What is the best way to deal with drugs? Criminalizing drug users or treating them as patients? Sticking to a strict prohibitionist stance or experimenting with alternative forms of regulation and prevention?
Latin America is talking about drugs like never before. The taboo that has long prevented open debate about drug policies has been broken -- thanks to a steadily deteriorating situation on the ground and the courageous stand taken by presidents Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala and Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica.
The facts speak for themselves. The foundations of the U.S.-led war on drugs -- eradication of production, interdiction of traffic, and criminalization of consumption -- have not succeeded and never will. When there is established demand for a consumer product, there will be a supply. The only beneficiaries of prohibition are the drug cartels.
Forty years of strenuous efforts have failed to reduce the production and consumption of illicit drugs. Worse, in Mexico and Central America, prohibition-related violence and corruption have become a major threat to public safety and the stability of democratic institutions.
In light of the disastrous consequences of the war on drugs, we took the initiative four years ago to convene a Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy -- and, more recently, a Global Commission on Drug Policy. Our core message was clear: The war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies throughout the Americas.
Our commissions presented two key recommendations. The first was to end -- as soon as possible -- the criminalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others. People struggling with drug abuse or addiction may indeed harm themselves and their families, but criminalization and social marginalization are not going to help them.
Drug abuse and addiction are public health problems. The most effective response, then, is to provide treatment and health services to all who need them. The criminalization of drug use is the primary obstacle to treatment and rehabilitation.
Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay have already passed laws decriminalizing drug possession for personal consumption. However, given that the legal distinctions between "possession" and "trafficking" are unclear, the law often leads to police corruption and outright discrimination against the poor.
The primary objective of drug control policies should be protecting the young, seeking by all means to prevent drug abuse and addiction. This requires increased investments in prevention, treatment and social reintegration. Only such a comprehensive approach can be effective in reducing drug use.
The full enforcement power of the state and the social and cultural pressure of society should be aimed at a relentless fight against organized crime -- rather than persecuting people in need of treatment.
Our second core recommendation -- which is more complex but just as important for ensuring peace and public safety -- is to encourage experimentation with different models of legal regulation of drugs, such as marijuana, in similar ways to what is already done with tobacco and alcohol.
Research has consistently demonstrated that marijuana is a less harmful drug than tobacco or alcohol. Regulation is not the same as legalization. This is a critical point. Regulation is a necessary step to create the conditions for a society to establish all kinds of restrictions and limitations on the production, trade, advertising and consumption of a given substance to deglamorize, discourage and control its use.
The stunning reduction in the consumption of tobacco in the Americas shows that prevention and regulation are more efficient than prohibition and punishment.
Regulation cuts the link between traffickers and consumers. It is this link that enables traffickers to impel people to use ever more harmful drugs. Since marijuana is by far the most widely consumed illicit drug in the world, regulation would also significantly reduce the vast resources -- and thus the vast power and influence -- generated by organized crime in the illegal drug markets..
We congratulate the presidents of Colombia, Guatemala and Costa Rica for having the courage to put different options on the table that would undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens.
For the first time, drug policy will be on the agenda at the Summit of the Americas, which will take place in Cartagena de las lndias, Colombia, on April 14-15. It is unlikely that the heads of state will reach a consensus about such a complex and controversial issue. At this point, what is most needed is a serious and rigorous debate, enabling each country to develop its own position and to adopt more appropriate solutions that take their history and culture into account.
Latin America's experiences in fighting drug traffic, the successful examples set by some European countries in reducing the individual and societal harms of drug misuse, the experimentation of several U.S. states with the medical uses of marijuana, the engagement of the business sector and the scientific community, and the profound wish of the young to live in peace, all point toward more balanced, humane and efficient drug policies.
A paradigm shift, combining repression of the violent drug trade with increased investments in treatment and prevention, would be the best contribution that Latin America -- a region that has suffered so much under drug prohibition -- could make to global reform of drug policies.
Written by Cesar Gaviria, former president of Colombia and member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy; Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico and member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy; and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy
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It reminds me of how the debt commisssion put options on the table and when no one was looking, they were taken off the table.
This rubbish is going to go on for another forty years.
and has turned violent home invasions into an everyday occurance. In fact legal home invasions of peaceful citizens homes has climbed from several thousand incidents 10-15 years ago to a staggering 45-50,000 events each year all across America.
Every single raid costs us the equivalent of a years funding for a community center, a school, an extra day of trash removel service, community transportation programs for the elderly, etc. Its also resulting in a terrifying degradation of our Constitution, privacy laws, private property laws, and our God given right to consume what we want and to heal ourselves in a manner that we and we alone deem to be safe, effective and or affordable.
Prohibition results in terror on a massive scale, it turns otherwise peaceful tax paying citizens and their family members into wards of the state, its taking massive amounts of money away from benficial programs, it diverts expensive and dwindling law enforcement resources away from crimes with victims. It creates mass hatred againts our very own establishment, an establishment that is supposed to represent the peoples wishes. It creates unecessary security hazards for our law enforcement community as well as the citizens of our communities that are frequently caught in the crossfire (which normally comes from one direction).
A person could write a book on the million reasons why prohibition should come to an immediate end.
Marijuana policy has become the deciding issue of our times.
Everyone who has been paying attention knows marijuana is less "addictive" than coffee and FAR less harmful than alcohol. Indeed, polls show public support for ending the marijuana prohibition has now passed 50 percent - nationwide. So why do we still have this barbaric persecution?
Because police, prosecutors and politicians build their careers and empires on it. Because industries like alcohol and pharmaceuticals don't want the competition. Because other interests like the drug treatment/testing industry and the prison industries depend on it for their life's blood. Because many shaky corporations couldn't exist without the laundered money. And because government uses marijuana prohibition as a means of controlling minorities and the poor.
Of course, the TRILLIONS of dollars made by the drug gangs have not been buried in the ground. They have been invested in legitimate business, causing another huge support of this persecution of millions of innocent people.
For a good view underneath the iceburg, see Catherine Austin Fitts' excellent article: "Narco Dollars For Beginners." - keeping in mind that while Fitts employs cocaine because it best suits her metaphor, FBI statistics show marijuana sales comprise 80 percent of all "illegal" drug transactions.
http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/narcoDollars.html
It's time to dismantle the marijuana-prohibition-industrial-complex!
Yet there still hasn't been a bill introduced to congress about decriminalization nor has any politician acknowledged that this is the case.
Ron Paul 2012!
At the very least, they would have to develop tests that only show if someone is currently under the influence - at work.
Ridiculous! The critical time for the war on drugs will be the next six months.
Heres an interesting one:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-henry-sterry/mexican-drug-lord-officia_b_179596.html
Head of the Sinaloa Cartel thanks the US war on drugs for making him rich.
This is an issue that should be perfectly clear to everyone by now. The war on drugs is a total failure. It was a wrong minded farce from the beginning. We had the example of what happened during "prohibition" to show us exactly where the war on drugs would take us, and that's exactly what has happened.
What is surprising is how long we have kept up the farce, spending billion$, for YEARS after we recognized the futility of this approach.
Talk about "continuing to do the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity"
In addition, making it illegal for farmers to grow Industrial Hemp in America, is one of the dumbest things this country has EVER DONE. It's like making growing corn or sugar cane illegal because boot leg whiskey or moonshine could be made out of it, or some similar nonsensical moronic mentality.
Industrial Hemp could be a huge boon to farmers AND new businesses, products...creating jobs in America...not to mention FUEL. Think of the number of trees we could REDUCE cutting down, by making PAPER products out of EASILY renewable Hemp!
In reality, HEMP is a wonderful plant on so many levels, that it is complete utter STUPIDITY that Hemp is illegal to grow in America.
Anyone who is under the impression that Hemp is illegal in America because of "the marijuana drug potential" is as naive as they come.