The biggest problem with the debate on whether the personal use of drugs should be illegal is that it is completely stereotyped. In the blue corner you have the arch-opposers who think any form of tolerance will be the death of us, while in the red corner you have the long-haired hippies who want to spend their lives on the beach in the company of significant joint and others.
We have attempted to live this stereotype for decades. It has suited politicians who want to get elected. Any rational discussion on the subject was seen as political suicide.
This led to the imposition of harsher penalties for drug users than wife-beaters. Tagline has followed tagline: ‘Tough on crime, tough on drugs’ being one of the many. But has it really suited society?
One salient question provides the answer: are drugs less prevalent today than they were 25 years ago? Definitely not.
Drugs today are more widely used than ever. They are cheaper, more easily available and more socially acceptable.
Gone are the days when they were accompanied by the concept of free love. These days popping a pill at a nightclub is as commonplace as ordering a shot of vodka to wash it down with. Drugs are also no longer considered to be for either the rich or the down and outs. They are being used by people from all walks of life.
We may not like the reality. We certainly do not like the reality. But the fact remains that this is the reality.
How do we deal with it? To date no one has been able to answer this question. Indeed, it is likely there is no star answer.
However, one thing can be stated with certainty: the hard-line approach taken by successive governments all over the world has failed. The law, which serves as no deterrent, has failed. We have all failed to address this issue in a productive manner.
This is why it is surprising that, on a global scale, the Pope – who has fearlessly shown himself to be a leader who is completely in touch with human reality – and, locally, Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna, have cautioned against any change in approach that leans towards decriminalisation.
Francis said: “Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise.”
He is, of course, right that drug addiction is an evil. But two important points are missing here: one, just like not every drinker is an alcoholic, not every drug user is an addict; two, the people who suffer most, the ones most likely to end up either in jail or dead, are not the drug barons – they have enough money to get others to do their vile work for them – but those who are either desperate enough to become traffickers or those who are unfortunate enough to get caught up in the habit.
We have had very sensible people in this country – from former Caritas director Victor Grech to former European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello to Emeritus President George Abela – saying the personal use of drugs should be treated as a social rather than judicial issue. This is the way forward.
Drugs wreck lives. There is no doubt about that. But we have seen that the solution does not lie in prosecuting the people who take them.
We need a different approach that instead places valuable resources in education – so that individuals are able to make an informed choice before they decide to take drugs or not.