A very good article Sandra.

Unfortunately much of our public policy (like our drugs policies)is based on emotion rather than facts and analysis.

I fully support the idea that the war on drugs (like the war on terror) is a complete failure. But politicians perceive that being tough on drugs is popular with the electorate. That will continue to be the case until visionary politicians stand up for principle, not prejudice.

You say:

"The only winners in such a policy are the designers and builders of the new prisons that will have to be constructed.

"The war-on-drugs philosophy has seen the supply of drugs in South Australia pushed more and more into the hands of organised crime, and increasing budgets for the policing of that crime. Unsurprisingly, there has a been a switch to the legal drug, alcohol."

The organised criminal groups who supply illegal drugs and the police with extra funding and the polticians pushing the law and order tough on drugs approach all benefit from illegality. And possibly the brewers and the pubs, clubs and bottle shops. (Although I think statistics show we as a nation actually drink less now than twenty or thirty years ago.)

Society unfortunately suffers as a consequence of this mad war on drugs. Until such time as we adopt a medical problem approach and take to prescribing drugs (including tobacco)through medical outlets the failed war on drugs will continue to produce catastrophic results for us as a society.

Thank God for the demise of the Democrats. We have seen 'the peace on alcohol approach' (harm reduction approach) fail dismally with multitudes dying from alcohol related diseases. All we need is another loony left scheme where we are soft on drug peddlers. Have diabetes and you pay for your needles, take heroin and get them for free and leave them lying around for others to clean up.

Sandra writes
'The war-on-drugs philosophy has seen the supply of drugs in South Australia pushed more and more into the hands of organised crime,'

Where on earth were they before this seen they have always been illegal? More statements with no evidence.

More Democrat crap. As soon as they disappear from the States as well as Federal the better.

Where do Heroin users get free needles? Pharmacies SELL 'sharps kits' for IV drug users, by the bucket load.

If there are free needles for Heroin users why don't diabetics go and pick some up for themselves? They don't need to tell them it's for insulin.

The 'war on drugs' is the biggest most monumental waste of money. And it breeds corruption.

Even the death penalty overseas has not been a deterrent for Aussies. The money to be made is just too tempting.

A sign of stupidity is the persistence of sticking with something that does not work. We've been doing it for years.

The drug/war
a war by govt on its own people,

A very proffitable war ,

the last year i could get figures [1999] was for queensland drug fines 65_million
[from 36,000 drugUsers
[one percent of the population becomming criminal each year]

War on drug-users began in usa
they installed a TAX on hemp
[based on the machine-gun tax act]
the drug war has feet of clay!

the name 'marijuanna' is a regestered trademark owned by bayer-corp

The drug cartel[selling drugs like prozac ]
that alone has killed 15,000 people
[the death toll from cannabis stands at zero!!]

The users of this plant get the special treatment even childmolestors [or bankfraud whitecollar criminals simply dont get ,

furthermore they get advised to plead_guilty at a rate of 20 out of 21 ,part of the succes of this lie is lawyers making laws for their lawyer mates

An average moring the public legal'AID' lawyer will get 10 guilty pleas [at $300 fee each,steady income for lying to kids]

[see genesis 1;29]

kids fill our prisons [mainly for fine default's][so much for not having debitors prisons]

Studies reported [with pregsistant conditions to ensure bad findings [are for finding bad affects] even so all the studies have been rebutted

Cannabis cures cancer , govt paying the true drug lords govt grant money to find cures or subsidize 'legal' drugs is killing so many unessesaryilly

[noting in usa alone the equivelent of 5 jumbo jets per day die from PERSCRIBED drug adverse reaction [but our lawyers are deaf!]

The drug war is a fraud [look no further than the drug subsidy for 1 billion annually for stroke medication alone [that could get the same result from a single puff from a joint for pennies]

This beatup on drugUsers has gone on too long [god forbid our police policing perverts or real crime!]

[what has a health act to do with crime??]
no other health act is policed by police
why this health act?

why not docters , why police and criminal courts?
because police do as the lawyers tell them?

dont think god isnt watching

About the only response which would work; given that a large number of Australians are willing to brave existing law in order to indulge in drugs, despite the draconian legal regime and the equally nasty police tactics; is full legalisation of everything. Quite simply, if you are over 18 and thus able to make an informed choice, you may have whatever you desire (as the old proverb says: 'Take what you want, then pay for it'). The drugs would be manufactured under supervision from the TGA, and taxed to the hilt, distribution would probably be through the very pubs and clubs that they are currently distributed through anyway (Doctors would not work - imagine if a Doctor had to write a script for everybody who wanted a beer, just how much of the population would qualify for an after-work drink?).

Organised crime is removed from the picture and billions are saved on policing, while extra billions roll in from taxes.

The major harms associated with drug use, arising from the exorbitant cost of drugs under prohibition (thus drug-related crime - primarily used to finance drug use), the associated mental injury (quite a fair proportion of which is directly attributable to the criminal world and the associated fear of heavy-handed police response) and the violence stemming therefrom.

The remaining issues, those of addiction and health, could then be approached as the health and societal issues that they are, not as an adjunct to policing.

At the moment, we are engaged in a war in another asian country which produces copious amounts of heroin. Unless this Country is prepared for the consequences the Americans had to deal with in Vietnam and the Russians in Afghanistan, it is time to look at a very different approach. Once conscription is used to ensure adequate numbers in Afghanistan (conscript armies were the root of the problem for both USA/USSR), it will be too late. We face an epidemic of Heroin use the likes of which this Country has never seen. Our enemies will be funded by the very same epidemic, as is already happening.

New Speak - War On Drugs. What a nonesense. They mean war on drug addicts. War is good business, people get rich fast from policing and undergound drug supply networks. Prohibiton is maintained for these reasons as well as hatred by those in power for those that want the liberty to determine what they consume.
New Speak - we live in a free society. No, we live in a society led by control freaks and war mongers, people who find the sight of beautiful children revolting, bizarre unfeeling neurotics willing to kill off a proportion of the young to pronounce their righteousness.
This is a deep sickness and goes way beyond the drug debate.

The facts about drugs don't concern our political leaders. Only power and control issues interest them and drugs gives them a way to wield their power without sanction.
Will there come a day when the families of those killed by these power freaks march in the streets as a mark of respect for those deliberately overdosed by contaminated drug supply?
Am I angry - you bet I am.