Leader column: Just say no to ‘evidence-based’ drugs policy

Today’s Irish Daily Mail is running a horror story on its front page about the West Dublin drug casualties over the weekend. Clearly the Mail is attempting to further politicise the issue of drug use and abuse. Hating the Daily Mail is de rigeur, of course, but upon closer examination the issue of politicising drug use bears thinking about.

The British government has sacked its drug advisor, professor David Nutt, over the weekend because he had the temerity to argue that the reclassification of cannabis as class-B controlled susbtance did not make any sense from a medical point of view. As forth contributor Dr Stephen Ginn has pointed out the British preaches a drug policy of ‘harm reduction’ but its real agenda is moral and political. (1) Moral panics, of course, are to be avoided at all costs, but politicising drugs is not necessarily a bad thing.

The problem with the demand for an ‘evidence-based’ drugs policy is that it ignores two key facts: firstly, in a democratic society, every policy should be open to public scrutiny and discussion. Secondly, drug consumption, whether about legal or proscribed drugs, has always been a major political issue. From Britain’s Opium Wars to the dark underbelly of slavery that haunted the 17th century rum trade, it is impossible to separate any drug’s production or consumption from the society in which it is made or taken.

Today, for example, a perfectly legal drug, alcohol, is increasingly blamed for all social ills, as if it had a will of its own – and as though people had none.

So-called ‘evidence based’ policies provide useful cover for moral agendas. The difference between now and the past is that sin has been replaced by medicine: something is bad for you so you must be prevented from doing it. Openly political agendas at least can be fought in the court of public opinion. The real objection to politicised drug policy is that those objecting have different politics but are afraid of the fight.

forth argues for individual liberty, including as a vital foundation for a more coherent and collectively-oriented society, and that means people have to be allowed to make their own decisions. Even bad ones, including taking drugs.

(1) Going Nutts on DrugsStephen Ginn, forth, November 1, 2009