealing with endemic and or post code poverty, if only to remove any economic incentive to earn an illicit income, as small time dealers/pushers, out of economic necessity?
Alan B.

Hi ALAN B...

I've been a copper for over 32 years ('til my retirement) more than half of that, as a detective sergeant. Most of what you say in your Post is correct. The one thing I have learned is; 'you can't arrest yourself out of this insidious problem'. It requires corroboration and co-operation from all the stake-holders, starting from government, the judiciary all the way down to the young 10 year old on the street.

In my humble opinion the first and one of the most serious 'logjams' in this war on drugs, would have to be the judiciary itself. All the way from the local Magistracy, up to and including the Supreme Court' for their continual failure to support police interdiction of drug legislation per se.

Hi Alan & O Sung Wu,

Frankly, I'm terrified about when Ice gets into Indigenous communities, i.e. remote communities, rural towns and outer suburbs, in a big way: that bust last week amounted to nearly two million hits - the entire lot could be carried by a truck into community after community under boxes of lettuce. A kilo - i.e. a million dollars' worth - could be carried in tucked in a small carry bag. Fifty thousand dollars' worth could be carried in a tobacco packet in someone's pocket.

I don't know what the effects of Ice, combined with alcohol, might be, but it can't be good news for women and kids in Indigenous communities. I have a brother who works in a psych ward and most of his most violent patients are on Ice. He's had numerous bones broken and tells me of horrific violence wrought on other staff too. Maybe they could all be dosed up with pot, just to calm them down: with a bit of luck, if it was provided free, they could become addicted to that instead, and just sit around giggling, instead of smashing all the furniture and anyone in the neighbourhood. Just kidding.

Cheers,

Joe

Perhaps if we stopped reviving those who had overdosed and just left them to die, their mates might get the message.

David

Hi David,

Yes, it was mentioned on TV a week or so ago that Emergency Wards seldom if ever get to treat anybody who has overdosed on marijuana. Would it be unethical if some prison or mental health authorities provided it free, and in quantities, to all inmates who had committed offences while on Ice, for the duration of their sentences ?

I suppose one problem would be that there would be so much of it in the air that the staff would be permanently half-stoned. But wouldn't everybody be happy ?

Cheers,

Joe

We need to make it harder for the middlemen, once convicted, a long drop on a short rope.