Davos: Kofi Annan Urges 'Rising Up' Against Drug Prohibition

[Jesus Malverde]

A high-profile panel featuring Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, discussed drug decriminalization Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Annan and Santos, joined by Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch, condemned drug prohibition as unsuccessful and insisted on a new approach.

"I believe that drugs have destroyed many people, but wrong governmental policies have destroyed many more," Annan said. "When we realized (alcohol) prohibition wasn't working we had the courage to change it."

A major aspect of Annan's condemnation of drug laws is their impact on young people given jail sentences and criminal records.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/23/davos-kofi-annan-urges-rising-up-against-drug-prohibition

Times are a changing...

[madokie]

1. Prohibition of drugs has cost more

in terms of lives and money than the drugs themselves.
Drug addiction should be dealt with in our court/medical profession not in our court/prison system.

[Eleanors38]

2. Anan needs to work for removing drug prohibition

as enforced by treaty obligations; ie, if you sign the treaty, you cannot legalize drugs. He stopped short of that which is critical to any change in a nation's drug laws.

[Jesus Malverde]

3. United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, in Vienna in March

Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia

The next meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, in Vienna in March, could be a key turning point in the change on international drugs policy, according to Santos.

snip

The war on drugs has imprisoned a disproportionate number of black people in the U.S., its critics point out.

"People are being given enormous prison terms just for use. There has got to be a better way than ruining so many people's lives," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said.