The War on Drugs: Why Governments are Failing to Maintain Drug Legislation

Two British women were arrested in Peru over accusations of drug smuggling last week. Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid have spent just over 2 weeks in Police custody after they were caught at an airport in Peru’s capital Lima trying to traffic 11g of cocaine with a street value of just over £1.5million to the UK. The 20-year-old pair could face up to 3 years in prison as they wait trial and have been refused bail due to an overflow of evidence against them.

Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid

Some people are of the opinion that Reid and McCollum should not be tried under Peruvian law because they are British, but the fact is that Britain, along with countless other nations, is struggling to keep track of the variations of drugs available to the public. In this country, the government simply can’t keep up with new drugs being brought to our shores, so they are labelled as legal highs until they can be tested and characterised officially.

However, fewer people are using heroin and cocaine in the West according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says. The bad news is that they’re sourcing all sorts of new, legal substances because governments are failing to ban them fast enough. In July this year, UNDOC noted 234 new substances, outnumbering the variations of illegal drugs thought to be in circulation. But the fact that they are new does not mean they’ve recently been discovered, but that people have only recently starting using them for recreational, mind-altering or hallucinogenic purposes.

“This is an alarming drug problem- but the drugs are legal,” said The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNDOC). Yet beyond public health and safety, the fact that legislation (both national and international) can’t keep pace with the development chemistry and the rapidity of the drug industry must be recognised and governments must act accordingly.

James Capra, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Chief of Operations told ABC that governments are faced with the fact that “As soon as we make these things illegal, criminal organisations will go back and change one molecule…and it changes the entire drug.” This then makes the drug legal once more and the law developments are back at square one.

With regards to Reid and McCollum, they could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. They were photographed on 20^th August in handcuffs being escorted by officers from the National Police anti-drug headquarters for medical examinations. The Independent reported that the women weren’t provided with food or blankets and their lawyer Pete Madden stated that this was “unacceptable”. He also added “The conditions inside the holding cells are pretty grim. They are expected to lie almost on the floor. There is a sort of sponge bed... it is not clean.” Both women are thought to be pleading not guilty.

Pete Madden

The general conditions of the Peruvian jail raise the question of whether Britons should be subject to international legal standards, or if British Police should be called upon when its citizens are involved. The women have claimed they were held at gunpoint by a gang and forced into transferring the drugs to the UK and when questioned by Judge Dilo Huaman, he asked why they “...did not inform an authority” about the drugs despite being aware they were carrying them in food packages in their luggage.

As for the war on drugs, The Guardian has concluded that “...it (the war) has not been lost, it has been made obsolete.” Over the years, there have been masses of attempts at creating designer drugs, one notorious example being Barry Kidston, a chemistry student who in 1976 created a synthetic heroin-like high MPTP. The drug gave Kidston Parkinson’s Disease days after he first injected it and is currently used in lab experiments attempting to comprehend its inner workings. According to the Daily Mail, there could be up to 200 illegal highs circulating the streets all over Britain.

Maryon Stewart, whose daughter Hester died after taking GBL, said ministers were failing to educate children and young people enough about the dangers of legal highs. Her Angelus Foundation found two thirds of 14-18 year-olds think legal highs are safe and fun despite a string of deaths and growing evidence of health dangers. In response, Stewart said “Ministers need to take urgent action and heed this warning. I cannot understand why they can leave kids so vulnerable and not raise awareness of the dangers of these substances.” “They will have blood on their hands if they don’t take any action.” she added.

Hester Stewart

Despite government warnings, both British and foreign, more people are taking recreational drugs than ever before and designer drugs are rapidly worming their way into the industry quicker than the law can legislate them. Yet with the global economy on a relentless downward spiral, some people are going to desperate lengths to pay off debts, which has been speculated as the reason Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid became drug mules. Most counties are struggling to fund their legal system even without taking on international trials and convictions and as for the war on drugs, governments cannot keep up with legislating synthetic substances and legal highs being sold on our streets.