LET'S NOT GO SOFT ON HARD DRUGS

We need a thoughtful approach to tackling our so-called cocaine
crisis rather than overhyping the problem or opting for legalisation,
argues Patrick Kenny

IT IS clear for all to see that Ireland has a growing cocaine problem
which we must face in a sensible and coherent manner. But in the
process of tackling the problem, we must steer a careful path between
two major mistakes that would make the situation worse.

The first mistake is that of normalising the problem by hyping its
prevalence. The recent Prime Time Investigates programme grabbed the
headlines with its findings that cocaine traces can be found in most
pubs and nightclubs. But that is a long way from showing that most
individuals take cocaine. If we create the impression that "everyone"
takes cocaine when they clearly don't, and if we communicate the idea
that cocaine use is now the expected behaviour for young people, we
can make the problem worse because of the powerful effect of social
norm perceptions on human behaviour.

The second, and even greater, danger is to indulge in poorly
thought-out policy reactions that will have the ultimate effect of
making the problem worse. That's why arguments about legalising
cocaine and other drugs, must be rejected.

One of the arguments for legalisation is that state controls would put
the crime lords out of business. But there is absolutely no evidence
for this. Do we really believe that the gangs who have made millions,
and who are prepared to kill to protect their narcotic empires, will
simply walk away and retire?

At what age should children be allowed to buy legal cocaine? One study
released earlier this year indicated that 40 per cent of Irish
15-year-olds have dabbled in illegal drugs. Should cocaine be legal
for kids of this age? Unless we make cocaine more freely available
than alcohol and tobacco, and place no age limits on it, a black
market for underage cocaine will remain. In such a scenario, what's to
stop our drug lords killing each other to capture the teen coke
market? And what if the cocaine magnates diversify into other banned
substances, creating a new, expanded market where they won't have to
compete against the local cocaine-selling pharmacy? Do we really want
expert drug pushers pursuing our teenagers in this way? What about the
cost of legal cocaine? What's to stop the criminal gangs from
undercutting the price of legal cocaine?

But even if, in some alternative reality, the decriminalisation of
cocaine would reduce crime, we still face a choice between two major
evils and must ask ourselves which of them is the lesser: gangs wiping
each other out or the prospect of even greater drug abuse and death in
the rest of the population due to decriminalisation?

Legalising cocaine would inevitably increase drug consumption levels
and with them, drug-related tragedies because the law plays a
significant role in influencing human behaviour. Of course, it is
peers that have the most intensely powerful impact on our behaviour,
precisely because friends help to establish the social norms. But if
this potent peer pressure has already led to a significant cocaine
problem, how much greater would our problem be if the State endorsed
cocaine?

Britain, in taking a softer approach to marijuana, has seen a 22 per
cent increase in hospital admissions of cannabis users. The
Netherlands, with its enlightened drugs policy, has seen a dramatic
rise in heroin use since soft drugs were legalised. Meanwhile, Sweden,
with some of the toughest drugs laws has Europe's lowest consumption
rate.

After the recent cocaine-related death of Kevin Doyle, 21, of
Waterford, his family said that they "sincerely hope that no family
has to suffer the pain that we are going through".

Can we really believe that a dangerous experiment with legalised
cocaine would help their wish to come true?

Patrick Kenny is a lecturer in marketing in the Dublin Institute of
Technology.