Drug abuse is a social problem, not only criminal

Thailand’s “war on drugs” is taking an interesting turn that could be aimed at attracting the participation of local communities through initiatives that, to some extent, resemble a blame-and-shame tactic.
Under this scheme, the police would put up a sign in a community designating it as “clean and white”, or drug free. But if any one member of the community – who may or may not live there, but is registered at an address in the community – is found guilty on any illicit-drugs charge, then the sign would be removed.
On the surface, it sounds like a good idea – empowering local residents with some degree of incentive to police or look after their own. But given the rigidity of our house-registration system, it would be unfair to hold the entire community responsible for the actions of a convicted or alleged drug-user or dealer who is registered in the community but may not necessarily live there.
One good thing about this initiative is that a “body count” is no longer the benchmark for success.
In early 2003, the then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra unleashed a three-month-long campaign against drugs that ended in the deaths of some 2,500 people. With the exception of about two or three cases, including one that involved the death of a young child, the authorities blamed the deaths on “silence killing” – bad guys killing bad guys. As a result of a later investigation authorised by the interim government of Surayud Chulanont, some of the victims were discovered to be political figures, including some who were allegedly about to squeal on their competitors.
Permitting the community to have a say in this issue should not absolve the police of their responsibility for maintaining law and order.
But is a reward in the form of an announcement from the police worth the trouble this may cause? This is a question that needs to be debated. After all, the police force is one of the institutions with a credibility problem in the eyes of the public. What we can say right now is that the police have not been a source of comfort for the community, and the memories of the controversial drug war of 2003 still linger in the minds of many people.
Some members of the public may have already forgotten the controversial campaign, which is a sad reflection on Thai society for not giving due process the benefit of the doubt.
We don’t like the way system works but we don’t do much about it. Many of us have this attitude that democracy is a free ride and that we as individuals don’t have much of a role other than to elect our representatives. But when our elected leaders become corrupt and the system throws up abuses like Thaksin’s drug war, we turn a blind eye simply because we don’t like the scourge of drugs.
For the “drug-free community” campaign to have any chance of working, we have to do more than pay lip service to the idea of empowerment. It’s not all rosy, no matter how nice a picture the police might want to paint it of it.
If we want to make a meaningful impact, we have to accept the fact that drug abuse is a social issue, not solely an issue of law and order in a narrow sense.
Because it is a social issue, we have to treat it as such. We can start by treating drug addicts as patients, not as criminals who we must lock up before throwing away the key. In other words, we need to seriously consider the idea of decriminalising drugs.
We can shout all we want about how bad drugs are, but if we don’t show the addicts and our vulnerable youth that there are things in this world to live for – good education, job opportunities and the hope for a dignified life free of grinding poverty – drugs will continue to be an alternative for those looking for an escape.