AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin thinks the futile War on Drugs is more important than young lives. |
The AFP, it seems, had alerted Indonesian police to the arrival of the Bali 9 drug smugglers despite knowing the death penalty could be enforced.
Colvin's excuses contained a list of drug war clichés. It ignored that most heroin casualties occur BECAUSE it is illegal, and ignored the success of supervised injecting centres in preventing overdoses and deaths – a far cheaper option than the ever more privatised drug enforcement and jail industry that Colvin eagerly supports.
Typically, Andrew Colvin used the same dodgy stats that Indonesia's President Widodo used to whip up horror at "the scourge of drugs" - "Families and communities destroyed by drugs" - "4,000 deaths from heroin (and other opioids)" over four years - and they've taken enough heroin off the streets for "eight hits for every man, woman and CHILD in Australia", because heroin dealers run around randomly injecting chilren, right? Never mind that taking that heroin off the streets neatly keeps the price up so criminals are eternally attracted to the trade and the cops keep their budgets, promotions and jobs etc etc.
He didn't even come up with a new cliché.