Drug Legalization In PR: A Sociological Problem

Talking about drug legalization in Puerto Rico is somewhat of a taboo topic, which some individuals consider it as cynical, because they consider it as a measure that it just can’t happen because the addict population, crime rate will increase and the society will become ethically corrupt. However, over the past months, the topic of drug legalization has been proposed by some politicians, such as Rafael Bernabe, former candidate running for office for the PPT. He stated during a debate: “We should take the addict out of the drug dealer, which means that we have to give him what he needs, making him leave out of the “punto” and will give us the opportunity to help him while choking the drug dealer. Such drugs as marijuana should be legalized, this is because we could regulate it such as tobacco (which is far worse as a substance). It is ridiculous sending people to jail for smoking marihuana, while there are tobacco users and it’s completely legal” (SUAGM, 2012).After Bernabe’s statement, the topic of drug legalization has been discussed all over the island and some individuals are considering it. The main reason for legalizing drugs is because it could reduce the crime rate, giving a perspective of treating the addict like a patient instead of a criminal, such as the case with alcohol and tobacco addicts. Other conservative sectors such as former Governor Luis G. Fortuño and elected governor Alejandor  García Padilla have condoned the proposal and  have stated that the only option is to keep on with the “war on drugs”.  They have stated that they will continue with the “Mano Dura (Hard Hand) policy” which means that they will keep  treating the drug problem the same way.  Is legalizing illegal drug substances a way to reduce crime or even stabilize the violent increase of crimes? In my opinion, the government should legalize certain drugs, such as marijuana and provide the drugs free of charge in hospitals to eradicate drug dealers in the streets, causing the government to focus on the addict, rather than the drug dealer in order to decrease crime.

First of all, to identify the main problem in Puerto Rico, we should look at the statistics, not because to justify our solution, but instead to question if our current system is working, if not, the problem is more powerful than the current solution. In Puerto Rico, the rise of the crime rate in the past decade has increased by a 65.76%, with 45.1% related with drugs, and 80% of homicides are related with drug trafficking (El Nuevo Día, 2011). In 2011, homicides in PR were 1,136 which means that if we calculate an approximation, 908 individuals were killed because of a drug related problem (El Nuevo Día, 2012). The United Nations’ report titled “Drug World Report” stated that the drug problem is related to countries in current development, also the use of drugs is closely related to crimes committed, and the biggest issue is that illegal drug substances are more easily acquired by minors rather than the legal substances. The truth is that Puerto Rico is a territory in an economic depression which relates to countries in development. With such numbers we can see that our current system has failed on all of the aspects, such as reducing crime and taking the drugs out of the reach of the youth and reducing the addicts in PR. Around 100,000 individuals are drug addicts in PR and 70% are users of opiates such as heroin (El Nuevo Día, 2012). As responsible individuals, we have to look for other options that could resolve our problems, even though they could be extreme alternatives. To do this we have to look at similar problems in the past and see how they were solved.

If we look at the history, the prohibition of alcohol in the United States in 1919 lasted until 1933, but what is curious is that the movement against alcohol prohibition occurred by the time of the great depression, where the drug lords such as Al Capone exploited the illegal alcohol industry, earning around 60 million dollars a year, where corruption, homicides and bribes happened at a great scale. This event relates to the situation of Puerto Rico because the most affected class is the marginalized class and the working class. This problem is happening all over again in Puerto Rico, where the labor force in Puerto Rico is only a 39%, the crime increase is around  65.76%, and the security in Puerto Rico just gets lower every time, and the drug problems are marihuana, cocaine and heroin, while in the 1920’s in the USA was alcohol (Tyrell, 2009). How did the government solve the problem in the 1920’s and 30’s? It’s relatively shocking, but they legalized alcohol and took profit out of the sales of alcohol. This practically caused the collapse of white collar crime related to illegal substances at that time. However, times has changed because alcohol is no longer a drug traffic problem, but we have other types of drugs that are illegal and it seems that we’re repeating the 1920’s-30’s all over again. To solve such problems the United Nations recommended: “First, develop an integrated approach; and second, focus on prevention, treatment, alternative development and the promotion of fundamental human rights (UNODC, 2012).

When we talk about legalization, we’re talking about the approach of making a substance accessible to anyone but with certain regulations appointed by the government. This implies that if a substance is legalized, the product has to be processed correctly, pay taxes and put restrictions to some individuals, like age, health conditions, etc. The approach towards drugs should be one of control, rather than prohibition.  One of the main points outlined in the report of The United Nations in the case for the world drug problem was that : “Drug control means restoring the balance and paying greater attention to the health side by reducing overdoses, psychiatric problems and the incidence of infections such as HIV and hepatitis. Prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, reintegration and health all have to be recognized as key elements in the global strategy to reduce drug demand” (UNODC, 2012). We have to consider that we have to take a different approach towards drugs, because the war on drugs is not working in any sense, rather it’s expanding even more, the approach should be focusing on the patient and not on the dealer, but to get rid of the dealer, we have to legalize and/or medicate. As we explained before, the case of Puerto Rico, is evident that the “War on Drugs” it’s not working. Our situation is that the 80% of homicides are related to drug trafficking, we have around 100,000 drug addicts in the island. Also the president of the alliance managers of the Ricky Martin Foundation, César Rey said that the access to drugs is easier to drugs than alcohol for minors of age, and sadly there are more places to sell illegal drugs (called “puntos”) than public schools. He also stated that  in the last report of the Puerto Rico Police Department estimated that there are 1,600 “puntos” while having 1,423 public schools in the island, that means that it’s easier to find a drug dealer in the island than a public school (El Nuevo Día, 2012). For these reasons there has to be a change in our drug policy. Back in the 1920’s and 30’s the problem was alcohol in the USA, in 2012 is illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin, if the USA solved the problem of alcohol with legalization, Puerto Rico should not be an exception to take such measures like legalization of illegal substances.

If we look from an aspect outside of our country, there have been countries that have tolerated drugs, and their crime rate is extremely low such as the Netherlands. The Netherlands has a homicide rate of 163 per year, and the population is around 17 million (Elsevier, 2011). We’re talking about a country that has almost 5 times our population and the homicide rate is almost ten times lower than ours.  Even though the approach for legalizing drugs is not very widely accepted in other countries, some scholars believe that if drugs are legalized, the consumption will increase due to the ease of access, and therefore the impact on society could be adverse (Bretteville-Jensen, 2006). It is quite true that the consumption will increase because it’s more accesible to anyone and they will not have any prosecution by the government, not only that but that means that it could induce a complete change in our perspective as a society. Same as alcohol, the drug dependent user could increase and at the start of legalization, everyone will try to consume it. However, what’s different from being illegal, is that the person that is interested in the product can buy it only if the person meets with the requirements to have it, such as age. If the person gets addicted to the substance, he would be completely treated as a patient, like alcoholics or tobacco users.  In some other perspectives, the legalization of drugs implies that the implementation of legalization could lead to drop the crime rate, smugling, and could affect positively the economic development of the country because they take the product out of the subterrenean economy (Gunnlaugsson, 2010). As a result, if we have the power to implement a new law related to this case, it should be inclusive in the aspect on how to apply it efficiently in the government and not an exclusive approach in the aspect of product and marketing. In simple words, if drugs are legalized, they should not be advertised and the government has to provide information on how harmful the drug could be such as today with tobacco and alcohol, but also, the government will have the power to put taxes on the product.

There are some examples of how such systems had worked for the past  decades. In the case for tobacco in Puerto Rico, the substance is legal, but cigarrete advertisements on television are not accepted, since it could inffluence children to be attracted to them and try to consume them. What’s positive of this type of view is that the substance is legal, taxed by the government, restricted to certain ages and there is  no illegal traficking of tobacco which doesn’t bring any crime related problems. The focus of legalization of illegal subtances is due to the exponential increase of crime around the word. Even with all of the efforts of the government, in the United States there’s a murder rate of 31,000 deaths from drug related causes in 2007, and only 41.5% of all cocaine and 25% of all marijuana was intercepted globally in 2007 (Jenner, M. S., 2011). This means that the war on drugs for almost six decades has not worked nor will it seem to improve in the near future. We have to create a system in which the perspective of the user that abuses f the substance should be treated as a medical condition rather than as a criminal. There have been countries such as Portugal that has decriminalized drugs and treated the user as a patient and in a period around 10 years, the HIV cases have dropped by 17% and it’s the least consuming country of marijuana in the European Union (Greenwald, G. 2009).

A curious aspect of drug trafficking is that the places where exportation of these illegal substances occur are actually the places  classified as “third world countries”, and the main consumer countries are actually located in North America(44%) and Europe (33%) (UNODC, 2012). Basically, the production of illegal substances comes from outside our territory and their production and exportation is relatively easier in comparison to the USA and PR because the governments in which the substances are produced are inefficient on regulation and the security is far less effective when it comes to comparison to our countries. If legalization occurs in our country, the system of production will increase exponentially inside our territory, not also that, but we can tax, regulate and improve the quality of the product, which the user will be less affected with the substance and children will not have access as easy as being illegal, because there are no such regulations on the sale while it’s illegal.

There are different types of drug policies around the world, but in my opinion, there has to be specific models for specific places. In the case for Puerto Rico, around 70% of the drug users (around 70,000) are addicted to opiates, in most cases, heroin. Heroin is a substance   vastly used by intravenous administration, which means that the user has to use biomedical tools and could harm himself or contract diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis C or any type of infection that could invade by the use of needles. That’s why I think in the case of heroin, the best way to confront this problem is the model used in Switzerland, which consist of medicating heroin in a purified and clean environment, provided free of charge to the addict in hospitals. The point of providing heroin free of charge is because heroin is a strong drug that if not in a purified condition, is more harmful than it should be and could induce the person to act in desperation, be it stealing, killing, etc. If the government provides it free of charge, the person is not in need to find the money to pay for the substance and the government could focus on his condition, rather than taking him to  jail and just releasing him after a few months with no significant change. If we do that, the drug addict will not have the need to buy the substance illegally and the drug seller will have no profit, therefore no job, which eradicates any drug related crime. The same happens with cocaine, a strong substance that should be provided by the hospital because of its hyperactive properties and lack of purification.

The case for marijuana is vastly known for its pros and cons. Marijuana has some properties such as cannabidiol, canabigerol and other substances which could relieve pain, intraocular pressure, and reduce anxiety. These substances are being used in some states such as California, Washington, New Jersey, and fifteen other states that have regulated marijuana for medical purposes. When it comes into problems with the conservative sector is for recreational use, like we explained a few moments back, some individuals are concerned of how it would change all of our sociologic system, but what comes into question is: “Is it worth having so much crime just for a drug which could even have positive effects?”. The studies by the United Nations established that the use of marijuana is increasing and it will not seem to stop. Political reporters such as Jay Fonseca are recommending the legalization as a tool to reduce crime and to generate  tax income to  help the economy in Puerto Rico due to our condition. We have to reanalyze and see if having illegal substances is actually the best way to fight addiction. Let’s look at Portugal, Netherlands, and some states of the USA and see if legalization is the correct choice.

On August 6, 2012 people voted for the legalization of marihuana in the states of Washington and Colorado (Ferner, 2012). Was this actually a wise choice? It’s certainly not a taboo discussion anymore in those states, but when will it no longer be a taboo in PR?  Drug legalization in Puerto Rico and the United States is needed, not only because it could reduce crime, but it would also help the addict who’s in need. The perspective of legalization is focused on helping individuals, rather than punishing them for a condition that could be associated with the surroundings of their society, family, etc. It’s been proven by our own eyes, that the crime rate in Puerto Rico is increasing and we cannot fight it anymore with more policemen and more weapons. Our approach should be that of taking the individual away from the drug seller and putting them into rehabilitation, and giving them what is really needed and not substances that don’t actually help at all (such as methadone). In the case for methadone, there has been studies published by the New England Journal of Medicine, and they have concluded, that heroin addiction treatment has kept more addicts to the treatment than methadone, which is more cost effective to the government and to the patient, due to the retention of the patient in the treatment (Oviedo, 2009). Sadly, our political system has made addicts into criminals, which is a type of discrimination to our neighbor in need. Our politicians should stop thinking for conservative sectors that discriminate on social status. We need to change our perspective of unkindness and bring compassion, instead of hate, we should give love, instead of agony, we should bring help; if we’re not willing to do so, we will only destroy ourselves very slowly and live in fear with our brothers and sisters. Let us be the ones that wants to unite instead of polarize our conditions and have a focus of respect and harmony for a better society and country.