HOLLAND - Social Psychiatrist and official of the Dutch Ministry of Health and member of the Advisory Committee of the Drug Policy Foundation. In early 1987, he promoted the foundation of the European Movement for the Normalization of Drog Policy, wich is a body of associations from eight European countries, working towards the liberal reform of the drug laws.

ABSTRACT: After having described the huge international repression machine set in motion to solve drug related problems, the author asks different questions: Is the penal system the most efficient solution for drug related problems? Does not criminalization aggravate the problems rather than solve them?

("THE COST OF PROHIBITION ON DRUGS", Papers of the International

Anti-prohibitionism Forum, Brussels 28th september - 1st october 1988; Ed. Radical Party)

A. PREMISES

1. In most countries of the world, including the 12 member states of the European Community (EC), national drug policy is based on two United Nations Conventions; the Amended Single Convention of Narcotic Drugs (1961/1972) and the Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971). These Conventions are based on the assumption that the narcotic drugs and psychoactive substances included on the lists drawn up by these two Conventions are addictive, harmful to one's health and constitute considerable danger to society in general. The conception of "Drug Abuse Control", since the first Convention in 1912, has evolved to the point where it is now considered in the interests of public health. However, only in the past decade has the safeguarding of the general well-being of society been included in its goals.

2. The decision as to whether or not a particular drug or substance is addictive is made by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO must determine medically whether or not a new substance should be placed on one of the Lists. The criteria are : (a) whether or not the substance produces a state of dependence or stimulates the central nervous system, resulting in hallucinations or disturbances in the motor functions, concentration, behaviour, perception or mood; and (b) whether or not abuse of the substance produces ill effects similar to those caused by any of the substances already on one of the Lists. ("The United Nations and Drug Abuse Control", U.N., N. Y., 1987, p. 70.)

3. In the twelve European Community member States, drug policy is divided into three sections :

a) penal legislation fulfilling the requirements of the above-mentioned U.N. Conventions;

b) executive measures as to detection and prosecution of drug offenders; and

c) assistance to illegal-drug addicts (treatment and rehabilitation), in accordance with the norms set down by each national government in this respect.

4. Drug policy may differ from country to country in any or all of these sections. The common denominator, however, is always and exclusively the following: drug control by means of the severe repression of use/abuse and trafficking (cultivation, production, manufacture, shipment, trade, financing, importing, or peddling).

5. In all countries, there are serious problems connected with illegal drugs and their use. Despite international cooperation, the Police and Customs have succeeded in seizing only 10% of the total quantity of illegal substances. In all Western countries, the Penal Systems are overburdened with cases related to the use, possession or trafficking of drugs or drug-related crime occurring, for example, in overcrowded prisons. Assistance usually reaches only a small number of users and addicts, and almost never succeeds in totally rehabilitating the addict. At present, HIV-virus infection among intravenous drug users constitutes the most serious problem everywhere.

6. In the public health perspective, the use of tobacco and alcohol poses more serious problems (for the individual, in the context of epidemiology and in the social context) than the use of illegal drugs and substances. Theoretically, there is no sound reason for not including these two substances on the U.N. Conventions lists. Both substances are psycho-active and could cause irreversible organic damage. Millions of people are addicted, to these substances and often (with alcohol) cause accidents which are harmful also to others.

7. The most important characteristic of drug policy in all the countries which ratified the U. N. Conventions is the decision to rely heavily on the criminal law system approach as a solution to drug-related problems. Drug law is predominantly penal law. All measures and the financial consequences - including assistance - are part of the penal system. Even Switzerland, which did not ratify the two conventions, has chosen this method of drug-abuse control.

8. This implies that assistance to users and addicts :

a) should be in accordance with the legal prohibition of certain substances; and

b) should have relatively less priority than the criminal justice system.

9. Those Conventions and the national policies based on them were the results of a historic process of political evolution starting in the last century in the U.S.A. There, a speeding up of the process occurred after World War II, when the U.S.A again played a major role. The resulting Drug Abuse Control complex (consisting of the U. N. Division on Narcotic Drugs, the International Narcotics Control Board, ECOSOC, Commission on Narcotic Drugs, UNFDAC, WHO-Expert Committee on Drug Dependence, the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe, Drug Steering Groups of the Commission of the European Communities, experts from the various national Ministries of Justice, Public Health and Social Affairs Departments, the various national and international police forces cooperatives (DEA, ICA, TREVI, Interpol, Customs Coordination Council) in recent years has increasingly tended towards a penal approach. The last climax seems to have been reached with the Comprehensive Multi-disciplinary Outline of future activities for D

rug Abuse Control (CMO), as drafted by the U. N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs, for the first International United Nations Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Vienna, in 1987. In the near future a new convention will be drafted (see Draft Convention against Illicit Traffic and Drug Abuse).

B. COMMENTARY

I am convinced that the above mentioned agencies will never succeed in resolving the drug problem by attempting to totally eliminate the use of drugs in our society - which has been its aim. In my opinion, all the problems defined in the recent U. N. publication entitled, "The United Nations and Drug Abuse Control" are directly related to the illegal nature of these substances and not to the drugs and substances themselves. Making the use of these substances a crime has made it impossible to control their quality and price, resulting in enormous profits for the traffickers, the creation and growth of drug-related crime and all the other problems cited in that publication.

It is really surprising that no one document issued by that international machinery has ever posed either of the following questions:

l) Is the penal approach to solve the drug problem the only and most effective approach?

2) Is it possible that the machinery has aggravated the problems, if not created additional ones, similar to those it started out to eliminate?

Consequently, I should like to ask the participants of this First International Anti-Prohibitionist Conference to consider those two questions. I believe that the drug problem we have today differs greatly from the one the creators of that machinery set out to solve in 1912. However, I also believe that today other, and more feasible, alternatives are available to us for tackling these problems than those which existed at the beginning of the century.

I should also like to pose a third question as to the advisability or appropriateness of the World Health Organization's being responsible for the decision as to whether or not a drug is potentially addictive.

Following up on these three issues :

a) In the above description of drug policy (see A), two economic

factors are central, the supply and demand of drugs. It is not clear why psychological and sociological factors are not given the same consideration. The substances in question are in demand for their capacity to influence human sensations and emotions (pain, fear, stress, anxiety, vulnerability, and so on...). The same reasons could be given for the popularity of alcohol and tobacco;

b) Penal law can never be more than a warning.

The results of punishment are twofold : the (temporary) banishing of the offender from society, and the warning to others not to follow his example. Those who are severely punished for trafficking in drugs should be those, like the many thousands (in the U.S., for example), who are only after increased profits. However, although these make up only a small part of the total number of users of prohibited drugs, the Drug Abuse Control machinery indiscriminately places them all in the same criminal category;

c) If our national governments are intent on playing a role in the area of drug use and its consequences, they should consider other alternatives to the penal one for attempting to prevent or reduce to a minimum any harmful effects;

d) As WHO is responsible for the medical-pharmacological evaluation of the potential addictiveness of drugs, there is the risk that obsolete models will be applied, which ignore the inherent psychological, social and cultural aspects of the problem of drug dependency, thus producing incomplete or invalid conclusions.

C. PROPOSALS

On the basis of the above, I propose that the participants of this Conference urge the United Nations Drug Abuse Control agencies to:

1- Organize meetings to discuss the premises of Drug Abuse Control;

2- Organize meetings to discuss more appropriate methods for the prevention and remedying of the problems of drug abuse;

3- Organize scientific conferences to discuss the effectiveness of WHO evaluations and decisions as regards drugs and substances.