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Sunday, July 5, 2015

Did P addiction cause Australian murder?

A high profile Aussie rules coach has been killed, apparently by his son. Local papers are suggesting that the son was a methamphetamine addict, and this may have caused the murder.

Less invested social commentators such as Stephen Lord "Lordy" on Google+ have asked:
"Why is it that illegal drugs are an excuse for a crime?

...

Before blaming the drug, try blaming the incredible arrogance or ignorance of the person who used a drug that has a history of turning users violent _anyone recall a story about a homeless guy getting his face eaten off?

How does blaming one illegal act excuse another?"

My answer to him is that western society has invested so much in the view of the drug user as "Victim" and the supplier as villain that its official disinformation channels find it difficult to find any different narrative.



I can't think of a single historical black-market that was ever destroyed by attacking the supply side, but end the demand and the suppliers go away. How big is the black-market for bootleg liquor in the US today? Even the (pre 2003) Taliban only managed to severely reduce production and not end opium (Heroin) production. Of course, since the US invaded, they've had to swallow their pride and produce opium for funding.

I believe we need to end the black market in drugs by allowing the relatively innocuous drugs to be legitimately traded and removing the addicted consumers of the more dangerous and addictive ones to a place of safety for containment or cure. I said this in the 1990s, I said it here in 2009 and I'm still saying it now.

Phil Walsh was an adult. Twelve years ago, a 6 year old Coral Burrows was murdered by her methamphetamine addicted mother's methamphetamine using step father. She was living in a gang house despite her real father's appeal to CYF to have her rescued. Even their own internal report showed they had failed to meet their own "standards".

In 2007 Coral's father, Ron Burrows, said "every time there was an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding her death it brought the spotlight back on to child abuse. Each time a child was attacked he would like to see coverage of the event so people would be aware of the magnitude of the problem."

Since then we've seen other high profile cases such as
  • Twins Chris and Cru Kahui were murdered by either their meth addicted father or their meth addicted mother. The jury rejected charges against the father, but the police never charged the mother.
  • 3 year old Nia Glassie tortured and killed by her mother's drug addicted much younger boyfriend and his brother. The mother has since been paroled with a condition that she completes an alcohol and drug course. [NZ Herald]

¿Que? believes that Drugs which cause dangerous psychosis and their addicts need to be off the streets. If methamphetamine addicts were removed from the streets, they would no longer visit violence on innocent members of the public. I'd like to think that the addicts can be cleaned up and returned drug-free to society, but if necessary containment for life is an acceptable alternative.

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