Thursday June 2, 2011 saw the publication of the Global Commissions Report on Drug Policy which implores that we begin the transformation of the current prohibitionist approach to drug policy (which has been based on ideology and political convenience) into the development of evidence-based, cost-effective, harm-reducing drug policies. These are aims that the Beckley Foundation has been championing for many years.
The Report highlights the devastating consequences of the war on drugs, that has been sadly fought over the last 50 years, and calls for an end to the taboo surrounding debate and reform. Governments are encouraged to experiment with models of decriminalisation and legal regulation in order to undermine the power of organised crime. It further suggests that resources be focussed on health and treatment services instead of criminalising users.
The Beckley Foundation is working closely with the Global Commission and we are delighted to be providing the European platform to disseminate their Report at our Meeting in November at the House of Lords. This Meeting will launch the Global Initiative for Drug Policy Reform which the Beckley Foundation is hosting in collaboration with the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform.
The BF has commissioned a new Draft UN Convention on All Illegal Drugs which will provides the key to enable change in countries interested in reform.
To download Full Report as a pdf, click here.
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There is a whole discourse of power present in drugs generally, and the war on drugs in particular.
Who benefits for these wars? Why, since man has walked this planet, he has distilled, crushed, fermented, smoked, inhaled, and many other processes mind and mood altering naturally occurring substances, has a war been necessary? There is a power dynamic in here waiting to be explored.
As an addiction therapist of many years, I have witnessed firsthand the misery caused by dependence on different legal and illegal mind and mood altering substances. But history, something politicians and mere mortals never seem to learn from, will show that attitudes and policies have evolved, mutated, decreased, increased and generally changed over time.
Coca, the natural vegetation that can be made into cocaine was, for many years, an intrinsic ingredient in Coca Cola. Opium was smoked by the rich, whist the poor swilled cheap beer and gin. Oh so many prescribed drugs became to drug of social choice for recreational use.
Many stories of different mixes of this and that substance being banned in this and that country grow and are reported in the media. However, the internet makes purchasing almost anything as easy as a few click of a mouse at a computer terminal. Drug smuggling is not new, nor will it ever be eradicated, in my view. Smuggling has also been around for a very long time.
We tax alcohol and tobacco, but the money goes straight into the NHS to help those suffering from the use of these substances.
Enforcement failed to stop illegal production and sale of alcohol last century in the US. Man will always want to profit from anything that makes money, the consequences are generally ignored. Drugs are very powerful, for those who use them, to those who provide them, and to those who would police their sale and usage.
This report needs to be taken to the next step. We do not need a global policy; we need a localised, manageable policy that contains removes suffering, and creates a common sense approach to an everlasting problem. There are those who will always throw their arms up in dismay at the thought of addicts roaming the streets stealing everything in sight. The reality is that the legal drug alcohol does more harm and costs the tax payer more than illegal drugs do.
The war on drugs? More rhetoric from politicians seeking votes, with no foundation of a real outcome, or what it would look like. We are always involved in unwinnable wars for many a reason. The war on drugs will just drag on costing those fighting it extreme amounts of tax payer’s money, and untold suffering to the peoples growing the crops.
In the UK, the heavy manufacturing has all but died away. We have had to change what we produce and how we engage economically with the rest of the world. It has (sort of) worked. Other countries have had to do the same for a variety of reasons. The changing parts of the world, that produce things that are economically viable to them, will never work while the barrel of a gun is used. It does not motivate
Judith Butler has something to say about the value of a life, and the meaning of this. We save western lives whilst happily destroying people elsewhere. Why and how do we have the conscience to do this? Our western lives are more valuable than lives of ‘others’?
We can have a global view of the issues, all countries having laws about the legality of some drugs. We need to look holistically at the issue, not at isolated and out of date research.
The human race is changing every day, at a micro and macro level. The policies that are implemented, whatever the choice, need to be humanistically driven, as far as possible, but be sure that ‘resources’ (money) will drive any consensus for change. As for the power discourse, I will be interested how this emerges further.