ALL WARS ON DRUGS ARE BOUND TO FAIL

In response to U Win Naing's article "No opium without takers"
(Perspective's Guest Column of July 15) I would like to challenge some of
what his article expressed.

Firstly, I agree that small farmers, like the ones in Burma are only out to
make a living, and should not be held to blame, since their understanding
of the greater world is limited.

I would also like to state that trying to stop them from producing the raw
crops is futile. The consumer nations of the USA and Great Britain have
indeed waged wars against drug producing countries. And where has this got
them? Absolutely nowhere.

The USA has spent countless billions of dollars trying to stop the
cultivation, refinement and distribution of cocaine in South America, yet
Western countries are still awash with drugs.

You cannot stop the small farmer growing his drug crop, nor the back street
laboratories from producing and refining, nor the traffickers and
syndicates from distributing. It's all been tried before.

And the addict isn't going to stop using the drugs unless society stops
treating him like a criminal, by locking him up in jail, where drugs are,
apparently, even easier to get.

I was astounded at the article's assumption that the only people that can
afford to buy the drugs produced in countries like Burma are the "rich
pleasure-seekers of the so-called cultured countries".

Thailand is knee deep in methamphetamines, and in parts of Iran almost
every adult has a heroin problem. Drugs are a global problem that affect
rich and poor alike.

I also find the term "pleasure-seeker" entirely inappropriate. The idea
that addicts actually enjoy drugs is perhaps the root-problem of the entire
failed war on drugs.

The nature of addiction is not about seeking pleasure. Addiction is about
avoiding pain. If addicts don't get their drug, whether it's heroin,
cocaine, or methamphetamines, they're going to feel the pains of hell, once
the withdrawal starts to kick in.

So they keep taking the stuff, over and over again to avoid the withdrawal
symptoms.

Addiction is a vicious trap. Addicts are not criminals. Addicts have an
illness, and should be treated with the same respect as a medical patient.

If the pharmaceutical companies were allowed to purchase the raw drugs from
the small farmers, refine the drugs and sell then at a fair, fixed price in
government-sponsored clinics, operating under tight controls, not only
would all the gangsters, syndicates and traffickers be out of jobs, but the
addicts would be able to get their lives together and not have to resort to
crime and prostitution to get their fix. Drugs would be off the streets and
society would be a lot better off for it.

And the poor farmer in Burma would probably get a better price for his crop
too.

When are countries, like Thailand, going to stop trying to follow America
and Europe's bad example for once, and see the truth of the matter; that
you can't wage war against drugs, only control the problem?

Christopher Austin