'CARIBBEAN DRUGS' A TIMELY STUDY

FACED with the dangerous link between illicit drug consumption and the
HIV/AIDS pandemic, Caribbean Community governments are now challenged
to also intensify efforts to deal with overcrowded prisons where
significant percentages of inmates are young people and women
convicted for using or running marijuana and cocaine.

How to help reduce the tremendous harm that illicit drugs inflict on
family life and the social and economic consequences to society, with
a shift from traditional punitive penal custody that is an increasing
burden to state resources, requires a fresh look at alternative
policies and programmes, according to penal reform and human rights
specialists and professionals of regional and international
institutions and agencies.

To add to the literature, relevant policy documents and proposals that
may already be available from their own specialists and policy
advisers, is a just-released book which the Community's governments
should find a very useful tool in the fight against the costly social
and economic consequences of illicit drugs.

Caribbean Drugs - From Criminalisation to Harm Reduction, authored by
Axel Klein, Marcus Day and Anthony Harriott, with a stimulating
collection of essays by regional and international experts, provides
refreshing insights on moving the enormous problem of drug abuse from
"criminalisation" to the challenge of "harm reduction".

It is the general understanding of Caribbean people that
narco-trafficking and gun-running have significantly contributed to
the curse of armed killings, violence and fear that afflict so many
nations of our region, including Trinidad and Tobago.

There is also increasing awareness, resulting from the frustrating
complaints of criminologists, sociologists and prison authorities, of
overcrowded prisons in societies where the focus remains too heavily
on "jail them", instead of enlightened alternatives to custodial
sentencing, such as community service, rehabilitation and education.

In such a situation, young and first offenders serving drug-related
sentences often become more prone to criminality in overcrowded
prisons with atrocious facilities and hardened criminals, as others in
society engage in passionate debates on social issues, such as the
introduction of condoms in prisons.

While some of the major Caricom states talk about plans for new prison
facilities and pursuit of alternatives to custodial sentencing, the
governments of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are
vigorously working on common policies and strategies to deal with
penal reform and new approaches to addressing illicit drug-related
problems.

They were likely to further review this policy at their 40th regular
summit that took place in Tortola over two days last week.

Caribbean Drugs, which includes, among Caribbean contributors,
specialists from United Nations agencies, international human rights
and research organisations and universities, has been offered by its
authors as a product that throws "fascinating light" on the
difficulties facing drug abuse and rehabilitation centres and the
dilemmas they create.

Denis Benn, Michael Manley professor of public affairs/public policy
of the University of the West Indies, Mona, tells us in a preface that
the editors and contributors deserve to be commended for shedding
light on the challenge from "criminalisation to harm reduction".

This, he said, has emerged as a "major public policy concern in the
Caribbean that will continue to demand the urgent attention of
governments and regional institutions and international
agencies..."

For the executive director of Drug Policy Alliance, Ethan Madlemann,
only rarely do edited volumes, with multiple essays by scholars,
exercise any influence on public policy.

But, as he said, if he had to choose one book that might achieve such
an objective, it would be Caribbean Drugs.

In his analysis, Axel Klein, one of the three authors and head of
research at DrugScope - regarded as the United Kingdom's leading
independent centre of expertise on drugs - has traced the search by
the Caribbean for a new drug policy framework from the "Barbados Plan
of Action" to the "Ganja Commission of Jamaica".

He emphasised that "the need for action is urgent and professionals
are looking for strategic direction. We propose the adoption by the
Commonwealth Caribbean of a policy of harm reduction within the room
for manoeuvre allowed by the United Nations convention on drugs
regulation and outlined by the 'Ganja Commission' (of
Jamaica)...".

Klein's companion editors, Marcus Day, co-ordinator of the St
Lucia-based Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition, and Anthony Harriott,
senior lecturer in Government at the UWI (Mona), have been joined by a
team of professionals and researchers with hands-on experiences of the
Caribbean reality in dealing with the complexity of problems
associated with narco-trafficking, illicit drug consumption,
overcrowded prisons and the dilemmas in responding to the challenge
for change.

Barry Chevannes, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the UWI,
shares his insights into the ganja culture and criminalisation in
Jamaica; while Wendy Singh, human rights consultant and former
Caribbean director of Penal Reform International, offers an
informative overview of "drugs and the prison system" with a focus on
impact of new legislation.

Other contributions that may also be of much interest to policy
advisers and lawmakers, as well as members of the public with a
general interest, include: Howard Gough's "drug abuse treatment and
rehabilitation in Jamaica and the Caribbean"; Jennifer Hillebrand's
"ethical dilemmas in drugs research"; Philip Nanton's "rethinking
privatisation - the state and drugs in the Commonwealth Caribbean";
and Catherine Chestnut's focus on "practising harm reduction in a
zero-tolerance society".

In the view of the director of drug and alcohol studies at the
University of Delaware, James Inciardi, the authors and contributors
of Caribbean Drugs have succeeded in filling "a major gap in providing
substance abuse researchers, clinicians, policy makers and general
readers, on both sides of the Atlantic, with a collection of
interesting and highly provocative essays..."

(Caribbean Drugs was published by Ian Randle Publishers (Kingston,
Jamaica); and Zed Books (London and New York) in association with
DrugScope, UK.