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 veggie
Registered: 07/26/04
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 High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy 
#14547577 - 06/01/11 09:34 PM (2 years, 19 days ago) |
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High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy
June 1, 2011 - Los Angeles Times
The report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which includes former U.N. chief Kofi Annan and past presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, was swiftly dismissed by the U.S. and Mexico.
Calling the global war on drugs a costly failure, a group of high-profile world leaders is urging the Obama administration and other governments to end "the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but do no harm to others."
A report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which includes former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and past presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, recommends that governments try new ways of legalizing and regulating drugs, especially marijuana, as a way to deny profits to drug cartels.
The recommendation was swiftly dismissed by the Obama administration and the government of Mexico, which are allied in a violent 4 1/2 -year-old crackdown on cartels that has killed more than 38,000 people in Mexico.
"The U.S. needs to open a debate," former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria, a member of the panel, said by telephone from New York, where the report is scheduled to be released Thursday. "When you have 40 years of a policy that is not bringing results, you have to ask if it's time to change it."
An advance copy of the report was provided to The Times.
Three of the report's Latin American signatories, Gaviria and former Presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, made similar recommendations two years ago. Their views failed to change the enforcement-based approach that dominates drug policies worldwide.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, a conservative, has made the battle against drug cartels a centerpiece of his administration. Although the growing death toll has stirred widespread public dismay in Mexico, Calderon shows no sign of turning back before his six-year term ends next year. A poll on security matters released Wednesday found broad public opposition in Mexico to legalizing drug sales.
The U.S. government has backed the Mexican crackdown with law enforcement equipment, training and encouraging words from President Obama.
"Making drugs more available — as this report suggests — will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe," said Rafael Lemaitre, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Although the Obama administration has emphasized a "public health" approach to drug policy, officials have taken a hard line against legalization.
"Legalizing dangerous drugs would be a profound mistake, leading to more use, and more harmful consequences," drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said this year.
Administration officials dispute the idea that nothing can be done to reduce the demand for drugs in the United States. A spokesman for the White House drug agency said U.S. consumption peaked in 1979, when surveys showed that 14% of respondents had used illegal drugs in the previous month. Now that figure has dropped to 7%.
"This is not a problem for law enforcement alone," Kerlikowske said in February at the George Washington University in Washington.
In its 2012 budget, the administration has requested $1.7 billion for drug prevention programs, a 7.9% increase from the previous year.
Administration officials have promoted the use of drug courts where judges can sentence offenders to treatment and other terms as alternatives to jail time. The White House also is working to expand reentry programs that aim to reduce recidivism rates by assisting the nearly 750,000 drug offenders released from prison each year to transition more easily back into communities.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who has examined U.S. drug policy, said the Obama administration has pushed the issue in a "considerably better direction. Nonetheless, she added, "a lot of it stayed at the level of strategy and rhetoric."
"If [Obama] is going to spend his political capital on something, it won't be drug policy," said Felbab-Brown, author of "Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs."
Gaviria, the former Colombian president, said he saw signs of a shift in opinion last year, when Californians voted on a ballot measure that would have legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. Although the measure failed, "people are changing their minds," he said.
The new report said the world's approach to limiting drugs, crafted 50 years ago when the United Nations adopted its "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs," has failed to cut the supply or use of drugs. The report, citing figures from the world body, said global marijuana consumption rose more than 8% and cocaine use 27% between 1998 and 2008.
The group cited a U.N. estimate that 250 million people worldwide use illegal drugs, concluding, "We simply cannot treat them all as criminals."
More treatment options for addicts are needed, the report said. And it argued that arresting and incarcerating "tens of millions" of drug-producing farmers, couriers and street dealers have not answered economic needs that push many people into the trade.
The assessment cited studies of nations, such as Portugal and Australia, that found decriminalizing the use and possession of at least some drugs has not led significantly to greater use.
The group's members include former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the writers Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa and Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group.
In Mexico, thousands have died in drug-related violence since late 2006, when Calderon deployed the military in a stepped-up fight against organized crime. Most of the deaths stem from turf wars between rival trafficking gangs.
Last month, tens of thousands took to the streets in Mexico City to protest the violence and demand an end to the drug war. Calderon says it would be irresponsible to give up the fight now.
Calderon criticized the legalization measure in California, saying it would undermine his government's crime fight. The Mexican president has said he is open to differing views on the issue but that it would be "absurd" to consider legalization in Mexico as long as narcotics are barred north of the border, where the massive demand determines the prices and profitability of the drug trade.
Other analysts reject the notion that curbing drug profits through legalization would cut overall crime, arguing that many violent trafficking gangs have broadened into other criminal activities, such as kidnapping, extortion and producing and selling pirated merchandise.
Note: The 24 page report is attached above.
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blissedout
 
Registered: 11/11/04
Posts: 22,110
Loc: Yonder
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: veggie]
#14547742 - 06/01/11 10:10 PM (2 years, 19 days ago) |
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p_walter
Lurker
Registered: 04/25/11
Posts: 535
Loc: Irrelevant
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: blissedout]
#14547820 - 06/01/11 10:31 PM (2 years, 19 days ago) |
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Quote:
The recommendation was swiftly dismissed by the Obama administration and the government of Mexico
So much for the petition that was going around....
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Coaster said: so i got free drug coupons witch u floozies refer to as "money"....
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Harri
Registered: 10/29/08
Posts: 1,420
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: p_walter]
#14548157 - 06/01/11 11:39 PM (2 years, 19 days ago) |
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Quote:
p_walter said:
Quote:
The recommendation was swiftly dismissed by the Obama administration and the government of Mexico
So much for the petition that was going around....
It hasn't happend yet.
Quote:
Our message will be hand-delivered to world leaders on Thursday, June 2 at a press conference in New York and to the UN Secretary-General on Friday, June 3.
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 CarnivalBarker
wizard
Registered: 04/19/10
Posts: 2,668
Last seen: 7 months, 10 days
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: Harri]
#14548369 - 06/02/11 12:19 AM (2 years, 19 days ago) |
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The petition only has 556,000 signatures, which is really nothing in the grand scheme of things.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/end_the_war_on_drugs/
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guitardude3
Fellow Architect of Reality
Registered: 01/10/10
Posts: 204
Loc: In the pines where the su...
Last seen: 2 months, 17 days
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: p_walter]
#14548390 - 06/02/11 12:23 AM (2 years, 19 days ago) |
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Quote:
p_walter said:
Quote:
The recommendation was swiftly dismissed by the Obama administration and the government of Mexico
So much for the petition that was going around....
Where do I sign?
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All you see is an illusion, including my posts.
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p_walter
Lurker
Registered: 04/25/11
Posts: 535
Loc: Irrelevant
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: guitardude3]
#14548433 - 06/02/11 12:30 AM (2 years, 19 days ago) |
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Coaster said: so i got free drug coupons witch u floozies refer to as "money"....
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Object110011
Registered: 07/19/10
Posts: 118
Last seen: 5 months, 28 days
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: p_walter]
#14548523 - 06/02/11 12:52 AM (2 years, 19 days ago) |
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This could be a watershed!
:crossfingers: more research and sharing this
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gamer4life
Natures Child
Registered: 05/29/10
Posts: 753
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: blissedout]
#14548542 - 06/02/11 12:58 AM (2 years, 19 days ago) |
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I was sad to find out about this the day before it takes place. If you guys would have not posted it here then I would have not seen it. Thank you .
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Legalize!
Stop putting our children in prisons.
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guitardude3
Fellow Architect of Reality
Registered: 01/10/10
Posts: 204
Loc: In the pines where the su...
Last seen: 2 months, 17 days
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: gamer4life]
#14548594 - 06/02/11 01:17 AM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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Thanks!
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All you see is an illusion, including my posts.
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dondoodle
Stranger
Registered: 06/29/09
Posts: 407
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: guitardude3]
#14548747 - 06/02/11 02:03 AM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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Wow, that is quite a piece of propaganda that veggie posted. I mean the propaganda arm - LA Times talked about what was going to happen as if it was past tense in order to make it seen irrelevant.
Not only that they started talking about all of these past quotes from the pro drug war Obama administration as if they were just recently made. Nothing to see here - move along people.
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End American imperialism and colonization around the world and among the people conquered within the domestic empire.
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yabbahabba
Stranger
Registered: 06/16/09
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: veggie]
#14548751 - 06/02/11 02:05 AM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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Can you imagine all the chaos and horror and tragedy and crooked injustice that would occur if drugs were made illegal?
Where do I sign the petition?
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thelivingfreekshow
Astro-Biologist
Registered: 02/07/11
Posts: 1,810
Last seen: 1 month, 3 days
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: yabbahabba]
#14548784 - 06/02/11 02:12 AM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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I seem to remember Obama saying something like this:
But Obama apparently dismissed an idea proposed which mirrors his statement in the above video.
CHANGE? No, not that I can see.
Ron Paul 2012
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p_walter
Lurker
Registered: 04/25/11
Posts: 535
Loc: Irrelevant
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: dondoodle]
#14548857 - 06/02/11 02:33 AM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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Quote:
dondoodle said:
Wow, that is quite a piece of propaganda that veggie posted. I mean the propaganda arm - LA Times talked about what was going to happen as if it was past tense in order to make it seen irrelevant.
Not only that they started talking about all of these past quotes from the pro drug war Obama administration as if they were just recently made. Nothing to see here - move along people.
Wow, I didn't even notice that. Casually reading through the article everything read as if it were current. 
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Coaster said: so i got free drug coupons witch u floozies refer to as "money"....
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yabbahabba
Stranger
Registered: 06/16/09
Posts: 396
Last seen: 5 months, 4 days
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: thelivingfreekshow]
#14548923 - 06/02/11 02:49 AM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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As eager as I was to love obama, I find now that I know more about this whole bullshit scheme, along with this move to legalize drugs, and the spread of information of the corrupt axis of the federal reserve, etc., and all the bullshit people have been swallowing for so long... if Ron Paul isn't yet another chosen one to usher in the next phase of The Plan. Whatever the hell that is. But... really. Conspiracy theory isn't really koo-koo talk anymore. The time will come when popular opinion will rhyme with common sense, and it will even be distributed by the elite media. Through instant "independent" info, maybe the plan was to fuck everything up as obviously as possible until even the zombies with their heads in the sand become capable of adding 2&2.
All I'm saying is, I don't know.
Before we were outraged with bush.
Now we're outraged from the realization that this whole Democrat-Republican puppet jerk-off festival has had us fooled for so long. Don't you think "They" know the cat they wanted out of the bag is out of the bag? And don't you think they know that we think our best option is to vote for a guy speaking out against the butt-fucking system we've voted for, for so long? Don't you think if they want to continue to butt-fuck you, they'll romanticize another to re-butt-fuck you after your trust has been earned?
Why hasn't he been assassainated?
Or maybe the good guys realized the only way to possibly end the bad guys is to be the bad guys badder than the originals, to an extent so hardcore that once they are in power, they slit their own throats, so to speak?
Selling out to evil at the expense of their souls for the betterment of the world?
A disclaimer: I am just asking questions, I don't believe anything I'm suggesting, just playing devil's avacado.
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runepanther
Im uhh gee!
Registered: 05/17/11
Posts: 89
Loc: East ATL, GA
Last seen: 6 months, 2 days
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: yabbahabba]
#14549906 - 06/02/11 10:11 AM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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Lol of course the USA wouldn't have listened to them, were the US and we don't take no bs from anybody. *facepalm*
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thelivingfreekshow
Astro-Biologist
Registered: 02/07/11
Posts: 1,810
Last seen: 1 month, 3 days
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: runepanther]
#14550459 - 06/02/11 01:34 PM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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Quote:
runepanther said:
Lol of course the USA wouldn't have listened to them, were the US and we don't take no bs from anybody. *facepalm*
Nope we just cause BS for everyone else.
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veggie
Registered: 07/26/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: veggie]
#14550624 - 06/02/11 02:19 PM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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A rational and logical response to the story from Rob Kampia that even the most avid anti-drug warrior could agree with ...
World Leaders: Time to End Marijuana Prohibition
June 2, 2011 - opposingviews.com
WASHINGTON --- Today, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, an international organization consisting of high level current and former heads of state and policy experts, released a report suggesting world governments give up the war on drugs and consider more rational harm-reduction policies, including removing all criminal penalties for the possession and use of marijuana.
The Commission, which included former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, among many others, urged leaders to consider alternatives to incarceration for drug use to shift their focus toward treatment of drug abusers, rather than punishment and interdiction for recreational users.
"These prominent world leaders recognize an undeniable reality. The use of marijuana, which is objectively less harmful than alcohol, is widespread and will never be eliminated,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project.
“They acknowledge that there are only two choices moving forward. We can maintain marijuana's status as a wholly illegal substance and steer billions of dollars toward drug cartels and other criminal actors. Or, we can encourage nations to make the adult use of marijuana legal and have it sold in regulated stores by legitimate, taxpaying business people.
At long last, we have world leaders embracing the more rational choice and advocating for legal, regulated markets for marijuana. We praise these world leaders for their willingness to advocate for this sensible approach to marijuana policy."
This study comes as Portugal enjoys the tenth year of its experiment with decriminalizing all drugs. Since making the bold policy move in 2001, Portugal has seen crime, use rates, addiction rates, overdose deaths, and blood-borne disease all decrease significantly.
The study released today suggests that a similar model could be adopted successfully elsewhere. It also stresses the damage that prohibition policies do to society, including massive government expenditure, enrichment of criminal organizations, and interference with treatment and prevention of diseases like HIV/AIDS.
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Annapurna1
liberal pussy
Registered: 05/21/02
Posts: 5,591
Loc: innsmouth..MA
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: veggie]
#14550815 - 06/02/11 02:58 PM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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the "drug warriors" are laughing all the way to the bank at this commission.. because "the war [on drugs] is not meant to be won.. it is meant to be continuous"...at the very least the commission should have excoriated the powers that be and their ulterior motives...
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"anchor blocks counteract the process of pontiprobation..while omalean globes regulize the pressure"...
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5-HT2A
Registered: 01/30/10
Posts: 1,794
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Re: High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy [Re: Annapurna1]
#14550896 - 06/02/11 03:16 PM (2 years, 18 days ago) |
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Quote:
The Commission, which included former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz
How convenient that so many articles leave out Reagan's secretary of state in the list of names, who was one of those presiding over the big escalation in the war on drugs and the dramatic increase in U.S. prison population.
I guess if the retard strong far right heard that one of Reagan's top guys said the drug war was bullshit, they'd be more likely to be persuaded by the report. Can't have that.
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