UN Backs Drug Decriminalization In World Drug Report: Recreational Freedoms

UN Backs Drug Decriminalization In World Drug Report

Recreational Freedoms

 

Nations lavishly praised drug decriminalization in the U.N.'s(July 2009] annual report on the state of global drug policy. In previous years, the UN drug czar had expressed skepticism about Portugal's decriminalization, which removed criminal penalties in 2001 for personal drug possession and emphasized treatment over incarceration. The UN had suggested the policy was in violation of international drug treaties and would encourage "drug tourism."

But in its 2009 World Drug Report, the UN had little but kind words for Portugal's radical (by U.S. standards) approach. "These conditions keep drugs out of the hands of those who would avoid them under a system of full prohibition, while encouraging treatment, rather than incarceration, for users. Among those who would not welcome a summons from a police officer are tourists, and, as a result, Portugal's policy has reportedly not led to an increase in drug tourism," reads the report. "It also appears that a number of drug-related problems have decreased."

In its upbeat appraisal of Portugal's policy, the UN finds itself in agreement with Salon's Glenn Greenwald. 

The report, released at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., also puts to rest concerns that decriminalization doesn't comply with international treaties, which prevent countries from legalizing drugs. 

U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske is scheduled to appear at the announcement of the report. (He has said "legalization" is not "in my vocabulary.")

"The International Narcotics Control Board was initially apprehensive when Portugal changed its law in 2001 (see their annual report for that year), but after a mission to Portugal in 2004, it "noted that the acquisition, possession and abuse of drugs had remained prohibited," and said "the practice of exempting small quantities of drugs from criminal prosecution is consistent with the international drug control treaties," reads a footnote to the report.

The UN report also dives head first into the debate over full drug legalization. Last year's World Drug Report ignored the issue entirely, save for a reference to Chinese opium policy in the 19th Century. This year's report begins with a lengthy rebuttal of arguments in favor of legalization. "Why unleash a drug epidemic in the developing world for the sake of libertarian arguments made by a pro-drug lobby that has the luxury of access to drug treatment?" argues the report.

But the UN also makes a significant concession to backers of legalization, who have long argued that it is prohibition policies that lead to violence and the growth of shadowy, underground networks.

"In the Preface to the report," reads the press release accompanying the report, "[UN Office of Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria] Costa explores the debate over repealing drug controls. He acknowledges that controls have generated an illicit black market of macro-economic proportions that uses violence and corruption."

Jack Cole, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and a retired undercover narcotics detective, objected to the report's classification of current policy as "control."
"The world's 'drug czar,' Antonio Maria Costa, would have you believe that the legalization movement is calling for the abolition of drug control," he said. "Quite the contrary, we are demanding that governments replace the failed policy of prohibition with a system that actually regulates and controls drugs, including their purity and prices, as well as who produces them and who they can be sold to. You can't have effective control under prohibition, as we should have learned from our failed experiment with alcohol in the U.S. between 1920 and 1933."

From The Huffington Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/24/un-backs-drug-decriminali_n_220013.html

  

Ten Reasons to Legalise All Drugs
comment from Transform: the campaign for effective drug policy

1 Address the real issues

For too long policy makers have used prohibition as a smoke screen to avoid addressing the social and economic factors that lead people to use drugs. Most illegal and legal drug use is recreational. Poverty and despair are at the root of most problematic drug use and it is only by addressing these underlying causes that we can hope to significantly decrease the number of problematic users.

2 Eliminate the criminal market place

The market for drugs is demand-led and millions of people demand illegal drugs. Making the production, supply and use of some drugs illegal creates a vacuum into which organised crime moves. The profits are worth billions of pounds. Legalisation forces organised crime from the drugs trade, starves them of income and enables us to regulate and control the market (i.e. prescription, licensing, laws on sales to minors, advertising regulations etc.)

3 Massively reduce crime

The price of illegal drugs is determined by a demand-led, unregulated market. Using illegal drugs is very expensive. This means that some dependent users resort to stealing to raise funds (accounting for 50% of UK property crime - estimated at £2 billion a year). Most of the violence associated with illegal drug dealing is caused by its illegality

Legalisation would enable us to regulate the market, determine a much lower price and remove users need to raise funds through crime. Our legal system would be freed up and our prison population dramatically reduced, saving billions. Because of the low price, cigarette smokers do not have to steal to support their habits. There is also no violence associated with the legal tobacco market.

4 Drug users are a majority

Recent research shows that nearly half of all 15-16 year olds have used an illegal drug. Up to one and a half million people use ecstasy every weekend. Amongst young people, illegal drug use is seen as normal. Intensifying the 'war on drugs' is not reducing demand. In Holland, where cannabis laws are far less harsh, drug usage is amongst the lowest in Europe.

Legalisation accepts that drug use is normal and that it is a social issue, not a criminal justice one. How we deal with it is up to all of us to decide.

In 1970 there were 9000 convictions or cautions for drug offences and 15% of young people had used an illegal drug. In 1995 the figures were 94 000 and 45%. Prohibition doesn't work.

5 Provide access to truthful information and education

A wealth of disinformation about drugs and drug use is given to us by ignorant and prejudiced policy-makers and media who peddle myths upon lies for their own ends. This creates many of the risks and dangers associated with drug use.

Legalisation would help us to disseminate open, honest and truthful information to users and non-users to help them to make decisions about whether and how to use. We could begin research again on presently illicit drugs to discover all their uses and effects - both positive and negative.

6 Make all drug use safer

Prohibition has led to the stigmatisation and marginalisation of drug users. Countries that operate ultra-prohibitionist policies have very high rates of HIV infection amongst injecting users. Hepatitis C rates amongst users in the UK are increasing substantially.

In the UK in the '80's clean needles for injecting users and safer sex education for young people were made available in response to fears of HIV. Harm reduction policies are in direct opposition to prohibitionist laws.

7 Restore our rights and responsibilities

Prohibition unnecessarily criminalises millions of otherwise law-abiding people. It removes the responsibility for distribution of drugs from policy makers and hands it over to unregulated, sometimes violent dealers.

Legalisation restores our right to use drugs responsibly to change the way we think and feel. It enables controls and regulations to be put in place to protect the vulnerable.

8 Race and Drugs

Black people are over ten times more likely to be imprisoned for drug offences than whites. Arrests for drug offences are notoriously discretionary allowing enforcement to easily target a particular ethnic group. Prohibition has fostered this stereotyping of black people.

Legalisation removes a whole set of laws that are used to disproportionately bring black people into contact with the criminal justice system. It would help to redress the over representation of black drug offenders in prison.

9 Global Implications

The illegal drugs market makes up 8% of all world trade (around £300 billion a year). Whole countries are run under the corrupting influence of drug cartels. Prohibition also enables developed countries to wield vast political power over producer nations under the auspices of drug control programmes.

Legalisation returns lost revenue to the legitimate taxed economy and removes some of the high-level corruption. It also removes a tool of political interference by foreign countries against producer nations.

10 Prohibition doesn't work

There is no evidence to show that prohibition is succeeding. The question we must ask ourselves is, "What are the benefits of criminalising any drug?" If, after examining all the available evidence, we find that the costs outweigh the benefits, then we must seek an alternative policy.

Legalisation is not a cure-all but it does allow us to address many of the problems associated with drug use, and those created by prohibition. The time has come for an effective and pragmatic drug policy.

"If the (drug) problem continues advancing as it is at the moment, we're going to be faced with some very frightening options. Either you have a massive reduction in civil rights or you have to look at some radical solutions. The issue has to be, can a criminal justice system solve this particular problem?"

- Commander John Grieve, Criminal Intelligence Unit, Scotland Yard, Channel 4 1997 

Copyright Transform Campaign for effective drug policy
Easton Business Centre Felix Road Easton Bristol BS1 0HE
Telephone: +44 (0) 117 941 5810 Facsimile: +44 (0) 117 941 5809 Email: rae@transform-drugs.org.uk
web:www.transform-drugs.org.uk

from http://www.urban75.com/Drugs/drugten.html

Images - http://hempnewstv.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/war-on-drugs.jpg

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Recreational Freedom: The Politics of Ecstasies

Recreational Freedom  

The Politics of Ecstasies     

 
The prohibition of many recreational drugs is more than just a random abuse of civil liberties. It is deliberately maintained by governments as a tool for international political control.
 

         Most countries are signatory to one or more ‘drug control’ agreements – either of their own choice, or through diplomatic pressure from more influential nations. These treaties impose certain obligations on the governments involved, though in practice they are selectively enforced for political purposes.
 

         One of the most obvious examples of this cynical manipulation is the US attempt to oust Panama’s General Noriega on the grounds he was involved in cocaine trafficking. The hypocrisy of this action became apparent when it was realised that top U.S. officials knew all about Noriega since at least 1983 but didn’t start to act until 1987. Since the mid-1970s, Noriega had been a paid agent of the U.S. and his activities were tolerated and even encouraged – as long as he remained on side with the U.S. Government’s Central American policies.   Sudden extradition attempts and media hate campaigns against Noriega were a result of him falling out of favour with Washington, who decided to use their drug policy tool against him. This softened up Panama for subsequent illegal invasion in a ‘police action’ by U.S. troops that forcibly removed the dictator from office – but certainly didn’t stem the tide of cocaine.
 

       There are numerous advantages in using drug policy as a political tool;  Firstly, it’s easy to disguise political assaults as police actions on populations or individuals and to avoid questions as to ulterior motives. Political enemies can easily be persecuted on trumped-up charges or have evidence planted on them by corrupt officials.  Secondly, there is a large and effective propaganda machine dedicated to spreading the false belief that all ‘illegal drugs’ are evil, as is anyone associated with them. This means that any accusation of ‘drug crimes’ automatically blackens the reputation of the accused and makes their position harder to defend, while at the same time distracting public attention from real issues.
 

  It must be borne in mind that the manufacturers of legal drugs – who are responsible for over 95% of all drug-related deaths – are completely ignored by the same authorities who will baulk at nothing in their persecution of those supplying less dangerous commodities.  In 1987 the US Attorney-General Edwin Meese (who subsequently resigned after corruption allegations were leveled at him) suggested that the Air Force should shoot down any aircraft suspected of carrying ‘illegal drugs’ and ask questions later. In one New York high school at the same time, police tortured a student with electric cattle prods after marijuana was found in his possession. [Similar practices are now widespread in a society that has seemingly come to tolerate even more extreme forms of torture.]
 

       U.S. cars and boats can be confiscated even if the smallest quantity of cannabis is found on board. In Australia civil liberties eroded long ago, to the extent that warrants are no longer required in most states for searching homes or vehicles – as long as there is a ‘suspicion’ that drugs are present (the local equivalent of U.S. ‘probable cause’).
 

          All property can be confiscated from suspected drug dealers from the time of their arrest, reversing the centuries-old protection of presumption of innocence. Furthermore, the unconvicted ‘offender’ must prove that anything in their possession was acquired legally or it is confiscated in a complete reversal of due process; it’s normally required that law enforcement agencies prove a crime has been committed, before taking punitive measures against convicted criminals – let alone those merely accused of having committed a victimless crime. Likewise, blood and urine tests are selectively applied, as mechanisms of social control and stigmatisation – they are not designed to be random, like alcohol breath tests.
 

         The situation is made all the more repulsive by the fact that there were cynical political reasons for most of these drugs being prohibited back in the 1930s.  The international economics of prohibition, while both simple and obvious, somehow escapes all mention in mainstream media; when a product in demand is prohibited, it will be supplied by ‘criminals’. The prices will escalate to cover the overheads of secret production and transport, bribery etc. High prices mean that poorer nations are attracted to drug exports as a means of paying extortionate international debts. 

Inevitably, almost all ‘third world’ economies are boosted by quasi-official exports of ‘illegal’ products, often with the involvement of government officials.  The anti-drug enforcement authorities know this, but use it for political advantage by persecuting their enemies while ignoring the same actions performed by their friends. And not just friends, but partners in high-level corruption, including manufacture, transportation and laundering of more money than most people can imagine.   

          [Do you think it’s surprising that Afghani production of opium is out of control now that the nation is under ‘international’ control? Does anyone recall the world-wide flood of heroin that accompanied French and U.S. incursions into Vietnam and the Golden Triangle? The mass media abounds in numerous reports of instances when nations and organisations raised unreportable ‘black’ money by controlling the production and dissemination of illegal drugs – it’s long been the common practice of many governments and intelligence agencies. Ice – smokeable speed – was formulated as a way for the C.I.A. to raise money domestically within the U.S. from underprivileged ethnic minorities.]
 

       These conditions create a natural link between drug prohibition and terrorism. High-priced drugs are shipped from producer countries in return for armaments from the developed nations which buy the drugs. This was the case with the Nicaraguan “Contras”, who repeatedly sent cocaine and cannabis to the U.S. in exchange for guns and bombs. In 1984, a funding exercise arranged by then Colonel Oliver North even involved the landing of twelve tons of marijuana at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida(!) North operated with the knowledge of the highest levels of political power in the U.S. at the time. For some reason the ‘anti-drug’ Reagan administration – responsible for inaugurating many of the international treaties that removed the civil rights of recreational drug users and producers – continued to support the cocaine-trafficking Contras while taking extreme punitive measures against others.
 

          Accusations of official complicity in ‘drug trafficking’ provide a powerful means of putting pressure on leaders, who can be extradited to face trial in the courts of their political enemies – all without a squeak of international protest. Individual citizens can be selectively victimised in similar ways for a multitude of reasons.  [Many of the millions incarcerated in U.S. prisons – more than one adult in a hundred in the ;land of the free’ - have been locked up for victimless crimes of possession of recreational substances – drugs that many policemen, politicians, judges, soldiers, corporate high flyers and a huge proportion of the population use every day.]
 

         The next time you see a news report about the ‘drug trade’, don’t let the propaganda machines program your brain – read between the li(n)es!      

- Kenny B. Satyr 

 


    This is a version of an article first published twenty years ago (in NEXUS New Times Magazine, Vol. 1 No 6); twenty years of selective repression, destroyed lives and enormous profits for drug manufacturers of all stripes. Those who profit include the merchants of death who sell us poisoned Corporate chemicalised tobacco and alcohol ‘products’ – and the chemical corporations that produce toxic, legally sanctioned and obscenely profitable ‘medical’ drugs.
 

          Many natural alternatives to these poisons are true cures for a multitude of ailments – but if they’re so easily propagated that no-one can legally own them (at a molecular and genetic level) and control their production, you’re not allowed to use – or grow or sell – many of Mother Nature’s most useful, versatile and easily grown plants.  The illegalised drug trade has become the biggest-grossing business on the planet, nudging past weapons and even oil. 


       Who really reaps all the profits from this? Certainly not the citizens of nations with draconian anti-drug laws, who pay with their property and lives, to cover the exorbitant prices required by addicts to service their habits.    Certainly not the small-time producers, dealers and users – or the nations that must shoulder the huge monetary and social costs of incarcerating many fundamentally innocent citizens, while protecting massive illegal drug supply routes with pyrrhic military operations. As everyone should know by know, many of the kingpins of the illegal drug trade are well-regarded, ultra-wealthy pillars of society.
 

      The real costs are borne by everyone, even those who imagine they’re above the effects of their plunder. Healthy populations don’t spend or consume as much as sick ones – the economic equation is that simple. Humans are seen as very common and replaceable commodities by a majority of those who wield power – whose catchcry goes, ‘It’s the economy, stupid’. The lovers of money are lethal to us all.
        Decriminalisation is only a good start, a first step – legalisation of all naturally occurring recreational substances is the only just and all-encompassing solution to the political, economic, health, social and justice issues created by the failed policies of selectively enforced prohibition and ‘zero tolerance’.   Regulation – not criminalisation - is only really required for manufactured drugs and pharmaceuticals with dangerously low lethal dose thresholds – including heroin, cocaine and the vast majority of legally prescribed pharmaceuticals.
 

        The quality, dosage and safety of illegal manufactured substances is always questionable. Know your source - and remember how many dirty fingers have probably touched what you’re putting into your body, on its way down clandestine supply routes.   We can create a much better New Millennium than the one our power-mongering dinosaur ‘leaders’ have in mind. Your parents and grandparents were happy and satisfied to be lied to by those who still get away with stealing the wealth and knowledge of the Earth for themselves – are you?   Are you about to imbibe some insanely expensive corporate chemical poison potion - a ‘beverage’ that has a little bit of alcohol added? Litre for litre the stuff costs about as much as gasoline to produce, and is about as safe to drink; it can swiftly cost you your health and life. Better to brew or distill your own; better still to get the monkey off your back. Are you still smoking that government sanctioned, highly taxed corporatised brown weed - instead of an alternative that actually makes you feel better and question supposed authority? Better to grow your own. Home-grown tobacco always tastes better.
 

         There are always much better alternatives than those offered you by ignorant political gangster and their cronies. Turn on. Tune in. Opt OUT!    

 -               R.A.

 

image - R.A.

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  The Emperor Wears No Clothes

HOW DANGEROUS is MARIJUANA COMPARED with OTHER SUBSTANCES?

HOW DANGEROUS IS MARIJUANA COMPARED WITH OTHER SUBSTANCES?  Number of American deaths per year that result directly or primarily from the following selected causes nationwide, according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death) Rates, and the last 20 years of U.S. Surgeon Generals' reports.  TOBACCO 340,000 to 450,000 ALCOHOL (Not including 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders)  150,000+ ASPIRIN (Including deliberate overdose)  180 to 1,000+ CAFFEINE (From stress, ulcers, and triggering irregular heartbeats, etc.)  1,000 to 10,000  "LEGAL" DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from legal, prescribed or patent medicines and/or mixing with alcohol - e.g. Valium/alcohol  14,000 to 27,000  ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from all illegal drugs. 3,800 to 5,200  MARIJUANA 0  (Marijuana users also have the same or lower incidence of murders and highway deaths and accidents than the general non-marijuana using population as a whole. Crancer Study, UCLA; U.S. Funded ($6 million), First & Second Jamaican Studies, 1968 to 1974; Costa Rican Studies, 1980 to 1982; et al. LOWEST TOXICITY 100% of the studies done at dozens of American universities and research facilities show pot toxicity does not exist. Medical history does not record anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana (UCLA, Harvard, Temple, etc.).  From http://www.jackherer.com/comparison.html

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