Major International Leaders Plead for the US and the World to Get Smart and Stop the War on Drugs

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Molly O'Toole

Major International Leaders Plead for the US and the World to Get Smart and Stop the War on Drugs
The Commission on Drug Policy urged a shift from incarceration to consideration of a full range of alternatives, from decriminalization to legalization and regulation.

June 4, 2011 |


The Waldorf Astoria may be worlds away from the blood-spotted streets of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where the "drug war" has taken over 35,000 lives; the fiefdom-like favelas of Rio, Brazil, where even the police don't go; or Pakistan, one of the lowest-ranking on human development in the world, and neighbor to its largest opium producer. But members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy came to the famed New York hotel Friday to bring together leading thinkers and call for an end to the global "war on drugs," whose failed policies have claimed thousands of victims around the world over the last five decades.

The Commission on Drug Policy released a report Thursday outlining these failures and recommending reforms, among them a shift from criminalization to public health and from incarceration to consideration of a full range of alternatives, from decriminalization to legalization and regulation.

Despite the evidence, the political will and public support to transform drug policy remains anemic, as voiced by Ricken Patel, executive director at Avaaz, a global advocacy organization. He described his initial reaction to the drug policy commission at the New York press conference: "What have these people been smoking?"

But the commission's mandate is perhaps unprecedentedly deep and broad; the commissioners hail from 15 countries around the world, from North and Latin America, to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. They are four former presidents, United Nations dignitaries, authors and intellectuals, health and security officials, NGO directors and entrepreneurs. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/151197/major_international_leaders_plead_for_the_us_and_the_world_to_get_smart_and_stop_the_war_on_drugs/

[Scuba]

1. Sheeeze, get a clue. The White House says we're winning the war on drugs...

...Yeah, that's it.

[izquierdista]

2. Nixon, the gift that keeps on fucking

Got to hand it to him though, not many politician's policies keep on ruining lives long after they are dead.

[xchrom]

3. recommend

[ensho]

4. kick - our prison Barons love the war on drugs

nt

[LetTimmySmoke]

5. There are too many moneyed interests in the War on Drugs

They don't want their spigot turned off.