Drug Decriminalization as Effective Remedies in Drug Suppression Policy Bima Danubrata Adhijoso ALSA Local Chapter Universitas Airlangga
The heated debate upon whether drug decriminalization is effective as a remedy in drug suppression policies has been carried out for the following year. Several countries such as United Kingdom assert its proposal to conduct drug decriminalization as her ultimate weapon in battling drugs. One step further, Jamaica has decriminalized the possession of small amounts of the drug in February 2016 and in Portugal, the possession of small quantities of any drug has been decriminalized.1 Tracing way back to December 2013, Uruguay became the first nation to make it legal to grow, consume and sell marijuana. 2 As this issue spreading in Europe and United State; Asian countries are encouraged to take this issue as revolutionary thinking in Criminal Law. Despite being prominent for the toughest drug laws on the planet, Asian countries also well known for its “Golden Triangle”, a patch of real estate bordering Thailand, Laos and Myanmar which produces one-quarter of the world heroin and the cultivation of opium poppies has increased every year since 2006.3 The proximity of Asian countries to this “Golden Triangle” puts governments on alert against drugs. However, would it be possible for Asian countries to bury the hatchet and regulate the drugs trade instead of battling with its illegal business? Asia clearly says ‘No’ upon drugs and means it. Drugs in this case not only about opium-derivate hard drugs like heroin, but also what are now considered in places like Los Angeles as “recreational drugs” namely cocaine and Japan’s long-time drug of choice kakuseizai4 and marijuana.5 Certain common value is widespread in Asia that they tend to 1 Chris Jackson, ‘Pros and Cons of Legalising Drugs in the UK’, http://www.theweek.co.uk/59417/prosand-consof-legalising-drugs-in-the-uk, 2016, (accessed 20 May 2017) 2 Malena Castadi and Felipe Llambias, ‘Uruguay Becomes First Country to Legalize Marijuana Trade’, [Uruguay Becomes First Country to Legalize Marijuana Trade] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-uruguay-marijuanavote-idUSBRE9BA01520131211, 2013, (accessed 20 May 2017) 3 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, ‘Opium Poppy Cultivation in the Golden Triangle’, [Opium Poppy Cultivation in the Golden Triangle], United Nations, 2006, p. 17 4 A categorical term for stimulants like methamphetamines, Ritalin (Red) 5 Stephen Harner, ‘Asia Says No to Drugs and Means It: an Example for the Libertine West’, Forbes Asia, http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenharner/2015/02/25/asia-says-no-to-drugs-and-means-it-anexample-forthe-libertine-west/#406b02ef1600, 2015, (accessed 20 May 2017)
look at these drugs as not just a health and moral menace to the drug takers. 6 More seriously, the drugs are seen as threatening the order of society as a whole. Hence, both the drug takers and the illegal makers and traffickers who profit from them are considered serious (even existential) threats to social order, stability and morality.7 Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, and the Philippines are some of the examples of Asian countries that enforcing harsh punishment towards drugs trafficking and drug abuse in her countries. Not limited only to drug rehab or imprisonment, drug trafficker might be sentenced to death in Asia. The Bali Nine case, for instance, involving nine persons, including two Australians, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, convicted in 2006 of attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin, are awaiting execution under Indonesia’s death penalty for drug trafficking.8 Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown on his book “Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs” assert that policies that focus on suppressing drug flows are often ineffective in suppressing drug traffickers.9 He pronounces that although frequently portrayed as an effective solution to the problem of organized crime, mere legalization of illicit economies, particularly of drugs, is no panacea. Further, he argues that a country may have good reasons to want to legalize the use and even production of some addictive substances and ride out the consequences of greater use.10 Alcoholic drink and cigarettes were the real example upon addictive substance that is regulated by the state. Throughout the Asia, there has been no harsh legal bar on the purchase of alcoholic drink and cigarettes, though both are often addictive. This condition reminds the Author of an old long story of the mankind, Adam and Eve; where the forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest. Harsh criminalization has triggered the illegal market to grow under the State’s control. Records of Uruguay National Drug Council Secretary-General, Julio Calzada mention that having a legal source of marijuana will do more to fight the illegal marijuana 6 Ibid. 7 Amnesty International, ‘UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs: Missed Opportunity for Human Rights as Executions on Rise’, 2016, ACT 50/3870/2016 8 Ibid. 9 Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, ‘Shooting Up: Counterisurgency and the War on Drugs’, Brooking Institution Press, 2010, p.137 10 Ibid, p.139
trade that cracking down on dealers. “In Uruguay, there are about 120.000 daily-tooccasional cannabis users. At present, these people are buying from criminals and strengthening local mafia”, Calzada said in an interview with Reuters in 2013.11 Further, he convinces the media that if the government can take control of that market, criminal organizations will lose their main source of income. The Golden Triangle that overlaps the mountains of three countries of South East Asia, namely Myanmar, Laos and Thailand alongside with Afghanistan in the Golden Crescent, it has been one of the most extensive opium-producing areas of Asia and of the world since the 1950s. As mentioned supra, one-quarter of the world’s heroin came from the Golden Triangle12 until the early century when Afghanistan became the world’s largest producer.13 In line with Calzada’s suggestion, if Asia government can take the control of that market, criminal organizations will lose their main source of income. With drug criminalization, it is inevitable that criminals and illegal drug trader should have grown up to meet the considerable demand that exists. If their sale were made legal, at officiallycontrolled prices, the black market would disappear overnight-and with it would go the theft, blackmail, drug pushing and other crimes which surround it at present. 14 The Netherlands, which has allowed the possession and retail sale of marijuana since 1976, is actually lower in the rank than the United States in the percentage of people who have ever tried marijuana in every age category.15 Moreover, those who have tried have done this at an age higher that the average age of the people in the United States who use other illegal drugs. Toleration of drugs in the Netherlands has not led to a massive rise in consumption, as critics feared, and the police have found it much easier to keep an eye on the trade.16 Thus, it is safe to say that decriminalizing drugs might seem as an effective solution towards drug suppression policy.
11 Uruguay Becomes First Country to Legalize Marijuana Trade, n.2 12 Opium Poppy Cultivation in the Golden Triangle, n.3 13 Ibid. 14 Prof. Alison Ritter, ‘Decriminalisation or Legislation: Injecting Evidence in the Drug Law Reform Debate’ , 2016, UNSW Australia in collaboration with National Drug and Alcohol Research Center 15 Prof. Deborah S Hasin, PhD ‘Medical Marijuana Laws and Adolescent Marijuana Use in the USA from 1991 to 2014: Results from Annual, Repeated Cross-Sectional Surveys’, the Lancet Volume 2: No.7, 2015, p. 617 16 Ibid.