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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist

Registered: 03/10/07
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Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? 1
#22404729 - 10/19/15 06:13 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jag-davies/did-the-us-just-quash-a-u_b_8332566.html?ir=Australia
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) appeared set to call on governments to end the criminalization of drug use and possession, according to DPA Honorary Board Member Richard Branson -- but in a dramatic turn of events withdrew its briefing paper under pressure from at least one country, according to the BBC.
The UN document, printed on formal UNODC letterhead with no mention of it being a draft, was apparently released this past Friday with an embargo. Confidential sources say that when a journalist violated that embargo, the UNODC decided to walk back the report, apparently under pressure from the U.S. government.
Considering that the American public and leaders such as President Obama are now calling for major drug policy reforms that reduce the role of criminalization in drug policy, it would be remarkable -- and some might say, hypocritical -- for the U.S. to play an active behind-the-scenes role in suppressing this document.
Yet it's encouraging that such a powerful statement about the need to decriminalize drug use and possession made it this far in the UN process. Hopefully the UNODC will eventually move forward and release this document, which reflects growing recognition that global drug control policies must reflect not just the punitive provisions of international drug control treaties but also the UN's health and human rights mandates.
More than 1.5 million drug arrests are made every year in the U.S. - the overwhelming majority for possession only. Roughly two dozen countries, and dozens of U.S. cities and states, have taken steps toward decriminalizing drug use and possession.
In April 2016, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a special session on drugs (UNGASS) - an initiative proposed in 2012 by the then-president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon - to conduct a comprehensive review of the successes and failures of international drug control policy. Whereas the previous UNGASS in 1998 was dominated by rhetorical calls for a "drug-free world" and concluded with unrealistic goals regarding illicit drug production, the forthcoming UNGASS will undoubtedly be shaped by recommendations such as those in the UNODC report.
Political will for a major overhaul of global drug policy has been gaining unprecedented momentum, both in the U.S. and abroad. Distinguished leaders such as Kofi Annan, Paul Volcker and Richard Branson have joined with former presidents of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Greece, Mexico, Poland and Switzerland and other members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy in calling for an end to the criminalization of people who use drugs.
The leaked UNODC recommendations are consistent with the Global Commission and a surprisingly broad and rapidly-emerging coalition of stakeholders who are calling for drug decriminalization, including the World Health Organization, American Public Health Association, Organization of American States, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, NAACP, Human Rights Watch, American Civil Liberties Union, and National Latino Congreso. In a report published last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) made a clear call for broad drug policy reforms, including decriminalization of drug use, harm reduction practices such as syringe exchange and opioid substitution therapy, and a ban on compulsory treatment for people who use drugs.
Decriminalizing drug possession can provide several major benefits for public safety and health, such as: -- Significantly reducing the number of people arrested and incarcerated; -- Increasing uptake into drug treatment; -- Reducing criminal justice costs and redirecting resources from criminal justice to health systems; -- Redirecting law enforcement resources to prevent serious and violent crime; -- Addressing racial disparities in drug law enforcement and sentencing, incarceration and related health outcomes; -- Minimizing stigma and creating a climate in which people who use drugs are less fearful of seeking and accessing treatment, utilizing harm reduction services and receiving HIV/AIDS services; and -- Protecting people from the wide-ranging and debilitating consequences of a criminal conviction
In 2001, Portuguese legislators enacted a comprehensive form of decriminalization of low-level possession and consumption of all illicit drugs and reclassified these activities as administrative violations. After more than a decade, Portugal has experienced no major increases in drug use, while seeing reduced rates of problematic and adolescent drug use, fewer people arrested and incarcerated for drugs, reduced incidence of HIV/AIDS, reduced opiate-related deaths, and a significant increase in the number of people receiving drug treatment.
In the U.S., 17 states have reduced or eliminated criminal penalties for personal marijuana possession. Some states, such as California, have recently passed reforms to lessen penalties for possession of other drugs as well. Sixteen states, as well as Washington, DC and the federal government, now treat personal possession of drugs other than marijuana as a misdemeanor.
U.S. jurisdictions and other countries that have adopted less punitive policies toward drug possession have not experienced any significant increases in drug use, drug-related harm or drug-related crime relative to more punitive countries. In fact, many states that treat possession as a misdemeanor have slightly lower rates of illicit drug use and higher rates of admission to drug treatment than states that consider it a felony.
Getting arrested for drug possession is no small matter -- it creates a permanent criminal record, easily available to banks, schools, employers, landlords, and licensing and other government agencies, that can haunt a person for life. Hopefully today's developments will help accelerate the global trend toward ending the criminalization of drugs. That certainly would make an enormous difference in the U.S.
Jag Davies is the director of communications strategy for the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org)
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Shroomopotamus
Happy Mushrooming



Registered: 09/27/09
Posts: 18,757
Loc: Funkotron
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: Alan Rockefeller]
#22404809 - 10/19/15 06:29 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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The future is a beautiful place to be
-------------------- * Live by the mushroom, die by the mushroom
    This is a trap! A trap! You are all busted! Busted! You fools!
If a time comes where I fail to appear I've been abducted and I will miss you all Please smile and pet puppies as often as possible Be happy Be nice (<3);}
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Konyap

Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 33,945
Loc: Planet Piss
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: Shroomopotamus]
#22405074 - 10/19/15 07:19 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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no mix drinks in iran bombs for children
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Bumbaclotjohnson
Sequoia Farmer



Registered: 01/12/14
Posts: 1,067
Loc: USA
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: Shroomopotamus]
#22407513 - 10/20/15 07:14 AM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Shroomopotamus said: The future is a beautiful place to be 
Clouded by the dark side, the future is...
-------------------- FREE PRINTS I lie a lot on the internet.
trade list
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Midnight_Toker
Gone Fishin'


Registered: 09/26/10
Posts: 11,589
Loc: Canada
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: Bumbaclotjohnson]
#22408058 - 10/20/15 08:51 AM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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"-- Minimizing stigma and creating a climate in which people who use drugs are less fearful of seeking and accessing treatment, utilizing harm reduction services and receiving HIV/AIDS services; and -- Protecting people from the wide-ranging and debilitating consequences of a criminal conviction
In 2001, Portuguese legislators enacted a comprehensive form of decriminalization of low-level possession and consumption of all illicit drugs and reclassified these activities as administrative violations. After more than a decade, Portugal has experienced no major increases in drug use, while seeing reduced rates of problematic and adolescent drug use, fewer people arrested and incarcerated for drugs, reduced incidence of HIV/AIDS, reduced opiate-related deaths, and a significant increase in the number of people receiving drug treatment."
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual




Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,591
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: Midnight_Toker]
#22408995 - 10/20/15 11:52 AM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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As long as covert operations are making money in secret to buy weapons to back regimes and topple leaders all with no paper trail drugs will still remain illegal. Decriminalization for personal amounts may help the social issues of drug use but it doesn't fix the innate corruption and organized crime fueling ungodly amounts of off the books money. Those "personal amounts" have to come from somewhere.
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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Stonehenge
Alt Center

Registered: 06/20/04
Posts: 14,850
Loc: S.E.
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: Cognitive_Shift]
#22409348 - 10/20/15 01:24 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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No doubt it was obumble the hypocrite secretly placing pressure. No other country has that much clout or would want to.
-------------------- “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” (attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville political philosopher Circa 1835) Trade list http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/18047755
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ShroomBound
Grower


Registered: 12/01/14
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: Cognitive_Shift]
#22409355 - 10/20/15 01:26 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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I'm glad the world is finally finding light on the pure evil that is America. What happened to the country we all love? MONEY. Money and greed has poisoned our leaders. How long will we continue to plague and destroy our own people and our own planet in the name of money? I don;t know how you guys feel but I feel like getting out of America immediately.
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist

Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,276
Last seen: 2 hours, 14 minutes
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: ShroomBound]
#22410379 - 10/20/15 05:39 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Stonehenge said: No doubt it was obumble the hypocrite secretly placing pressure. No other country has that much clout or would want to.
I doubt Obama did this - it was probably the DEA.
Quote:
ShroomBound said: I'm glad the world is finally finding light on the pure evil that is America. What happened to the country we all love? MONEY. Money and greed has poisoned our leaders. How long will we continue to plague and destroy our own people and our own planet in the name of money? I don;t know how you guys feel but I feel like getting out of America immediately.
America is still awesome, we just have some stupid voters who always vote for the politician that is tough on crime. This causes the drug war to ratchet up as each politician tries to be the toughest on crime.
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Stonehenge
Alt Center

Registered: 06/20/04
Posts: 14,850
Loc: S.E.
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: Alan Rockefeller]
#22423633 - 10/23/15 04:17 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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>I doubt Obama did this - it was probably the DEA.
I can't believe you said that. Obumble is the boss of the dea and they do what he wants
-------------------- “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” (attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville political philosopher Circa 1835) Trade list http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/18047755
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist

Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,276
Last seen: 2 hours, 14 minutes
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: Stonehenge]
#22424307 - 10/23/15 07:08 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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I don't think he has any day to day oversight over them.
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Stonehenge
Alt Center

Registered: 06/20/04
Posts: 14,850
Loc: S.E.
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Re: Did the U.S. Just Quash a UN Report Calling for Drug Decriminalization? [Re: Alan Rockefeller]
#22428841 - 10/24/15 07:09 PM (8 years, 3 months ago) |
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He doesn't need to, he is the boss. If he says he wants legal pot providers harassed, they get harassed and they do, a lot. If he wants a un report quashed, it happens. He has one of his flunkies pass a message to the head of dea or whatever agency he wants to influence. Obumble has already sacked quite a few people and no one wants to be the next.
-------------------- “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” (attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville political philosopher Circa 1835) Trade list http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/18047755
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