InTouch Magazine Articles Archive

Issue 21, August 2008

Drug Use, Drug Control and the Licit Economy

By Dr. Andonis Vassiliades.

“A young man was arrested yesterday following a Drug Squad sting that uncovered 11.5 kilos of cannabis. The bust began on Tuesday night and spanned the Larnaca, Paphos and Limassol areas…” (Cyprus Mail, 17 July 2008). This appears to be another small achievement by law enforcement agents in a recent spate of highly publicized successes in the quest to control drug taking and trafficking. Of course, this information about winning some battles against the “smack culture” (we use the phrase to mean not just heroine use but all illicit drugs) is, for most law-abiding citizens and particularly the administration and enforcement of criminal justice, much encouraging news.

As always is the case in such and other similar circumstances, the social and legal issue of drugs is overblown to a point that drugs are made to be seen as an undesirable and harmful foe that must be stamped out at all costs. Drugs and the drug culture are presented as inflicting serious harm on the personal, moral, socio-economic and legal and cultural fabric of communities and that they endanger the destruction of organized and law-abiding society.

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