{"id":211,"date":"2019-07-04T15:44:15","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T15:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/?p=211"},"modified":"2024-04-06T16:39:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-06T16:39:55","slug":"sin-city-the-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/?p=211","title":{"rendered":"Sin City: the Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
First published: in the NASGP Newsletter in April 2018 <\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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The UK is losing the \u2018war on drugs\u2019. We might learn from Colombia as it recovers from decades of violence brought about by its illegal manufacture and export of cocaine.<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-five\n years ago Medell\u00edn in Colombia was the murder capital of the world. The\n city was in the grip of Pablo Escobar\u2019s drugs cartel. His teenage \nsicarios \u2013 hitmen \u2013 killed without a second thought to maintain his \ncontrol over the politicians, social organisations and the rival Cali \ncartel. During a brief venture into politics, Escobar initiated a \nhousing programme and the poor loved him for it, but there was hardly a \nmother who hadn\u2019t lost a husband, brothers, sons, in the \nnarcotraficantes\u2019 guerilla warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in 1993, Pablo Escobar was shot dead in a police raid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drugs are a traditional part of Latin American culture. 2,500 miles \nand 400 years away in Potos\u00ed, Bolivia, more than 4000m up in the Andes, \nmen and boys mined silver from the Cerro Rico, the rich mountain, to \nfill the king of Spain\u2019s coffers. The miners chewed coca leaves to help \nthem survive the long arduous hours of work and the hunger and the pain.\n Silver is still mined there, and they still chew coca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coca numbs a brutal and exhausting life but it doesn\u2019t give users a \nhigh. In most traditional communities the use of hallucinogens is \nprivileged to mystics. The counterculture picked them up and the trickle\n of strongly psychoactive and very addictive drugs into the rich world \nhas become a tsunami stimulated by millions of users who would seem to \nhave every opportunity to live fulfilling lives without drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prescribed medicines like fentanyl and ketamine migrate into \nrecreational use. Overprescribing of opioids in the USA has led to 150 \ndeaths every day from overdoses \u2013 the oxycontin scandal is now in all \nthe papers, and knowing how the Sackler family made its millions, their \ngenerosity in endowing art galleries such as London\u2019s Royal Academy \ntakes on a different colour. Chemists in jungles and laboratories \nmanufacture stronger versions of traditional drugs: coca gives rise to \ncocaine, and cocaine to crack. Cannabis gives way to skunk and spice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drugs are ever more readily available. The cost, personal and to \nsociety, is massive, and for decades governments have attempted to stem \nthe tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can try to dissuade people from using drugs. But did Nancy \nReagan\u2019s Just Say No campaign dissuade anyone? Since Trump doesn\u2019t go in\n for evidence-based policy-making he will probably ignore the Singapore \nexperience that the death penalty doesn\u2019t reduce the use of drugs. Using\n drugs is something humans do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can make drugs illegal. But it doesn\u2019t work, as prohibition of \nalcohol in the USA demonstrated. The result was bootlegged spirits and \ngangland violence. In Britain upgrading cannabis to a class B drug \nspawned spice: more profit for the same risk. Deaths from legal highs \nhave increased since head shops were driven underground. Drugs are rife \nin our society. Especially in our prisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the Prime Minister’s colleagues privately favour considering legalisation. But still parliament votes for ever stronger penalties. Except of course for the legislators\u2019 drug of choice, alcohol, which arguably does more damage than any other.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can try to eliminate drugs at source. The USA has pumped millions\n of dollars into eradication programmes in Colombia. The result: coca \nfarmers have been deprived of their livelihood, the herbicides have \ncaused widespread environmental damage and health problems, the \nnarcotraficantes took over and disaffected militias of every persuasion \nused the drug trade to finance their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018War on Drugs\u2019 is another conflict we can\u2019t win. The alternative \nis to decriminalise drugs. That means not just private use, but supply, \nwhich is where the criminals operate. But social and political attitudes\n are a big obstacle. I remember an academic who lectured us medical \nstudents on the dangers of weed, even though his lifetime of research \nhad failed to demonstrate that cannabis causes significant harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians too put their heads in the sand. The 2014 report to the \nAll Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform concluded that \nlegalisation in countries such as Portugal had led to a significant \nreduction in drugs\u2019 personal and societal harms. Home Secretary Theresa \nMay tried to censor it. Many of her colleagues privately favour \nconsidering legalisation. But still parliament votes for ever stronger \npenalties. Except of course for the legislators\u2019 drug of choice, \nalcohol, which arguably does more damage than any other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, drugs find their way ever deeper into the web of our \nsociety. More users, more suppliers, more crime, more deaths. You don\u2019t \nhave to go to Kings Cross to score, the wreckage of needles and vomit is\n to be found in quiet cul-de-sacs in my genteel London neighbourhood. \nDeeply unpleasant and largely a consequence of the criminalisation of \ndrug use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Colombia during the decades when drug cartels and vigilante groups\n controlled the country, it was impossible to get elected, to do \nbusiness, to provide services, without the support of one or other \ncriminal group. If you resisted, your children were abducted and you \nrisked assassination. Could it happen here? The food and alcohol \nindustries successfully lobby our parliamentarians to weaken legislation\n which might diminish their profits. If it gets to the point when an \nhonest politician can do nothing without paying someone off, it is hard \nto eradicate the spreading infection of corruption which, like Japanese \nknotweed, can invade every cranny of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps not impossible. Since Escobar\u2019s death, Medell\u00edn has \nboomed. A new mayor, community engagement and investment have restored \ncivil society. Now it\u2019s a city people want to live in. The new metro \nincludes cable cars up to the comunas \u2013 shanty-towns \u2013 which cling to \nthe precipitous hillsides. A 15-minute journey instead of four buses. \nThe plazas, the parks and the cafes are buzzing. Instead of arresting \nstreet graffiti artists the city funds them and tourists take tours to \nmarvel at their work. The house where Escobar died on the rooftop is now\n a language school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will take years, decades, before Colombia completely shakes loose \nthe grip of the narcotraficantes. But, as Colombians told me, it is a \nfirst step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain isn\u2019t Colombia. But the funding for drug services is being \ncut and the NHS is overwhelmed. The narcotraficantes are past masters at\n exploiting political changes to their advantage, and Brexit is a huge \nopportunity. Whatever fudge we end up with over the border between \nNorthern Ireland and the Republic, it will invite smuggling. Drug \ntrafficking is an international business, but we may sever our links \nwith Europe-wide crime surveillance and the European Arrest Warrant. At \nthe recent trial in Sussex of members of a drug ring it emerged that \ndrugs are being stockpiled in Europe so that when our police and customs\n are overwhelmed by Brexit, huge quantities may be slipped into Britain.\n Isn\u2019t it time for politicians to pull their heads out of the sand?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Next post: Understanding Denial: a Visit to the Faroes<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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First published: in the NASGP Newsletter in April 2018 The UK is losing the \u2018war on drugs\u2019. We might learn from Colombia as it recovers from decades of violence brought about by its illegal manufacture and export of cocaine. Twenty-five years ago Medell\u00edn in Colombia was the murder capital of the world. The city was … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sin City: the Redemption”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judith","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9395,"href":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions\/9395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomthoughtsltd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}