Dr Liz Gordon – Drugs, crime and the stuffing of our prisons

There is, amongst us, an enormous range of substances that make the world seem a better place than it is.  Some of them, such as coffee, chocolate and aromatherapy massages, are legal and are deemed not to alter our minds in damaging ways.

Others, and particularly alcohol, are damaging and dangerous but also pleasant and relaxing.  The nub is with alcohol, that the amount and frequency of drinking is an important factor. Moderate drinking is a pleasant thing and quite legal, as long as you do not drive after imbibing too much.

Also important is that alcohol has effects that seem different from person to person. Both of my parents were alcoholics.  My wonderful, loving, intelligent father became a depressed and violent person (he hit both my mother and her replacement, the latter of whom hit back in her own drunken rages) after his half bottle plus of whisky per night. My mother became bitter and verbally cruel, and her replacement was a wailing banshee whom I tried hard through my adolescence to kill, unsuccessfully.

The rise of what are known as ‘drugs’, both pharmaceutical and other, was a feature of the 20th century.  The terrible effects of war (the British Royal Navy gave out both alcohol and cigarettes – they even had their own brands of ciggies, which my father faithfully smoked until he died), rising inequality (starting in the US), various diaspora and other factors created both illnesses that needed to be cured and realities that needed to be avoided.  The legal/ capitalist and illegal drug industries prospered together. The US exported both to the world, and the mighty industries of the East geared up to provide the rich West with what it apparently wanted and increasingly needed.

None of this would matter if we humans did not have a massive propensity for addictions.  What are these? I define them as the affinity that the body can develop towards a substance (or it can be an experience, such as the addiction to dangerous ‘adventure sports’) that slowly narrows the world until the imbibing of that substance becomes the main thing that matters.  Some people seem to be more affected than others.

Some substances are more addictive than others.  They say that P, or meth is instantly addictive. People talk of a high the first time of use that people will do anything to try to emulate over and over.  In the meantime many damage their health, teeth and relationships, often irrevocably.

I do also, as the Drug Foundation repeats all the time, want to make it clear that the use of such substances does not always imply crippling addictions.  There are plenty of people who boost their wellbeing with the occasional pill, puff, snort or whatever without any particular negative effects. This is why the notion of blanket drug-testing in the workplace is to be avoided.  Who wants to see their talented and high-performing colleague lose their job because they occasionally imbibe?

Drugs which are classed as illegal are not so because of their addictive properties. It is not illegal to be addicted to something.  There is no such definition in the Crimes Act. Neither is being addicted – seized by a powerful and gripping need that cannot be shaken – a defence against either the possession or supply of any illegal substance.  As a result, a person driven to crime by a crushing need will be sentenced to prison rather than a treatment facility.

This situation has reached crisis point – the prisons are overwhelmed by people who have mental illness, addictions to alcohol and drugs, and/ or both.  90% of the prison population has one or other, and 20% both. The number of people in prisons has gone up nearly 500% over 30 years, driven primarily by the surge in the use of illegal substances.

Neoliberalism is in large part to blame.  The withdrawal of the state from so many areas of life has made so many lives worse (dedicated readers of this blog will remember that in 1990 over 40% of national spending was in the public sector, and that figure now hovers below 30%), including benefit reductions to poverty levels, a free market in so many (often shoddy) things, reduced access to treatment facilities, homelessness and housing poverty, children growing up without hope or opportunity and so on.

In the US, the Federal Government has pursued a ‘war on drugs’, which has pushed their prison population up to ridiculous levels (see earlier blogs).  We do need to understand that while a war on drugs has not been officially declared here, we are in effect heading down the same path as the US.  I think we are around 20 years behind but on exactly the same trajectory.  We need to face this and act on it before it is too late.

For example, a couple of months ago the media got into a lot of hand-wringing over why so many women are now going to prison.  The answer is they are going to prison mainly for drugs, dishonesty and fraud offences. Many of them are addicted to something. And the underlying cause is poverty, largely in single parent families. Prisons are full of young women, mainly Māori, who have had awful lives to date, few educational opportunities and have found some solace – and a heap of trouble – in mind-altering substances. It is not rocket science and action should not be impossible.

The best cure is prevention, but we indeed now have the kind of society that fosters addictions, and a large and effective drug distribution system underground.  The police do what they can, but for every lot caught, there are so many others. The second option needs to be treatment plans for overcoming addictions, but people often reach rock-bottom before they are prepared to consider trying to cut the bonds. Burning addictions, remember, hard to kick and hard to want to kick. Prison is a good place to do this, if done skilfully in a rehabilitative setting.

Really, best of all, we need a much better, more open, less unequal society where people treat each other well, all families are well-housed, adequate incomes, hope for the future. Yeah, yeah, you have heard it all before.  But who will make the possibility of a better society into a reality? Rugs are a 20th century thing.  They do not need to be a 21st century thing.