From an Australian perspective the authoraties here have had very good success in keeping large quantaties of certain drugs such as Heroin & Cocaine from entering the country. It does cost a lot of money and involves the utilisation and coordination of all the protective services, State & Fedral Police, Customs, Navy, Air Force etc. and the use of Over The Horizon Radar, X Ray, human intervention and sniffer dogs. The dogs have been a great success and can process a hugh amount of passengers their luggage and cargo at ports.
A lot of the drugs do come from Asia, however the fact that the death penalty is enforced in some of these countries also acts as a deterrant. Last year an Australian citizen was executed in Singapore. There was another incident where 9 Australians were known by authoraries to be leaving Bali carrying Heroin. Rather than allowing them passage to Australia and picking them up on arrival the Feds alerted the Indonesian Police and they are now facing the death penalty. The current Government does not go out of its way to assist such people, making it known that it is well publicised what the consequences of drug carrying are.
One of the bigest problens here now is the synthetic drugs that can be manufactured locally.
There is no question that drugs are destroying societies and the lives of people all over the world and Governments need to develope a range stratagies to combat this menace. If they dont spend the money on prevention they are going to be spending it on health care and prisons. Personal responsability must also click in somewhere, there is ample information available to people as to the effects and consequences of taking such drugs.
Recently a prominent and highly respected Melbourne QC was found in an Adelaide hotel room in an unconscious state. The QC died 11 days later. A woman was charged with administering a drug of dependence to him. It is said that illegal drug use is rampant within the legal profession and police are now having a good hard look at the claims.
Drugs know no bounds and wealth and education are no guarantee of protection. If part of the fight againts the drug producers and runners requires Lethal Force then lets do it sooner rather than later, we owe it to our children.
