The Global Commission On Drug Policy – a panel of 22 members including Richard Branson, Kofi Annan and former heads of state of Poland, Colombia, Portugal, Greece, Mexico, Switzerland and Chile – continues to wield science to insist that the war on drugs is futile, its effects on society disastrous and its very implementation responsible for billions of dollars in wasted resources, global violence to communities, the strengthening of drug cartels and no change whatsoever to its nominal core mission: curbing drug use.
In 2011, the coalition recommended the decriminalisation of cannabis but has since furthered its stance in a report published this week, calling for governments to decriminalise other illicit drugs including ecstasy and set up regulated drug markets within their own countries.
Former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, one of a handful of former presidents on the panel, urged world leaders to decriminalise “as many of the drugs that are currently illegal as possible, with the understanding that some drugs may remain too dangerous to decriminalise.”
The report recommends the continued pursuit of criminal gangs, prioritising health and safety, a system of treatment for addicts and an end to incarcerating drug users as measures that would better use government resources. And, you know, work.
The new report is of particular relevance to Australia, a world leader in marijuana and ecstasy use and a place where similar recommendations made by Australia21, an independent not-for-profit think tank led by former Foreign Minister Bob Carr and former police chief Mick Palmer, fell largely on deaf ears.
And yet the war on drugs in Australia – which has essentially squandered billions of dollars in resources, hiked arrest rates related to victimless crimes and galvanised the power of drug cartels – continues still because politicians are unable to engage in a rational, science-based discussion about drug use.
The Global Commission on Drug Policy declared the war on drugs a failure three years ago but as noted in our chat with A Small Book About Drugs author Lisa Pryor, we are downright blind when it comes to legislative alternatives: “It seems like The Wire and popular culture in general is quite effective at changing people’s attitudes toward the war on drugs. Or at the very least something like The Wire can comment on how futile a pursuit it is. I find it interesting how America is supposed to be obsessed with the war on drugs and yet it seems like there’s more debate about changing the law and more changes to the law there than there have been in Australia. It’s quite sad.”
Here’s a video outlining the war of drugs in terms we can all understand – a story with dragons in it.
The UN is slated to host a summit on global drug policy in 2016.
Or a century or so before Australia considers drug reform.
