Drug barons are winning the war because our battle tactics are dopey

The Americans tried to ban alcohol in the 1920s, but it gave rise to the golden era of the gangsters.

When it was repealed, the social decline that some predicted never happened. But the US was left with the organised crime thatthe ban had spawned

A RECENT UN Office for Drugs Control (UNODC) report purportedly found that Ireland has the biggest increase in cocaine use in Europe. In the light of the seizure off the Cork coast, few would probably have any difficulty believing this, but the author of the report, Thomas Pietschmann, sounded distinctly uneasy on Morning Ireland.

The quantities of cocaine seized in this country jumped by 750% between 2002 and 2006, and the number of people reporting for treatment for cocaine use spiralled by more than tenfold between 1999 and 2005.

The number of cocaine-related offences quadrupled from 2002 to 2005.

The price of drugs is usually considered an indication of availability. Between 1990 and 1996, the price of cocaine in Ireland tumbled by 73% to become the cheapest in Europe then.

Cocaine remained cheapest here for the next five years. It has gone up since then, but last year it still cost only about 62% of the going rate in 1990.

The international community has sought to tackle cocaine production on two fronts, both at source and delivery. It has tackled it at source by cutting back on the acreage devoted to the cultivation of the coca leaf, from which cocaine is derived. The overall acreage devoted to coca production in South America decreased by 29% between 2000 and 2006.

But this was offset by greater farming efficiency, which led to high productivity from fewer acres. The production of cocaine has remained essentially the same because the use of fertilisers and pesticides, along with better harvesting technology, brought about improved coca yields.

Much the same happened with cultivation of the poppy for opium in southeast Asia. The acreage devoted to poppy cultivation decreased by 10%, but opium production increased by a staggering 43% between 2005 and 2006.

On the delivery front, there has been a dramatic rise in seizure rates. The overall rate of interception rose from 24% in 2000 to 42% last year. Most of the cocaine seizures (58%) took place in South and Central America or the Caribbean. Some 28% of seizures were in the US and 14% in Europe.

Cocaine seizures in Ireland in 2004 amounted to 0.3% of the European total, compared with 46.1% in Spain, which has by far the most serious problem in Europe. It has been the main European entry point for cocaine. The percentage of the Spanish population aged between 15 and 64 using cocaine has jumped from 1.6% in 1999 to 3% in 2005, which is more than double the western European average of 1.2% and four times the overall European average of 0.75%. For first time ever, the Spanishsurpassed the 2.8% in the US.

Before taking any solace from the seizure off Cork, people should remember that Spain, which has the highest seizure rate, had also got the worst cocaine problems. Usually the level of seizures is indicative of the amount that actually gets through to the streets.

It would be nice to think we had the cheapest cocaine for so long because so few people were using the stuff, but the law of supply and demand would suggest we are catching up in the stupidity stakes.

Dr Des Corrigan, chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, last month highlighted the cocaine-related deaths of five young people. Three died of cocaine toxicity, while the partner of one of those jumped to his death after taking cocaine, and the other young man died as a result of a cocktail of drugs, including cocaine.

Last September, there were sensational reports of cocaine being passed openly at graduation balls in counties Meath and Louth. One young man left a ball in Drogheda and was found dead shortly afterwards with cocaine in his blood. Traces of cocaine were even found in the Dáil toilets last year. It is a serious problem that can strike anywhere, and we need to be acutely aware of it.

Some young people are lulled into a false sense of security by the reckless description of cocaine as a recreational drug. Cocaine needs to be recognised for the deadly threat it poses to society.

Too many young people are perilously ignorant of the dangers. It is not only a highly addictive drug, but also a very dangerous one. It can kill people the first time they use it as it may lead to heart complications, especially when mixed with alcohol. It may also be lethal for those who have a heart problem that has not been diagnosed.

The US spent $69 billion fighting drugs last year. They have been throwing good money after bad since Richard Nixon launched his war on drugs in the 1970s. Over the following 35 years they spent about three trillion dollars, but the drug addiction level is still 1.3%, which is what it has been since 1914.

The Americans tried to ban alcohol with prohibition during the 1920s with disastrous results. The experiment essentially gave rise to the golden era of the gangsters. When prohibition was repealed, the social decline that some predicted never happened. But society was left with the organised crime that prohibition had spawned. The current prohibition on drugs seems to be proving just as disastrous in fostering the kind of dangerous criminal activity in this country that we once associated with the movies about gangland Chicago in the prohibition era.

This is not to suggest we should just quit fighting the drug scourge, but it is time we recognised that the tactics being used are a failure and a waste of resources.

ONLY an idiot would think the Americans are winning the war on drugs, and it is the height of folly to try to emulate their failing tactics, which is what we have been doing.

Criminals engaged in the cocaine trade are highly organised. Those who were attempting to smuggle the cocaine found off Cork must have accumulated phenomenal wealth to purchase cocaine that would have been worth between €100m and €300m on the street, depending on the way the drug would be diluted.

If the drug squad could cut off the supply to this country in the morning, we would probably be faced with a dreadful crime wave because the price of drugs would go up and the addicts would still have to have their fix. They would therefore have to steal more than ever. The most vulnerable people would inevitably be targeted and nobody would be safe in the process.

We have already developed an underclass of vicious criminals who thrive on the current system. Instead of providing the incentive to get people off drugs, our system is promoting the drug culture. Many addicts feed their habits by supplying others to get them addicted. As a result, the drug culture is being promoted on a basis similar to pyramid selling.

The system we have is not working, and there is no point in waiting until we develop the kind of problems they have in Spain or the US before facing reality. We need to recognise that our current tactics are disastrous.

People may argue for the legalisation of drugs, or for the provision of drugs to on prescription. Those would be ways of regulating the profits and decommissioning the pushers. Whatever tactics are used, a new approach is urgently required.