From zero tolerance to harm reduction: "The asylum problem problem"

The asylum problem is like the drug problem. This article explores the issues around Australia's treatment of asylum-seekers by developing this comparison with drug policy. Critically examining the logic and efficacy of policy, and the ways in which those ambitions are clouded by hysterical rhetoric and unrealistic expectations, the article develops parallels with the rhetoric and legal assumptions that have blighted drug policy for 100 years. At the same time, this parallel suggests an important way forward in both how policies are thought about and how they are explained to the public. What is critical about the drug debate is that there have been remarkable changes in direction over the past 10 years. Indeed, Australia has been at the forefront of those changes. The shift from "zero tolerance" to "harm reduction" has heralded a sea change in policy and in political discourse. Harm reduction strategies suggest a new model for how to rethink a policy agenda that is by any measure failing badly. What does the story of Australian drug policy teach us? What would a harm reduction approach to asylum-seekers look like? And how can we get there from here?.