The global war on drugs has failed.
So says a global commission on drugs report. Launched in New York, the 24-page report is available online.
"The war on drugs has failed to cut drug usage, but has filled our jails, cost millions in tax payer dollars, fuelled organised crime and caused thousands of deaths. We need a new approach, one that takes the power out of the hands of organized crime and treats people with addiction problems like patients, not criminals,โ said Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group. โThe good news is new approaches focused on regulation and decriminalisation have worked. We need our leaders, including business people, looking at alternative, fact based approaches. We need more humane and effective ways to reduce the harm caused by drugs. The one thing we cannot afford to do is to go on pretending the โwar on drugsโ is working."
โFifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the US governmentโs global war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed,โ said former president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso. โLetโs start by treating drug addiction as a health issue, reducing drug demand through proven educational initiatives and legally regulating rather than criminalising cannabis.โ
According to the report, vast expenditures on criminalisation and repressive measures directed at producers, traffickers and consumers of illegal drugs have clearly failed to effectively curtail supply or consumption. Apparent victories in eliminating one source or trafficking organisation are negated almost instantly by the emergence of other sources and traffickers. Repressive efforts directed at consumers impede public health measures to reduce HIV/AIDS, overdose fatalities and other harmful consequences of drug use. Government expenditures on futile supply reduction strategies and incarceration displace more cost-effective and evidence-based investments in demand and harm reduction. To read the report visit –
