Category: Drug policy reform

Reforma de la politica de drogas: Un repaso al 2012

2012 fue un año crucial y un momento crítico para la Política Global de Drogas. Un repaso de los eventos mayor de 2012 desde las declaraciones del Presidente de Guatemala Otto Perez Molina hasta la victoria por la legalización de la marijuana en Colorado y Washington.

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

Download a free 50-page excerpt: http://www.world-war-d.com/.

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Follow me on Twitter: @JDhywood
Become a better informed activist and support global drug policy reform!
Order your own copy of “Word War-D”

  • The reference book on the War on Drugs and prohibitionism
  • A guide to psychoactive substances and substance abuse
  • A blueprint for global drug policy reform and controlled legalization

Media inquiries- book reviews – speaking engagements: contact promo@world-war-d.com

 

Drug policy reform moving forward after holidays pause.

Support for marijuana legalization gaining momentum in the US

In the aftermath of the decisive victories for marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington, recent polls conducted since then reveal a rapidly widening support for medical marijuana as well as full legalization, and this support is now reaching into the Southern states that have traditionally been strongly opposed even to medical marijuana.

A recent survey conducted in Hawaii, birthplace of president Obama and land of the “Choom Gang” and its “choomwagon”, reveals a stunning 78% support for a “tightly regulated dispensary system” and 57% support for controlled legalization. Hawaii is on a short list of states that might consider the state legislature route to marijuana legalization.

In New Hampshire, a state scheduled to legalize medical marijuana in 2013, support is 68% to 26% opposed, while support for full controlled legalization is 53 to 37 http://www.mpp.org/states/new-hampshire/2013NewHampshireResults.pdf

In Arizona, where the voters approved state’s MMJ program has been under siege from the start, support for MMJ stands at 59% while support for controlled legalization is 53 to 44. Arizona is expected to have a marijuana legalization initiative on the 2014 or 2016 ballot, although it would probably be a long shot.

More interesting, voters in North Carolina and West Virginia seems to be warming to the idea of medical marijuana, 58 to 33 in North Carolina, and 53 to 40 in conservative West Virginia.

Lawmakers in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont have already promised to introduce marijuana legislation in 2013, and other are expected to follow, including  Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Virginia. Most of the proposals are likely to never even make it to a vote, and others will be defeated or vetoed; still, 2013 is likely to deliver a few more controlled legalization states, while the block of medical marijuana states will most certainly pass the 20 count and may even reach 25, at which point a majority of the US states would have legalized medical marijuana. A Medical Marijuana Bill was introduced in Kansas on January 16.

Meanwhile, on December 19, the National Institute on Drug Abuse released the results of the 2012 Monitoring the Future Survey, which indicate a continued rise in teenage use of marijuana with daily use at 6.5% among high school seniors and last month use at nearly 23 %. The survey also notes a continued decrease of alcohol and tobacco use, which seems to indicate that marijuana is displacing these substances among high-school students. Whether or not this is positive trend is of course a matter of debate, as alcohol is often viewed as more harmful than marijuana. It shows nonetheless that prohibition is failing to curb teen use and alternatives are long overdue.

Update on drug policy reform in the world

Bolivian president Evo Morales set an important international precedent on Friday January 11, 2013, when his country rejoined the United Nations’ 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs with reservations, as the U.N. recognized the traditional use of the coca leaf and Bolivians’ right to chew the coca leaf in their territory.

In Guatemala, President Molina is meeting with Amanda Feilding of the Beckley foundation who will present the Beckley’s report “Paths for Reform”, containing “the Beckley Foundation’s suggestions regarding the steps which the Guatemalan government might now take to maintain the momentum of the President’s initiatives. It complements the report Illicit Drug Markets and Dimensions of Violence in Guatemala, which analyses Guatemala’s situation under the current policies.“

President Molina has been pushing since taking office as year ago for alternatives to the current prohibitionist policies. Guatemala, together with its neighbor Honduras and El Salvador have been taken over by Mexican drug cartels and turned into a battleground between the brutal and much feared Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel fighting for the control of key transit routes to the US.

In Mexico, narco-violence keeps spreading even if the body count may have stabilized or even somewhat decreased with a relative normalization of the Ciudad Juarez territory where the Sinaloa cartel seems to have gained the upper hand. Regions that had been relatively spared until now are being affected  and violence is reaching Mexico City where 22 bodies were discovered on January 12-13 and another 16 bodies in nearby Toluca. Newly inaugurated President Enrique Pena Nieto has said that reducing violence in Mexico is one of his government’s top priorities and has set an ambitious agenda that may stay “letra muerta” (dead words) unless he can get the cooperation of state and local authorities. His position on the War on Drugs and drug policy reform is as fuzzy as ever. The debate may be starting though, as the PRD opposition party is presenting a legalization proposal that stands very little chance of approval but will certainly bring up the debate to the governmental level.

In the UK, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform issued a report on January 14, recommending sweeping changes to current drug policies and decriminalization of all drugs with legalization of the least dangerous ones. The report was promptly rejected by Prime Minister David Cameron, claiming that the current approach to drugs in the UK is “the right one and is working”, making one wonder what he has been smoking lately. Meanwhile, his Deputy Prime Minister and partner in the ruling coalition, Nick Clegg, declared that the “drugs war is lost” and “current drugs policy have not been delivering for a while”.

On January 16, The British Medical Association, a professional association and registered trade union for doctors, published a comprehensive report on drug policy in the UK making clear the role they feel medical practitioners should play, not only in improving care of problem drug users, but also in becoming involved in the political debate over drug policy. http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/2013/01/16/doctors-make-themselves-heard-in-the-drug-policy-debate/

In France, 150 to 200 marijuana social clubs (clubs of growers for personal use) decided to come out of the closet in February and apply for official registration. Cannabis social clubs have been legal in Spain for quite some time already.

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

Download a free 50-page excerpt: http://www.world-war-d.com/.

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Follow me on Twitter: @JDhywood
Become a better informed activist and support global drug policy reform!
Order your own copy of “Word War-D”

  • The reference book on the War on Drugs and prohibitionism
  • A guide to psychoactive substances and substance abuse
  • A blueprint for global drug policy reform and controlled legalization

Media inquiries- book reviews – speaking engagements: contact promo@world-war-d.com

 

Breaking the taboo

Breaking the tabooLet us break the taboo on debate and reform. The time for action is now. Sign the petition http://www.breakingthetaboo.info/

Breaking the Taboo is a global grass-roots campaign website against the War on Drugs, run by the Beckley Foundation in association with The Global Commission on Drug Policy, Virgin Unite, Avaaz and Sundog Pictures. The Mission Statement of the campaign is the Beckley Foundation Public Letter calling for a new approach to the War on Drugs, signed by nine Presidents, twelve Nobel prize winners, and many other world figures. The site hosts a coalition of international NGOs, united in their belief that the War on Drugs has failed and that global drug policy can and must be reformed. An Avaaz petition is hosted on the site, which will be presented to the UN. We hope that by collecting together so many voices calling for change, we will finally be able to persuade governments and lawmakers into adopting a humane and rational approach to drugs.

Mission Statement:

The global war on drugs has failed. It is time for a new approach.

We call on Governments and Parliaments to recognise that:

Fifty years after the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was launched, the global war on drugs has failed, and has had many unintended and devastating consequences worldwide.

Use of the major controlled drugs has risen, and supply is cheaper and more available than ever before. The UN conservatively estimates that there are now over 250 million drug users worldwide.

Illicit drugs are now the third most valuable industry in the world, after food and oil, all in the control of criminals. Fighting the war on drugs costs the world’s taxpayers incalculable billions each year. Millions of people are in prison worldwide for drug-related offences, mostly personal users and small-time dealers.

Corruption amongst law-enforcers and politicians, especially in producer and transit countries, has spread as never before, endangering democracy and civil society. Stability, security and development are threatened by the fallout from the war on drugs, as are human rights. Tens of thousands of people die in the drug war each year.

The drug-free world so confidently predicted by supporters of the war on drugs is further than ever from attainment.The policies of prohibition create more harms than they prevent. We must seriously consider shifting resources away from criminalising tens of millions of otherwise law abiding citizens, and move towards an approach based on health, harm-reduction, cost-effectiveness and respect for human rights.

Evidence consistently shows that these health-based approaches deliver better results than criminalisation. Improving our drug policies is one of the key policy challenges of our time. It is time for world leaders to fundamentally review their strategies in response to the drug phenomenon.

At the root of current policies lies the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It is time to re-examine this treaty, which imposes a “one-size-fits-all” solution, in order to allow individual countries the freedom to explore drug policies that better suit their domestic needs.

As the production, demand and use of drugs cannot be eradicated, new ways must be found to minimise harms, and new policies, based on scientific evidence, must be explored.

Let us break the taboo on debate and reform. The time for action is now.

Yours faithfully,

President Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia

President Otto Pérez Molina, President of Guatemala

President César Gaviria, Former President of Colombia

President Lech Wałęsa, Former President of Poland, Nobel Prize winner

President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Former President of Poland

President Jimmy Carter, Former President of the United States of America

President Fernando H. Cardoso, Former President of Brazil

President Ruth Dreifuss, Former President of Switzerland

President Vincente Fox, Former President of Mexico

Sir Richard Branson, Entrepreneur and Founder of the Virgin Group

Bernardo Bertolucci, Oscar-winning Film Director

Carlos Fuentes, Novelist and essayist

Sean Parker, Founding President of Facebook, Director of Spotify

Thorvald Stoltenberg, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs (Norway) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Asma Jahangir, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Execution

Louise Arbour, CC, GOQ, Former UN High-Commissioner for Human Rights

Professor Sir Anthony Leggett, Physicist, Nobel Prize winner

Dr. Kary Mullis, Chemist, Nobel Prize winner

Maria Cattaui, Former Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce

Wisława Szymborska, Poet, Nobel Prize winner

Professor Sir Harold Kroto, Chemist, Nobel Prize winner

Professor Sir Harold Kroto, Chemist, Nobel Prize winner

Gilberto Gil, Musician, former Minister of Culture, Brazil

Professor Thomas C. Schelling, Economist, Nobel Prize winner

Professor Sir Peter Mansfield, Economist, Nobel Prize winner

Professor Niall Ferguson, Professor of History at Harvard University

Professor Colin Blakemore, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and University of Warwick

Professor David Nutt, Former Chair of the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs

Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, Professor of Economics at Cambridge

Dr. Julian Huppert, MP, Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform

Dr. Muhammed Abdul Bari, MBE, Former Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain

Trudie Styler, Actress and producer

Professor Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University

Lord Mancroft, Chair of the Drug and Alcohol Foundation

Professor A. C. Grayling, Master of the New College of the Humanities

General Lord Ramsbotham, Former HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

Lord MacDonald, QC, Former Head of the Crown Prosecution Service

Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, Former Editor of The Sunday Telegraph

Tom Brake, MP, Co-chair of the Lib Dem Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities Parliamentary Policy Committee

Professor Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT

George P. Schultz, Former US Secretary of State

Yoko Ono, Musician and artist

Mario Vargas Llosa, Writer, Nobel Prize winner

Jaswant Singh, Former Minister of Defence, of Finance, and for External Affairs, India

Sting,  Musician and actor

Michel Kazatchkine,  United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS

John Whitehead,  Former US Deputy Secretary of State

John Perry Barlow,  Co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Javier Solana, KOGF, KCMG,  Former EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy

Professor Kenneth Arrow,  Economist, Nobel Prize winner

Jeremy Thomas,  Film Producer

Professor John Polanyi,  Chemist, Nobel Prize winner

Pavel Bém,  Former Mayor of Prague

Dr. Jan Wiarda,  Former President of European Police Chiefs

Professor Lord Piot,  Former UN Under Secretary-General

Professor Martin L. Perl,  Physicist, Nobel Prize winner

Lord Rees, OM,  Astronomer Royal and former President of the Royal Society

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore,  Former President of the Royal College of Physicians

Professor Trevor Robbins,  Professor of Neuroscience at Cambridge

Caroline Lucas, MP,  Leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton

Professor Jonathan Wolff,  Professor of Philosophy at UCL

Carel Edwards,  Former Head of the EU Commission’s Drug Policy Unit

Professor Robin Room,  School of Population Health, University of Melbourne

Gary Johnson,  Former Republican US Presidential Candidate

Bob Ainsworth, MP,  Former UK Secretary of State for Defence

Nicholas Green, QC,  Former Chairman of the Bar Council

Peter Lilley, MP,  Former Secretary of State for Social Security

Tom Lloyd,  Former Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire

Professor Robert Grayling,  Dean of School of Medicine, KCL

Paul Flynn, MP,  Labour MP for Newport West

Dr. Patrick Aeberhard,  Former President of Doctors of the World

Amanda Feilding,  Director of the Beckley Foundation

Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee planning a hearing next year to discuss MJ federal policy towards CO & WA

Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on marijuana federal policyAs players on both sides of the issue are pressuring the Obama administration to take a stand on the legalization of marijuana, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is planning a hearing next year to discuss federal policy towards Colorado and Washington State now that they have legalized marijuana. Leahy also sent a letter to drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, offering a compromise solution: “One option would be to amend the Federal Controlled Substances Act to allow possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, at least in jurisdictions where it is legal under state law.”

Meanwhile, a massive global campaign for drug policy reform, labeled “Breaking the Taboo” has been launched by the Beckley Foundation in association with The Global Commission on Drug Policy, Virgin Unite and Avaaz. The campaign has high profile support from ex-presidents Carter and Clinton, as well as Presidents Perez Molina of Guatemala and Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia. http://www.breakingthetaboo.info/. Few days after its launch, close to 700,000 people have already signed the petition that will be presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and all heads of states.

I also remind you that a special UN session on drug policy reform has been convened for early 2016 at the request of Latin America with the support of Spain and Portugal. http://www.world-war-d.com/2012/12/02/un-special-session-on-global-drug-policy-2016/ Preparatory work will start in 2013. I will keep you posted.

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

Download a free 50-page excerpt: http://www.world-war-d.com/.

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Follow me on Twitter: @JDhywood
Become a better informed activist and support global drug policy reform!
Order your own copy of “Word War-D”

  • The reference book on the War on Drugs and prohibitionism
  • A guide to psychoactive substances and substance abuse
  • A blueprint for global drug policy reform and controlled legalization

Media inquiries- book reviews – speaking engagements: contact promo@world-war-d.com

 

What to expect from the 2016 special UN session on global drug policy?

3 years to shift the balance of power from the drug prohibitionist camp to the reformist camp at the UN

On November 27, the UN General Assembly adopted a Mexican proposal to hold an emergency drug policy summit, scheduled for early 2016 after an intensive preparatory process that will begin next year.

The proposal was first introduced to the UN general Assembly by Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala on September 26, joined by Honduras, Costa Rica and Belize on November 12. It was then backed by the majority of Latin American governments, as well as those of Spain and Portugal at the Ibero-American Summit in Cadiz, on November 17.

While all the backers of the proposal share a common concern about the calamitous drug-trafficking situation in the region, they are far from agreeing on a common approach and seem to be all over the spectrum on the issue. Uruguay is on the verge of becoming the first country in the world to legalize marijuana under state control. Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has been the most vocal advocate of legalization since taking office in January, while neighboring Honduras led by Porfirio Lobo, is a hard-line prohibitionist, with most other countries spread between these two extremes.

The two key regional players, Colombia and Mexico have voiced rather ambiguous positions. Colombian President Santos has repeatedly expressed his support for legalization, if the rest of the world agrees, a big if indeed, but has refused so far to take the lead of a drug policy reform alliance. He may be getting closer to assuming this role for which he is particularly suited. In his foreword to the report “Governing The Global Drug Wars” published in October by the Transnational Institute, President Santos declared: “The time has come to take a fresh look and we invite world leaders, scientists and experts to start an open, serious and honest debate about this war. The time has come to think outside the box… This is a global problem that demands a global solution, and therefore a new international consensus is needed.”

The Mexican position has been even more puzzling since Calderon took office in 2006 and started a brutal confrontation with the Mexican drug cartels that left over 60,000 casualties, 25,000 disappeared and over 200,000 displaced. Internally, Calderon defended fiercely his hardcore War on Drugs policies, while abroad, he has repeatedly admitted that “market-oriented approaches” should be considered. He even declared on September 24, 2012, at the Council on Foreign Relations: “ Let’s be honest, I don’t see any [solution] other than the regulation of drugs in the global marketplace, starting here, in the United States.” (“Seamos honestos: no se me ocurre otra que no sea la regulación de las drogas en el mercado global, empezando por aquí, por Estados Unidos”). It should be noted that the last two former Mexican Presidents, Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo are both active drug policy reformists.

Mexican president Felipe Calderon term ended on December 1st, and the position of his successor Enrique Peña Nieto is still unclear. Peña Nieto was invited at the White House on November 27, and the recent legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington was on the agenda, even is nothing transpired. While he reiterated his personal opposition to legalization, in a Time interview published on November 27, Peña Nieto acknowledged that it may be time to reassess the War on Drugs and called for a hemispheric debate on its effectiveness. According to Peña Nieto, state legalization “creates certain distortions and incongruences, since it’s in conflict with the [U.S.] federal government… That will impact how Mexico and other countries in the hemisphere respond.” He even raised the possibility that Mexico itself may legalize marijuana.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Portugal and Spain have some of the most liberal drug policies in the world. Portugal, where all drugs have been decriminalized in since 2000, is held as the poster-boy of drug policy reform, while cannabis clubs are legal in Spain, with the blessing of the Spanish Supreme Court.

So, what does the prospect of a UN summit on drug policy means for the drug policy reform movement, and what can be expected from it? There have been after all quite a few similar events since the Adoption of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Will 2016 be the year when reality finally sinks in within the international community that drug prohibition has failed and that it is time to look for more sustainable alternatives? There are good reasons to believe so.

The 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances set lofty goals of complete eradication of drug use, toned down to a 50% reduction within 10 years in 1988, a goal reiterated in 1998, but abandoned altogether in 2008 amidst growing restlessness within the UN community. Furthermore, the “soft on drugs” label is rapidly losing its stickiness as the political risk of drug reformist positions is plummeting rapidly. Drug policy reform may even start turning into political asset in some circumscriptions, as was the case in Washington this November, when most of the Democrat political establishment lined up behind the legalization initiative.

As the consensus behind the War on Drugs starts crumbling, and as countries start breaking ranks and rejectthe dominant approach to drug policy altogether, the international community will see reduced opportunities for reprisals and sanctions. Uruguay’s intention to legalize marijuana under state control has been met with rather muted UN opposition so far. Sanctions against Uruguay will be hard to justify if similar sanctions are not imposed on Washington and Colorado, a prospect not even remotely likely, and may just galvanize regional rancor. Other Latin American countries might emulate the Uruguayan model, with neighboring Argentina a real potential candidate.

In the US, the number of medical marijuana states is likely to reach 20 in 2013 as proposals are set to be presented to several state legislatures, including New Hampshire, Illinois and New York. Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts, as well as Oregon and Montana may also try to adopt full marijuana legalization through their legislatures, while a legalization initiative is already on the drawing board in California. The battle has even been brought to the US Congress, with a bipartisan bill that would enable the states to make their own marijuana laws. The bill is probably still symbolic at this stage, and stands very little chances, but it may be a harbinger of things to come.

Embroiled in a deep economic and financial crisis, Europe is staying relatively on the sidelines on drug policy issues, even though (or maybe because), European drug policies are generally leaning on the liberal side and drug abuse is substantially lower there than in the US.

Ultimately, the fate of the 2016 special session lies most likely in Washington DC. The US has been the initiator, main architect and chief sponsor of the prohibitionist approach for over a century, and has over the years imposed her prohibitionist policies to the rest of the world. All current international treaties on illicit drugs having been produced and backed by successive US administrations over the past 50 years, a complete U-turn seems unlikely. But with 18 states and the district of Colombia in oblique violation of the international treaties and Colorado and Washington now squarely confronting them, the “tough on drugs” stance is increasingly untenable. Unless it reverses its attitude and draws the lessons from a century of failed prohibitionist rule, the US will be increasingly stuck between a rock and a hard place and her prohibitionist-in-chief posture will become more and more indefensible.

I have argued for quite some time that drug policy reform will be achieved by cracking the US prohibitionist backbone through the combined internal pressure from the states and external pressure from the US allies, principally, in Latin America. In a truly historic year for drug policy reform, the pieces of the global drug policy reform puzzle appeared to be falling into place one by one in 2012, and the US resolve seems to be faltering. The Obama administration appears hesitant after the decisive victories for marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington. By intensifying the crackdown on medical marijuana over the past few years, Obama brought the War on Drugs to the Caucasian community, which may have further galvanized support for legalization. Whether hidden agenda or law of unintended consequences, it clearly narrowed the administration’s margins of maneuver and crackdowns on the newly legalized marijuana states may backfire even more, further stiffening support for legalization.

While the 2016 special session could easily be derailed, if drug policy reformists, especially in Latin American and within the US, use the next three years to keep resolutely pushing for reform, we may see the emergence of a global coalition and a new global consensus on drug policy. This is an opportunity that reform activists cannot afford to waste.

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/

www.world-war-d.com
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Twitter: @JDhywood
jd (at) world-war-d.com

Further readings

http://www.sre.gob.mx/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1756:the-un-general-assembly-adopts-mexicos-resolution-on-international-cooperation-against-drugs&catid=27:archives&Itemid=64

http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/un-debate-global-drug-policy

http://www.druglawreform.info/en/un-drug-control/item/3980-governing-the-global-drug-wars

Turning a corner in the War on Drugs

The decisive victories for marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado on November 6th transform the global drug policy debate

After declaring in 1971 “We must wage total war against public enemy number one in the United State, the problem of dangerous drugs”, President Richard Nixon prematurely claimed victory On September 11, 1973, “We turned the corner on drug addiction in the United states. Drug addiction is under control.” Almost 40 years later, we might indeed be turning a corner in the war on drugs, though not quite the corner envisioned by Nixon, as 2012 is poised to enter the history books as a turning point in the failed war on drugs, and will hopefully signal the beginning of its unfolding.

Discontent about the failed war on drugs policies has been brewing for quite a while, especially in Latin America, but outside of that region, the debate rarely reached much beyond academic and activist circles. Things changed in June 2011 when drug policy reform grabbed the headlines across the world for the very first time with the publication of the Global Commission on Drug Policy Report. The report was signed by an impressive slate of prestigious individuals including seven former heads of state and the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and was a seminal event for drug policy reform. Another important event, The Merida Declaration on December 6, 2011, went virtually unnoticed by the media and drug policy experts alike. Issued at the Tuxtla Dialogue and Agreement Mechanism in Yucatan, Mexico, the declaration was signed by eleven heads of state and high-level representatives of Central America and the Caribbean, including Mexico, Colombia and Chile, and asked “consuming countries … to explore possible alternatives …, including regulatory or market oriented options.”

2012 started with a bang when retired right-wing general Otto Perez Molina, newly elected president of impoverished Guatemala, rattled the world and instantly placed his country on the map by declaring the war on drugs a failure and forcefully advocating legalization. Recently emerged from a decades-long brutal civil war, Guatemala is one of the world’s worst-hit countries by narco-violence, together with its unfortunate neighbors, Honduras and Salvador.

Perez Molina has been unwavering ever since. He brought the drug legalization debate to the April Summit of the Americas, a gathering of all heads of state across the continent, from Canada to Tierra del Fuego, except Cuba (banned by the US). More recently, he brought the debate to the UN general Assembly and was joined by Mexico and Colombia, the two major US allies in the War on Drugs, for a call to revise the international treaties on illicit drugs.

As Perez Molina is actively trying to build a coalition for drug policy reform, he met in early November with newly re-elected Hugo Chavez with legalization on the agenda. Venezuela is a major entry-point on the transit route of cocaine to the US through its extremely porous frontier with Colombia, and has often been a safe haven for Colombian narco-traffickers. However, the relationship between the Chavez regime and his cumbersome guests seems to be turning sour as violence has escalated dramatically in the country. Leftish Chavez joining right-wing Perez Molina in a coalition for drug policy reform might mollify the other members of the leftish Latin American coalition that includes Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. Left-leaning Argentina president Kirchner might join as well. Uruguay announced in June its intention to legalize marijuana under state control and the proposal is currently churning through the legislative process, with vote expected before Christmas.

The US being by far, the largest market for illegal drugs in the world, the decisive victories of the marijuana legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington take special significance in such a context. It is noteworthy that the US Justice Department refrained from taking a position on these initiatives during the campaign despite being urged by legalization opponents.

November 6 was a watershed moment for marijuana legalization and drug policy reform. Both initiatives enjoyed wide support across the political spectrum ranging from the state democratic party to the GOP US Senate Candidate for Washington, Michael Baumgartner, or former GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo in Colorado. Sponsored by former US attorney John McKay and current City Attorney Peter Holmes, and with backing from the mayor and the entire city council of Seattle as well as the Seattle Times, the Washington initiative lined up the most impressive slate of main-stream backing and enjoyed double digits victory. Curiously, in Washington and Colorado, the staunchest opposition came from the medical marijuana communities. The Oregon initiative, placing no restrictions on cultivation for personal use, was generally considered too radical and was soundly defeated. The Massachusetts medical marijuana initiative provided the icing on the cake with a landslide victory and was another clear indication of the growing disconnect between politicians and the public on drug policy issues.

The marijuana legalization victories in the US will have momentous implications for Latin America and places the federal government in an awkward position, caught between internal and external pressure for reform. It certainly weakens its hands in its negotiations with its increasingly restive allies in the war on drugs. It might also give the needed impetus for the crystallization of a coalition of the willing and rally the support of the countries such as Costa Rica that have prudently stayed on the sideline until now.

The 22nd Ibero-American Summit, held on November 16 – 17 2012 in Cadiz, hosted by Spain and attended by Portugal and most Latin American countries provided a good test of the effects of marijuana legalization victories. Portugal and Spain have some of the most liberal drug policies in the world. Despite the economic crisis that has been shaking Southern Europe for the past few years, the summit offered a favorable environment for an open debate on drug policy reform and the final declaration called for an urgent UN debate on drug policy and an analysis of the potential consequences of legalization.

Colombian President is increasingly insistent in his call for global debate but remains reluctant to take a leading position. Meanwhile, the 5-months long relative power vacuum in Mexico will finally be filled when President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto takes office on December 1st. Peña Nieto will travel to Washington on December 4th and the recent legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington will be high on the agenda. While he reiterated his personal opposition to legalization, in a Time interview published on November 27, Peña Nieto acknowledged that it may be time to reassess the War on Drugs and called for a hemispheric debate on its effectiveness and even raised the possibility that Mexico itself may legalize marijuana. Colombia has long sought the support of Mexico in its pressure for drug policy reform, a support that Calderon could never offer openly. Peña Nieto’s positions have been ambiguous so far, but he might not have alternatives if he cannot contain the violence in Mexico, a prospect that seems highly unlikely. There is always, of course, the possibility that the PRI will broker a pax-narca, but the fragmentation of the cartels and the emergence of the brutal Zetas may very preclude this possibility.

In the US, the reaction of the federal government has been muted so far, cantoned to a reiteration of the supremacy of federal laws. The president’s options might be limited, especially as the solid victory in both Washington and Colorado and a landslide medical marijuana victory in Massachusetts diametrically reverse the political risk of marijuana legalization, with opposition to the issue becoming increasingly politically risky with youths and minorities, two key constituencies in the rapidly evolving electoral landscape.

Several states, including Illinois and New York are expected to push medical marijuana through their legislatures while New England states intend to move to the next step to legalize recreational marijuana. This would of course further weaken the Federal government hand in its negotiations with the states as well as with its Latin American allies. There is no doubt that the November victories will embolden the states to resist federal interference with their marijuana policies, and will dampen Latin American appetite for the hardcore prohibitionist policies of the past. A corner has most likely been turned in the War on Drugs on November 6, 2012, a corner towards legalization.

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/

www.world-war-d.com
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
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jd (at) world-war-d.com

Making sense of the fast-evolving drug policy debate

2012 has been quite an amazing year for drug policy reform and events are accelerating at breakneck pace after the historic marijuana legalization victories in Colorado and Washington. The domino effect is about to get started in the US, in Latin America and the rest of the world. A major global initiative will be launched on December 5, with the support of presidents Santos of Colombia and Perez Molina of Guatemala, as well as a dozen of ex-heads of states including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
If you want to make sense of the rapidly evolving global drug policy debate, “World War-D” gives you a global understanding of all the facets of the issue, bringing common sense and sanity to an issue often shrouded in misconceptions, preconceptions and taboos. More importantly, “World War-D” gives you in-depth analysis of practical, pragmatic and realistic alternatives to prohibition, alternatives that can eliminates the harm related to drug trafficking while managing and minimizing the harm related to drug abuse. As prohibitionism is starting to crumble at the edges, no other book offers such depth and breadth of understanding.
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  • The reference book on the War on Drugs and prohibitionism
  • A guide to psychoactive substances and substance abuse
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Stay tuned and keep up the fight! Thank you for your continued support.

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”
Download a free 50-page excerpt: http://www.world-war-d.com/.
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My readers routinely comment that “World War-D” should be required reading for politicians and lawmakers and strongly recommend it to those who want to understand all the facets of the issue and grasp its global complexity. No matter where you stand on drug prohibition, you will get a much clearer understanding of the issue in all of its multi-faceted complexity and with a global perspective. See readers’ reviews: http://www.world-war-d.com/reviews/readers-reviews

Obama’s drug policy quandary is about to deepen further

How much longer can Obama postpone the unavoidable drug policy debate?

Something was set in motion on November 6, 2012, that could become irreversible with sufficient mobilization and could finally put an end to a century of prohibitionist policies. Reality seems to be dawning at long last that the war on drugs is a colossal, costly and destructive failure. A survey by the (ONG) “Asuntos del Sur” published on November 26 indicates support for the legalization of marijuana reaching 81% in Buenos Aires, 79% in Santiago de Chile and 73% in Mexico City among the 18 to 34 years old population.

As Uruguay moves resolutely towards the legalization of marijuana under state control, Argentina could be next in line. The Argentine Supreme Court already ruled the decriminalization of possession for personal use of all drugs. The leader of the center-left coalition Broad Progressive Front (Frente Amplio Progresista or FAP) Hermes Juan Binner, recently declared his support for the legalization of all drugs.

In Chile, Senator Ricardo Lagos Weber, son of ex-president Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) presented a project of legalization of cultivation for therapeutic use and decriminalization of possession of small amounts. Ex-president Ricardo Lagos is a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

Meanwhile, the 5-months long relative power vacuum in Mexico will finally be filled when President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto takes office on December 1st. Peña Nieto will travel to Washington on December 4th and the recent legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington will be high on the agenda. While he reiterated his personal opposition to legalization, in a Time interview published on November 27, Peña Nieto acknowledged that it may be time to reassess the War on Drugs and called for a hemispheric debate on its effectiveness. According to Peña Nieto, state legalization “creates certain distortions and incongruences, since it’s in conflict with the [U.S.] federal government… That will impact how Mexico and other countries in the hemisphere respond.” He even raised the possibility that Mexico itself may legalize marijuana.

While in Washington, Peña Nieto will also meet VP Joe Biden, so far a staunch and vocal opponent of legalization. Will Biden have his legal marijuana epiphany, just like he had his gay marriage epiphany few months ago? Finally, Peña Nieto will meet Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, whose husband famously didn’t inhale but just came out of the closet with Richard Branson and Morgan Freeman for the launch of the documentary “Breaking the Taboo”.

Other Latin American leaders, chief among them Colombia President Juan-Manuel Santos, call for an urgent debate on global drug policies.

In the US, the governor of New Hampshire, the last New England state without medical marijuana regulation, signaled his support while activists are pushing medical marijuana through the New York legislature. Meanwhile, other New England states are considering moving one step further and are preparing legislation to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Rhode Island and Maine made an announcement to that effect on November 15, and Vermont and Massachusetts are expected to follow soon, which would further alarm US’ Latin Americans allies.

After Obama’s solid reelection victory largely attributed to the 71% support of Latin voters, the clout of the US Latin community has been raised quite a few notches and Obama knows that he needs to tread lightly. Latinos are emerging as a critical political force in the US. Together with the African Americans, they have paid the highest price within the US for the war on drugs. Their grievances cannot be ignored much longer.

In such a context, Obama’s drug-policy quandary will only deepen until he recognizes the inevitability of an honest and open drug policy debate, putting science and sound policy-making over politicking and ideology, a debate that takes into account public opinion and the realities of the 21st century and acknowledges the costly failure of prohibition.

The almost month-long silence of the Obama administration will need to be broken sooner or later. The political cost of picking up a long-lost rear-guard battle might be more than Obama is willing to stomach; it would certainly demobilize a critical part of his electoral base and may prove costly in the 2014 election cycle.  Even worse, it would accomplish very little and would most likely merely postpone the unavoidable. The times are changing, and they are changing at accelerating pace. With support for drug policy reform at all-time high in the youth population, support keeps growing is the general population as well with the generational change. The acceptability and normativity of marijuana use is also growing steadily as the ubiquitous green leaf invades screens big and small.

Prohibition has long been counterproductive, its message increasingly ignored or derided, and so are critical health warnings, severely minimizing the perceived danger of drug use. Credible studies on the long-term effects of substance use and abuse are sorely missing. Legalization with proper control and adequate flexibility would bring back science and much needed common sense and sanity where posturing, moralizing and politicking have long reigned unchallenged.

It is time to have an open, adult discussion about drug use in general. Both opponents and proponents of legalization have a tendency to caricature and hyperbole. All psychoactive substances, irrespective of their legal status, have recreational and medical uses as well as potentially harmful side-effects, and this includes marijuana, just as much as alcohol, tobacco, psycho-pharmaceuticals or cocaine and heroin. Marijuana is not harmless, as many activists would like us to believe, but it is far from the scourge prohibitionists claim it to be. The currently illicit drugs should be legalized and properly regulated BECAUSE of their harm potential and BECAUSE prohibition results in a total loss of control.

 

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Twitter: @JDhywood
jd (at) world-war-d.com

 

Global Drug Survey

NBC and The Guardian (UK) are launching the largest independent survey of drug use patterns in the world. I strongly encourage you to complete this rather detailed drug use survey (http://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/mixmag2013/). Unlike most prior studies that focus mostly on patterns of use and/or side-effects, the survey ask participants to evaluate the perceived benefits as well as the undesirable effects of a wide variety of substances, be they recreational, social, sexual, physical, behavioral, emotional or mental. In addition, the surveys ask you to evaluate how various changes in the legal status of illicit drugs, ranging for decriminalization to regulation, may affect your patterns of use. The results of the survey will be published in March 2013 and could open a more objective and honest discussion about drug policy reform, changing how drug users are perceived, ending their ostracization and demonization. The survey is anonymous and confidential and will run until the end of December. The survey is supported by NBC in the US; Fairfax Media in Australia and New Zealand; and in the UK, The Guardian, Mixmag and Gay Times. Last year survey reveals that while young people have tendencies to risky use behavior, the vast majority of users live healthy, productive lives.

More details at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/guardian-mixmag-drug-survey

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Twitter: @JDhywood
jd (at) world-war-d.com

 

Obama’s quandary

After two decisive victories for marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington State, what to expect from Obama?

With the historic and decisive victories for marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington State, the War on Drugs has been dealt a severe blow this November 6th, and the global drug policy debate has entered a whole new phase. Marijuana is still illegal for the federal government, which overrules states’ rights, and this is probably just the beginning of the battle. The U.S. Department of Justice reacted by saying that its enforcement policies remain unchanged, adding: “We are reviewing the ballot initiative and have no additional comment at this time.”

Medical marijuana also won in a landslide in Massachusetts, bringing to 18 the number of states (plus the district of Colombia) where marijuana is legal for medical purpose, further complicating the task of the Federal Government. A medical marijuana initiative in Arkansas, the first of its kind in the deep-South and the Bible belt, fared much better than expected, ending up narrowly defeated at 49 to 51 when most polls were predicting double-digits loss. This could be indicative of evolving attitudes even in the most conservative parts of the US.

It is quite clear that the status of marijuana poses a real dilemma for Obama and the Democratic Party. Marijuana legalization has wide support among young voters and drug prohibition disproportionally affects minorities, filling jails to the beams. Both constituencies have been keys to Obama’s 2008 and 2012 victories. Marijuana activists were frazzled by the Obama crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries but at the end of the day they lined up behind him thanks to their deep distrust of Mitt Romney, while they are still hoping that Obama will have a change of heart in his second term.

So, with reelection out of the way, how will the Obama administration react? Marijuana legalization has lost its hot-potato status as the Washington initiative enjoyed mainstream support across the political spectrum. The public is clearly ahead of its politicians on that matter and support for marijuana legalization has been steadily growing nationwide over the past 30 years, a trend unlikely to reverse anytime soon with the aging of its opponent and coming of age of its proponents.

Under such circumstances, Obama would have far more to lose than to win in picking up a battle with Colorado and Washington State; the issue could prove distracting and definitively alienate and demobilize some of his strongest supporters, which could prove costly in the mid-term 2014 election where voters turn-out is traditionally low.

While marijuana legalization could be stuck for years in lengthy legal battles, this would keep the issue in the political debate and the headlines. In a country weary of undue government interference, it will be hard to justify fighting the will of the people, especially when it has been expressed as decisively as it was on November 6th. Furthermore, prohibitionism might be deeply entrenched, but it has never withstood close scrutiny, as witnessed by countless studies and reports, including the 1972 Shafer Commission’s Report sponsored by the Nixon administration itself and later repudiated for recommending marijuana decriminalization. Drug policy reform would most likely benefit from keeping marijuana legalization in the limelight, as exposure allows it to generally outshine its prohibitionist nemesis.

Moreover, few more states legislatures are expected to take on medical marijuana in 2013, bringing the medical marijuana camp tantalizingly closer to the 25 count when a majority of the states will have legal access to medical marijuana. California is widely expected to present a legalization initiative in 2014 and may be joined by Massachusetts.

Last but not least, most law-enforcement is done by state and local agencies in the US and the federal government would be powerless without their cooperation, which strongly limit its practical options.

Should the Obama administration decide to fight marijuana legalization heads-on, it will clearly go against the tide and could face an uphill battle.

Pressure for drug policy reform is not just internal. Colombia and Mexico, the US’ closest Latin American allies have expressed for a while their growing frustration with the current prohibitionist policies. Now Guatemala, long a pariah state emerging from a decades-long civil war plagued with human-rights abuses, is trying to garner support throughout the region for a radical reevaluation of drug policy and a debate about legalization and proper control of all drugs.

There is also risk (or hope depending on where people stand on the issue) of a domino effect. The US elections have been watched closely by the activist community all over the world, from neighboring Canada to Australia and New Zealand, and through Latin America and Europe. The Colorado and Washington victories may have opened the Pandora box, and many states, provinces and countries could follow.

On the other hand, the US has been the world’s prohibitionist-in-chief for over a century, and has over the years imposed her prohibitionist policies to the rest of the world. All current international treaties on illicit drugs having been produced and backed by successive US administrations over the past 50 years, a complete U-turn seems unlikely. But with 18 states and the district of Colombia in oblique violation of the international treaties and Colorado and Washington now squarely confronting them, the “tough on drugs” stance is increasingly untenable. Unless it reverses its attitude and draws the lessons from a century of failed prohibitionist rule, the US will be increasingly stuck between a rock and a hard place and her prohibitionist-in-chief posture will become more and more indefensible.

2012 has certainly been a momentous year for drug policy reform, with a bumper crop of firsts:

  • Otto Perez Molina, from Guatemala, was the first president to formally and forcefully call for legalization and proper control of all drugs last January.
  • Drug legalization was placed on the agenda on the Summit of the Americas in April 2012
  • Uruguay announced its intention to legalize marijuana under state control in June 2012
  • Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico formally requested an open debate about drug policy reform at the 2012 UN General Assembly.
  • And of course, the states of Colorado and Washington voted decisively to legalize marijuana on November 6, 2012

In another notable development, US’ closest ally, Israel, is expanding its medical marijuana program, fueled by its strong research sector in medicine and technology with active governmental support.

Will 2012 be the year when the US acknowledges at long last the failure of her prohibitionist policies and start exploring less destructive, more realistic and pragmatic alternatives? Substance abuse is here to stay and tackling it is a matter of being smarter rather than tougher. Public mobilization behind the issue will be critical. Petitions and other forms of public pressure are likely to emerge both in support and against marijuana legalization and drug policy reform in general.

It should be noted that beyond the fate of particular initiatives or policies, powerful global trends are at play here. While alcohol has been the dominant psychoactive substance and social lubricant of Western civilization since its inception over 8,000 years ago, and while Western civilization has dominated the world for the past few centuries, globalization is rapidly shifting the geopolitical tectonic plates. As the world accelerates its move towards multipolarity, where no single power exerts overwhelming dominance, alcohol is also losing its psychoactive dominance to become just one of many psychoactive modalities, being replaced firstly by psychopharmaceuticals, followed by marijuana, more properly called cannabis.

At the end of the day, the days of prohibition are most likely counted and it will fade away with the American century that started with the 1908 Shanghai conference, the event that set the foundations of global prohibition, on the eve of World War-I.

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/

www.world-war-d.com
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Twitter: @JDhywood
jd (at) world-war-d.com