DRUG LAWS

Drug laws around the world -

does anyone get it right?

As a split emerges in the Government over Britain's future drug policy we look at the different approaches to drug control taken around the world

By Georgia Graham, The Telegraph Political Correspondent 30 Oct 2014

The coalition Government is at war over a new report which suggests that decriminalising drugs could have benefits to the UK.

The Home Office report examining a range of approaches, from zero-tolerance to decriminalisation, it concluded drug use was influenced by factors "more complex and nuanced than legislation and enforcement alone".

The Conservatives say despite the Home Office backed study indicating that decriminalising drugs, even class A substances such as heroin and cocaine, could have some benefits by reducing the burden on the criminal justice system the Government has "absolutely no plans" to decriminalise drugs.

The Liberal Democrats argue that punishing drug users is "pointless" with Lib Dem Home Office minister Norman Baker accusing No10 of sitting on the reports since July and blamed the Conservatives for blocking their release for ‘political reasons’.

It is not just British parties that are split over how to tackle drug use - countries across the world take very different approaches from decriminalisation to lengthy prison sentences and even death. Does anyone get it right?

Portugal

A large part of the report focused on Portugal where drugs were effectively decriminalised over ten years ago. According to the Home Office analysis there has been a "considerable" improvement in the health of drug users in Portugal since the country made drug possession a health issue rather than a criminal one in 2001.

In 2000, Portugal decriminalized the use of all illicit drugs, and developed new policies on prevention, treatment, harm reduction and reinsertion. Drug use is no longer a crime, but it is still prohibited. The country's policy was a key comparison in the report written by Home Office civil servants.

Possession of what a person would use in 10 days or less is no longer a matter for the courts. Users are referred to “Commissions for Drug Addiction Dissuasion” where they are given treatment.

Over the last decade the approach appears to have worked in the country, with João Castel-Branco Goulão Portugal’s national drug coordinator saying the country has seen reductions in H.I.V. infections and in overdoses.

So what about the rest of the world?

Czech Republic

Similarly to Portugal possession of drugs is illegal, but possession of small quantities treated as an “administrative offence”, punishable with a fine.

Unlike Portugal levels of cannabis use in the Czech Republic are among the highest in Europe.

While criminal penalties for possession were only introduced as recently as 2010 the report concluded that worse health outcomes were observed after drug possession was criminalised, and there was no evidence of reduced use.

Uruguay

In 2013 Uruguay became the first country in the world to full legalise marijuana. It is now the first nation in the world to break the International Convention on Drug Control, and legislate for the production, sale and consumption of cannabis.

10 per cent of the country’s prison population was for small drug offences – and 44 per cent of all drugs cases were for people detained for holding less than 10g of drugs.

Uruguayans will now be allowed to buy up to 40g a month from pharmacies, join a cannabis club which grows the plant for its members of grow up to six plants themselves.

The Government here says the change in the law is an effort to separate the marijuana market from more problematic drug use. This includes the smoking of “pasta base” - a cheap derivative of cocaine that is highly addictive when smoked and has become endemic in some poor communities.

However the Uruguayan President Jose Mujica has said the start of legal cannabis sales will be delayed until next year due to "practical difficulties".

Netherlands

Famously a tourist hot-spot for people seeking cannabis from countries with stricter controls substances defined as “soft” drugs, including cannabis, have been effectively decriminalised. Possession remains illegal here but police and courts operate a policy of tolerance.

The reported number of deaths linked to the use of drugs in the Netherlands, as a proportion of the entire population, is one of the lowest of the EU. Attempts to crack down on the use of cannabis by tourists have been widely ignored in the country.

However importing and exporting of any classified drug is a serious offence. The penalty can run up to 12 to 16 years if it is for hard drugs with a maximum of 4 years for importing or exporting large quantities of cannabis.

Japan

Japan has the toughest drug laws in the developed world. Its Pharmaceutical Affairs Law bans the production and sale of 68 types of drugs and has a zero-tolerance policy. Criminal sanctions are tougher than in the UK and relatively few people seek treatment.

Some products that are available over the counter as cold and flu remedies are banned and possession of even small amounts of drugs is punishable by lengthy imprisonment.

There are low levels of drug use in Japan but the report notes that it is difficult to decide whether this can be attributed to harsh penalties or a long cultural opposition to drugs and a society where cultural conformity is valued.

USA

In 2012 states in the US - Washington State and Colorado – have legalised the recreational use of cannabis putting them in direct conflict with President Obama’s national drug policy.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia allow the use of medical marijuana on prescription.

However in Colorado aged over 21 are to be allowed to buy and possess up to an ounce (28g) of cannabis and grow six plants in a private, secure area. The first “25 million raised through taxes on these sales will go towards the building of schools.

In Washington licenses to sell marijuana are issued by the state alcohol control boards and the number of outlets are limited. They can’t be within 1000 feet of a school, playground or library.

China

Drug possession for personal use is technically classified as a minor administrative offense but punishment can be harsh – a 2,000 RMB fine and up to 15 days of administrative detention

The Government can also send people who are deemed to be drug addicts to a compulsory detoxification center for up to three years, plus up to three years' compulsory "community rehabilitation."

In 2013 Guangdong province in the south launched the "Thunder Anti-drug" special action. 97,200 drug users were detained and 47,400 people were sent to compulsory detoxification centers.

Smuggling or transporting or manufacturing 1,000 grams or more of opium and 50 grams of more of heroin can lead to a death sentence.

According to the most recent figures in 2008 there were 1,126,700 registered drug users, 900,000 were using heroin or other opioids.

Ireland

While it has a similar drugs policy to the UK Ireland has been the leading the way on the control of 'legal highs'. In 2010 country has banned all ‘psychoactive’ substances unless specific exemptions are made, as is the case with tea, coffee and alcohol.

Denmark

The country has recently followed the example of Netherlands and Germany and opened “fix rooms” for serious drug addicts where they can safely consume and inject drugs in a supervised environment.

The facilities are on offer to adults with serious addictions can bring their illegal drugs and take them, legally, under the watchful eye of a nurse. The capital Copenhagen opened the first with other cities following suit.

Sweden

Sweden is seen as the toughest zero-tolerance state with regards to drugs in Western Europe.

Both use and possession are illegal. Even minor use can lead to a prison sentence six months although more generally leads to a fine.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that Sweden has one of the lowest drug usage rates in the Western world, and attributes this to a drug policy that invests heavily in prevention and treatment as well as strict law enforcement.

Although praised by those who back the ‘war on drugs’ approach for its low level of cannabis use of harder drugs is very high a proportion of drug use.

Drug treatment is free of charge and provided through the health care system and the municipal social services.

Peter’s Point of View

For most of the twentieth century a majority of people around the world favoured a hard-line approach to drugs and drug trafficking; lock them up and throw the key away, hang them, shoot them, cut their hands off, were popular catch-cries.

As the drug problem escalated the pro-punishment people called for even tougher sentences, and in many countries politicians responded accordingly, often against the advice of criminologists and addiction experts. Getting the votes was more important than getting it right.

Nathaniel's Bloodline

This writer believes that it is no coincidence that the list of countries that have the death penalty for drug trafficking, are also among the most corrupt countries, politically and in terms of enforcement. Here is the full list of murderous states that kill traffickers, who, incidentally, are themselves mostly addicted victims of other traffickers: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Sudan, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

Almost all of these countries enacted their death penalty drug laws during the twentieth century in response to popular demand rather than informed advice. In the case of the USA, the War on Drugs commenced in earnest under that infamous criminal vote-getter, Richard Nixon. That alone should have been enough to tell Americans and the world that the War on Drugs would fail.

Lethal and addictive drugs will never be eliminated entirely, but a totally new approach to this age-old curse could make a significant reduction in the number of new addicts, wrecked lives and drug deaths.

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First, governments must recognise that addiction is a health issue rather than a criminal issue. They must stop punishing and start treating. Putting a drug addict in prison will not stop addiction any more than prison or punishment will stop anyone catching a disease or falling ill, because addiction is an illness.

Next, governments must put the dealers out of business by destroying their market. To do that they need to take a leaf out of the colonial history of Australia. Twenty years after the founding of the convict colony, in January 1808, a military coup saw Governor William Bligh arrested and deposed. The military then ran the government for the next two years until the arrival of Governor Lachlan Macquarie with a new military unit. The earlier military had been the power behind the throne, so to speak, right from the arrival of the First Fleet. They also controlled the colony’s commerce including the trade in rum which, in the absence of banknotes and coinage, had become the main instrument of exchange. The rum had a high value and led to widespread drunkenness and addiction. Macquarie imported vast quantities of rum with the intention of flooding the market and making alcohol worthless. The arrival of a large supply of Spanish dollars also helped until English and Australian coins became available. So the ‘Rum Rebellion’ that saw Bligh ousted eventually resulted in the downfall of the military and the powerful and rich John MacArthur. The inscription on Macquarie’s grave in Scotland is ‘Father of Australia.’

But to return to the drug dealers, the answer is simple – flood the market with free drugs, distributed by the government. That’s what Governor Macquarie would have done. The money currently wasted on futile enforcement and imprisonment could then be diverted to treatment of the health issue that it is.

 Highway America

DRUGS

Governments, police, courts and hard-liners have been wrong, totally wrong

This could be the breakthrough of the century. New research and a new book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari, detonates the damnation wrought by holier-than-thou authorities on the victims of drug addiction, and in turn, their victims.

In the past, efforts by enlightened reformers have fallen on deaf ears, or they have been shouted down by hard-liners whose own addiction seems to be screaming for punishment.

Everyone is addicted to something; drugs, alcohol, tobacco, food, exercise, cleanliness, filth, gambling, sex, politics, talking, shopping, adventure, danger, or doing nothing. Personally, I’m addicted to writing and extending my old age.

Addicted to weird selfies in front
of weird mirrors

The old adage, ‘if you can’t beat them, join them,’ certainly applies here. Governments certainly need to join forces with the addicts to help them beat their addictions, instead of beating-up the addicts. Governments could be really innovative by supplying drugs free as a prelude to recovery and rehabilitation, thereby eliminating the need to buy drugs from criminals.

Anyone who advocates punishing people for being sick, are themselves rather sick.

The following article appeared in Huffington Post:

The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think

Posted: 01/20/2015 3:20 pm EST Updated: 03/22/2015 5:59 am EDT

It is now one hundred years since drugs were first banned -- and all through this long century of waging war on drugs, we have been told a story about addiction by our teachers and by our governments. This story is so deeply ingrained in our minds that we take it for granted. It seems obvious. It seems manifestly true. Until I set off three and a half years ago on a 30,000-mile journey for my new book, Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Days of the War on Drugs, to figure out what is really driving the drug war, I believed it too. But what I learned on the road is that almost everything we have been told about addiction is wrong -- and there is a very different story waiting for us, if only we are ready to hear it.

If we truly absorb this new story, we will have to change a lot more than the drug war. We will have to change ourselves.

I learned it from an extraordinary mixture of people I met on my travels. From the surviving friends of Billie Holiday, who helped me to learn how the founder of the war on drugs stalked and helped to kill her. From a Jewish doctor who was smuggled out of the Budapest ghetto as a baby, only to unlock the secrets of addiction as a grown man. From a transsexual crack dealer in Brooklyn who was conceived when his mother, a crack-addict, was raped by his father, an NYPD officer. From a man who was kept at the bottom of a well for two years by a torturing dictatorship, only to emerge to be elected President of Uruguay and to begin the last days of the war on drugs.

I had a quite personal reason to set out for these answers. One of my earliest memories as a kid is trying to wake up one of my relatives, and not being able to. Ever since then, I have been turning over the essential mystery of addiction in my mind -- what causes some people to become fixated on a drug or a behavior until they can't stop? How do we help those people to come back to us? As I got older, another of my close relatives developed a cocaine addiction, and I fell into a relationship with a heroin addict. I guess addiction felt like home to me.

If you had asked me what causes drug addiction at the start, I would have looked at you as if you were an idiot, and said: "Drugs. Duh." It's not difficult to grasp. I thought I had seen it in my own life. We can all explain it. Imagine if you and I and the next twenty people to pass us on the street take a really potent drug for twenty days. There are strong chemical hooks in these drugs, so if we stopped on day twenty-one, our bodies would need the chemical. We would have a ferocious craving. We would be addicted. That's what addiction means.

One of the ways this theory was first established is through rat experiments -- ones that were injected into the American psyche in the 1980s, in a famous advert by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. You may remember it. The experiment is simple. Put a rat in a cage, alone, with two water bottles. One is just water. The other is water laced with heroin or cocaine. Almost every time you run this experiment, the rat will become obsessed with the drugged water, and keep coming back for more and more, until it kills itself.

The advert explains: "Only one drug is so addictive, nine out of ten laboratory rats will use it. And use it. And use it. Until dead. It's called cocaine. And it can do the same thing to you."

Continued below . . . .

THE ASKER TRILOGY

But in the 1970s, a professor of Psychology in Vancouver called Bruce Alexandernoticed something odd about this experiment. The rat is put in the cage all alone. It has nothing to do but take the drugs. What would happen, he wondered, if we tried this differently? So Professor Alexander built Rat Park. It is a lush cage where the rats would have colored balls and the best rat-food and tunnels to scamper down and plenty of friends: everything a rat about town could want. What, Alexander wanted to know, will happen then?

In Rat Park, all the rats obviously tried both water bottles, because they didn't know what was in them. But what happened next was startling . . . .

For the full article see:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html

The full story of Johann Hari's journey -- told through the stories of the people he met -- can be read in Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, published by Bloomsbury. The book has been praised by everyone from Elton John to Glenn Greenwald to Naomi Klein. You can buy it at all good bookstores and read more at www.chasingthescream.com.

GLOBAL WARMING

Seven things you didn't know about climate change affects

January 18, 2015 Written By Starts at Sixty Writers in Living

A great deal of us argue and bicker about the existence of climate change, with some fiercely contesting the existence of the phenomenon, and others insisting that it is indeed true.

What we don’t think or talk about is how climate change affects us right now. Many of us appear to think that the impacts of a warmer earth won’t be felt until decades down the road, perhaps when the ocean is suddenly washing up at your (once) hillside residence.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there are already some very real impacts being each day by global warming. Some of which may surprise you.

1. Food prices

Our shifting climate is causing food prices around the world to increase as the maintenance and growth of crops becomes a whole lot harder to do. As the air gets warmer, larger and more frequent storms are beginning to smash crops worldwide.

Remember the famous banana shortage caused when Cyclone Yasi devastated Queensland banana plantations in 2011? Well this is could just be the tip of the iceberg.

Imagine if we had four Cyclone Yasi’s hit Australia in one summer. Prices would surge for a whole variety of groceries, and not just on your sweet little bananas.

2. Wine and general alcohol production

Even worse than food price increases has to be a rise in alcohol prices.

If it’s the end of the world, you’re going to want a drink, but you’re favourite Sauvignon Blanc may become too expensive to afford when the cost of harvesting grapes increases.

Similarly, beer will be affected as climate change endangers clean water, quality barley, and ample hops. This means that the small craft beer you love and crave may be in danger of shutting down when hops and barley become more scarce. These will truly be dark days indeed.

3. Fresh water

You need another expense like you need a hole in your head – water is going to increase in price.

Severe droughts, increased evaporation and changes in precipitation patterns are impacting water levels in streams, rivers, dams and lakes worldwide.

Continued below . . . . 

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You may think they’re just being unfair, but this is largely what caused your local council to increase the water rates in previous years. Bet you’re starting to feel a bit guilty for that rude letter you wrote.

 4. Power

You know what else is going to get more expensive? Your power bill… sigh.

As the planet heats up, it’s going to become more expensive and harder to ship fuel across the world. Non-renewable fuel sources will then subsequently increase, forcing power company’s to increase electricity prices.

On the other hand, if the world continues to adopt renewable power sources, then this problem has a great chance of being fixed (hint hint to the government). 

5. Allergies and asthma

This one is going to bleed your money indirectly.

A warmer climate will impact on those who are prone to allergies and asthma as the air will become denser with pollution, dust and water vapour. As your allergies and/or asthma worsens, think about the increased costs when you’re refilling that asthma puffer or buying more tissues and nasal sprays.

6. Coffee

If you’re not a morning person, this may bring a tear to your eye.

Arabica, the most-consumed coffee species, could go extinct in the wild in 70 years, due to increasing temperatures and a climate change-charged deadly fungus. This would also put roughly 25 million coffee growers and distributors out of business, and drive coffee prices up substantially. 

7. Jeans

Is nothing sacred? Even our jeans are under threat from a changing climate. Water shortages and drought are having an impact on cotton production, causing price fluctuations and even a shortage in denim. So for those looking to go out and start the double denim craze again, you may be plum out of luck. 

Peter’s Piece

Whoever wrote this article appears to be a member of a group with so much time on their hands that they've taken to assaulting the world with reams of wordy waste . . . .  Ooops! That could be me too. I’m the blogger and author, who writes about every subject under the sun . . . . There I go again, the sun . . . . The sun is the problem. There’s just too much hot air, and some people should understand that they can be harmed by standing out in it too long.

But, seriously, the above article cannot be taken seriously. It is loaded with generalities, popular catch-cries, and emotive claptrap, while lacking authoritative references or sources. It’s just a collection of popular myths, aligned with one side of a divided scientific community. Incidentally, no one pays me to write about global warming/climate change and, unlike Al Gore, I don’t live in a mansion on a hill, burning enough electricity to run a medium size shopping mall.

The fact is that weather, climate and sea levels have been constantly changing throughout the entire span of traceable history, but our memories of past weather and climate is severely limited. Firstly, because some of us have not yet lived through very many years, but also because we tend to remember only some of the most recent events in our lives. Yes, we all know what the weather was like yesterday. The day before that is a little harder to recall, and the weather of a week or month ago, is pretty much forgotten. What about the weather in the year 2005? Was it wet or dry, windy or calm, hot or cold?

It is our short term memory that makes it easy to be led into believing that extreme weather events and their regularity are increasing. However, meteorological records tell a different story and, so far, the 21^st century has yet to claim a new record for any kind of weather event. The 21^st century is also yet to claim a new record for floods, tornados, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, famine, disease, war, terrorism, or any other catastrophes, natural or man-made.

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There can be little doubt that man can wreak havoc on the planet, but change the weather or climate? No. In fact during the 20^th century man spent millions of dollars trying to change the weather, and failed every time. Remember when cloud seeding with dry ice was popular in the hope that it would bring rain?  And do you remember when Green parties said that nuclear weapons could bring on a nuclear winter? If man could change the weather, there would be no need to close airports due to fog or wind. Icy roads could be a thing of the past too. If man could do all these things there would be no need for a bad year on the farm, or in the orchard, because it would just be a simple matter of selecting the climate and pressing Enter.

‘Starts at Sixty Writers’ have got some things backwards, and in other areas they contradict themselves. Take their view on food production. They claim that food production will suffer because of more frequent storms but, if storms did become more frequent, which is unlikely, then new strains would develop that were storm resistant. That’s how nature works; each species adapts to change. Others say that food production would suffer due to higher temperatures, but that would help expand production, because crops could be grown in areas that are currently too cold to produce food. Who knows, at some time in the future bananas may be grown in Siberia or in Antarctica.

Then they write about a shortage of water, but once again they are wide of the mark. Water cannot be destroyed. It can only be recycled. However, the amount of fresh water can be increased by treating sea water. Water is also easier to transport from place to place than ever before. Water is not a problem.

Cotton is going to be scarce and jeans will be expensive, they say. So what? If the climate is warmer, go without clothes, save money.

When one looks at all the claims about global warming (sorry that’s the old catch-cry) it’s called climate change now, you have a lot of contradictions. We are told that the weather will get wetter and drier, hotter and colder, windier and calmer, but that’s just what the weather does when everything is normal. Forget about it. It has been going on for millions of years, and long before man could have an effect, accidentally or intentionally. And all the time sea levels have been rising and falling, and the sun has been rising and setting.

But don’t be alarmed about global warming. When Icarus is reincarnated, with his wax wings, he’ll push the sun further away. Man can do anything.

Highway America

REDUCING TRUCK DEATHS

World transport ministers have a weak-knee approach to road safety

A fatal truck crash today in Pennsylvania has highlighted the weak-knee approach of governments, transport ministers and industry leaders to driver fatigue and its effect on road safety.

Semi driver, Steven Bernier, 50, of Reading, PA started work at 1:30 a.m. and fell asleep five hours later at 6:30 a.m. His 18 wheeler slammed into a line of cars waiting at a red traffic light, killing two people in separate vehicles and injuring nine others. Bernier has been charged with two counts of homicide and nine counts of aggravated assault, and other charges.

He will no doubt go to prison for a very long time and, for the authorities, everything will be forgotten and life will go on. But not for the victims or the truck driver. They, and their families, will have to live with this tragedy for the rest of their lives.

I like to compare road safety with flying safety because flying and driving started at about the same time, but they have a totally different stance on safety. In the early days of motoring speed and traffic volumes were low and accidents were few. On the other hand aviation started out badly and flying was about the most dangerous thing a human being could engage in.

The accident scene and the truck driver

A critical difference then, and now, is that flying accidents are generally less survivable than road accidents, but in spite of that aviation has achieved a safety record that should be the envy of all road users and road safety campaigners. One may ask, how did that happen? How did flying (not including private flying) become the safest mode of transport ever devised, while road safety made negligible progress?

 In a word, the answer lies in attitude. In aviation, safety comes first in every consideration. This applies not just to pilots, but to everyone involved in every aspect of aviation; aircraft designers, regulators, trainers and training, weather conditions, maintenance and servicing and repair, accident investigation and reporting. ‘She’ll be right’ has no place in the air the way it does on the roads. The aviation world understood early on that safety rules were vital for the survival pilots and passengers, and for the survival of aviation itself.

Meanwhile, for over 100 years road safety has been given little more than lip service only. On two factors alone the record is appalling. Seat belts were standard in all aircraft almost 100 years ago while few cars had seat belts prior to 1970 and many larger vehicles still don’t have them including many passenger buses. In some situations the authorities still allow unrestrained, standing passengers on public transport. That is reprehensible.

The second area where road safety is seriously lacking is with accident investigation and reporting. For at least the last 60 years all fatal flying accidents have been subject to thorough investigation by specially trained experts. They then publish a public report giving full details of the aircraft including manufacture, maintenance records, hours flown and other relevant details; the pilot including licence and type ratings, total flight time, hours on type, hours in previous three months and previous incidents; details of the flight and weather conditions, circumstances of the accident and examination of the wreckage; conclusions as to probable cause(s) and recommendations for preventing similar accidents in the future.

Continued below . . . .

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Road accident investigation by comparison is still primitive, and will do little if anything to make roads safer, and seems to focus only on the possibility of prosecutions and helping insurance companies settle claims. Indeed under existing law in most countries investigations along the lines of aircraft accident investigation would be impossible because of a lack of logbooks or data recording devices.

In aviation the emphasis is on ongoing training and education. Everyone learns to fly with a qualified instructor and undergoes regular re-checking. You can’t teach a friend or family member how to fly. Meanwhile on the roads most people do learn to drive with a friend of family member who will pass on their own bad habits and lack of professionalism and there is no re-checking or ongoing training. Instead of training and education, as in aviation, on the roads it is just a case of policing, prosecuting and punishing, and it doesn't work.

Author Peter Blakeborough

But to return to the tragedy in Pennsylvania, drivers work inhumane hours in inhumane conditions for wages that are a pittance. And all over the world governments simply don’t care. All things considered the vast majority of professional drivers are safe drivers and that can be verified by insurance statistics which show that in truck/car collisions 70% of liability rests with car drivers and only 30% with truck drivers. Truck drivers typically spend a big part of their long day avoiding collisions with cars that are being driven inappropriately. However, there has been no suggestion of another vehicle being responsible in Bernier’s case.

But I wonder what circumstances in the preceding hours and days led this professional driver to fall asleep at the wheel. He can legally be on duty and driving for 70 hours a week while frequently having his starting and finishing times altered substantially. A person working under those conditions may not even be aware that he is fatigued. Unlike an airline pilot, he does not have a co-pilot with dual controls or a rule requiring a rest period of at least the same duration as the duty period preceding it. He is not restricted to a maximum of 100 hours in a 28 day period, nor is he limited to an annual maximum of 900 hours, like the airline pilot.

The rules of the road and attitudes to safety need to change, but it is not something that one company or employer, one country can do. The changes need to be led by the United Nations, just as the International Civil Aviation Organization (an agency of the UN) has led the way with air safety.

But the sad thing is that most people will not be even remotely interested in reading posts like this. It is just too easy to think, it won’t happen to me.