The Beckley Foundation's Global Initiative for Drug Policy Reform was launched last week, on 17 November, at an Event at the House of Lords. At the Meeting, high-level representatives from 14 countries gathered to debate drug policy reform.
"We are here on the 50th Anniversary of the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs", the morning Chair announced, "but I think we all agree that this is not an anniversary to be celebrated."
Indeed, the War on Drugs has proven to be one of the most spectacular failures in the history of international policy. Despite half a century passing and trillions of dollars being spent, its noble intentions of protecting the 'health and welfare of mankind' by reducing the use, availability and harms of drugs have never reached fruition, and the violent criminal empires which the drug laws have unintentionally sponsored are more powerful and dangerous than ever.
It is vital to develop policies which respect scientific evidence, human rights and liberties, harm-reduction and fiscal responsibilities. This must develop from an empirical perspective rather than from one based on morality and ideology.
On 19 November, The Guardian and The Times published a Letter that I had written, calling upon members of the public and of parliament to recognise the failings of the current approach. This Letter was sent to the prime minister, to the Cabinet, and to every member of the Houses of Lords and Commons. It argues that drug dependency is a medical problem, not a criminal one, that most drug-use is not problematic, and that governments should consider ending the criminalisation of the hundreds of millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens.
The Letter was signed by 60 eminent international figures, including 12 Nobel Prize winners and seven former Presidents, among them Jimmy Carter and Fernando Henrique Cardoso. There were signatories from the frontiers of: politics (George Schultz, former US Secretary of State); economics (Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow, whose students included five further Nobel Prize winners); business (Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, and Sean Parker, founding President of Facebook); academia (Noam Chomsky, at one time the world's most cited living scholar); medicine (former Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians and of Doctors of the World); and culture (Yoko Ono, Bernardo Bertolucci, Mario Vargas Llosa, Gilberto Gil and Sting). The Letter reinforces and complements the message of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, whose members include Kofi Annan and four former Presidents, among them former President Ruth Dreifuss of Switzerland, who presented their Report at our House of Lords Meeting.
It is extremely important for politicians and the public to understand that the devastating failure of the War on Drugs is one of the most significant and pressing issues in the world today, and that the calls for reform are heralded by some of the world's most distinguished, respected and intelligent people. This is not an issue that can continue to be ignored.
Reducing the demand and use of drugs is, in theory, probably the best way of decreasing drug-harms. Drug policy over the past fifty years has enforced strict prohibition on the basis of this premise. However, we must remember that if policy fails to achieve reduction of drug-use, as it has, we must consider other ways to accomplish the ultimate goal of minimising harms.
Decriminalisation is the primary step for policy reform, but it is also important that we open discussion on the possibilities of regulated and taxed drug-markets. The benefits of such an approach include depriving violent criminal cartels of their funding, minimising drug-harms caused by unknown constituents and impurities, preventing exploitation of producers, and strengthening our economy. While the governments of the consumer countries refuse to consider new approaches, there will be no end to the bloodshed and injustice that exists in the producer and transit nations.
Sadly, there may still be a long way to go before we see significant changes in global drug policy. To that end it is vital that we continue our efforts to keep the international discussion on policy reform open.
There is much debate as to what the best model of future drug control might look like, but the important thing is not the specific policy to be implemented, but the principles upon which they will be founded and the freedom for countries to experiment with new approaches. Without experimentation there can be little room for collection of evidence, and without evidence there can be no rational policy.
It is only by lessening the strangulation of the UN Conventions that countries will be free to experiment with alternative approaches. That is why the Beckley Foundation has commissioned Professor Robin Room to write the Report entitled Rewriting the UN Drug Conventions, which will form a template for how the Conventions might be amended to permit individual countries more freedom to form policies better suited to their special needs. The current one-size-fits-all prohibitionist approach laid down fifty years ago has failed and will continue to fail until our politicians have the courage to express publicly what many of them acknowledge privately. It is time to break the taboo that has frozen progress for half a century.
Follow Amanda Feilding on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BeckleyDrugs
R. Andrew Chesnut: Santa Muerte: Mexico's Devotion To the Saint of Death (PHOTOS)
You're such a bright spot in this country, what would we do with out your insight
It's time to recognize this failure.
End the war on drugs. Those who wish to do drugs will be forced to face personal responsibilities (just like drunk driving). If you do drugs and it impacts your job, your fired.
Have pharmacies sell the drugs with a limit each week. Use the proceeds to pay for Medicare.
Legalizing drugs takes billions out of the drug lords hands. Gangs will diminish because they will not have the money. (Same thing happened when prohibition ended).
Ending the money for the drug lords will significantly improve our border security. I've talked with plenty of people from Arizona. The politicians tell lies. It's not the immigrants that are feared. It's the violent drug smugglers who repeatedly assault Americans along the border that are the problem.
...and the global sleeping dog stirs, having been kicked by the voice of fact and reason.
Granted in 1936, there were only 100,000 marijuana users, supposedly. However today, marijuana users rank in the tens of millions; conservative counts are around 25 million with some 50% of the nation having tried marijuana at least once.
Now, put your corporate business shoes on - pharmaceutical, prison industry, textiles, etc etc etc. Legalized marijuana would hurt ALL of these industries. As long as it remains illegal and mostly not researched (in the US, 11,000+ studies exist outside of the US), these industries get to maintain their bottom line.
For them, the criminalization of marijuana has been a great success.
For example, Sativex, created by GW pharmaceuticals, costs about $125 for about 10 days worth of "medicine". They even have a patent on it. Sativex is nothing more than a marijuana tincture, something that's been done for THOUSANDS of years. However, the continued criminalization of marijuana allows these pharmaceutical companies to monopolize the KNOWN benefits of marijuana and charge people, who can easily grow it in their own home, a premium.
That's just ONE example of the "success" of this fake War on Drugs.
that should be a wake up call, for many user,s,
if that is the case.
wes
That's the truth the DEA won't tell you. Here's some more reality.
The dangers of marijuana come from a CHOICE of usage. Remember, you can get the benefits of marijuana from eating it or drinking it. However, the concern, NOT problem, is SMOKED marijuana.
See, any kind of smoke inhalation is bad for you. Tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke, smoke from a house on fire. It's all bad for you and bad for your lungs.
However, people who smoke marijuana don't smoke that often. So, whatever dangers that come from SMOKE inhalation is little to none.
Now, the difference between me and people who lie is that I BEG YOU TO ASK ME FOR PROOF. I can show it to you. The prohibitionists can say what they want. But, they will NEVER show you proof. They'll never point to a doctor or researcher to back up their claims. I will but only if you actually care to know.
So, ask away.
want a nation of zombies, walking about, add
to that, the drunks, what a sight that would be.
We see this right now,come to think of it,
but too a lesser degree.
wes
Nothing you do will stop that, and arresting and jailing them compounds the problems.
Many people made money from prohibition -- mostly illegally.
Just like alcohol, there are a small group of "stoners" who give marijuana a bad name.
Because marijuana is illegal, the people who are profiting from it, are doing so illegally.
From what I understand, most people who smoke marijuana are not stoners -- just like most people who drink alcohol are not alcoholics.
Like it or not, history has shown it is impossible to stop the use of marijuana or alcohol. Treat marijuana like alcohol -- tax it, regulate it, and stop wasting money by trying to prohibit it.
Reconcider all petitions on cannabis without input from the ONDCP because they are required to oppose legalization.
According to Title VII Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 1998:
Responsibilities: The Director "Drug Czar"
(12) shall ensure that no Federal funds . . . study or contract relating to the legalization (for a medical use or any other use) of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812) and take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in any form) that--
(A) is listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812); and
(B) has not been approved for use for medical purposes by the Food and Drug Administration;
Therefore the office of the ONDCP is not reliable. Science has shown it to be less harmful than alcohol and for many a safe medicine.
sign this We The People petition at
Short URL: http://wh.gov/jd6
Save and Share this URL: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/reconcider-all-petitions-cannabis-without-input-ondcp-because-they-are-required-oppose-legalization/m6k12t24
I disagree with a lot of what he says, but he has a few things I really agree on (obviously the drug war being one of them), and he seems to be a consistent voter in congress.
I can see now that Obama will do whatever the money tells him to. I'd rather see some bad policies from Paul than a corrupt president who made promises he couldn't keep.