Is the war on drugs going somewhere?

[STONEDAJ69]

So, a few weeks ago I signed up to this "Stop the war on drugs" petition I saw on twitter.

 

Expected nothing to come of it. Then today, I checked my email (something I NEVER do) and found this:

(I just hope it's true)

 

Victory Against the War on Drugs!

 

The war on drugs has cost billions in tax money, funneled trillions of dollars into organized crime, cost countless lives, and achieved zero results.

 

Yet, for decades, any debate around ending the war on drugs has been quashed. In official circles, it's "taboo" to talk the about regulation or decriminalisation -- some even lose their jobs for doing so.

 

Then a group of former presidents formed The Global Commission on Drugs to boldly speak out for reform. They faced one problem -- politicians claimed they couldn't act because there was no public support for change! So Avaaz joined the fight.

 

Press conference image

 

We launched the campaign, and in one week, our community proved the politicians wrong, with over 600,000 Avaazers calling for an end to the war on drugs. The ex-presidents and billionaire Richard Branson called a press conference, presented their expert report proposing reform, received the Avaaz petition -- and the response was incredible! Over 2000 media articles were written (AP, IPS, The Guardian), virtually all of them positive!! The taboo was broken...

 

In a strategy meeting that afternoon, the ex-presidents repeatedly looked to our community to help take the campaign forward, stressing that only grass roots pressure can create the political will for action.

 

The next day, the Global Commission and Avaaz met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In 30 minutes of discussion, the Avaaz petition was presented and repeatedly cited as evidence of public demand for an end to the war. Ban took an important step and decided to create a task force to look at new solutions to the problem of drugs! A real and desperately needed debate has finally begun ...

[STONEDAJ69]

Small follow up... From the Huffington Post

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/22/marijuana-bill-barney-frank-ron-paul_n_882707.html?ref=tw

[shroomyshroom]

The war on drugs can never be one... for every meth lab they bust the person that got busted ha already taught 5 other ppl how to do it... and for ever grop op... bust that person has given seeds/clones to others who are more than willing to take there place........ if there was no dollar value associated with drugs it would bring the war on drugs to its goal... they dont seem to understand this... and believe putting people in jail is the only way to do it... but what happens when you start putting people in jail... everything goes under ground...

[nugget]

Thanks STONEDAJ69, good to know what came of that petition.

 

 

[Frank Reynolds]

The war on drugs can never be one... for every meth lab they bust the person that got busted ha already taught 5 other ppl how to do it... and for ever grop op... bust that person has given seeds/clones to others who are more than willing to take there place........ if there was no dollar value associated with drugs it would bring the war on drugs to its goal... they dont seem to understand this... and believe putting people in jail is the only way to do it... but what happens when you start putting people in jail... everything goes under ground...

 

I think they know what they are doing, it's the money that is being made from all of us being thrown into prison. Once this happens and the black market is created then it's a self sustaining economy in a sense.

 

We can't forget the big pharmas having there say in all of this also, they are extremely influential and can only benefit from still keeping that line in the sand splitting up 'good and bad drugs'.

Edited June 24, 2011 by buegeman

[smashed1]

i recon they use WAR ON DRUGS as a cover story , so them fuckz at the top can set up big selling there own drugs ! , while all the other lil fucks run round fucking every one else what a joke ai

[alchamest]

mmm the war on drugs probably does get used as a cover story, I dont think it was there intention when it was set up but all those years ago, shit changes over time, things become more corrupt especially with a system that seems to be set up to breed it.

 

I hope this brings about discussion to stop the war on drugs, there is a lot of chatter around on the net on it, i think it is spilling out of the computers as well. Thankfully the cost of this war as well as the global financial situation may bring its demise, even if in the background 'officials' are making coin, it cant be decalred so the war on drugs on paper can only show up as a cost. Its days are numbered!

[Tsigle]

Honestly I didn't really expect that we'd get anywhere with it. I'm glad I've signed. Good to see steps taken, we might see it legalized sooner than we thought.

[hobsons choice]

It's a bit misleading of them to claim the petition resulted in the media frenzy - it (the petition) was timed to coincide with the report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy which was presented to the UN and which stated the "War on Drugs" was an abject failure. It got a lot of attention as the commission is made up of extremely high ranking politicians and academics so governments can't really claim they don't know what they're talking about. It was then backed up by various celebrities like Richard Branson etc etc

 

Some of the people on the commission:

 

Kofi Annan

- former Secretary General of the United Nations, Ghana

 

» Asma Jahangir

- human rights activist, former UN Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Executions, Pakistan

 

» César Gaviria

- former President of Colômbia

 

» Ernesto Zedillo

- former President of México

 

» Fernando Henrique Cardoso

- former President of Brazil (chair)

 

» George Papandreou

- Prime Minister of Greece

 

» George Shultz

- former Secretary of State, United States (honorary chair)

 

» Javier Solana

- former European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Spain

 

» John Whitehead

- banker and civil servant, chair of the World Trade Center Memorial, United States

 

» Louise Arbour

- former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, president of the International Crisis Group, Canada

 

» Maria Cattaui

- Member of the Board, Petroplus Holdings; former Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce, Switzerland

 

» Marion Caspers-Merk

- former State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Health, Germany

 

» Michel Kazatchkine

- executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, France

 

» Paul Volcker

- former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve and of the Economic Recovery Board, US

 

» Richard Branson

- entrepreneur, advocate for social causes, founder of the Virgin Group, cofounder of The Elders, United Kingdom

 

» Ruth Dreifuss

- former President of Switzerland and Minister of Home Affairs

 

» Thorvald Stoltenberg

- former Minister of Foreign Affairs and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Norway

 

 

 

 

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1551246/war-on-drugs-has-failed-commission-s-report

 

http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/

[Hashy]

The war on drugs is not a war that's ment to be won, and they know it. It is about control, money, and power. Politicians aren't elected to make changes, theyre elected to carry out the policies of the previous government, and keep things the way they are. Only change you will see is any change that will benefit a small minority of rich people.

 

It is a war thats ment to be sustained. Any competition to this monopoly is not tolerated. Cannabis is its own class of thing. Soon as they become hyper aware of its competition ( the latest series of fake Kronic hysteria) they destroy it. They maintain a monopoly between the police and the drug lords, and they dont want to see that change.

 

What I propose, is bargaining with both "sides". If the government were to make cannabis legal, buy in the store, ect. Then chances are, what they would sell would be crap. This leaves open a position for the drug cartels to clean up their act, and actually compete with the government by supplying higher quality cannabis to people... It could work, if they can be shown that there is a viable business in it. The way things are now with the monopoly situation, the drug cartels can peddle the worst quality crap and get away with it. Sorry im rambling a bit. But this whole situation frustrates me.. I can see a better way that things could be done, but it requires all of us to work together, work hard, and push push push for reforms in this country as hard as we possibly can.

 

The war on drugs is going nowhere, by design. Things are just how they like them, its even better for them these days because of the decline in quality, people need to smoke more to achieve a decent effect, and therefore need to buy more, ect ect... Its just a joke, im sick of it, i want it to end for heavens sake.. =(