How did the old blues go? “How long, lawdy, how long?”
“A 19-member international panel has condemned the US-led "War on Drugs" campaign as a failure and has recommended major reforms of the global drug prohibition regime. The Global Commission on Drug Policy report, released on Thursday, argues that the four-decades-long campaign has failed to make significant changes in the international drug scenario and has, in fact, devastating consequences on human societies across the world. "Overwhelming evidence from Europe, Canada and Australia now demonstrates the human and social benefits both of treating drug addiction as a health rather than criminal justice problem and of reducing reliance on prohibitionist policies," remarked former Swiss president Ruth Dreifuss. "These policies need to be adopted worldwide, with requisite changes to the international drug control conventions." The term "War on Drugs" was first used by US President Richard Nixon on June 17, 1971 and was intended to define and reduce illicit drug trade globally. However, the new report points out that the result of this campaign has been nothing but a drastic increase in drug violence, especially in regions like Brazil and Mexico.” (Click here for more)
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I completely agree. Before the war on drugs gained full force under Reagan, an individual could go to his/her local contact and buy a bag of pot. Now they need to take their friends Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson to assure they not only get their pot, but return alive. And of course the price has skyrocketed.
ReplyDeleteending the war on drugs will cause the bottom to fall out of the drug market. So an addict will need to spend less to support his/her habit.
Now if they are supporting their drug habit by criminal activities, this means the crime losses will also decrease.
I remember Hunter Thompson commenting near the end of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that the war on drugs was completely misguided from the outset. The generals of the war had no idea about which drugs were being used and by whom.
May I be thew first to nominate Cheech and Chong to co-chair the War Crimes tribunal?
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