Drug War Truths

Recreational drug prohibition has been a miserable and continuing failure: (Drug War Tales)

The unvarnished truth about defeat in the global War on Drugs has slowly and grudgingly become accepted by honest politicians and former world political leaders. The enlightenment is limited so far to former political leaders since none of the current ones has the integrity or guts to admit that the War on Drugs has been a colossal mistake.   

A Global Commission on Drug Policy, consisting of a blue ribbon panel of 19 former world leaders, including those from Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, high profile businessmen, and other distinguished former heads of state, has issued a 24 page report acknowledging the dismal failure up front, and calling for legalization, especially decriminalization, of most recreational drugs and users. (BBC; 6/2/11)

The multi-decades long War on Drugs, especially in the United States, is ineffective, fuels organized crime, causes thousands of deaths annually, and costs taxpayer’s huge sums of money, says the report, even while “opiate use increased 35% worldwide from 1998 to 2008, cocaine by 27%, and cannabis by 8.5%.”

Government policy regarding recreational drugs should be based on methods empirically proven to reduce crime and promote economic and social development with strategies oriented toward health care and human rights objectives, the panel recommends.

"Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won," they conclude.

Not surprisingly, both the United States and Mexican governments have dismissed the report, calling it “misguided.” "Making drugs more available - as this report suggests - will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe," a government spokesman opined, as if our communities are healthy and safe now.

I find it most interesting to note, however, that none of the 19 panel members who issued the critical report has anything potentially to gain should the powers that be ultimately adopt their findings, therefore it can be fairly surmised that their motivation is entirely reasonable, sound, and in the public interest.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the global legions of grasping hypocritical current rulers, politicians, and government agency hacks whose livelihoods depend upon maintaining the status quo upon any irrational excuse, and at any cost.

As far as they are concerned the public interest may be damned.