Freedom from drugs

As a Valletta councellor, between May 26 and 28, I shall be representing Malta at the European Cities against Drugs (ECAD) forum in Oslo. ECAD is a non-profit organisation that is zero-tolerant towards drugs, whether soft or hard. Its policy is to work to create a drug-free society and a not a free drug society.

What is the best thing any nation, any community has? Of course its people. We sometimes talk these days about human resources and although that term is a little impersonal or business-like - everything is business nowadays - it does make us think of each individual's usefulness and potential.

It is always a tragedy, both for the person concerned and for the community as a whole, when human potential goes unrealised, resources go unfulfilled, lives are wasted. We see this most blatantly in warfare, but it also takes place in this other war which is invisible.

Politicians often talk about the war on drugs, but in fact it is the other way round: drugs and drug dealers have declared war on our society. Innocent victims are exposed to a horrific fate, just because people with no sense of values or conscience see this as a way of making money.

Let us imagine a drug dealer whose loved ones and family fall victims to drugs. Could he really accept this? It is almost incomprehensible how such hypocrisy can still be found in our day and age which likes to think of itself as ethical and enlightened.

Most of us would regard "addiction" as a medical term. I was very surprised therefore to come across a very revealing definition of what "addiction" originally meant. In Latin, addictus was used of a citizen of Ancient Rome who had built up debts that could not be repaid and was therefore delivered by the courts into slavery under his creditor.

This is precisely the relationship between addict and drug dealer today. Even in a relatively peaceful society like Malta, we hear stories about the appalling violence connected with drug addicts and drug dealers today, drug debts and their collection.

The threat of being named or even murdered adds double horror to the hopeless psychological situation in which many drug addicts find themselves today. Addiction then originally meant slavery and it still does. I would venture to suggest that the best way to prevent drug use is to teach it early.

The older generations which have been preoccupied with themselves and have also shown astonishingly self-destructive behaviour, if we are to be honest, have perhaps not set a very good example. When we are tackling drug abuse, we should not only search inside the soul of the victims, but take a frank look at ourselves too to see where the roots of the problem may also lie.

Some people may think that telling young children about the problems of drug addiction would make them curious but I don't think this would be the case. We can try to put across the message that drug taking is a sign of weakness of character rather than something tough, that drug users are "losers".

We can appeal to concepts such as "don't lose control over yourself", "take control of your own life" - something positive and inspiring without sounding like an order from parents or teachers.

Malta's drug problem has escalated sky-high. Too many people are using drugs as a escape from reality. We are not fighting for "freedom, that is freedom from drugs, which is a basic human right, just like the right to life.