The President of the Regional Delegation of the Bar of the Azores, Dr. Vieira, alarmed by the increasing number of crimes associated with drug use in the region of Ribeira Grande, between 2008 and 2009 is peremptory: “We all know that one way of fighting the problem of drug trafficking is by decreasing its value. The dealer is only interested in trafficking because his profit margin is amazing. So, if we manage to devalue the product, he no longer has an interest in trafficking, the number of dealers will be less and the problem partly solved “(in DN 1/05/10).

The reasoning simulates to enjoy the simplicity of the meridian logic of Aristotelian syllogism: 1st – To devaluate drugs is one of the forms to fight the problem, 2nd - The dealer only has interest in drugs valued. Therefore, if we undervalue drugs, the number of dealers will decrease and the problem partly solved.

This highlights the fallacy of the argument. To sustain the first statement, like a universal premise, he begins by saying “we all know”, referring to the anti-drugs battle as if everybody agreed with is his own thesis which, after all, considers the simplistic truism that criminal trafficking will diminish if drugs are devalued. In the second statement, we realize that fighting drugs is just fighting drugs criminal trade and, as La Palisse would say if drugs lose value, dealers will be less and the problem partly solved. This is an indigent reduction of the drugs issue.

Regarding this matter, the position of APLD coincides absolutely with the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: “Legalization may reduce the profits of criminals, but will also increase, for sure, the damage to health of individuals and to society. Drugs are not dangerous because they are illegal; they are illegal because they are dangerous! The evidence shows a strong correlation between the availability of drugs and their abuse. Let’s then reduce supply and demand and thereby reduce risks to health and safety.” (AMC in New Orleans, 6/12/2007).

As the nations have been struggling for many years with serious social problems such as cancer, AIDS, homeless or the decline of educational standards, it has still not occurred to anyone to abandon efforts to fix these problems by suggesting inaction , why with drugs would now be different?

In what relates to drugs, does it make any sense to condemn someone to a life of dependence only because it is difficult to fight the causes that promote it and the profit of out-laws who sell it?

It is not true that if we underestimate drugs, as suggested by the Azorean lawyer, drug dealers will disappear. Cigarettes are legal in Portugal and throughout Europe, and yet, due to high rates, there is still illegal traffic in large scale.

To think that the traditional motive behind drug related crimes - its transaction and ownership - would disappear if we would underestimate it, is a mistake. A few years ago, the assessment of legal prescription of narcotics held in England between 1959 and 1964, and in Sweden between 1965 and 1967, showed that crime has risen sharply among those who received the revenues from narcotics.

The problem of criminal trade is not attenuated with over-the-counter drugs. Nowadays, the unusual murder rate directly related to drugs - 40% - recorded in Portugal, the highest in whole Europe (WDR 2009), is the final proof that its devaluation, tested with decriminalization in progress in our country since 2001, does not seem the most effective way of combating it.

In a culture of citizenship, to give up before the difficulties, never was, it is not and will never be the solution. On the island of the Azores, mainland Portugal or any other part of the world!

Manuel Pinto Coelho - President of APLD - Association for a Drug Free Portugal