{"id":456,"date":"2010-06-11T16:05:34","date_gmt":"2010-06-11T15:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=456"},"modified":"2010-06-11T16:05:34","modified_gmt":"2010-06-11T15:05:34","slug":"pharmaceutical-prohibition-as-successful-as-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/06\/11\/pharmaceutical-prohibition-as-successful-as-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharmaceutical Prohibition: as Successful as Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

An item on Sky news<\/a> the other day caught my attention.\u00a0 It concerned a new wave of legal highs being manufactured in China. \u00a0The thrust of the report is that, in the wake of mephedrone having been banned a few weeks ago, enterprising Chinese chemists are working on a new set of chemicals designed to get around the legislation.<\/p>\n

These new drugs\u00a0are, as even the manufacturers admit, of dubious safety. \u00a0Not necessarily unsafe – but of dubious safety. \u00a0That, it seems to me, is bad enough.<\/p>\n

But it’s a nice illustration of how the desire to ban pharmaceuticals is clearly not a good idea. \u00a0It doesn’t make the demand for highs disappear; and, for as long as there’s a demand, there’ll be someone to meet it. \u00a0Some of the demand will be met illegally – even my own parents had been known to drink absinthe from an illegal still when it was still illegal in France, and they’re about as middle-class as you can get; some of it will be met in a way that’s outside the spirit of the law, even if not its letter; some of it will be met straightforwardly legally. \u00a0Imposing a ban, that is, seems pretty pointless.\u00a0 (The same applies to abortions, and to just about anything else that governments have, over the years, tried to ban.)<\/p>\n

It’s also a nice illustration of the manner in which the desire to ban pharmaceuticals is deeply counterproductive. \u00a0Again, this has to do with the fact that the demand remains. \u00a0The bans on heroin, cocaine, MDMA and so on all meant than users faced a dilemma: either go underground, with the attendant risks – from the unregulated drugs themselves, and from the circumstances in which they’re obtained and used* – the stigma and the alienation that that brings; or stay legal, and use drugs that are likely to be less and less safe as the driving force is simply to stay one step ahead of the law. \u00a0(Ecstasy is, probably, safer than a lot of the stuff in your medicine cupboard at home; mephedrone probably isn’t; the new post-mephedrone drugs almost certainly aren’t.) \u00a0That is to say: successive waves of prohibition simply mean that people will turn to dodgier and dodgier sources of their drug of choice. \u00a0We might be talking about white powders here, or about make-you-blind moonshine made in a bathtub in Prohibition-era America. \u00a0It’s the same principle.<\/p>\n

(*On this point, there was a good report in the <\/a>Independent<\/a><\/em> in March\u00a0about the impact of the cross-border drugs trade in Mexico; there was a similar story on the Today<\/em> programme<\/a>, too, about the pernicious unforeseen consequences of prohibition.)<\/p>\n

There would be no need for these tailor-made new drugs if the prohibition on mephedrone and other such drugs didn’t exist. \u00a0There’d be no need for mephedrone at all\u00a0if the ban on other drugs wasn’t there. \u00a0Bans simply don’t work. \u00a0All they do is make the risks of drug-use bigger, and they do so by ignoring the demand side. \u00a0Sort that out, and the market will simply move on.<\/p>\n

Of course, you’re never going to eliminate people’s desire to get off their chops now and again – and I don’t think you should. \u00a0But you can make it as safe as possible, with proper certification from the government for disco-biscuits, and you can have a frank public health campaign that isn’t laced with prohibitionary subtexts – the kind of campaign that is currently just about impossible.<\/p>\n

The current situation is a bit like one in which we’re trying to reduce road accidents by banning brakes, and then banning headlights, and then banning driving lessons. \u00a0Not gonna work. \u00a0Far better to enforce decent lessons, lights and brakes, and at the same time to encourage cycling. \u00a0The same goes for pharmaceuticals.\u00a0 Discourage their use by all means – but at least do everything to ensure that what use there is stays as safe for everyone as possible.<\/p>\n

This is not some wild-eyed notion that the use of currently-illegal drugs is perfectly OK. \u00a0Fewer heroin users is good in anyone’s book, I think. \u00a0Fewer mephedrone users, too. \u00a0But – at risk of getting boring – bans won’t get you there.<\/p>\n

(One last point: at around 1:55, the reporter states that<\/p>\n

In China, business often comes before ethics<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t see the conflict between business and ethics – making money is good. \u00a0No – if there’s a question here about ethics, it has to do with the wisdom and desirability of prohibitionary policies in relation to drugs. \u00a0And they’re neither wise nor desirable.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An item on Sky news the other day caught my attention.\u00a0 It concerned a new wave of legal highs being manufactured in China. \u00a0The thrust of the report is that, in the wake of mephedrone having been banned a few weeks ago, enterprising Chinese chemists are working on a new set of chemicals designed to […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,475,472,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-politics","category-thinking-aloud","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPharmaceutical Prohibition: as Successful as Ever - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/06\/11\/pharmaceutical-prohibition-as-successful-as-ever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pharmaceutical Prohibition: as Successful as Ever - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An item on Sky news the other day caught my attention.\u00a0 It concerned a new wave of legal highs being manufactured in China. \u00a0The thrust of the report is that, in the wake of mephedrone having been banned a few weeks ago, enterprising Chinese chemists are working on a new set of chemicals designed to [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/06\/11\/pharmaceutical-prohibition-as-successful-as-ever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-11T15:05:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/11\\\/pharmaceutical-prohibition-as-successful-as-ever\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/11\\\/pharmaceutical-prohibition-as-successful-as-ever\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Pharmaceutical Prohibition: as Successful as Ever\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-11T15:05:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/11\\\/pharmaceutical-prohibition-as-successful-as-ever\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":793,\"commentCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"In the News\",\"Politics\",\"Thinking Aloud\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/11\\\/pharmaceutical-prohibition-as-successful-as-ever\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/11\\\/pharmaceutical-prohibition-as-successful-as-ever\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/11\\\/pharmaceutical-prohibition-as-successful-as-ever\\\/\",\"name\":\"Pharmaceutical Prohibition: as Successful as Ever - 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