Legalise All Drugs in South Africa - News Review

Now, South Africa is looking into the controversial subject of legalizing all drugs. The reasoning is that controlled drug trafficking will minimize the black market effect created by illegal drug trade. The alcohol act of the early nineteenth century is used as an example of how legalization can minimize the mafia element of the black-market trade.

Holland is obviously the first country brought to the fore when anyone mentions the ‘legal’ drug trade. However, Portugal is another country that legalized drug use. Their law states that anyone can have drugs in his or her possession. The Portuguese government only declares the trade and trafficking without a permit as illegal. Their drug usage laws are probably the most liberal in the world. They have had this law in place for about ten years now, and it would seem that the concept is successful.

It is perhaps a good idea to implement it in South Africa purely from the crime point of view. The drug lords have armed security and merchants, mostly with illegal firearms. Often there are wars between these gangs, and anyone caught in the crossfire…well let us just say there is no mercy.  South Africa is rife with gangs, drug wars, drug trafficking and the like. Legalizing drugs might just be the way to get rid of powerful crime syndicates.

Concerns are of course that with drugs being available in a shop, more people will use it. We might sit with a society of drug addicts. However, judging by the results in Holland and Portugal the reverse seems to be true.  Drug users will buy drugs whether they get it from a dingy room in the back of an alley, or if they can buy it in a shop. Legal or illegal the drug trade will continue. From a policing perspective legalization of the drug- trade will free up police from chasing after junkies and focus on more serious crimes.

The amount of time a police team spends at arresting a drug user could run into hours. Paperwork, fingerprints, logging personal items etc, eats away at actual policing time. While they are processing the person that sat against the tree in the park smoking a joint, people are murdered and raped.  It would make sense from a policing perspective to legalize drug use because it might create a more effective police force.

Whether people will behave better, whether it will add to the economy and whether it will stop the crime lords, well we can leave that open to debate. We can never tell what the mind of man will conjure up next. We have lived with illegal drugs for hundreds of years. That system is not working. Maybe we should give this a go and see if it will work.