Selected publications: The failures of the drug control regime
A growing body of evidence clearly demonstrates that the current drug control approach has failed to achieve its stated goal - to reduce the scale of the illicit drug market and the prevalence of drug use - and has led to a number of serious negative consequences. The publications cited below are only a small selection of available documentation on the issue:
2008 World Drug Report (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
World Drug Report 2008
The World Drug Report presents comprehensive information on the illicit drug situation. It provides detailed estimates and trends on production, trafficking and consumption in the opium/heroin, coca/cocaine, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants markets. The drug problem is being contained but there are warning signs that the stabilisation which has occurred over the last few years could be in danger. Notable amongst these is the increase in both opium poppy and coca cultivation in 2007,some growth in consumption in developing countries and some development of new trafficking patterns. There have also been encouraging contractions in some of the main consumer markets. This year, almost one hundred years since the Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909, the Report presents an historical review of the development of the international drug control system.
Report on Global Illicit Drug Markets 1998-2007 (European Commission)
HTML Code:
http://www.exundhopp.at/www1/drogenbericht.pdf
Drug policy: Lessons learned and options for the future (Global Commission on Drug Policy) Drug Policy ? Lessons Learnt, and Options for
the Future
Many more reports and briefings are available on the IDPC Publications Library, where you can search for publications by subject, author, organisation, date of publication, language and key word.
You can also keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.
72 hours to End the War on Drugs
SIGN THE PETITION
To Ban Ki-moon and all Heads of State:
We call on you to end the war on drugs and the prohibition regime, and move towards a system based on decriminalisation, regulation, public health and education. This 50 year old policy has failed, fuels violent organised crime, devastates lives and is costing billions. It is time for a humane and effective approach. 458,691 have signed already! Help reach 500,000
In 72 hours, we could finally see the beginning of the end of the ?war on drugs?. This expensive war has completely failed to curb the plague of drug addiction, while costing countless lives, devastating communities, and funneling trillions of dollars into violent organized crime networks.
Experts all agree that the most sensible policy is to regulate, but politicians are afraid to touch the issue. In days, a global commission including former heads of state and foreign policy chiefs of the UN, EU, US, Brazil, Mexico and more will break the taboo and publicly call for new approaches including decriminalization and regulation of drugs.
This could be a once-in-a-generation tipping-point moment -- if enough of us call for an end to this madness. Politicians say they understand that the war on drugs has failed, but claim the public isn't ready for an alternative. Let's show them we not only accept a sane and humane policy -- we demand it. Sign the petition and share with everyone -- when we reach 1/2 million, it will be personally delivered to world leaders by the global commission.
For 50 years current drug policies have failed everyone, everywhere but public debate is stuck in the mud of fear and misinformation. Everyone, even the UN Office on Drugs and Crime which is responsible for enforcing this approach agrees -- deploying militaries and police to burn drug farms, hunting down traffickers, and imprisoning dealers and addicts ? is an expensive mistake. And with massive human cost -- from Afghanistan, to Mexico, to the USA the illegal drug trade is destroying countries around the world, while addiction, overdose deaths, and HIV/AIDS infections continue to rise.
Meanwhile, countries with less-harsh enforcement -- like Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Australia -- have not seen the explosion in drug use that proponents of the drug war have darkly predicted. Instead, they have seen significant reductions in drug-related crime, addiction and deaths, and are able to focus squarely on dismantling criminal empires.
Powerful lobbies still stand in the way of change, including military, law enforcement, and prison departments whose budgets are at stake. And politicians fear that voters will throw them out of office if they support alternative approaches, as they will appear weak on law and order. But many former drug Ministers and Heads of State have come out in favour of reform since leaving office, and polls show that citizens across the world know the current approach is a catastrophe. Momentum is gathering towards new improved policies, particularly in regions that are ravaged by the drug trade.
If we can create a worldwide outcry in the next 72 hours to support the bold calls of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, we can overpower the stale excuses for the status quo. Our voices hold the key to change -- Sign the petition and spread the word.
END DRUG CRIME!
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I'll believe corporations are persons when Texas executes one.: LBJ's Ghost
prohibition does not work. Those of us who don't do drugs, still won't, like alcohol & tobacco, and those that do, will, legal or otherwise.
Great choice of an image to illustrate it. No one with half a working brain doesn't know crack or meth will enslave and destroy you. Hand holding self destructive fools is not "Natural Selection".
We can't afford "feel good" legislation any longer. We over crowd our prisons but don't even put a dent in drug crime. Use the money saved in other areas like early education of the dangers of drugs and putting cops back to work at the jobs we expect of them.
Legalization isn't condoning drugs, it's merely common sense.
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I'll believe corporations are persons when Texas executes one.: LBJ's Ghost
Great choice of an image to illustrate it. No one with half a working brain doesn't know crack or meth will enslave and destroy you. Hand holding self destructive fools is not "Natural Selection".
We can't afford "feel good" legislation any longer. We over crowd our prisons but don't even put a dent in drug crime. Use the money saved in other areas like early education of the dangers of drugs and putting cops back to work at the jobs we expect of them.
Legalization isn't condoning drugs, it's merely common sense.
same with prostitution and gay marriages . . . let em go, those of us who don't want that still won't, those that do, will, legal or not.
concession? or using it's own force and momentum to bring it down? either way, I won't do drugs, nor alcohol, divorce my wife to get involved in a gay marriage, smoke, drink, but I sure cuss like a drunken sailor though.
When the going get tough, concession is the way to go!
Concession has nothing to do with this Jake. The Drug War was a lie from the start and the countries that have dropped criminalization are proof this works.
Since Flaja appears gone I think hysterical fear of sodomy has largely disappeared and everyone knows what the OLDEST profession is.
There is nothing hear to fear or criminalize. Just people being silly but it shouldn't be at everyone's expense.
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I'll believe corporations are persons when Texas executes one.: LBJ's Ghost
Recently we had a lady who committed suicide after being locked up for a heroin charge. Granted, heroin is some NASSSSSSTY **** and makes you do some crazy stuff. Do I think she should have faced the music for the heroin? Absolutely!
But in a TREATMENT facility, not a PENAL facility.
This isnt about concession Jake, its about changing our tactics and the way that we address this issue. Treatment has a higher rate of success than incarceration anyday. Especially when the 'crime' is (closer to) victimless. Now, if the said individual goes out and does bad stuff while under the influence, then of course its a criminal matter. But for being a junkie/alkie/pothead?
Remember those commercials from the 80s? "Nobody says I want to be a junkie when I grow up"
Recently we had a lady who committed suicide after being locked up for a heroin charge. Granted, heroin is some NASSSSSSTY **** and makes you do some crazy stuff. Do I think she should have faced the music for the heroin? Absolutely!
But in a TREATMENT facility, not a PENAL facility.
This isnt about concession Jake, its about changing our tactics and the way that we address this issue. Treatment has a higher rate of success than incarceration anyday. Especially when the 'crime' is (closer to) victimless. Now, if the said individual goes out and does bad stuff while under the influence, then of course its a criminal matter. But for being a junkie/alkie/pothead?
Remember those commercials from the 80s? "Nobody says I want to be a junkie when I grow up"
Also, as with the tobacco industry, once they are legal, we can tap into that buckage to reduce their effectiveness. Many contraband gangsters later became upstanding citizens and respectable families and one I know of even sent several to senate and the presidency of the US.
This isnt about concession Jake, its about changing our tactics and the way that we address this issue. Treatment has a higher rate of success than incarceration anyday. Especially when the 'crime' is (closer to) victimless. Now, if the said individual goes out and does bad stuff while under the influence, then of course its a criminal matter. But for being a junkie/alkie/pothead?
Remember those commercials from the 80s? "Nobody says I want to be a junkie when I grow up"
In the late 80's an alcohol treatment facility gave you a 28 day course in survival. You might still drink but you had the tools to choose. By the mid 90's it was 10 to 14 days and more like going through the motions.
At least there had been funded and adequate treatment but drug and alcohol treatment is underfunded at the same time law enforcement has become huge despite it's failure to begin to curb the flow of drugs.
WE CAN'T SAVE EVERY DRUGGIE and many don't even want help. For them legalization at least stops drug crime. For those that do want help there should be well funded state of the art help.
Cops will tell you drugs are involved in 80% of crime so if we stop enriching the suppliers we can use the same money no largely wasted on trying to stop drugs.
As it is we ignore poppy production in Afghanistan because the poor ignorant tribal ignoramuses can't figure out how to grow food instead. Screw them, bomb them and salt the earth as we leave.
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I'll believe corporations are persons when Texas executes one.: LBJ's Ghost
same with prostitution and gay marriages . . . let em go, those of us who don't want that still won't, those that do, will, legal or not.
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