The Problem: Billions have been spent on counter-narcotics programmes over decades with little effect.
The Solution: Instead of going after dealers and traders, use spot testing to identify and fine users.
The real solution to counter-narcotics is to legalise or at least decimalise many drugs. However, since many governments refuse to do so, I propose an alternative approach to combatting the illegal narcotics trade, inspired by the recent response to Covid 19: testing.
Instead of going after drug dealers and drug smugglers with expensive police operations, followed by expensive prosecutions and expensive prison sentences, all of which costs the public purse a huge amount but has done nothing to stop the drugs trade, target users instead, fining those who test positive for drugs.
The system would be similar in some ways to the current approach to speeding; if motorists are caught speeding they get points on their license or pay a fine, and if it happens multiple times they have to go on a speed awareness course.
With drugs, the police would deliver spot tests to people to see if they had drugs in their system, and which ones. If they were found to have them in their system they would receive an instant fine, which would start at, say, £250 for weed, or £1,000 for cocaine. Each time they tested positive, the fine would increase, and those who tested positive once would be subject to more frequent tests in future.
This idea combines both criminology and economic thinking. From the criminology perspective, it makes the risk of getting caught much higher – testing would be widespread and targeted via analysis of most likely users. It would also be random, so people could not plan time off drugs in advance of a test.
From an economic perspective, it simply makes the drug habit more expensive. As drugs are costly anyway, at the start it may not make much difference, but as the fines increase it can start to make the habit too costly to continue. For those with so much wealth they don’t care, then at least the state gets some money back through the fines, in effect an alternative form of VAT on drug purchases.
Testing positive would not lead to a criminal record and would not be shared with anyone else, it would solely lead to a fine; lives shouldn’t be ruined by taking drugs, the aim of this proposal is to disincentivise the user, not to criminalise them.
The major challenge to implementation would be how to administer the tests, from both a legal and human rights point of view and also a logistical one, but such problems are not insurmountable; for example, companies and universities could state in their contracts that they would only accept staff and students who were subject to random tests. We mandate MOTs for cars, we have speed cameras on roads, and people can be stopped and searched and stopped and breathalysed, so doing a non-invasive drugs test should not be that hard a thing to pull off.
So, a chance for the state to save money on policing and raise revenue from drug fines, all the while helping to reduce drug use among the population without legalising the trade.
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