Mo Mowlam
Thursday January 9, 2003
The Guardian (UK)

A series of gun-related crimes is reported in the press over the last week
and, as sure as night follows day, we have an immediate response from the
government that it is going to bring forward legislation to increase the
penalty for possessing a gun. At a time when our prisons are straining at
the seams we have a headline-grabbing policy which may in the short term
look good, and in the medium term will probably be either irrelevant or
counter-productive. On top of this it is announced that the prime minister
is going to take personal control of a new crusade against guns. Visas will
monitor Jamaicans travelling to the UK, and instant deportation will face
asylum seekers found in possession of such weapons.
First, let's put this into perspective: a Metropolitan police spokesman has
said that gun-related crime only accounts for 0.003% of all crimes they deal
with. Yes, it would appear that gun crime is increasing, but from a very
small base. It is not a time to panic. Also we should remember that most gun
crime relates to the illegal drugs trade, which is mainly controlled by
foreign gangs, for whom guns are a regular part of the business. Drug
dealers have been shooting each other for some time, without the media and
Home Office attention suddenly being lavished upon them.

Admittedly there are changes occurring in the gangs that dominate this
market. It would seem that at the moment there are a number of Kosovans
moving in on the UK. This, though, probably has far more to do with US and
UK military action in Kosovo (where defeat of the Serbs has facilitated drug
running through the Balkans) and Afghanistan (where defeat of the Taliban
has led to the extensive production of heroin again) than with the UK's
sentencing laws for gun possession. The increase in gun crime is a byproduct
of the level of organised crime that we are allowing to fester within our
society - an organised crime business that is being fuelled by our
wrongheaded laws relating to drugs.

The film Some Like It Hot has a scene when one Chicago gang is gunned down
by another. The film is a comedy, drawing humour from the absurdity of the
years of prohibition in the US, when alcohol was made illegal. Of course
this did not stop drinking, it merely pushed it underground. The bar was
replaced with the speakeasy. The legitimate supplier of booze was replaced
by the gangster. A whole new criminal element was added to society that not
only corroded the drink business, but also brought intimidation, violence
and corruption into previously clean activities, for example in the rise of
protection rackets. Today we laugh at films that portray that era, while
ignoring the reality of such a situation existing and growing within our own
society.

Drugs in this country are almost more freely available than alcohol: their
supply is not constrained by licensing laws, large numbers of people smoke
marijuana, particularly teenagers and young people, and a lot also take
ecstasy and cocaine. They are not criminals; they are people you know. They
are people who are likely to be sitting next to you at work, or living in
your homes. But all these people are being brought into almost daily contact
with organised crime. Isn't this a most foolish situation?

Please can we begin to hear some good sense from No 10 and the Home Office,
and let's start looking at how drugs can be legalised and our society can be
decriminalised. Let's recognise reality and start to reduce the numbers who
are cluttering up our prisons. Let's start selling drugs through outlets
such as off-licences, where the likelihood of dealing with someone holding a
gun is virtually zero, unlike the street traders of today. Let's admit that
we are getting it wrong, by allowing our fear and prejudice against certain
drugs to drive us to pursue wrongheaded policies which only produce damaging
social results.

When I was in government I visited Jamaica to see the harm the cocaine trade
is doing to that country. It is a staging post between Colombia, where the
cocaine is manufactured, and the UK and US, where it is consumed. Jamaica is
a poor country with a fragile economy; its people are easily exploited by
the drug barons, who often pay for the services of mules and other smugglers
with the drug itself. That further ruins their employees' wretched lives and
the society they live in. Jamaica, like many other countries around the
world, is a victim of our laws.

The drug business thrives on demand from the developed world, a demand we
are not properly controlling through legalisation. That leads to increasing
lawlessness and corruption in our own countries, but also harms innocent
countries such as Jamaica. That is the outrage that we should be focusing
our attention upon.