‘Prohibition likes to blame drugs for cartels and gangs but they are only the
inevitable outcomes,’ he said. Prohibition targeted the poor, the indigenous, people
of colour. It undermined public health, encouraged hostility and stigma, increased
crime, facilitated lucrative markets and overcrowded prisons. It was an ideologically
driven system of oppression, he said.
But when we were calling for legalisation, we needed to be clear about the model
we were talking about. ‘We must be united in our push to decriminalise all drugs – a
simple step that could be enacted quickly, with little cost. This would enable us to
explore full legalisation,’ he said. ‘All drugs should be made available at pharmacies
and off-licences, and then through cafes, bars, restaurants and major events. It sounds
like uncharted territory, but it isn’t. Alcohol is a state-approved psychoactive drug.’
‘We can do a better job of living with drugs,’ he added, and changing the law
would lead to ‘wiser and better-informed choices’.
T
he distinction between decriminalisation and legalisation was
demonstrated by Jay Levy, policy and advocacy officer at INPUD, who
described the situation in Portugal, 17 years after decriminalisation.
INPUD had held a consultation with the drug user community in Porto,
and had found that there had been ‘demonstrable improvements in
public health’, including a ‘considerable’ drop in drug-related deaths and a decrease
in the prevalence of HIV.
‘The lens has shifted from criminalisation to health,’ he said, but the
decriminalisation was only partial, with limits set. Drugs in Portugal were still not
legalised, so drugs were still bought and sold on the black market, with their
Tackling public opinion
JOSHUA HADDOW is a filmmaker and journalist who
has worked on the BBC series, Drug Map of Britain.
Engaging with the people filmed for the series had
helped him to understand their lives and made him
think carefully about how to convey the truth of
each person’s situation.
‘When you report on anything you have to make
a decision – including whose story to tell in the first
place,’ he said. ‘Humanising people who use drugs,
and therefore their experiences, is the opportunity
you have when you turn the camera on.’
But there was a great deal of vulnerability and
journalists ran the risk of stereotyping, he said.
Drugs in the media were ‘either scandal or hush
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
strength and ingredients unknown. So while Portugal was ‘distinctly safer’ for people
who use drugs, with ‘less violence, harm from police and stress with dealers’, the
situation was ‘complex and nuanced’. Police could still stop and search, and there
was still a mandate to confiscate drugs – even if it was just one dose for personal
use, which wasn’t a crime, but ‘really problematic for people with little money’.
So while incarceration had given way to dissuasion, this different narrative was
not benign. There was a new kind of stigma in focusing on drug use as a health
issue. Before people who used drugs were criminals; now they were ‘sick and
unhealthy, needing some type of intervention and deviant in some way’.
So while a change in the law was ‘an important first step’, it was ‘not a magic
bullet and shouldn’t be the end point in our advocacy,’ he said. ‘People like
uncomplicated narratives, but people take drugs for lots of reasons.’
Creating the right kind of narrative was central to Fiona Gilbertson’s work at
Recovering Justice. As co-founder, she had spent time lobbying politicians and
trying to bring people together to talk about policy reform. Much of the time she
had been ‘trying to engage with prejudice’ to bring about change, and had realised
that the best tool was the voice of personal experience.
‘I’m tired of people not listening to each other,’ she said. We needed to create
spaces so people could make choices without being ‘consigned to criminalisation’.
‘Having conversations will be key – about freedom from oppression and stigma, a
movement for peace,’ she said. ‘Recovery is a vibrant social movement – not about
the absence of drugs, but about the presence of community. How we engage with
it is up to everyone in this room.’ DDN
See more of Nigel Brunsdon’s work at nigelbrunsdon.com
How can we help to challenge outdated narratives?
hush’, but we needed to go beyond the end point of
an article being ‘she was on drugs’.
The best a journalist could do was to say, ‘this is
what I found’. And the value of personal stories was
immeasurable in bringing truth and insight to the
report, he said, adding ‘if a reporter calls you, it could
be a chance to change someone’s life.’
Working as communications officer with Open
Society Foundations had given Alissa Sadler many
opportunities to explore effective ways to connect
with difference audiences about harm reduction.
She offered a simple framework called GAME, to
help a more strategic approach to communications.
G was for goal – what are we trying to do, where
are we trying to get to, and what needs to happen
next? ‘It should be like a tube map, with stops along
the way.’
A was for audience – who are we trying to get to,
who do we need to talk to to get to the next stage?
‘Profile them, meet them where they’re at, bring
them along.’
M was for messaging – what do we need to say to
people? ‘Hit the heart with the story, the head with
the data, then take the hand to move them along.’
E was for evaluation: something to think about
before you roll out communications. ‘You need to
constantly evaluate what you do, and if it’s not
working, change it.’
December/January 2019 | drinkanddrugsnews | 13