FREE CHAPTER
Introduction of The Narcotech Revolution
(10 minute read)
There are few things in modern life as universal as addiction. Virtually everyone on the planet uses some of the range of psychoactive substances that can alter (improve) their state of consciousness. From coffee to fentanyl, everyone wants to get high.
The good news is that disruptive change for the better is not only possible but inevitable – only the speed is open to question. The motivation? Profit. In every sense of the word, both financial and social.
Narcotech is a philosophy that says the consensual application of technologies can radically improve the outcomes arising from inherently risky substance use, helping all parties involved. Applied carefully, it can support the successful re-regulation of problematic substances.
Substance use has so far largely eluded the progress in tech that can be seen in virtually all other aspects of modern life. There are no sophisticated devices or apps that ‘know’ your personal history, can be linked to health care providers, and assist consumers to take better decisions.
We have barely scratched the surface of the ultra-personalized services that could be tailored to individuals. Privacy and security concerns are valid but there is value to be created in fixing them. The motives of legitimate providers are honorable – this is not basic dark web commerce run for the benefit of criminals.
The global numbers are vast. Despite falling popularity, there are still a billion or more people regularly puffing away on tobacco cigarettes, while billions of adults take pleasure from beers, wines, and spirits. Illegal drugs like cannabis and cocaine are consumed by hundreds of millions for fun, despite their prohibited status. Further millions are reluctant users due to involuntary addiction.
Global attempts at the side effects and treatment of addiction have been a mess. There are too many losers, not enough winners and too many unscrupulous beneficiaries. The financial, human and social costs have escalated out of control. There must be a change.
The core idea of this book is that there is the potential for revolutionary progress to be achieved on an evolutionary basis over a decade or so. Different tactics and strategies would be adopted at different paces, in different administrative regions, at different times, on a test and learn basis.
The rewards for success (the profits) are two-fold: substantial financial rewards for those who engineer improved outcomes but, more importantly, game-changing social change for all. These latter will be measurable in improved personal health, reduced criminality, and increased productivity, among many other benefits.
The same forces that have upended industries as diverse as taxis (e.g. Uber) and retail (e.g. Amazon) are poised to help mend broken regulatory systems that are crying out for repair and redesign. The microchip and the networked power of the Internet can empower ordinary citizens to transform their own health and relationships with wider society, whilst greatly reducing the power and significance of crime.
These are bold claims but attainable in less than a decade – and likely faster in many instances.
The prospect of reform is challenging – where to start, what needs doing, what is socially acceptable? One thing is certain, however, despite the fears of many: it doesn’t mean enabling a free-for-all of selfish behavior and unfettered capitalism. After all, that is what we have rather too much of currently.
Crucially, the deciding factors will be the appetite for embracing greater responsibility (both personal and corporate) and the speed at which an informed approach to self-regulation is adopted. Above all, risks need to be far better assessed and priced accordingly, so that better quality decisions can be taken by all involved parties – whether individuals, businesses, or agencies of government.
Educational efforts to prevent the young (and others) from starting to use drink, tobacco, or drugs are laudable and not to be discounted. However, the reality is that human curiosity means many, indeed most, people will at some point make personal choices that expose them to both risk and pleasure, however momentary.
The benefits of pursuing personal pleasure can be easily understood by all, but the associated risks much less so – particularly for novice users of a substance and the young. The consequences routinely stretch beyond the individual to their families, too. Most adults know of people in their network of family and acquaintances who have struggled (or worse) with drugs, tobacco or alcohol. Legacy effects typically persist, even if an immediate addiction problem is successfully addressed.
The costs of addiction are massive for both legal and illegal drugs, and are almost never borne by those that profit most from them. Authoritarians and populist politicians exploit the demand for harsh criminal justice systems, oppressive policing, and incarceration of offenders despite the huge financial expense. In practice the results are paltry, and such policies have waning support from the general public.
Innocent victims pay the cost of drug-related property and personal crime, much of which is never satisfactorily resolved. The addicted – typically with exhausted personal reserves – look to public and charitable bodies to fund treatment that is resource-intensive and extremely profitable for a few, but from which relapse is all too frequent.
Whether a psychoactive substance is new or old, near-natural or designed in a laboratory, we need much better control over them. Yet at present we are neglecting our capability to do so. At a time when human knowledge and know-how are growing exponentially, we are failing to let loose the power of IT and the microchip to aid solving one of our most pressing challenges. This is despite there being more sources of potential investment for such profitable and socially responsible projects than ever before.
Consumers can and must take greater personal responsibility for making choices that improve the consequences of their actions, assisted by information and services that, while not currently available to them, are within easy reach. Variations on the concept of personal licensing, such as voluntary or compulsory membership-type communities, will empower them as key stakeholders in a transformed relationship between the individual citizen and the state.
Working solutions, once established may be copied or adapted from territory to territory according to local conditions. What really matters is that progress could be made much, much faster than at present – greatly reducing otherwise intractable social problems, protecting human capital, respecting personal freedoms, ensuring responsibilities are adhered to, all the while generating good quality jobs and long-term investments. In sum, getting better value for money.
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The fear of addiction has loomed large in the popular imagination for centuries. Meanwhile those with power over communities – rulers, governments, civil servants, and institutions such as the United Nations – have long seen the easy potential for raising revenues through taxing addictive substances. The more paternalistic among them worry about the potential subversion of public order and public health goals, too.
Historically, controls have come from the top down, with policies driven by a heady mix of public opinion, international obligations, political lobbying groups, and pure economic self-interest. Governments attempt, as best they can, to control the production, distribution, and use of intoxicating substances – categorizing them as either licit (legal) or illicit (illegal).
Possession and consumption by adults are suppressed using taxation and legal restrictions. Taxes and sanctions usually work well to shape the behavior of businesses and other formal bodies, with legal remedies available for breaches of corporate good behavior. But not always. The opioid crisis in the USA has seen such remedies take tragically far too long to be successfully applied to the bad actors. The system has eventually functioned, but too late for many victims.
Tax and legal compliance by individual citizens, meanwhile, can be far more variable and prone to personal choice, even when there is the awareness of risk. Many individuals – both users and dealers – are willing to break laws perceived as unjust or unlikely to be enforced. The financial rewards alone are a powerful motivator, stimulating crime, and encouraging the deeply corrosive corruption of all involved.
The failure to impose control often leads to still harsher tactics by authorities – regularly with crucial lessons left unlearned. For example, the failed experience of alcohol prohibition in the USA in the 1920s, when the production and supply of alcohol was constitutionally banned on public morality grounds, did not prevent the subsequent demonization of cannabis and other substances.
Prohibitionist drug policies have been copied around the world via the mechanism of United Nations Conventions, with little international variation. The 20th-century policy approach, skewed towards controlling supply, is still in place. Society is stuck in a rut, ploughing the same furrow even though the simplistic solutions of locking people up and applying ‘sin’ taxes has demonstrably not worked well in practice. With data and knowledge about real demand patterns universally terrible (even for legal substances), it is easier for authorities to stick with tried and tested supply-control methods. But it’s really a case of repeatedly kicking the can along the road.
Clearly, a rebalance is necessary and a policy upgrade needed.
A new 21st-century approach should emphasize controlling and influencing consumer demand. Politicians and regulators pay lip service to this, but do so from a prohibitionist viewpoint. Their current policy toolkits leave little room for individuals to make their own informed choices. This needs to change. Authoritarian governments like emerging surveillance technologies and will have few qualms about mandating their subjects’ compliance. The continued growth of surveillance will be one of the defining features of the near future.
Policy-makers have always faced difficult choices, but prohibitions in particular make it easy to institutionalize poor outcomes, globally and locally. Engaging reverse-gear rarely happens. However, it is consensual participation in policy reform that ensures democratic accountability. Far better for informed citizens to take control of their own affairs, rather than have regulation imposed upon them.
Consider a truly vulnerable group, one that all of us could find ourselves part of one day: those needing strong pain relief for end-of-life palliative care. Suffering in agony with only days or hours to live, people face a geographic lottery as to whether the authorities in their countries permit doctors to prescribe the most appropriate medications. The answer for far too many people around the world – perhaps the majority – is a straightforward ‘No’. A dogmatic approach to international control regulations trumps all other considerations.
As has always been the case, informed private citizens are best placed to know what is best for them. They just need lots of help to capture and process their own personal data, and to share that information which they judge necessary. Properly empowered, the individual can take much greater responsibility for themselves and make well-informed decisions.
For illegal drugs, as time passes, the global situation deteriorates. Crime has exploded, with illegal actors quick to exploit emerging technology. Witness the growth of dark web commerce mimicking legitimate retailers, the use of encrypted communications systems, the use of ubiquitous social media, and nimbler delivery services to exploit new and younger markets.
As a result, it has never been easier to obtain illicit drugs worldwide, at a younger age, and at ever lower real prices. Meanwhile, the range of substances available has expanded, becoming increasingly potent and risky to consume.
The situation is woeful. So, what needs to change? What is the roadmap?
Part One of this book deals with the status quo, outlining why we regulate as we do today, looking in detail at the consequent harms we inflict on ourselves, and examining the political and public appetite for change.
Part Two introduces in greater depth the concept of personal licensing and self-regulation. It explains how greater personal responsibility and the pricing of risk will help businesses create value-added products and services.
Part Three explains how raw data streams can be turned into information of value, while protecting civil liberties, as well as maximizing the pace of change and the range of innovators.
Part Four describes how progress can be made immediately, by applying narcotech principles to licit tobacco, nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis, as a prelude to further change.
Finally, the Conclusion envisages what the pace of change is likely to be over the next decade, its impact on business, and who may be the relative winners and losers.
Five key points
- Global drug policy is stuck using 20th century methods to tackle 21st century issues
- The Internet and the microchip are being massively under-utilized
- Narcotech can radically improve outcomes from risky behavior
- Success means legitimate financial profits and game-changing social benefit
- Consumers must take personal responsibility, not just rely on government to supervise supply
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