More cracks

Transform Drug Policy Foundation has a good follow-up report on the recently concluded UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna.

The CND is basically a tightly controlled international pro-drug-war event. Country representatives dutifully report that they are enthusiastically carrying out world drug laws and nobody suggests that they might not be the best thing for the world.

But, as Transform notes, there were some cracks in that facade this year.

Yet, for the jaded NGO veterans of this event there was also something new and highly significant: the first tentative challenges to the global prohibitionist regime appeared in the CND. Some merely called for a debate, Argentina being a notable example, its delegate stating in the plenary session that:

“Argentina adequately meets all its obligations arising from treaties that structure what we usually call the “institutional / legal system of drug control and the fight against drug trafficking”. Regarding this issue, we should perhaps analyse if, after decades and considering the results achieved so far, time has not arrived to start an open debate on the consistency and effectiveness of some of the provisions contained in those treaties.”

This statement was particularly heretical as it openly questioned the effectiveness and consistency of the treaties.

Even stronger was the statement from the Czech Republic delegation. Here are some excerpts:

…Nevertheless on behalf of the Czech Republic I would like to take the opportunity and draw attention to the recently released Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, signed by important figures in the world politics, which stated that some important aspects of our countries as well as international efforts of drug policies failed.

Therefore we would like to express that the findings of this Report seem to mark what many of us would like to state but from many reasons are hesitant to state.

Czech Prime minister Necas personally supported the Report of the Global Commission on Drug policy considering the report to be an important challenge by the heads of state and politicians who have signed it.

He said: “above all, anti-drug policy should be based on effective and economically efficient preventative and treatment measures, not on criminalisation of people who suffer from drug addiction but often are not causing harm to others. Czech anti-drug policy is basically going in the right direction, but we must not be afraid to promote additional effective solutions and to be inspired by other states as well” […]

The attitude of the Czech Republic is based on pragmatic drug policy, which leads the way towards the decriminalization of those addicted to drugs, support for preventative programmes and the minimisation of risks connected with drug use of course not undermining rehabilitation as the best and ultimate goal.

We are convinced that changes in current legal regulations are necessary in certain segments of the countries and the world drug policies. We are ready to cooperate in this field with everybody who feels dedicated to those important changes. We feel that the globalised world does not allow us anymore to continue with the expensive experiment of the War on Drugs without a serious international debates especially on why there is after all so many people dying of HIV?AIDS and other known reasons in connection with the drugs problem and look even more closely on the evidence and take the brave steps towards better decisions that improve significantly the world drugs situation

Transform concludes from all this:

It may come to be seen as something of a watershed year – and with the rapidly unfolding debate on alternatives to the war on drugs in Latin America it seems safe to say that CND may never be the same again. Next year it may actually be quite interesting.

I look forward to interesting.

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13 Responses to More cracks

  1. primus says:

    It’s taking too long. I may be off-planet before the insanity ends. Time for a full frontal assault. Call the prohibs out every time you have the chance. Use terms like ‘ignorant’ and ‘arrogant’ to define their position. Make THEM defend their position every time, and don’t fail to point out the lies to them. I saw an item online where the head of NORML in the US took on a drug warrior, and called him out for his lies. The look of relief on the prohib’s face when they ended the interview was priceless. Once they can’t speak without being made to look like a fool, they will shut up. That must happen to allow the truth to become known. In the meantime they throw up so much static that the truth is obscured.

    • claygooding says:

      I have the same anxious feelings about the obstinacy of the prohibitionists and financial backers to release their hold on hemp prohibition.

      As geriatric uses of marijuana become more apparent to baby boomers(thanks to Black Tuna and the Silver Edition Tour)their voices are starting to be heard,,waiting for AARP or other old people orgs start calling for medical marijuana.

      But every headline of a sitting politician moving away from prohibition is adding to the costs of keeping marijuana prohibited and convinces more to do the same.

      The attacks need to take place at every political activity,even local elections,to force politicians at all levels to acknowledge the failure of the war on drugs and that the need to reform is one of the most pressing issues in our country.

      Even your local mayor and especially your local sheriff needs to be challenged at every opportunity.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        The mayor most local to me of whom I’m aware is named Cheye Calvo…I think he’s been convinced. IIRC he’s had a conversation with at least one of the local sheriffs.
        ———-
        Older Adults Increasingly Use Medical Marijuana for Nausea, Pain
        It’s still controversial, even where it’s legal

        by: Peter Jaret | from: AARP Bulletin | October 29, 2010

        The boisterous crowd of residents who gathered for a recent potluck at Laguna Woods Village senior community in Southern California weren’t there to talk about their latest cruise or how cute their grandchildren are.

        Carrying dishes of potato salad, tamales, southern fried chicken and cookies, they came to talk about something rarely mentioned at senior potlucks: Pot.

        “We’ve already got a medical marijuana collective for people with prescriptions from their doctors,” says Lonnie Painter, 64, who has lived in Laguna Woods Village for 11 years. “Now we’re trying to set up a medical marijuana club so people who are interested can learn more about the medicinal benefits of marijuana.”
        /snip/

  2. Mr. Ikashini says:

    http://www.9wsyr.com/mostpopular/story/Wrong-home-raided-in-drug-search/TxLxRX7cF0qzDNaisYLBTA.cspx Woops wrong address. But they’res no difference in states where the gop has majorities either!

  3. kaptinemo says:

    And boiling silently but furiously behind this seeming volteface is the fact the world economic situation is getting noticeably worse, and there are more calls than ever for fiscal ‘austerity’.

    This will result in demands on the part of the electorates of all developed nations to cut where it really needs it, like the various ‘rich man’s hobbies’ such as drug prohibition that require huge expenditures of ‘expendable income’ (which we don’t have anymore thanks to a shrunken tax base, thanks in turn to massive unemployment). Money which is spent by the Gub’mint programs like drug prohibition schemas, but produce nothing but gross drains on any nation’s economy, will HAVE to be reallocated, or those governments will face challenges to their legitimacy that they will not survive.

    What that will eventually have to mean is gutting funding for drug prohibition programs that have been used as the (hidden to all but reformers) springboard for militarizing the police planet-wide.

    Governments don’t want to do that, but the choice will come down to telling some very, very angry recent member of the Middle Class whose house has been repo’d, whose job has vanished, who is living with his kids in a shelter at night and on the street in the day, that the money he and so many millions of people need…is instead needed for DrugWarrior bureaucrat salaries and Armored Personnel Carriers for Barney Fife to keep that newly unemployed, homeless person’s kids ‘safe from druuuuugs!’.

    How high do you think that lead balloon will rise? Only high enough to fall back and crush the political aspirations of those dim enough to try that. And as usual, there will be such, ever ready to publicly jam foot in mouth and hop around while loudly, but with a barely intelligible, muffled delivery, claim they’re winning a century-long war.

  4. Duncan20903 says:

    .
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    Well I just had an interesting experience up here inside my head. Scrolling through the headlines on Google Gnus I saw one and started debating myself over whether it was significant enough to post a link here. After a few moments I decided that just having that intrabrain debate was remarkable. A year ago it would have been a no brainer to link it. But nowadays it’s happening so often that it isn’t even startling anymore.

    B.C.’s Chief Medical Officer Joins Call to Legalize Pot
    March 28, 2012.

  5. Dave in Florida says:

    This article has some great comments rebutting Mike T. I am sure you will enjoy it…

    http://www.fareedzakaria.com/home/Articles/Entries/2012/3/25_Incarceration_Nation.html#

  6. Chris says:

    Steve DeAngelo, president and founder of the world’s largest medical marijuana dispensary (Harborside Health Center in Oakland, California) and star of the Weed Wars TV show, is flying in from California just to address the expected 6,000 attendees at Hash Bash.

    Awesome! Last year I got to listen to Gary Johnson.

  7. drwoo says:

    I just found another crack! Jesus Christ e the water is starting to gush out this dam is coming down soon.

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/29/rasmussen-record-percent-support-marijuana-legalization/

  8. claygooding says:

    Richard Branson turns from adventuring to drug war critic

    http://www.kfor.com/news/sns-rt-us-branson-drugsbre82s1hy-20120329,0,770406.story

    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, involved in such ventures as selling space travel to the affluent, is now pushing for people to have the freedom to get high here on Earth without risking going to jail.

    Right out of Rueters,,the ONDCP goto news media outlet.

  9. Well, on the subject of positive news, here are a trio of Democratic Congressional candidates who all oppose the war on drugs (meaning the war itself and not merely the label).

    http://www.salon.com/2012/03/29/3_congressional_challengers_very_worth_supporting/singleton/

  10. ohutumvalik says:

    We are still number one! BBC probes the fentanyl overdose death record of Estonia.

    Everyone knows someone who has died. In the circles of Estonian friends who use “china white”, death is a constant possibility.

    They know that. But that does not mean they can stop.

    “It’s so addictive,” says Marko, who has lost two friends to overdoses, and survived two himself.

    In Estonia, the drug – whose proper name is fentanyl – is taking a heavy toll of young people. Nationally, drug overdoses now kill more people than road accidents.

    Fentanyl is a synthetic form of heroin, produced in clandestine laboratories across the border in Russia. It has almost completely replaced heroin on the Estonian market, and is much more deadly. /—/

    According to the most recent data, Estonia’s overdose mortality rate is the highest in the European Union – seven times the average.

    When the numbers came out last year, I really hoped the upper echelon would take notice, but so far nothing’s changed; public debate is almost nonexistent.

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