WHY RAIDS ARE NOT OK

Operation Lime - the nationwide police swoop on hydroponic-growing
supply shops - was a big step backwards in drug reform and, given the
timing of the raids, there is concern over the level of political
motivation behind them.

Police say they spent two years in undercover work amassing evidence,
but it is curious how they decided to bust 35 stores in the same week
as J-Day, which is the local cannabis culture's biggest and most
highly visible day of the year.

The raids also happened during the final week in which the general
public got to make submissions for the Law Commission's Misuse of
Drugs Act report. By a further quirk of apparent synchronicity, they
also happened in the week in which the Law Commission's report
suggesting a major tightening up of alcohol regulation was tabled in
Parliament.

Police claim that the operation has broken the back of New Zealand's
illegal cannabis industry, but that's stretching credibility a bit.

Thirty-five years of prohibition under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975
has played a prime role in the development of what has since become a
large, sophisticated and lucrative black market controlled by gangs.

The black market is simply far too entrenched and resilient to be
knocked back by raids on some grow shops; and besides, the small
number of weapons and other drugs found in the nationwide bust
suggest that the growing operations uncovered were, individually,
quite small and not gang-affiliated.

Those hardest hit - besides the staff of Switched on Gardener, et al,
their spouses and their children - will be the average Kiwi smoker
with a small wardrobe garden going because he or she prefers not to
be involved in a black market associated with potentially dangerous people.

A lot of these grow-your-own-at-home types are medical cannabis users
- - some of the most vulnerable members of society who are intent on
making their lives safer by staying away from tinny shops.

The Law Commission refers to such level of involvement in cannabis
growing as social supply and draws a distinction between this and
commercial or large-scale supply. That's significant because in the
paper Regulating and Controlling Drugs, one of the Commissioner's
recommendations calls for an end to the criminalisation of people who
grow for themselves and a few friends.

Evidence now suggests that police crackdowns aimed at stopping trade
in illegal drugs actually have the opposite effect to that intended.

A World Health Organisation study established that countries with
get-tough policies, notably the United States and New Zealand, now
lead the rest of the world in rates of cannabis use.

This year, an international review by the Canada-based International
Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP) of 20 years of research
into drug enforcement found that the imprisonment of dealers and
criminal bosses actually leads to greater drug-related violence.

Vacuums in the black market are rapidly filled by competitors eager
to fight each other for the newly vacated territory.

The ICSDP meta-analysis of 15 separate reports on the relationship
between violence and drug enforcement found that 87 per cent of
studies reported that police seizures and arrests led directly to
increased violence.

The policy of prohibition rests on the assumption that
law-enforcement efforts to reduce the availability of drugs by
increasing prices and decreasing supplies also have the effect of
reducing violence.

But this is a myth. Not only has prohibition been found to be
ineffective with regard to supply, the ICSDP study shows how
significant a role it plays in the causation of violence.

As for price, prohibition drives the street value of drugs up
astronomically, creating lucrative markets and allowing gangs to
become stronger, more organised and able to expand into both the
production and distribution of P.

Evidence now suggests that any disruption of drug markets through
drug-law enforcement has the perverse effect of creating more
financial opportunities for organised crime groups.

Despite an ever-expanding budget, police have failed to stop the
availability and use of illegal drugs in New Zealand. Now, more than
ever, it is imperative that our elected leaders learn to accept the
folly of this path and introduce a policy of controlled legalisation instead.

Why we continue allowing organised criminal gangs to decide where,
when, to whom and at what price illegal drugs get sold in New Zealand
is a question worthy of deep consideration.

Wouldn't it be wiser to legalise and regulate all drugs by
introducing a sliding scale of controls, ranging from membership of
Dutch coffee- shop-style premises for the sale of cannabis, to
licensed pharmacies selling stronger drugs on prescription?

It appears we have a government in denial of the negative impact of a
prohibition-based drugs culture. What other local industry worth many
millions (if not billions) of dollars each year is left in the hands
of organised criminals rather than being taxed and properly controlled?