It's no crime, we're just having a good time
Many of today's grannies followed Timothy Leary and turned on. Source:
Supplied
With so many respectable, responsible adults taking drugs, isn't it time
to change the laws?
AS many will know, in NSW a couple of weeks ago the husband of a
government minister was arrested following the alleged purchase of a
single ecstasy pill. The outcry? Well, there was no outcry. There was a
large collective raised eyebrow. There was an audible nod of
recognition. There was a muttered, "There go I, but for the grace of
Jah."
In Australia, we have reached the point where we can seriously
reconsider how we deal with illegal drugs.
If we ignore the cocaine snorting of the 1920s, the rampant sly grog of
the 30s and 40s, the bennies and Bex generation of the 50s, and assume
for a moment that the modern era of chemical intoxication begins with
the Beatles sharing a joint with Bob Dylan, and residents of San
Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district dropping Timothy Leary's LSD in the
60s -- then we have parents and grandparents who have encountered a bag
of weed and chopped out a line or two on a shaving mirror.
Although this generation has had friends and family die of overdose, has
seen some of its best and brightest destroyed by madness and the angry
fix, they also know some pot after dinner on a Saturday night is the
same as popping the cork on a sticky dessert wine.
They know themselves that they might have had a year or two when there
was a bit of gear around, but they turned out all right.
They've seen their children do the same thing. And the last thing they
wanted was their kids to end up in court or in jail because they grew a
few plants behind the tomatoes or the dogs sniffed out the pills down
their pants.
Consider that if you are a 40-year-old Australian, then you were 20 in
1991; cue Massive Attack, first raves and first eccies.
Twenty years on you are now a senior partner in a law firm, a
schoolteacher, a parent, or you run your own landscaping business. And
at your mate's 40th -- after the kids fell asleep in the home theatre
room, out the back by the compost bin -- Davo fires one up. This is all
illegal. And none of it is good for you. But we are wasting so much
money, time, effort and resources in putting this stuff through the
police and the courts to no effect whatsoever.
We are doing it to prevent people from dancing for hours on end, from
laughing stupidly for an hour or two, from feeling loving and sexual,
and from shedding their cares and woes for a while.
We are doing it in the face of an indelible part of human nature that
craves sensation and different experience. It is pointless to allow some
methods for this and to criminalise others.
And, perhaps even more to the point, criminalising low-level occasional
users does not reflect the will of the community.
In Portugal, if they find your stash you go before the beautifully
titled Board of Dissuasion. If you are carrying a small amount -- a
single pill, a couple of joints for the surfing trip -- you are assessed
by a panel that decides if you are on a slippery path to perdition or
you have your partying under control.
We could do with something like that for alcohol use in most of our
communities. Much of our land lies suffering after flood, after cyclone
and after enervating heat and fire in some parts. We are seeing our
continent as a place that can lie parched for years, then fill with
water like a bloated frog. We are sitting around wondering how the hell
to pay for all this and to protect ourselves in the future. Maintaining
the illegal status of all drugs creates a blackmarket worth billions of
dollars.
We don't see a cent of it, but a lot of bikies get a lot of Bentleys.
How about we at least get marijuana off the books and into the shops,
and tax it? Result? Millions back into public coffers. Bikies with ABNs,
MYOB and business activity statements.
This would differ from the way in which we approach alcohol and
gambling. How?
Well, it could differ by admitting up-front there will be problems.
People will suffer from addiction, from abuse, from physical and mental
problems associated with the use of these substances.
We could ensure that there is no industry gloss over these real and
serious problems.
We could do everything we can to make sure that help is available and
that intervention and aid occur early. That would be better than what we
do with alcohol and gambling, and would give much greater hope that
those who will struggle with this will find the help they need.
Which is not what happens now. I don't know if there's much political
will to make this happen. Like so many issues these days, if it's a bit
hard, does any politician at any level want to take it on?
But perhaps if they stepped up, they might find a majority following
them. With a sheepish shrug and an honest admission of our own desires
and weakness, so many of us might admit that we have inhaled.
James Valentine is a Sydney ABC radio presenter. Do you agree with him?
Write to us. Email address: [email protected]
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/its-no-crime-were
-just-having-a-good-time/story-e6frgd0x-1226004324099
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