How many times have you heard people say: ‘drugs are illegal, therefore drugs must be bad, so don’t do drugs.’ Those people are probably thinking about the fact that in Australia, the use, possession and sale of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, ecstasy and a whole lot of other drugs is illegal. Punishments range from fines through to imprisonment, depending on the quantity (which seems pretty mild, actually, compared to places like Malaysia where the law provides for a mandatory death penalty for anyone found to be in possession of more than 15 grams of heroin or 200 grams of marijuana).

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands you can buy marijuana at the corner coffee shop. In Spain it is legal to use (though not sell) both cocaine and heroin. In Argentina, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Peru the possession and personal, private use of very small amounts of marijuana is legal. This makes for a confusing situation. Are drugs really bad? Should they be legal, or illegal? I’m not going to talk about the first question in this post. Drugs can have benefits to the people that use them. They can also carry with them certain risks and side effects – some very serious. Whether that makes them ‘bad’ is a judgment call up to each person to make after getting all the information they can.

The question of whether they should be legal or not is an interesting one. Clearly, different Governments and health authorities in different parts of the world have varying opinions on this. In some places drugs equal death (quite literally in places like Malaysia), in others, personal use is okay. The really interesting thing is that both approaches – legal or illegal – are seeking to do the same thing; reduce harm from drugs. Those who argue for drugs to be illegal say that if people simply didn’t take drugs, there would be no harm done. They’re right of course, but the problem is that many people do take drugs – humans have been doing so ever since humans existed.

On the other hand, those that argue for legalisation say that by taking this approach the manufacture and supply of drugs can be taken out of the hands of crime organisations, and regulated by authorities, thus reducing the harm to people who use and society more generally. They argue that instead of spending billions of dollars on policing and the ‘war against drugs’ that money could be redirected to better effect to treatment and harm minimisation programs.

What do you think? In particular, do you think there’s any way that legalisation could work in Australia, given the fact that drugs have been illegal here for so long?