Des policiers pour la légalisation des drogues

 

Même parmi les principaux acteurs de la lutte antidrogue, à savoir les policiers chargés d'appliquer la loi, on peut entendre des voix courageuses et lucides qui remettent en cause la pertinence même de leur travail. Ces initiatives méritent d'être plus largement portées à la connaissance du plus grand nombre (ne serait-ce que pour casser l'image du militant antiprohibitionniste "nécessairement" usager de drogue, et surtout pour donner des idées à d'autres...)

En Angleterre, le rapport Cleveland, écrit par l'officier de police Richard Brunstrom et soutenu par le chef Barry Shaw, déclare :"Si la prohibition ne marche pas, alors soit il faut en accepter les conséquences, soit une approche alternative doit être trouvée. La plus évidente de ces approches alternatives est la légalisation et la régulation de quelques ou de toutes les drogues".

(" If prohibition does not work, then either the consequences of this have to be accepted, or an alternative approach must be found. The most obvious alternative approach is the legalisation and subsequent regulation of some or all drugs".)

Des Etats-Unis aux Pays-Bas, de la Grande-Bretagne à la Suisse en passant par l'Allemagne, des policiers se prononcent pour une décriminalisation de l'usage des drogues et/ou une autre approche de la question.

Etats-Unis

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition : http://www.leap.cc/

Grande-Bretagne

Rapport Cleveland

Suisse

Fédération Suisse des Fonctionnaires de Police FSFP http://www.vspb.org/ (Verband Schweizerischer Polizei Beamter)

 

Quelques articles en anglais et en français (traductions prévues) :


La légalisation des drogues devrait être la seule solution, déclarent des policiers

 

Des chefs officiers de police de l'une des forces les plus actives de Grande-Bretagne déclarent que les lois sur les drogues ne marchent pas et disent que la légalisation est "une approche alternative évidente".

 

http://www.paston.co.uk/users/webbooks/webhome.html

Source : Daily Mail (UK) du 24/01/2000

Auteur : Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent

Contact : letters@dailymail.co.uk

 

Legalising drugs might be the only answer, say police

 

Chief police officers from one of Britain's busiest forces have claimed that drugs laws don't work and say legalisation is 'the obvious alternative approach.'

Officers in Cleveland, which covers Teeside, say in a report to the force's civil police authority that the drugs trade is growing in the face of the Government's tough anti-drugs stance.

The authority is now calling for a Royal Commission to review drugs laws in the light of the findings.

The move makes Cleveland the first police force to come out publicly against drugs laws Although a number of chief constables are believed privately to back a more liberal policy, none has yet called for legalisation.

But the Cleveland report - written by its former assistant Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom and endorsed by Chief Constable Barry Shaw - openly describes Tony Blair's 'fight against drugs' as a failure.

While it insists that the force will remain loyal to the Government's strategy to cut drug abuse, it states: 'If there is indeed a war on drugs, it is not being won - drugs are cheaper and more readily available than ever before.

'Attempts to restrict availability of illegal drugs have failed so far everywhere.

'There is little of no evidence that they can ever work within acceptable means in a democratic society.

'Demand for drugs seems still to be growing, locally and nationally. There is little evidence that conventional conviction and punishment has any effect on offending levels.'

The damning report comes at an increasingly difficult time for the Government.

Yesterday a Cabinet Office statement insisted that the Government is 'steadfast' behind current laws after Minister Mo Mowlam - who masterminds its anti-drugs drive but admitted having smoked cannabis in the past - was reported to have differences of opinion with Tony Blair over drugs policy.

Next month an inquiry by the highly-influential Police Foundation think tank is expected to suggest relaxing the laws against cannabis and ecstasy.

It is thought that the group, which is backed by a number of senior police officers, will recommend that drugs use be 'de-penalised', with only trivial penalties for those caught instead of jail terms or fines.

The report for the Cleveland force goes even further, however, concluding that decriminalizing drug use is one of the only realistic ways forward.

'If prohibition does not work, then either the consequences of this have to be accepted, or an alternative approach must be found,' the report states.

'The most obvious alternative approach is the legalisation and subsequent regulation of some or all drugs.'

It adds that the implications of such a policy are serious but claims they have never been properly thought though.

Cannabis laws are especially illogical, it argues, with many scientists regarding the drug as less harmful than alcohol.

The law, it said, seemed to be based only on 'historical accident', leading many to level charges of hypocrisy.

But the report contains further embarrassment for the Government in claims that Britain has the highest level of illegal drug use in the EU.

'Illegal drugs are freely available, their price is dropping and their use is growing. It seems fair to say that violation of drug laws is endemic.'

Only about 20 per cent of drugs imported into Britain are intercepted, it says, and even if police and customs doubled their efforts, 60 per cent of all drugs brought in would still reach users.

The call for a Royal Commission from the Cleveland Police Authority, which saw the report last month, is itself expected to fail, however.

The Prime Minister has so far refused all pressure for such a high-profile review, instead appointing former police chief Keith Hellawell as 'drugs czar' to lead its efforts to reduce drug use.


Source : Le Monde daté du 13-14 février 1994

 

De hauts responsables de la police néerlandaise pour la légalisation de tous les stupéfiants

AMSTERDAM

de notre correspondant

 

La « guerre à la drogue » est menée en vain, et le seul vrai coup de grâce à porter aux trafiquants est de légaliser le commerce et l'usage des stupéfiants. Hier défendue par les contempteurs les plus extrémistes - et minoritaires - de la prohibition, cette idée fait aujourd'hui des émules dans les milieux policiers néerlandais. Réunis en secret, le 20 janvier, à l'initiative d'un groupe de réflexion animé par des hommes d'affaires, les commissaires principaux d'Amsterdam, de Rotterdam et d'Utrecht, le président de l'association des chefs de corps de police et l'avocat général de la Cour suprême des Pays-Bas ont dressé un constat d'échec de la répression en matière de lutte contre la toxicomanie.

Six milliards de florins (dix-huit milliards de francs) sont investis chaque année dans une lutte qui aboutit à quelques saisies-records et à l'arrestation de quelques gros bonnets, mais qui n'empêche pas qu'une quantité croissante de drogue circule. En néerlandais courant, on appelle cela « éponger avec le robinet ouvert ». Rappelant que la prohibition de l'alcool avait, en son temps, fait le lit et les affaires de la mafia américaine, le commissaire en chef de Rotterdam estime que « c'est une utopie de penser que nous viendrons à bout du problème avec les moyens actuels.»

Bien que la mafia américaine ait survécu à la levée de la prohibition, le groupe de réflexion néerlandais pense que l'herbe serait coupée rase sous le pied des narco-trafiquants si le fruit défendu que sont les stupéfiants devenait un poison légal distribué sous contrôle étatique, au même titre que l'alcool et le tabac. Ce parallèle, jusqu'à présent utilisé par les partisans de la légalisation du haschich et de la marijuana, serait donc aussi applicable aux drogues dures.

Anticipant les critiques inhérentes à leur défaitisme affiché, les membres du groupe font valoir les avantages présentés par leur approche : la sécurité publique serait améliorée (alors qu'actuellement un délit ou crime sur deux serait lié à la drogue) et l'économie légale ne serait plus minée par le blanchiment des narco-bénéfices. Le souhait des défenseurs de la légalisation des drogues est que les Pays-Bas prennent l'initiative d'un débat international.

Mais le ministre de la justice a fait sèchement savoir qu'il n'en était pas question. Il est vrai qu'à une semaine de l'inauguration officielle d'Europol et de la première Unité européenne de lutte contre la drogue, La Haye pouvait difficilement aborder un sujet aussi tabou.

 

CHRISTIAN CHARTIER

 


Source : The Guardian (UK) du mercredi 17 juin 1998

Contact : letters@guardian.co.uk

Traduction partielle personnelle.

 

Repenser la guerre contre les drogues, recommande la police allemande

Par Denis Staunton, à Berlin

 

Les chefs de la police allemande ont rejoint les experts médicaux et les hommes politiques qui hier appelaient à un arrêt de la lutte contre les drogues et à l'instauration d'une distribution contrôlée d'héroïne pour les toxicomanes.

Une enquête parlementaire a montré qu'il existait un soutien pour un changement en matière de politique des drogues, dans toutes les régions d'Allemagne.

(...)

Dierk Schitzler, commissaire de police de Bonn, l'un des douze chefs de la police à soutenir un changement, constate : « Même si nous avions quatre fois plus d'officiers de police, nous ne pourrions pas résoudre le problème des drogues. Nous ne ferions qu'une pression sur les prix et les trafiquants feraient des profits plus importants encore. L'humanité nous dicte que nous devons aider les toxicomanes, qui sont des personnes malades.»

Hans Dieter Klosa, chef de la police de Hanovre, déclare que la guerre contre les drogues ne peut être remportée, et que la politique actuelle génère le crime en forçant les toxicomanes à voler : « 60% des vols sont commis par des toxicomanes ».

Les partisans du changement veulent que l'Allemagne suive l'exemple de la Suisse, en distribuant aux toxicomanes de l'héroïne sous contrôle médical, et en leur fournissant des lieux sécurisés afin qu'ils puissent utiliser des seringues propres.

La Suisse a commencé à fournir de l'héroïne sur prescription il y a quatre ans [1994, ndR], accompagnée d'une psychothérapie et de conseils pour retrouver du travail. Depuis lors, les crimes commis par des toxicomanes ont chuté des deux-tiers, l'usage illicite de drogues a diminué et presque un tiers de ceux qui sont intégrés aux programmes dispose désormais d'un emploi.

(...)

Stefan Edgeton, du Deutsche AIDS Hilfe, la plus importante des associations de patients ayant le VIH et le sida, a conscience du fait que le discours sur les drogues a spectaculairement changé, au point que les hommes politiques doivent en tenir compte.

« C'est comme si un barrage s'était rompu », dit-il.

 

original

Rethink drugs war, urge German police

By Denis Staunton in Berlin

The Guardian, 17/06/98

 

German police chiefs joined medical experts and politicians yesterday in calling for an end to the war on drugs and the introduction of controlled distribution of heroin to addicts.

A survey of parliamentarians showed support for a change in drug policy within all Germany's main parties.

Campaigners for a new policy are confident that a change in government in September's federal election would herald a dramatic shift in official attitudes towards drugs - which could have a knock-on effect across Europe.

"The Social Democrats, Greens and Liberal Free Democrats have long been signalling that they would welcome a change in drugs policy," said Dr Ingo Flenker, a member of the board of the Federal Chamber of Doctors.

Self-help groups, AIDS organisations and drug advisory centres held a day of action yesterday, calling for addicts to be treated as ill rather than as criminals.

Bonn's police commissioner, Dierk Schitzler, is one of 12 police chiefs to support the demand for change.

"Even is we had four times as many police officers, we could not solve the drug problem. We would only push the prices up and the dealers will make even bigger profits. Humanity dictates that we should help addicts, who are sick people," he said.

Hanover's police chief, Hans Dieter Klosa, claims that the war on drugs cannot be won and that the present policy is creating crime by forcing addicts to steal. "60 per cent of robberies today are committed by drug addicts," he said.

Campaigners for change want Germany to follow the Swiss lead by giving addicts heroin under medical supervision, and by providing safe places for them to inject using clean needles.

Switzerland started offering addicts heroin on prescription four years ago, with psychotherapy and advice on returning to work. Since then,addict crime has fallen by two-thirds, illegal drug use has dropped and almost one-third of those in the scheme have returned to work.

With an election due, neither Mr Kohl nor his Social Democrat challenger, Gerhard Schroder, is likely to back any softening in official attitudes towards drugs. But Stefan Edgeton of Deutsche AIDS Hilfe, Germany's biggest group for people with HIV and AIDS, is confident that the mood on drugs has changed so dramatically that politicians will have to take notice.

"It's almost as though a dam has broken," he said.

 


Suisse: les policiers pour la décriminalisation

Lors d'une conférence de presse, l'association des policiers suisses (Verband Schweizerischer Polizei Beamter) a demandé au Conseil National (la chambre basse du parlement Suisse) de soutenir la révision de la loi sur les stupéfiants approuvée par le Conseil des Etats (la chambre haute du parlement) qui décriminaliserait le cannabis. L'association demande "un traitement prompt et courageux" de cette mesure et s'est opposée "aux publications agressives dans les médias sur les questions relatives aux drogues et aux dépendances" organisées pour persuader le public "que la politique suisse sur les drogues serait une erreur, qu'il y aurait même besoin davantage de répression à l'encontre des consommateurs" (Source : http://www.vspb.org)

 


Source : La Liberté (Suisse) du 20/04/2004

Berne - La Fédération suisse des fonctionnaires de police (FSFP) appelle les politiciens à faire preuve de courage lors de la session parlementaire de mai. Elle leur demande de traiter rapidement la dépénalisation du cannabis et de ne pas se fermer les yeux sur la réalité.


Cannabis: la police dans le flou

FABIAN MUHIEDDINE Le Matin 20 avril 2004

 

 

DÉPÉNALISATION

Le Parlement fédéral prié de statuer. Sur le terrain, les agents ne savent plus sur quel pied danser. Car la loi interdit toute consommation, alors que les mentalités ont totalement changé...

La police manque d'effectifs et n'a pas les moyens de traiter tous les petits délits liés à la consommation de cannabis. C'est le message que veut faire passer la Fédération suisse des fonctionnaires de police. Le syndicat demande aux parlementaires fédéraux de «prendre leurs responsabilités et de statuer s'il faut oui ou non dépénaliser le cannabis».

«Sur le terrain, on piétine ! Le débat politique induit les citoyens en erreur. Même si les mentalités ont beaucoup évolué sur la question du cannabis, nous sommes toujours sous le régime de l'interdiction», rappelle Jean-Pierre Monti, secrétaire général de l'organe faîtier des policiers.

Lors de la session de mai, la question de la dépénalisation sera de nouveau soumise aux parlementaires. Enterré en septembre 2003 par le Conseil national, le projet de loi est revenu sur le devant de la scène en janvier dernier. La Commission de la santé publique du Conseil des Etats a annoncé qu'elle y restait favorable. «Les politiciens ne doivent pas repousser une fois de plus la modification de la loi. Le texte actuel est inapplicable !

Il recèle de nombreuses lacunes. Avec l'augmentation des cas, la police peine à poursuivre la lutte», explique Jean-Pierre Monti.

Les policiers aimeraient enfin savoir sur quel pied danser. Aujourd'hui, la loi sur les stupéfiants condamne toute consommation. La police doit dénoncer pour «délit officiel» toute personne en possession de cannabis.

Ensuite c'est au juge de statuer. Mais le prévenu n'écope souvent que d'une amende avant d'être relâché...

«Les politiciens doivent tenir compte de la réalité du terrain, conclut Jean-Pierre Monti. Ils doivent nous donner les moyens financiers d'appliquer la loi actuelle, ou alors nous permettre de travailler avec un texte de loi plus efficace.»


Source : The Observer (UK) du 8 décembre 2001

Copyright : 2001 The Observer

Contact: letters@observer.co.uk

Site : http://www.observer.co.uk/

Détails : http://www.mapinc.org/media/315

Bookmark : http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

 

THE POLICE AND HARD DRUGS : THE CLEVELAND REPORT

 

The Association of Chief Police Officers will announce next month a new position on hard drugs, advocating the legalisation of heroin.

This shift of policy builds on controversial research published two years ago by Cleveland police in the north east of England which was used by Chief Constable Barry Shaw, who remains in charge of the force, to propose a new approach to the "war on drugs". While the proposals were not adopted by Cleveland at that time, they are now set to become the focus of a national debate in the wake of the rapid liberalisation of the debate on policing drugs.

What The Cleveland Report Says

These are extracts from the Cleveland report. The full report is available from the pro-reform pressure group Transform and can be read here.

Availability

Recreational drugs have been used by humans across the world for thousands of years. Current UK policy (proscription) dates from the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and is clearly based upon American experience. The UK government is also signatory to international treaties rendering the drugs trade illegal worldwide.

No Logic

"It can be argued that there is no logic to the current pattern of illegality. Some drugs (alcohol, nicotine) are freely available despite very clear evidence of their harmful effects. Others such as cannabis are proscribed with their possession being subject to severe penalties, despite the fact that they are perceived by many medical scientists to be less harmful than alcohol. The illogicality of this approach (which seems to be based upon no more than historical accident) leads many young people in particular to level charges of hypocrisy at `the establishment'. This is a very difficult argument to counter".

The Failure Of Prohibition

"There is overwhelming evidence to show that the prohibition based policy in place in this country since 1971 has not been effective in controlling the availability or use of proscribed drugs. If there is indeed a `war of drugs' it is not being won; drugs are demonstrably cheaper and more readily available than ever before. It seems that the laws of supply and demand are operating in a textbook fashion ...

Members may wish to ask themselves whether we have learned the lessons from alcohol prohibition in the United States in the 1920's, from Gandhi's civil disobedience campaign in India in the 1940's and from the Poll Tax here in the UK in the 1980's. If a sufficiently large (and apparently growing) part of the population chooses to ignore the law for whatever reason, then that law becomes unenforceable. A modern western democracy, based on policing by consent and the rule of law may find itself powerless to prevent illegal activity - in this case the importation and use of controlled drugs."

Drugs And Crime

The report considers the links between drugs and crime, arguing that "as a result of this illegality their market price is very high indeed, as the suppliers carry significant risks".

Organised Crime

The report quotes government assessments that the illegal drugs trade is worth UKP 400 billion - 8% of all international trade - and is as big as the global trade in oil and gas. "The profits to be made are truly enormous - the pharmaceutical price of heroin is less than UKP 1 per gram, but the street price in the UK is about 80 times higher.

At these sort of profit margins it is well worth while buying a gun to protect your investment - and a third of all firearms incidents committed in Cleveland in 1998 are demonstrably drug related.

Organised crime gangs are every bit as difficult to stamp out as are terrorists, once they have taken root, and provided the market continues to exist. The best example of this is the mafia in the USA whose development was given an enormous boost by alcohol prohibition."

Commission Of Crime

"Many prohibited drugs are very strongly addictive, as well as expensive. A serious heroin user needs to find say UKP 50 per day to fund their habit, in cash. This sort of money is difficult to obtain by legitimate means, so they have to turn to crime. Nationally about 30% of persons arrested by the police are dependant upon one or more illegal drug, and about 32% of the proceeds of crime seem to be geared to the purchase of heroin, cocaine or crack. .... The main crimes committed are shoplifting (by far the greatest), selling drugs and burglary. One research project has shown that 1,000 addicts committed 70,000 criminal acts during a 90-day period prior to their intake for treatment. It is clear that the very high cost of drugs is caused by their illegality, and that these high costs are causing large amounts of acquisitive crime. Is this acceptable?"

Criminalisation

"Most drug users seem not to commit significant amounts of crime - their only offence is to choose to use a drug which is technically illegal. The best example of this is cannabis (the UK has the highest rate of cannabis use in Europe, higher even than in the Netherlands which has a tolerance policy). The illogical pattern of proscription causes people who abuse alcohol or nicotine to be treated purely as victims, whereas those who abuse cannabis become criminals. If caught they face a criminal record and social exclusion.

Alternatives

"There is only one serious alternative to the proscription policy - the legalisation and regulation of some or all drugs. Any debate about such an approach must raise and then deal with fundamental questions about the societal effects. What would be the health and social impact? Would the use of drugs increase or decline? What would be the impact on crime? The potential consequences are very significant indeed - are they to be countenanced?"

The report argues that "since legalisation and regulation for the currently proscribed drugs has never been tried properly anywhere in the world there is little hard evidence available", although lessons can be learnt from the regulation of legal drugs like nicotine and alcohol, and from liberalisation

"Some European cities (notably Geneva and London) have experimented with radical solutions by issuing heroin under prescription. A number of studies have now demonstrated crime reductions as a result (in some cases startling ones). Heroin users previously caught up in a cycle of drugs and crime started to lead reasonably stable lives, some holding down jobs and a `normal' family life. These experiments (whose results have not always been clear cut) have not been continued largely because they were to the detriment of maintained methadone programmes which are the currently `approved' method of reducing addiction.

There is also contrary evidence. Defacto legalisation is in place in parts of South America where the drugs trade is out of any control. The effects are quite frightening. However this is without any effective regulation, and without the health improvement and harm reduction programmes which seem to have been so successful in the UK (even in the limited fashion seen to date).

Conclusions

A number of tentative conclusions can be drawn from the available evidence :

Attempts to restrict availability of illegal drugs have failed so far, everywhere.

There is little or no evidence that they can ever work within acceptable means in a democratic society.

Demand for drugs seems still to be growing, locally and nationally.

The market seems to be some way from saturation.

There is little evidence that conventional conviction and punishment has any effect on offending levels.

There is, however, growing evidence that treatment and rehabilitation programmes can have a significant impact on drug misuse and offending.

There is some evidence that social attitudes can be changed over time, by design. The best example available to date is drink-driving, but success has taken a generation to achieve.

If prohibition does not work, then either the consequences of this have to be accepted, or an alternative approach must be found.

The most obvious alternative approach is the legalisation and subsequent regulation of some or all drugs. There are really serious social implications to such an approach which have never been thought through in a comprehensive manner, anywhere.