Fængsel og anden afstraffelse har ikke nyttet stort i det samlede billede, ej heller milliarder af dollars – narkoproducenterne og deres forhandlere er hele tiden et skridt foran altimens fængslerne bugner af indsatte for narkotika-overtrædelser verden over.
NEW YORK, 28 March 2014 (IRIN): Despite growing acknowledgement that the war on drugs has failed, global consensus on the way forward remains elusive (fjern). Nevertheless, some detect a “paradigm (totalt) shift” among many players at the forefront of the debate.
At a panel discussion in New York on 25 March, hosted by the Open Society Foundation’s (OSF) Global Drug Policy Program, experts from Switzerland and the Czech Republic offered some pointers by showcasing their countries’ successes in adopting harm-reduction approaches that treat drug abuse (narko-misbrug) as a public health problem rather than a crime.
In 2016 the UN General Assembly Special Session is scheduled to adopt a consensus on drug control. As the deadline draws nearer, NGOs and policy groups are intent on broadening the debate and exploring new options on drug policy.
Meanwhile, after months of negotiations at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, the governing body of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the resolutions recently adopted do not reflect the emerging opposition to the status quo of several Latin American and European countries.
Media reports suggested a major split emerging between countries on “the war on drugs” approach and whether it should be abandoned or not.
Speakers at the panel discussion expressed hope that the demonstrable successes in their countries (Switzerland and the Czech Republic) will motivate other nations to experiment with similar programmes.
Experts sense a “sea change” in the direction that top-level discussions are taking, with many countries in agreement that current policies are failing, and Latin American countries – worn down by the drug wars playing out in their territories – applying increasing pressure on the USA and other countries to adopt new approaches.
However, experts also fear that those countries that continue to link drugs to criminalization and even the death penalty – Russia, China, Malaysia and Iran to name some – will try to block any significant amendments to the UN’s drug policy.
Pressure for change
At a similar UN General Assembly Special Session in 2009, political leaders endorsed the existing policy of drug prohibition with the goal of eliminating illicit drug use.
Since then – and billions of dollars later – the policy still shows few if any signs of success:
* illegal drugs are more prevalent (udbredt) than ever, popping up in new designer incarnations that require yet more categories of prohibition;
* the drug wars continue;
* prisons are over-crowded with users, dealers and traffickers; and
* communities continue to suffer the ravages of HIV, Hepatitis C, gang wars, crime and broken homes.
According to OSF, “decades of law and order approaches to drug control have consumed billions of dollars of public and private funds, destroyed lives and communities, and done little to reduce the harm caused by drugs.”
For OSF, the statistics speak for themselves:
* the production of opium increased by 102 percent and cocaine by 20 percent from 1998 to 2007, despite efforts to destroy crops around the world;
* in the US close to 500.000 people are in jail for drug offences, compared with 41.000 in 1980;
* the US spent 93 percent of its resources on cocaine for law enforcement and only seven percent on treatment programmes;
* more than 30 countries impose the death penalty for drug-related crimes;
* over 70 percent of HIV infections in Russia are due to injecting drugs…
The list goes on and the casualties of the drug wars mount.
A Swiss experiment
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/report/99851/calls-for-a-ceasefire-in-the-war-on-drugs
