Here Is Your Chance to Help End the Failed War on Drugs

Everyday we read national headlines about the war on drugs. More and more elected officials are saying the war on drugs is not working and that we need to consider alternatives. There are stories about states like California considering taxing and regulating marijuana. There is coverage about drug prohibition in Mexico leading to a war zone where thousands of people are being killed every year. There are front page stories about countries from Portugal to Argentina to Mexico decriminalizing small amounts of drugs because they realize that they can't incarcerate their way out of addiction. It is one thing to read about it, but it is another to jump in and try to come up with solutions to the failed war on drugs.

From November 12-14, a wide range of advocates, doctors, lawyers, activists, treatment providers, law enforcement, students, educators, and formerly incarcerated people will converge for the biennial International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where it was previously held in 2001. The conference returns to New Mexico because the state is a beacon of reform, recently passing innovative medical marijuana legislation and the nation's first Good Samaritan law to prevent fatal overdoses.

The conference comes at a crucial time: more people than ever grasp the need for our drug policy to shift from criminalization to a public health model. The viability of major reforms is increasing day by day, making now a pivotal moment for exploring alternatives to our nation's ineffective and damaging lock-'em-up drug laws.

This year's conference will cover a range of topics, chief among them marijuana legalization. In this new political climate, meaningful reform of marijuana laws is closer on the horizon than ever. Thanks to decades of grassroots activism, combined with the harsh realities of the ongoing economic crisis, the national debate is finally turning in favor of the taxation and regulation of marijuana. In one of the key panels at the conference an array of experts will propose possible regulatory schemes and discuss their potential effectiveness.

Holding the conference in Albuquerque gives us a unique opportunity to examine the intersection of immigration policy and drug policy reform, as well as drug war violence on both sides of the border. Drug policy movers and shakers also plan to push the envelope by discussing innovations that have been successfully implemented in other countries: services like prescribing heroin to people who suffer from addiction to allow them to lead normal lives, or providing supervised injection facilities to protect people who use drugs from disease and lethal overdose.

Our nation's drug policy should be based on reason, compassion, health and human rights, but to do so will take a great deal of strategizing and organizing. Anyone who believes the drug war does more harm than good is encouraged to attend November's conference. As usual, it will be a high-energy, can't-miss event, where even the strangest of bedfellows can find much to agree on.

Join us in New Mexico! For more info: http://www.reformconference.org/

 

 

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Comments

[seawolf77]

Here is your solution. Someone with enough liquidity and boredom in their life starts a website selling licenses to grow your own marijuana. Sell them for like $1000 a year and you get to grow 4 crops a year 5 lbs a crop 20 lbs a year max. Then on the bottom write a disclaimer that this is only promotional to see the interest blah blah blah so the lawyers quit jisming then just watch the money add up in each state. Then that someone could broker deals for these "tax dollars" that people are clamoring to give the government but the government refuses to take( from LIBERALS for heavens sake).

[Liberal2]

Legalize all drugs for anyone 21 or older.

To buy such drugs, require an ID proving name and age. Why? Because some jobs require a clear mind for safety reasons: Airline pilot, doctor, etc. Let employers know who's using and who's not.

Severe penalties for street sales and sales by pharmacists who sell to anyone without ID.

Drug rehab be financed via a tax on drug sales. Rehab at no cost to the addict.

I have read that 3% of Americans were addicts before drug laws were enacted; 3% of Americans are addicts today.

By legalizing sale to adults only, street sales become a losing proposition, children won't keep dealers wealthy. The next generation of users won't be addicted at 13.

[Michael D'Agnillo]

The so called war on drugs has ALWAYS been a war on PEOPLE, usually the ones that don't have much and are caught up in the ugly side of drugs,is the US government incapable of eradicating all the coke, heroin, crack? In the ancient past, army's used SALT to starve their enemies into submission. Salt. Been around since Moses made the Pharoah nervous!!!

Just load a C-130 or C5 or C-17 with enough salt to blanket the known poppy and coca fields and I am sure that the drug problem will dry up like a prune in the noon day sun. This ones a freebie!!
Next piece will cost ya Uncle.

[Scalawag]

People will just use more synthetic drugs which are worse than natural ones in my humble opinion. I don't know anyone who does coke or heroin, but I know plenty who do meth. Here in my state of OK, every time a new law is passed to make meth harder to manufacture, cooks find a way around it that usually causes even more health & environmental issues. People want to do drugs & they will find a way. The more effective way to deal with drug ABUSE is, I think, to focus more on why people want to abuse drugs & deal with those issues.

[Michael D'Agnillo]

Yeah, you're right. Folks will always find a way around prohibition,always/

[RedDogBear]

"just load a C-130" are you serious? First of all those areas you want the US to bomb with salt are not US territory. Is this another example of US exceptionalism? We have the right to drop any chemicals we want anywhere in the world? Second do you really think its that easy to identify the areas that grow drugs, and nothing but drugs? Such an attack would inevitably harm thousands of farmers growing crops other than or in addition to the ones you think we have a unilateral right to eradicate. Finally even assuming we can pick areas that grow drugs and nothing but drugs and not make any mistakes, what do you expect those farmers to do after we destroy their land? The majority of them aren't part of big drug cartels. They are poor third world peasants who are driven to grow drug crops because they can't survive growing other crops. After you salt their land they won't be able to grow anything. I guess we just let 'em starve? But who cares they are all non-white foreigners to there suffering doesn't count.

[zonker2012]

You can salt the earth, just not the ENTIRE earth, which is what would be required to stop all farming of "illegal" plants

[LHB58]

I would urge anyone interested in drug policy reform to note that while the idea of decriminalization of Shedule I controlled substances is gaining serious momentum, a countermovement seems to be materializing yet again in the area of legal, Shedule II and III controlled substances, especially opioid pain medications, that would seek to make them virtually unobtainable for a large number of chronic and acute pain sufferers. As usual, narrow anecdotal stories have breen painted as representing general trends, as well ashighly specious statistical analysis (i.e. deaths from prescription drug overdoses have increase by 300% over the last 13 years according to an article yesterday in USA today). But read the fine print, and it shows that instead of being a problem that afflicts .003% of the population, it now affects .009% of the population. This is what economists call confusing statistical significance with practical significance.

While I am completely in favor of completely dismantling our War on Drugs infrastructure, I hope that those interested, for example, in marijuana decriminalization will not use the demonization of other drugs that millions of people use responsibly, and rely upon to mainain their functionality, in order to advance the cause of decriminalizing their drug of choice.

[ElTommo]

I'm sorry, I'm all for drug reform and such, but *prescribing heroin to those who suffer from addiction*? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[Paradym]

And it's opinions like that that are holding back true reform. Your knowledge of heroin addiction is lacking, it seems.

So there's a guy who's strung out on heroin. He needs help. What do you propose? 60 days in rehab just so he can fall back into use within 6 mos? While again feeding the black market, risking unemployment, becoming a felon, gambling on the quality of the heroin he buys, risking overdose?

How about he goes under the care of a physician who can prescribe proper dosages of clean heroin? The guy isn't worried about any legal issues because we have become a compassionate country that sees addiction as a medical issue, not a criminal one. Now that this guy is under supervised care, he no longer has to deal with the black market and criminals to feed his addiction. The doctor can help him reduce the dosage over time, all the while he's going through therapy to reduce or eliminate his addiction. No one gets hurt, the guy can lead a healthier and productive life while dealing with his medical problem.

[LHB58]

Exactly Paradym. The current mentality underlying the felony approach to treating heroin addiction seems to be "the addict is hurting himself, and must be severely punished." Much of the hurt and harm, however, results from having criminals involved in the distribution of heroin, maintianing high prices, creating a context in which violent and property crimes are more likely, in addition to further harm to the addict as a result of variability in the strength of the drug and the harmfulness of adulterants. An experiment tried in Liverpool in the early 1970s which used this approach, described in Mike Gray's book "Drug Crazy" was extremely succesful in both reducing harm to addicts, crime associated with addiction, and ironically, the level of addiction itself. It was eventually cancelled under pressure from US drug control authorities, but has been used again sucessfully in Switzerland during the last few years.

[zeotrope]

Not so! Research and trails show that it one of the most effective ways of treating addiction. Not only that crimes rates drop and those treated are more able to find employment. Also, once in the system they are more likely to receive help treating their addictions.

[RedDogBear]

I share your revulsion at the idea. I don't think its meant to a long term solution (and if it is I would agree with you its wrong). The real key I think is that we need to change our outlook on how we deal with addiction. Rather than view it as a criminal problem view it as a health problem. So the goal is to understand the addiction, help addicts first get their lives back together (which could involve maintaining the addiction for a while) and then gradually moving them off drugs. For the really hard core cases staying addicted legally on drugs that have a constant quality is still better than the way they currently live but that should only be a last resort, getting people clean should be the goal.

[jhNY]

Good luck! You have but to defeat the prison industry, the police industry, the rehab industry, the lawyer industry and the pharmaceutical industry! You have one thing going for you though-- marijuana is not prohibited in the book of Leviticus.

[been2there]

One very critical problem is the status of the pregnant woman. She is living for two; the effects of drugs on the developing fetus can be profound. How will we adequately protect both parties rights in this case? Alcohol and tobacco do plenty of damage as it is!
That said, I do agree that the "war" is not going to work. We need to treat drug use as a sleazy public health issue, making it both treatable and less popular.

[JohnFromCensornati]

What? You think that policy should be decided based on whether or not pregnant women may or may not use drugs?

[candyc]

This comment must have been written by a man.

I really doubt that pregnant women will enjoy smoking pot. I was a regulal, long term smoker when I got pregnant with my first child in 1981. When first I knew I was pregnant, I smoked it and started realizing it was making me feel really sick and paranoid. I Stopped for 20 years. Most women would not enjoy being prenant and stoned. I don't know ANYONE who smoked while pregnant or nursing.

[Paradym]

Sleazy? Nice. Yeah, that's what we need, more labels of judgment.

Before we go categorizing drug use as sleazy, we should first look at those things that are truly a detriment to the individual and society as a whole: willful ignorance ~cough~, being judgmental ~cough~, racism, classism, violence, etc. The use of substances is a natural human endeavor, and has been for millennia. If you want to mark those as sleazy that use substances that have potential for addiction and harm then you'll have to add the use of caffeine and sugar, and perhaps even simple carbs.

[Scalawag]

That's dumb as hell.