WASHINGTON POST: Last week, a Brookings Institution discussion on international drug policy began with the premise that “no policy has failed as badly in the past 30 years as drug policy,” according to moderator and former Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarakhan in his opening statement. But now a group of non-profit organizations are working to change that.
But it’s not the the U.S., where states are legalizing marijuana. Latin American countries are loosening restrictions on drug use and Portugal has decriminalized the use of drugs completely, to name just a few examples. Many of the harms associated with drug use — the violence, the criminal activity, the loss of life — have been shown to be direct consequences of the way we wage the drug war, rather than of drug use itself. More countries are beginning to acknowledge this troubled history, but the U.N. treaties governing drug policy haven’t been significantly updated since the 1960s…
To that end, a consortium of over 100 human rights and drug policy organizations today are releasing an open letter calling on the U.N. to respect changing drug policies within member countries, and to prioritize human rights over punitive law enforcement in its approach to drug laws. “Existing US and global drug control policies that heavily emphasize criminalization of drug use, possession, production and distribution are inconsistent with international human rights standards and have contributed to serious human rights violations,” the groups write… (more)
