-
Four Decades Later, It's Time to Scrap the Dead-End Drug War
Tim PadgettTime Magazine (US)
Friday, June 17, 2011I recently returned from the desert city of Durango, Mexico, where forensic officials are still trying to identify some 240 corpses discovered this year in mass graves. More than 200 other bodies have been found in similar fosas across northern Mexico. All were victims, many of them innocent victims, of the drug-trafficking violence whose barbarity seems bottomless. But it's fueled in large part by the just as endless American appetite for illegal drugs – which itself is due in no small part to the fact that our anti-drug policies are so narrow-mindedly focused on battling supply instead of reducing demand.
-
Call Off the Global Drug War
Jimmy CarterThe New York Times (US)
Thursday, June 16, 2011In an extraordinary new initiative announced earlier this month, the Global Commission on Drug Policy has made some courageous and profoundly important recommendations in a report on how to bring more effective control over the illicit drug trade. They probably won’t turn to the United States for advice. Drug policies here are more punitive and counterproductive than in other democracies, and have brought about an explosion in prison populations.
-
Is France's cannabis debate stuck in a cul-de-sac?
France 24
Thursday, June 16, 2011The issue of legalising cannabis is once again making headlines in France following the release of a parliamentary report on Wednesday recommending that the drug should be subject to “controlled legalisation”. One leading critic of international drug policy doubts that the debate will inspire a sea change in French policy.
-
On 40th Anniversary Of War On Drugs, Cops Decry Obama's Drug Policy
The Huffington Post (US web)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011Forty years after President Richard Nixon first declared a war on drugs, the officers who fought in it are calling for a truce. Former law enforcement officials gathered in the District of Columbia on Tuesday to announce their new report. It details the failures of the government's long battle against illegal drugs and denounces the Obama administration's current drug policies. "Since President Nixon declared 'war on drugs' four decades ago, this failed policy has led to millions of arrests, a trillion dollars spent and countless lives lost, yet drugs today are more available than ever," said Norm Stamper, former chief of police in Seattle and a speaker for legalization-advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
-
A mystery partly solved: How the ‘club drug’ ketamine lifts depression so quickly
Time Magazine (US)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011A new study sheds light on why the anesthetic and “club drug” ketamine can relieve depression rapidly — in hours, instead of weeks or months. The findings may help provide new targets for developing antidepressants and increase researchers’ understanding of the devastating disorder. The study, published in the journal Nature, offer support for wider use of ketamine in depression. A drug that could relieve depression quickly has long been sought by pharmaceutical companies and patients.
-
Elected Officials, VIPs and Grassroots Slam Drug War on 40th Anniversary
Tony Newman (Director of Media Relations, Drug Policy Alliance)The Huffington Post (US web)
June 14, 2011June 17 will mark forty years since President Richard Nixon, citing drug abuse as "public enemy No. 1," officially declared a "war on drugs." A trillion dollars and millions of ruined lives later, the war on drugs has proven to be a catastrophic failure.
-
A Call to Shift Policy on Marijuana
Jim DwyerThe New York Times (US)
Tuesday, June 14, 2011More people are arrested in New York City on charges of possessing small amounts of marijuana than on any other crime on the books. Nearly all are black or Latino males under the age of 25, most with no previous convictions. Many have never been arrested before. Last year, the police in New York City arrested more than 50,000 people on the marijuana possession charge, New York State Penal Law 221.10, which makes it a misdemeanor to openly possess pot.
-
A Real Debate About Drug Policy
George P. Shultz and Paul A. Volcker on why the 'war on drugs' has failed—and what to do next
Wall Street Journal
Saturday, June 11, 2011We believe that drug addiction is harmful to individuals, impairs health and has adverse societal effects. So we want an effective program to deal with this problem. The question is: What is the best way to go about it? For 40 years now, our nation's approach has been to criminalize the entire process of producing, transporting, selling and using drugs, with the exception of tobacco and alcohol. Our judgment, shared by other members of the commission, is that this approach has not worked, just as our national experiment with the prohibition of alcohol failed. Drugs are still readily available, and crime rates remain high. But drug use in the U.S. is no lower than, and sometimes surpasses, drug use in countries with very different approaches to the problem.
-
U.S. can't justify its drug war spending, reports say
Government reports say the Obama administration is unable to show that billions of dollars spent in the anti-drug efforts in Latin America have made a significant difference
Los Angeles Times (US)
Thursday, June 9, 2011As drug cartels wreak murderous havoc from Mexico to Panama, the Obama administration is unable to show that the billions of dollars spent in the war on drugs have significantly stemmed the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States, according to two government reports and outside experts.
-
Russia defies growing consensus with declaration of 'Total War on Drugs'
Under new laws being drawn up addicts would be forced into treatment or jailed, and dealers 'treated like serial killers'
The Guardian (UK)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011"Sending more people to prison will not reduce drug addiction or improve public health," said Anya Sarang, president of the Andrey Rylkov Foundation, an advocacy group for people with HIV which works with injecting drug users (IDUs). "Russian prisons are terrible places full of HIV, tuberculosis and other diseases. Drugs are often even more accessible there than anywhere else." She added: "What we need instead of this harsh drug control rhetoric is greater emphasis on rehabilitation, substitution treatment, case management for drug users and protection from HIV."
Page 447 of 469