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Page 10
DRUG WAR, from page 9
inevitably hijacks people and takes them
over, turns them into monsters and so on,
that’s just not true. It didn’t happen to all
the people that bought it over the counter.
What’s causing the compulsive use that
you see in some people, which is very
disturbing and tragic, is that terrible inner
need. There’s this very interesting
experiment in Australia, where they’ve been
prescribing drugs that are like the
methadone equivalent to meth. There is a
parallel to the Swiss heroin prescription;
you don’t see people developing psychosis
or the things that appear after people are
illegally using meth in some cases.
There are what are called drug
consumption rooms in some parts of the
world. For example, in Vancouver, there’s a
.place where addicts can go in and take then-
drugs and be monitored by doctors. And
obviously if things go wrong, they can be
looked after, and also while they’re in the
regulated space, they’re always told, “When
you’re ready to stop, we’re here to help you;
we’re here to support you.”
I would experiment with that option. That
option might not work. We need to find out
E.G.: Are we really in the last days o f the
war on drugs, as the title o f your book
suggests, or do we still have a long way to go?
J.H.; Some places are in the last days of
the war on drugs, and other places aren’t.
What we have to do is organize together
as citizens, demand it and persuade our
fellow citizens, because they have perfectly
legitimate fears and totally understandable
anxieties.
There was a homeless street addict named
Bud Osborn, who was watching his friends
die all around him. He lives in a part of
Vancouver called the Downtown Eastside. It
has the highest concentration of drug addicts
in North America. Addicts would hide from
the police and use their drugs behind
dumpsters or in hidden corners, and if you’re
shooting up and you’re hidden and you
overdose, no one will see and your body will
be found dead hours later. Bud thought, I
can’t just watch my friends die, but also, I’m
a homeless junkie, what am I going to do?
SISTERS
flFTHE
Street Roots
inalienable right to life, and that includes
the right to safe injecting rooms.
I think the people of Oregon are
compassionate and caring people, and I
think if there was a comparable movement
there, it would be just as successful.
E.G.: I f you had 30 seconds to try to make
the argument for drug legalization, what
argument would you use?
J.H.: If you speak to people about why
they are in favor of drug prohibition, almost
always, it is because they don’t want people
to become addicted, and they don’t want
kids to use drugs, to which I always say the
truth, which is, I completely agree with you.
Those are things that massively motivate
me. The only disagreement is the policy
you’re supporting doesn’t achieve those
goals and, in fact, takes us farther away
from them.
PHO TO BY S H A N N O N STAPLETON/REUTERS
And there’s a different policy, which if you
Maricopa County, Ariz., inmates march for chain gang duty in 2003. Johann Hari spent time
look at these resujts in different parts of the
with one o f the county's female chain gangs. The inmates, who are mostly drug addicts, picked
up roadside trash and dug graves while the public jeered at them. Hari says Maricopa County
world, they achieve those goals.
Fred Martens was a very right-wing,
Sheriff Joe Arpaio's tactic o f humiliation only deepens his inmates' propensity for addiction.
undercover drug cop in the ’70s, and he. had
a kind of epiphany one day. He was staking
these people?” And he went in, sat with
He got together a lot of the addicts (and
out a drug dealer in plainclothes in Wayne,
addicts, incognito, in the Downtown
asked), “Why don’t we arrange a patrol?
N.J., and a kid came up to him and said,
Eastside and just listened.
“Hey mister, I’m too young, they won’t let
We’ll draw up a timetable, and we’ll patrol
He was blown away. He’d never met
the alleyways, and we’ll look in the places
me buy alcohol in this store. Will you go in
addicts. He didn’t know their lives were like
that people hide, and if someone’s
and buy me something for me?” And Fred
this. And he held a press conference, and he said, “No, get out of here,” and so the kid
overdosing, we’ll call an ambulance.”
said he’s never going to speak about
People were a bit skeptical, but they
went up to the drug dealer and bought
addiction again without having the addicts
started doing it, and the death toll from
drugs from him instead, because drug
there, and he was going to open a safe
Downtown Eastside overdose began to
dealers don’t ask for ID.
injection room in North America and have
Fred had this realization, that legalization
significantly fall over the next two months,
♦the most compassionate drug policies in
puts a barrier b-etweefl'kids and drufes That —
Which was great in itself, but also the
North America.
doesn’t currently exist. Lots of evidence
addicts started to think about themselves
When I went to the Downtown Eastside,
exists that kids find it considerably easier to
differently. They started to think, “You know
it had been 10 years since they started this
get marijuana than alcohol because the
what? Maybe we’re not the pieces of crap
experiment, and (drug-related fatality) rates
people who control the alcohol trade in our
everyone says we are. Maybe we’re people
were down by 80 percent, and average life
culture pay a big price if they sell to kids.
who can do something.”
expectancy had increased by 10 years, which
It’s very interesting how they won that
They had learned about safe injection
is virtually unheard of in medicine.
argument in Switzerland. What they did is
rooms in Frankfurt, Germany, and lots of
I would say to anyone reading this, who
they explained some people think
other places, and it had virtually ended
thinks the drug war is a catastrophe but
legalization means anarchy and chaos.
death from overdose in those places. They
Actually,what we have now with the drug
thought, “Well, we’ve got to have that here.” thinks, “What can I do?” You can’t think of a
more powerless person in our culture than a war is anarchy and chaos. We have unknown
The mayor of Vancouver at the time was
homeless street addict, and because of what
criminals selling unknown chemicals to
this quite right-wing politician called Philip
Bud started, thousands of people who would unknown users all in the dark, filled with
Owen. They decided to start stalking him
have died lived. The Canadian Supreme
violence and disease. Legalization is a way
and demanding an injection room.
Court has now ruled that addicts have an
of restoring order to that chaos.
One day, Philip said, “Who the hell are
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