Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa

Myth #12. “The government can protect society by banning new drugs”. Banning drugs masquerades as positive tough action to remove the ‘problem’ when actually banning drugs has little impact on use and makes production, distribution and consumption more dangerous.

Myth #13. “Once listed in the Misuse of Drugs Act, drugs become controlled.” Technically correct – but once a drug is listed as a controlled drug, it is forced underground and thus becomes completely outside government/social control. So ironically a controlled drug, is by nature, an uncontrolled drug.

June 26 is the annual “Support. Don’t Punish.” day—an impressive global initiative to promote harm reduction and drug policies that prioritize public health and human rights. The slogan rightly asserts that people who use drugs shouldn’t be punished and should instead receive support. But at second glance, it raises some telling questions.

Why NZ experts are calling time on the “war on drugs”: Our current drug law protects the market dominance of state approved drugs and hands over the market for unapproved drugs to gangs. People who use unapproved drugs are forced to engage with criminals. With huge profits at stake, disputes in these criminal businesses are managed by guns, knives, threats and violence - there is no consumer protection, legal recourse or complaints procedure.

Wendy Allison answers all the questions on Legal Regulation posed by Leah Panapa on NZ Radio show ‘The Platform’

Longitudinal studies have also shown that the criminalisation of users of illicit drugs has no effect on either preventing or reducing drug use – even after being arrested or convicted of a drug offence – and that criminalising users increases the amount and kinds of harm they are exposed to.

The Open Letter to the government is supported by 155 signatures and includes eight professors, 31 doctors (PhD & MDs), is endorsed by 29 organisations and supported by experts from 14 countries across North America, South America, South Africa, Europe and Australasia. 

“[President Nixon] had two enemies: the antiwar left and Black people… We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the [Vietnam] war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.

Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

The legal regulation debate has little to do with the pros and cons of particular drugs – these drugs are already in circulation and being used ‘underground’. Instead of debating drugs, we need to debate the pros and cons of the current system, a system that promotes particular psychoactive substances while prohibiting others.