Global Commission on Drug Policy: decriminalisation

Below is an editorial from Transcend Media Service providing some analysis and background in respect of the drug trade. What is interesting in the summary is that the war on drugs has failed. It also provides a humanitarian or human rights context to its analysis viewing drug users as requiring interventions and to end, in essence, the stereotypes around them and the fact they are regarded as criminal rather than persons suffering a health issue (addiction). I found this shift in awareness a positive development as one of my closest friends has a son on drugs and he has already been beaten up for stealing a purse for drug money and he was abused by police when picked up. We discussed the fact that he is an addict and under normal circumstances would never have stolen, yet he was treated as a criminal (not that criminals should be beaten up). The report highlights the human rights issues and the importance of decriminalisation.

Young people are vulnerable to drug addiction as they are questing and looking for ‘good feeling experiences’ as they try and navigate the complicated world that has been created around them. If you want to solve this problem then I believe you must have public forums to bring the issues up, face the realities and look for possibilities. We require an engaged participatory democracy, we must all take responsibility and look into what is driving the desire for drugs.

http://www.transcend.org/tms/2011/06/a-report-that-dares-to-tell-the-truth-to-power/

by The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service

What are the chances of this commision on drug policy influencing political leaders? Vanishingly slim.

Global commissions made up of eminent former policymakers can normally be counted upon to tell international leaders what they want to hear. But the Global Commission on Drug Policy – which has called on the services of distinguished names such Paul Volcker, Kofi Annan, Mario Vargas Llosa, Javier Solana and half a dozen former national politicians – has done something very different. Instead of telling world leaders what they want to hear, the commission has, instead, told them the truth.

Its report makes it clear that the war on drugs – the policy of total prohibition followed by the world’s most powerful nations for the best part of four decades – “has not, and cannot, be won”. It points out that the “war” has manifestly failed to curb the use of narcotics. On the contrary, drug taking has increased significantly. Between 1998 and 2008 estimated global heroin use has increased by 35 per cent, cocaine use by 27 per cent and cannabis by 8.5 per cent. It points out that the policy of prohibition has funnelled billions of dollars into the pockets of organised criminals around the world, who control the trade and fight viciously over its profits. In Mexico alone, 34,000 people have died in drugs-related violence since late 2006.

The Commission also has the courage to propose a radically different policy. It recommends the legalisation of some drugs and an end to the criminalisation of drug users. Addicts, it argues, should receive treatment and health services rather than prosecution through the law. Public resources should be channelled to prevention, rather than prohibition. It also urges political leaders and public figures to “have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately”.

These are all sound arguments. The fact that they are far from new does not make them any the less powerful. But what are the chances of this report influencing the present crop of political leaders around the world? Sadly they are vanishingly slim. The White House “drug tsar” Richard Gil Kerlikowske rejected the report’s recommendations yesterday. According to Ms Kerlikowske “making drugs more available will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe”. This completely ignores the point made by the report that drugs are already readily available and that the purpose of a policy of prevention would be to squeeze demand.

The Mexican government was just as quick to criticise the report’s recommendations. According to National Security spokesman, Alejandro Poire, “legalisation won’t stop organised crime, nor its rivalries and violence”. But this ignores the fact that legalisation would starve drugs gangs of the bulk of their revenue. Neither the US nor Mexico is prepared to acknowledge the examples in the report, from studies in the Netherlands and Portugal, which show how a harm reduction approach has been successful. This refusal to engage with the arguments against prohibition, this blindness to empirical data which supports alternative policies, is exactly what has characterised global drugs policy for decades.

Here in Britain our political leaders are just as resistant to new approaches. The previous Labour government downgraded cannabis to class C status, but then promptly returned it to class B in order to curry favour with the right-wing press. In 2009 when the government’s own drugs adviser, David Nutt, tried to launch a debate about the relative harm of various substances he was promptly sacked. This commission is to be commended for telling the truth about drugs prohibition and for making an admirably clear argument for a different strategy. The tragedy is that world leaders still show no inclination to listen.

Go to Original – independent.co.uk

The Executive Summary below is from the Global Commission on Drug Policy is provided below.

http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and
40 years after President Nixon launched the US government’s war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed.

Vast expenditures on criminalization and repressive measures directed at producers, traffickers and consumers of illegal drugs have clearly failed to effectively curtail supply or consumption. Apparent victories in eliminating one source or trafficking organization are negated almost instantly by the emergence of other sources and traffickers. Repressive efforts directed at consumers impede public health measures to reduce HIV/AIDS, overdose fatalities and other harmful consequences of drug use. Government expenditures on futile supply reduction strategies and incarceration displace more cost-effective and evidence-based investments in demand and harm reduction.

Our principles and recommendations can be summarized as follows:

End the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others. Challenge rather than reinforce common misconceptions about drug markets, drug use and
drug dependence.

Encourage experimentation by governments with models of legal regulation of drugs to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens. This recommendation applies especially to cannabis, but we also encourage other experiments in decriminalization and legal regulation that can accomplish these objectives and provide models for others.

Offer health and treatment services to those in need. Ensure that a variety of treatment modalities are available, including not just methadone and buprenorphine treatment but also the heroin-assisted treatment programs that have proven successful in many European countries and Canada. Implement syringe access and other harm reduction measures that have proven effective in reducing transmission of HIV and other blood-borne infections as well as fatal overdoses. Respect the human rights of people who use drugs. Abolish abusive practices carried out in the name of treatment – such as forced detention, forced labor, and physical or psychological abuse – that contravene human rights standards and norms or that remove the right to self-determination.

Apply much the same principles and policies stated above to people involved in the lower ends of illegal drug markets, such as farmers, couriers and petty sellers. Many are themselves victims of violence and intimidation or are drug dependent. Arresting and incarcerating tens of millions of these people in recent decades has filled prisons and destroyed lives and families without reducing the availability of illicit drugs or the power of criminal organizations. There appears to be almost no limit to the number of people willing to engage in such activities to better their lives, provide for their families, or otherwise escape poverty. Drug control resources are better directed elsewhere.
Invest in activities that can both prevent young people from taking drugs in the first place and also prevent those who do use drugs from developing more serious problems. Eschew simplistic ‘just say no’ messages and ‘zero tolerance’ policies in favor of educational efforts grounded in credible information and prevention programs that focus on social skills and peer influences. The most successful prevention efforts may be those targeted at specific at-risk groups.

Focus repressive actions on violent criminal organizations, but do so in ways that undermine their power and reach while prioritizing the reduction of violence and intimidation. Law enforcement efforts should focus not on reducing drug markets per se but rather on reducing their harms to individuals, communities and national security.

Begin the transformation of the global drug prohibition regime. Replace drug policies and strategies driven by ideology and political convenience with fiscally responsible policies and strategies
grounded in science, health, security and human rights – and adopt appropriate criteria for their evaluation. Review the scheduling of drugs that has resulted in obvious anomalies like the flawed categorization of cannabis, coca leaf and MDMA. Ensure that the international conventions are interpreted and/or revised to accommodate robust experimentation with harm reduction, decriminalization and legal regulatory policies.

Break the taboo on debate and reform. The time for action is now.