At what cost? The futility of the war on drugs in South Africa
Introduction
In February 2011, an
article by Dr. JP van Niekerk in the South African Medical Journal spoke of the
legalisation of drugs.
Dr. Van Niekerk wrote:
“The war on drugs has failed! Humans have
always taken psychoactive substances and prohibition has never kept them from
doing so. The international evidence suggests that drug policy has very limited
impact on the overall level of drug use. Making people criminals for taking
psychoactive substances is in itself criminal, for one is dealing with, at
worst, a vice but not a crime.” (February
2011, Vol. 101, No. 2 SAMJ, Page 2)
The article hit a
nerve. Up until that stage, legalisation had only been spoken of by fringe
groups, and their argument always took the religious (Rastafarianism) approach,
or was an uneducated and biased approach to legalisation.
This was one of the
first articles of its kind by a well-respected, well-known and well educated
South African gentleman, who spoke from a completely scientific point of view.
However, my position
as Chief Executive Officer of the Anti Drug Alliance of South Africa made it
difficult to accept the article. After all, we (the Anti Drug Alliance) took a
firm stand against drugs and addiction, and the name of the organisation
clearly spelt out our purpose.
Yet it was the science
behind the thought process that made sense. Years of fighting drugs seemed to
have been (almost) pointless and futile. Suddenly, morals and deeply entrenched
beliefs were no longer relevant. The war on drugs is
the real enemy, and people fighting addiction are its victim.
I would like the
reader to understand something. I do not use drugs, nor do I currently wish to.
I was in active addiction for ten years of my life, and have spent nearly an
equal amount of time in sobriety since then, fighting the effects of drugs and
addiction in our country. Taking the legalisation stand was not just something that
was just decided one day. It took months of intensive research, and many long
hours arguing with myself, colleagues, friends and family.
After many long hours
of debate, we decided that the organisation would take the official stance of
legalisation.
This report sets out
to show the cost of the war on drugs in South Africa.
We have ensured that
the figures are correct, and most often taken the lowest (financial) figures to
illustrate the point. What we have done is calculate the LOWEST possible amount
the war on drugs costs our most populous and wealthiest province – Gauteng. We
would have liked to investigate further, however, budget and time restraints
did not allow for it.
We had endeavoured to
use facts and figures that are readily available to the public.
To date, we have not
received response from the government departments we contacted for facts and
figures. SAPS, GCIS, Justice and Correctional Services, to name a few, simply
never returned calls or emails.
All information we
used is in the public domain, available via the internet on the various
departments’ websites, as well as via reports from major publications.
(c) Anti Drug Alliance South Africa
