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Latin American Presdents say "Prohibition Has Failed" |
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Written by Phil Smith, DRCNET
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Friday, 26 February 2010 22:48 |
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On February 22 & 23rd Monday and Tuesday in Mexico City, political figures, academics, social scientists, security experts, and activists from at least six countries came together for the Winds of Change: Drug Policy in the World conference sponsored by the Mexico City-based Collective for an Integrated Drug Policy (CUPHID). Coming as Mexico's war on drugs turns bloodier by the day, the conference unsurprisingly concluded that current prohibitionist policies are a disaster.
"The principal conclusion is that we need a more integrated drug policy based on prevention, scientific evidence, and full respect for human rights," summarized CUPHID president Jorge Hernandez Tinajero. "It remains clear that, yes, there exist alternatives to the current strategy."
In a press release after the conference, CUPHID emphasized the following points:
* The so-called war on drugs has failed and, without doubt, we need "winds of change" to advance toward alternative policies to address the problematic of drugs across the globe.
* The prohibitionist paradigm has been ineffective, and furthermore, for the majority of countries it has implied grave violations of human rights and individual guarantees, discrimination, and social exclusion, as well as an escalation of violence that grows day by day, ever broadening the scope of impunity for organized crime.
* Drugs are never going to disappear. Thus, a more realistic drug policy should focus on minimizing the harms associated with drug use -- overdoses, blood-borne diseases like HIV/AIDS, and violence. This concept is known as "harm reduction," and must be the backbone of any drug policy.
The conference opened Monday morning by putting its star power on display. In its opening session, former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria, who, as a member of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy coauthored a report a year ago with former Brazilian President Henrique Cardoso and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo denouncing drug prohibition as a failed policy, returned to the theme. Noting that as president of Colombia in the 1990s, he had been a firm supporter of prohibition, Gaviria said he had changed his tune.
"With the passing of time, prohibitionism, in which I believed, has demonstrated itself a failure," he told an attentive crowd jammed into a conference room of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in upscale Colonia Napoles. The attendant human rights abuses were a big reason why, he said.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 28 February 2010 14:25 |
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Cops break ranks about marijuana |
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Written by Rob Ryan
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Monday, 15 February 2010 21:00 |
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From an article in Police magazine that asked police officers across the country about their thoughts on Marijuana. Here is the highlights.
- FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT OF AMERICAN COPS FAVOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA!
- ONE OUT OF THREE COPS SAYS BUSTING POT SMOKERS IS A WASTE!
- ONE OUT OF FOUR COPS SAYS MARIJUANA SHOULD BE LEGALIZED!
Article Reference
POLICE MAGAZINE June 2009/Volume 33, Number 6
Is this Drug War LOST? Is it Still Worth Fighting?
By DAVID GRIFFITH, Police Magazine June 2009
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Last Updated on Saturday, 20 February 2010 14:32 |
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Cops says OK to Medical Marijuana but still support Marijuana Prohibition |
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Written by Russ Belville
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Saturday, 13 February 2010 06:14 |
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Since fourteen states have legalized the use of cannabis for sick and disabled people we here at NORML have reported on numerous stories of medical users harassed, arrested, and jailed by police. We have also reported on healthy adults in all fifty states whose lives are turned upside down by an arrest, sometimes losing student loans, jobs, children, pets, dignity, property, and freedom over a single joint, seed, or even a cannabis stem. When we and others bring up these insane injustices to the police who are making these arrests, we often hear the platitude that "cops don't make the laws, we just enforce the laws."
So why do we consistently see representatives of law enforcement opposing medical marijuana, marijuana decriminalization, and marijuana legalization efforts in state legislatures?
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Last Updated on Saturday, 13 February 2010 06:25 |
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El Paso passes Drug War Resolution Again! |
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Written by Tom Angel
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Tuesday, 09 February 2010 18:41 |
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The El Paso City Council considered a resolution today calling for the legalization of marijuana as way to strip Mexican drug cartels of the rich profits they make from the illegal market.
Unfortunately the resolution failed when Mayor John Cook broke a 4-4 tie and voted against. However, the council then amended the resolution to take out the marijuana legalization language and passed it as amended. The amended resolution still says the council calls for a "comprehensive re-examination of our country's failed War on Drugs and...support[s] initiatives that do not result in wasting government funds and empowering criminal gangs and trafficking organizations."
This is particularly noteworthy considering that previously, the El Paso City Council set off a nationwide debate on the merits of legalization in January 2009 when it unanimously passed a resolution that merely called for serious consideration of ending prohibition as one possible option. Mayor Cook vetoed that resolution and the council refrained from overriding the veto only after receiving threats from Congressman Silvestre Reyes that the city would lose federal stimulus money if it insisted on supporting a discussion of the merits of legalization.
It remains to be seen if the mayor will veto today's amended resolution, or if the council will get pressure from Congress.
(See video of former federal agent Richard Newton testimony at El Paso hearing on Youtube)
The original draft of the resolution that explicitly calls for the legalization of marijuana can be viewed at
http://www.elpasotexas.gov/muni_clerk/agenda/02-09-10/02091011A.pdf |
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Last Updated on Sunday, 28 February 2010 14:55 |
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Latin America rejects U.S. approach in drug war |
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Written by Robert Ryan
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Sunday, 31 January 2010 13:17 |
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The drug war is a huge policy failure. Now the rest of the world is starting to recognize that fact . See the recent Reuters article about Latin America.
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - As an increasingly violent and costly drugs war clogs up prisons with small-time users, some Latin American countries are abandoning hardline U.S. policies on consumption to intensify the fight against major traffickers.
Convinced that the four-decade-old, U.S.-led war on drugs has failed, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and other countries are relaxing penalties for possession and personal use of small amounts of narcotics.
Critics warn drug abuse and violence will rise if the small-scale consumption of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs is tolerated, but policy makers in much of Latin America argue the new laws will free up resources to go after big traffickers and treat addicts.
The shift away from zero-tolerance policies has picked up pace in the past year and U.S. President Barack Obama's administration has voiced little opposition to the changes. That is a dramatic switch after decades of Washington's resolute opposition to any easing of laws against consumption.
Follow this link for the rest of the Reuters article. |
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Last Updated on Sunday, 31 January 2010 13:23 |
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