?Law enforcement is getting better and better but the problem gets worse and worse,? says Detective Tony White of Britain?s Criminal Intelligence Service.

Our grandfathers were not only taking gaudier but were also running legitimate dookans, retail shops, before the ban. Until the late fifties and early sixties, our elders were smoking local products with low level of delta-9-tetrahydrocanabinol, or THC1, more or less ceremoniously. They were peaceful citizens. Of course there were exceptions. Like those abusing the cutter. Legitimate outlets operated around the country. In Port Louis, there was a dookan near Luna Park.

Today, traffickers are introducing the genetically modified grass, with high level of THC, because the market value of the substance is raised by tough laws. It is established that heroin in its pure form is one of the least dangerous drugs. It is the adulterants, because of tough laws, that make it so harmful and so expensive. According to NATReSA, one gram on the market today fetches as much as Rs 10 000 and is adulterated into 70 doses. Alcohol and cigarettes, which are acceptable because they are not illegal, cause more harm than natural gandia.

<B>Tough laws

Tough laws have never helped but no one would like to waive them. For illogical reasons bordering on ignorance and prejudices. We are blinded by personal values that make us biased and prejudiced. For economic reasons: the lawyer, for one, will be out of jobs. So will be the pseudo-social workers with their dubious rehabilitation centres.

Looking at the unending lists, published in the newspapers, of citizens whose bank accounts are frozen and who are thrown into prisons only to be sexually abused by hardcore inmates, one wonders what the law stands for. While the petty offenders are behind bars, the real traffickers are laundering their monies into legitimate businesses ranging from hotels to transport, banking?you name it and they are there. They are the respected and respectable citizens patronizing charitable activities and living next door.

From time to time the authorities do come up with sensational scoops which appease public opinions for a while. The poor chaps whom we are led to believe to be big traffickers are in fact mere carriers, ?passeurs?. Today the big dons can hire the services, as carriers, of almost anybody: politicians, religious men and diplomats. The mafias are so powerful and have so strong connections that the late French president François Mitterrand once warned, ?They are capable of corrupting our governments.?

Mafiosi sprouted as a result of prohibition (1920-1930) in USA. It took one insider, Valachi, to break the omerta and reveal the ghastly tentacles spread by the mafia dons. In Mauritius we are just shielding our dubious stands with hypocrisy, vested interests, religious and personal values.

In the eighties, when the Government stepped up the fight against drug abuse, I personally joined in but our group soon had to get off the wagon because of wheeling and dealing exerted by the so-called social workers who became globe-trotters, noisily orchestrating road shows and brandishing USA slogans like ?Just Say No to Drugs?.

All it takes is free transport, free meal and a T-shirt to rally Mauritians, usually from government-run centres and institutions. The mafia has infiltrated rehabilitation centres around the world and it is causing a bigger threat. They are not only powerful lobbying for dubious stands, but are also good means for generating money, air tickets and good life.

<B>Harm reduction approach</B>

Sadly, even the genuine rehabilitation centres with all the best of intentions are neither safe nor are they successful. All they are doing is shifting from one dependency to another, especially chemical dependency playing right into the hands of pharmaceutical manufacturers who are at cut-throat competitions. Drug therapy administered by centres (currently Subutex) is definitely not the answer. Latest: in the miasma of despair, the authorities are backpedaling and proposing to reintroduce methadone.

Drug taking is very ancient and we cannot stop it. No one can. Nothing can. The world around us is coming to terms with the problem. But we in Mauritius who pretend to be holier than thou, instead of de-emphasizing repression and detoxification, are playing the traffickers? game and getting our kids hooked to adulterated, lethal substitutes.

Instead of pursuing incompatible drug policies, we must develop harm reduction, innovative approaches because, we like it or not, drugs will always be with us.

<B>Dharumvir TAKOO</B>

1. Known pharmacological researches show that the street marijuana can contain from one to 11% of THC. It is the ?hash oil? which is concentrated. The percentage may vary from nearly zero for plants originally grown to as high as 28 for concentrated hash oil.

Reference:

A Pharmacist?s Guide to Drug Abuse

Materials from ICCA, International Council on Alcohol and Addictions.