Tommy Wilson: Legal high ban no easy fix

Alcohol used to be banned in New Zealand.

Back in the day when booze was banned the emergence of a secret society of drinking destinations known as 'speakeasies' started popping up like an uncorked bottle of bootlegged whisky.

Speakeasies first started out in the early 1800s in booze-free Britain where they were known as 'speak softly shops' meaning a 'smuggler's house', and many years later toward the end of the 1800s the 'speak easy' became the known name to get a drink during the prohibition-era of America.

When prohibition was first enacted most people stockpiled alcohol but very soon supply ran out and soon after they were running to and relying on criminals for their fix.

Not much has changed when we fast forward to today when another drug of choice has been forced underground and now there are speakeasies supplying psychoactive substances here in Tauranga.

Some say now that we have changed the status of what once were 'legal highs' to that of a banned drug, the problem will be parked at the waiting rooms of hospitals and social services, and we can all go back to being responsible consumers of a far more acceptable addictive drug called alcohol.

So let's celebrate and open up a few more outlets for all of the juice junkies to have easier access to.

According to our mayor, "people shouldn't have to travel distance to procure alcohol" (News, July 25). True that Mr Mayor; most of the desperate dependants I work with don't have a car anyway so walking will make it so much easier to spend their kids' kai money on a legal high.

Perhaps our wise leaders who were so vocal pre-election on banning legal highs should spend a day walking in the shoes of our social workers where alcohol is responsible for 80 per cent of the misery caused by drug dependence and we see every day our doors are open.

Why would those elected to look after the well-being of our community, especially those who live on struggle street and will gladly walk to a short term quick fix solution, say 'haere mai' to booze barons?

What I find most disturbing is the head in the sand attitude of many, if not most, that banning the legal sale of legal highs would somehow send such a strong message to their users that they would pack up their zig-zag papers and put away their habits.

When Get Smart Tauranga manager Stuart Caldwell says "Apparently there is a black market of synthetics" (News, July 21) but since the ban it was a huge relief and the problem has plateaued", I have great concern for those who need help most when faced with illegal drug dependence.

What Get Smart should be getting smart about is understanding what is going on out on the street in the real world of legal and illegal drug addiction.

For many of us involved in helping those who can't help themselves when faced with life's demons, it is our street 'cred' of being there-done that, which gets us through their defensive door and Get Smart could learn a lot from those who have degrees in drug taking, earned by years of self-medication to take away pain, be it spiritual, physical or financial.

If we can learn from the lesson of prohibition and apply that to synthetic cannabis then perhaps we can make a dent in the demand and shift the focus from that of supply.

There will always be a market to supply when there is a demand for any illegal drug, alcohol and speakeasies have taught us that.

Whenever you prohibit something against a demand criminals get rich as they have done since mankind decided they wanted to get high.

Perhaps we should pass a law prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did then Aotearoa could be the land of the very clever cloud in less than five years.

It's too easy to invoice the growth of the underground psychoactive substance market to gangs as it is to invoice the responsibility to the Police to clean it up.

You could lock up every gang member in the country and the problem as long as there is a demand will not go away.

Liquor prohibition led to the rise of organised crime in America, and drug prohibition has led to the rise of the huge gang problems they have now.

Perhaps we need to be speaking easier to each other about why we have such a demand for drugs, legal and illegal, and not bury our heads in the sand about the so-called solution of shutting down supply.

broblack@xtra.co.nz

-Tommy Wilson is a best selling author and local writer.