After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation

Transform Drug Policy Foundation . Bristol : Transform Drug Policy Foundation ( 2009 ) 251pp. Downloadable online free of charge ISBN 978-0-9556428-1-4 There has been a recognition internationally that the prohibition of drugs has been a failure. Gradually, an inadequately thought through international prohibitionist experiment conducted by the club of ‘problem owners’ (van Duyne and Levi 2005, p.24), including moral entrepreneurs, not only erased the local and national regulation of drugs, which reflected local and national peculiarities, but by being immersed in a ‘threat’ discourse created problematic situations, trends and phenomena on a number of levels and contexts. Very importantly, the persistence of the international prohibitionist stance has conditioned policy makers, law enforcement agencies and large segments of the public to ignore the functional difference between recreational drug use and drug dependency, to aggregate the different drug markets into the drug market, and to abide by the view that there is no alternative. After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation, which is the third book in Transform's After the War on Drugs series, is no less than what its title suggests: a blueprint for regulation, and it provides an image of what a post-prohibitionist regime could look like. In that respect, and as acknowledged by the author, the book is a starting point for further discussion. The author directly and indirectly places emphasis on, and urges for, research. The local peculiarities of the drug markets require research to be done and evidence to be produced in relation to appropriateness of models. For instance, as it is stated on page 76, ‘the nature of drug preparation, how the drug is administered, and the physical and social/peer environment in which consumption takes place are … crucially important linked variables in determining risk’. The book also emphasises differential drug use motivations, versatility in drug use, and the prohibitionist regime's failure to distinguishing between, and conflation of, two sets of harms, drug-related harms and drug policy-related harms; an arbitrary aggregation that constitutes a ‘self-justifying feedback loop that has helped immunise prohibition from scrutiny’ (p.71). Importantly, the book deconstructs – though to a smaller extent – popular, strongly-held misconceptions which lie among other misconceptions at the core of the prohibitionist regime such as the involvement of ‘organised crime’ in the drug markets and the ‘profile’ of the drug entrepreneurs. The book's author is aware of the limitations of the proposed project (other than the one that it is based on a primarily western perspective which may not be applicable in some contexts): ‘[the] legal regulation of drugs will not eliminate problematic drug use or dependence … regulation of drug production is only one aspect of the broader drug policy debate … Regulation would also not entirely eliminate illicit drug markets and their associated problems, and … any regulatory system is as good as its enforcement’ (pp.10–11). The problems and mistakes with the regulated markets for alcohol and tobacco are not ignored; rather the lessons to be learned from these mistakes constitute the rule for policy on drugs that are currently illegal. At this point it should be mentioned that perhaps some more attention to the illegal markets of legal drugs and how these could possibly undermine regulation would have been beneficial. Despite the ‘humility’ and ‘calmness’ with which the book approaches the issue, After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation is, in my opinion, an important, sharp and powerful text. Not because it is extremely radical with ‘groundbreaking’ general ideas that were never put forward/heard before or elsewhere, but because it proposes specific, serious, alternative models of regulation of drugs for each main type of drug, and offers a flexible way in which these alternatives can become the backbone of a more rational, humane, fair, and economical drug policy. Being written in an accessible (and policy maker-friendly) manner, it will certainly generate some fruitful dialogue among various relevant parties. What remains to be seen is whether policy makers will see the possibilities offered and decide to act or simply ignore yet another powerful book on the common assumption (among policy makers and not only) that whoever is not ‘pro-prohibition’ is ‘pro-drugs’.