CRIME EXPERT: USING DRUGS A HUMAN RIGHT

DRUGS should be legalised because there is a "human
right" to use them, according to a new book by an Irish criminal law
expert.

Paul O'Mahony also said the war on drugs had "failed catastrophically"
in Ireland, and across the world.

The Trinity College psychologist and criminologist said it was a
"scandal" that enormous resources were being used to enforce
prohibition. He said this policy had not only failed to lower drug
use, but may have contributed to its increase.

In his book, The Irish War on Drugs, the Seductive Folly of
Prohibition, Mr O'Mahony said the campaign for abolition needed a
clear, rallying idea, which would cut through complex arguments.

"What is required to achieve a tipping point, a revolution in
thinking, is a bold, inspirational idea to which people can subscribe
as a matter of self-evident principle.

"Only the concept of a human right to use drugs can fulfil this role
of providing a meaningful, inspiring and unifying idea which can guide
the transition to a fully non-prohibitionist system."

He said there was a human right to use drugs, so long as it did not
negatively impact on the rights of others.

He said such a right was consistent with legal and constitutional
concepts of individual freedom and human rights.

"Recognition of the right to use drugs is warranted in moral and legal
terms and is in accord with the scientific understanding of human
nature." He said the appetite for mood-altering substances and new
experiences was "normal" from a physical, psychological and social
point of view.

Mr O'Mahony said prohibition had failed to acknowledge the differences
between less and more dangerous illegal drugs and the fundamental
similarities between illegal drugs and legal drugs, such as alcohol
and prescribed drugs.