It’s not a war on drugs. It’s a war on people

The war on drugs has failed. This is not merely my own opinion, by the way - though I do share it, and have argued as much for well over a decade.

But it is now the opinion of practically all experts in the field: even here in Malta, where the clinical director government's own agency for drug addiction Sedqa, Dr George Grech, has echoed international calls for a total rethink on drug policy... especially our ugly habit of routinely sending small-time users to prison, in direct defiance of best practice throughout the civilised world.

Similar arguments have been raised abroad, culminating in a report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy - spearheaded by Nelson Mandela, Richard Branson and Javier Solana, among others - that reached the following conclusions:

• "[There is a] mistaken assumption that drug seizures, arrests, criminal convictions and other commonly reported indices of drug law enforcement 'success' have been effective overall in reducing illegal drug availability... however, data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime demonstrate that the worldwide supply of illicit opiates, such as heroin, has increased by more than 380% in recent decades..."
• "Throughout the world, research has consistently shown that repressive drug law enforcement practices force drug users away from public health services and into hidden environments where HIV risk becomes markedly elevated."
• "As was the case with the US prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s, the global prohibition of drugs now fuels drug market violence around the world.
• "Any sober assessment of the impacts of the war on drugs would conclude that many national and international organisations tasked with reducing the drug problem have actually contributed to a worsening of community health and safety. This must change."

Yet things have been slow to change, and here in Malta - where all the above is demonstrably applicable, as repeatedly proven by annual reports suggesting an explosion in problem cocaine use (while Malta retains the lead among EU States in problem heroin use, too) - they have simply not changed at all.

Not even the shocking revelation of rampant drug use in Corradino prison - as evidenced by the recent Josette Bickle case - has deterred the local authorities from doggedly persisting with a manifestly failed strategy.

And despite the prevalence of drug allegations (i.e., the infamous 'blokka bajda' incident) throughout the last election campaign, neither the Labour Party in government, nor the Nationalist Party in Opposition, has anything even remotely resembling a 'drug policy' of its own.

Political reluctance

Indeed, politicians have insisted on looking the other way even when the drug situation in Malta was revealed to have deteriorated alarmingly in recent years. As pointed out by Dr Grech in December 2010, Malta's drug scene represents "changing and challenging scenario" in which rehab centres are "seeing more people using cocaine".

"Prison is not giving results - it's no secret there are drugs in prison, and we have come to learn that incarceration does not work in people who are purely drug addicts," Dr Grech said.

His words proved prophetic. The following year, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction's annual report revealed that Malta's rate of heroin use was among the highest in the EU 27: despite the fact that Malta also has what is arguably the most draconian legislative regime in Europe.

Replying to questions by MaltaToday, parliamentary secretary Owen Bonnici admitted that there are some aspects of the local law enforcement regime that need to be revisited.

"I am, for one, extremely unhappy about the unacceptable length of time court cases involving users accused of simple possession are taking," he said. "I also seriously question whether the Criminal Courts provide the 'correct pathway' for rehabilitation when it comes to users accused of simple possession. I definitely prefer a half-way house solution in terms of a 'quasi-judicial entity with a heavy social heart', which would think more in terms of assisting the user to come clean and empowering him through community work, etc., rather than handing out conditional discharges or suspended sentences with all the consequences that this provokes on the rest of his working life..."

But Bonnici is cautious when it comes to changing tack on Malta's drug strategy as a whole.

"As a general idea, I believe that drug trafficking is one of the most heinous, unacceptable, cruel acts which a person in today's society can do. The very fact that a person tries to obtain financial profit from the sale of a substance which can lead to dependency or death, irrespective of the harm which can be done, makes the offence of drug trafficking one which merits the severe punishment which our law contemplates in those cases."

However, he concedes that treating users as criminals is counter-productive: "It is a different ball game when it comes to the people who are actually victims of drug abusers (especially where the hard drugs are concerned). The 'users' (as we call them) should be seen more as people who need help to come out of the dependency and less as criminals who are breaking the laws of the country..."

Nonetheless it remains to be seen if or how the government intends to address existing anomalies within the law... though Bonnici hinted that some form of amendments may be in the pipeline (though it is too early to provide details).

Not all politicians are as reticent, however. Robert Callus, a candidate with Alternattiva Demokratika/The Green Party, proved more than willing to give his own interpretation of Malta's evident reluctance to face facts.

"I think one reason is that they [politicians] are afraid to take the risk of irritating part of the electorate," he said simply when asked to account for the wall of silence maintained by both main parties on this issue. "Another possibility that comes to mind is that there are individuals in both parties who are completely ideologically opposed to even the possibility of decriminalisation and once again, the party does not want them irritated. I also believe most MPs have not even bothered to research the issue and are still under the illusion that the way we're waging the war on drugs is a success..."

One recent example of how seriously flawed the local system is concerned the harsh sentence meted to Daniel Holmes, who was sentenced to 11 years and €23,000 for cultivating marijuana for personal use.

At a time when the same courts are often criticised for giving suspended sentences (or more lenient ones) for much more serious crimes, the resulting double standards also have the effect of generally eroding public trust in the justice system as a whole.

Callus argues that the blame for this state of affairs lies not necessarily with the individual judges (whose hands are tied), but with the law itself.

"Daniel Holmes got this horrendous sentence because the law is faulty," he argues. "First of all it doesn't distinguish between cultivation for personal use and cultivation with the intent to traffic. Owning a single plant of cannabis is an act of cultivation and carries penalties equivalent to drug trafficking. This does not reflect the reality that many cannabis users cultivate their own plants in order not to have to resort to drug dealers. We're talking about people who never sold any drug whatsoever in their lives but still get the same sentences as drug dealers..."

Likewise, Malta's legislation fails to distinguish between 'sharing' and 'dealing' - making ours arguably the only jurisdiction in the developed world in which you can be convicted for drug trafficking even if you never made a cent out of selling drugs.

But while the attitude of the mainstream parties in Malta is proving highly resistant to change, the same cannot really be said for the attitudes among the wider population. A petition to release Holmes has so far attracted over 3,000 signatures, and AD itself (the only local party to favour decriminalisation as a policy) has just registered its best-ever electoral result.

Callus is confident that time will prove his party right on this score; as it has already done in the case of the Global Commission, on whose conclusions AD's policy was originally based.

"Public opinion has definitely changed. On the downside, this took place because drug use and addiction are always on the increase. Nearly everyone has a drug user in his extended family. Many people are coming to realise that their cannabis-using relative doesn't go around stealing and mugging and that if their relative happens to be a heroin addict, they see him as a sick person who needs help, not punishment."

But there is also growing cognisance that Malta's archaic drug policy has not only failed, but has greatly exacerbated the existing drug problem.

"More and more people are learning what research from abroad shows very clearly - that fear of punishment has no effect on drug use, let alone addiction; that the drug problem will never be eradicated but that its effects can be significantly reduced through the right prevention, treatment and harm reduction strategies."

There are other arguments, including the sheer waste of money that gets pumped into the implementation of a failed policy.

"This is also what has made decriminalisation in Portugal a tremendous success. What they did was simply use the funds 'wasted' on prosecuting and jailing people into prevention, treatment and harm reduction."

Callus explains that drugs remain illegal in Portugal, though the crime no longer entails a prison sentence. "If one is caught with drugs for personal use in Portugal, he is seen by a board of professionals who, with some exceptions, would do nothing more than give him advice... rather than making these people criminals, society has extended its hand to these drug users; and as a result a significant amount of them chose to accept help, while the increase in demand for help was financed from the money that had been previously used to prosecute and jail these people..."

The result? Portugal now experiences less drug-related crime, less syringe-transmitted diseases, and more people in rehab instead of prison.

In other words, the clean opposite of the situation here in Malta in 2013, where we have witnessed: more drug-related crime, more drug-related HIV cases, and more people in prison for drugs than are currently undergoing rehabilitation.