A report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy has concluded that the war on drugs has failed

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/index.html?cid=76984

Jul 20, 2011 - 08:27

“The war against drugs has failed”

by Marie-Christine Bonzom in Washington, swissinfo.ch


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A report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy has concluded that the war on drugs has failed, triggering a heated debate in the United States.

The report, written by a high-profile panel including former Swiss cabinet minister Ruth Dreifuss, criticises the repressive approach in the US and calls for the legalisation of some drugs and an end to the criminalisation of drug users.

Instead of prohibition, the commission recommends “regulation models of illicit drugs designed to undermine the power of organised crime and safeguard the health and safety of their citizens”.

“Drug addicts are patients rather than criminals – they are in fact patients exploited by criminals and it’s the role of society to protect them,” Dreifuss, a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party and interior minister from 1993 to 2002, told swissinfo.ch.

[HopeHoops]

1. Remember the opening to "Cheech & Chong's Next Movie?"

When they're carrying the trash can full of gasoline, Chong is talking about how pot will be legal in a couple of years. That was a LONG fucking time ago...

[PoliticAverse]

2. And 9 long months in Federal prison for Chong... n/t

[Newest Reality]

3. We have heard this over and over by

way of studies, reports and the conclusions of intellectuals who have given the matter a lot of thought.

Yet, the "leaders" persist in a prohibition that creates criminals who have no victim.

So, it is easy to conclude that the reason and logic that counter the "war on some drugs" does not matter and that other issues keep draconian drug laws in place.

There are many reasons why hemp and cannabis are demonized and criminalized and most of them are about financial issues for vested interests in many industries.

Now that the "reefer madness" argument no longer holds, very little serves the facade that justifies unjust laws that put ordinary, harmless people in prison. The harm of current drug policies is obvious and demonstrable whereas the harm of cannabis is negligible, if there is any at all.

On the other hand, the benefits of cannabis and its hemp cousin have been and are great and wide.

We are seeing the effect of dominant industries and the PTB here, point blank. No need to speculate or wonder why.

[Rex]

4. Won't matter, there is huge amounts of money being made in the private

prison industry and the law enforcement industry to ever top fighting a useless war on something that can't be won or lost. Kinda like the failure wars overseas - doesn't matter money is being made by the right people, so it will continue depite overwhelming evidence we are losing and should just go home in defeat. Like we did in South Korea and Vietnam. Just admit we lost and leave.

[truedelphi]

6. Not too mention how much money banks make by doing the laundry of the

Cartels.
Yet another reason banks do not want any of their activities regulated to become transperent.

[Rex]

8. Yes, the Cartels wouldn't like an end to the war either.

Prices would plummet and people could 'grow their own'. That is way too populist an idea for The Institution to handle.

[Gregorian]

5. Was it ever meant to "succeed"?

Because it did. They built their prisons. They got the voters behind bars. They increased their fascist state.

And it failed to do what it could never have done. And that would be changing the habits of the human being. People do stuff. Conservatives can't change human nature.

[surforegon]

7. Wind, meet piss.

That is all.