Good article. I agree.

However, why start at the far end of obviously harmful drugs where even the sale and purchase of useful common medicines is restricted?

It would be ridiculous to allow the importation, sale, purchase and use of cannabis, heroine and amphetamines while it is still illegal for adults to do the same with antibiotics and certain herbal medicines without a doctor's prescription.

There are definite merits in decriminalizing the possession of small quantities of drugs. However, the prosecution of drug dealers and firing of people who use drugs at work should be kept.

Those good people who cite San Fransisco as a model of a drug policy that's gone wrong, are essentially right on the money. Yet at the same time I don't believe, nor do any of my former colleagues, that police can arrest their way out of this insidious drug mess we are currently in.

My last deployment before I retired, was the the Armed Hold-up Squad. In fact I had scant interaction with the 'druggies' the CIB Drug Squad were affectionately called. But the popular notion of masses of police flooding the streets, public places and the by-ways, as suggested by some politicians merely demonstrated how little some knew of the current drug surge sweeping Sydney and the 'burbs.

Many significant drug deals take place in the isolation of private dwellings, making it inordinately harder for police to interdict drug enforcement. Search Warrants et al? Including finding a jurist prepared to sign the application without lengthy alterations made thereto. Often in the 'Robbers' we'd get wind of 'F/As in possession', say on a Friday afternoon, and trying to find a magistrate present, to sign the damn warrant, was somewhat of a joke.

Therefore, through some petty bureaucratic blunder, we would get to their source (guns) all too late in the proceedings. Thus returning to the Station empty handed, with a stupid look on our collective faces. Retirement was a far better option for a coppers mental health. Rather than aspiring to a career's self-actualisation as suggested by Mr Maslow.

Drug-caused attrition & no medical aid for abusers will sort things far quicker & effective than any useless expensive program that only serves to fill the pockets of 'experts' !.