Campaign Against Global War on Drugs

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

The New York Times today has a two-page ad:

"We believe the global war on drugs is now causing
more harm than drug abuse itself," with a letter to UN
Secretary General Annan signed by hundreds
from around the world, across the political spectrum.
Web site for list and invitation to sign:

   http://www.lindesmith.org/news/un.html

Public Letter to Kofi Annan

             June 1, 1998 

             Mr. Kofi Annan 
             Secretary General 
             United Nations 
             New York, New York 
             United States 

             Dear Secretary General, 

             On the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly Special
             Session on Drugs in New York on June 8-10, 1998, we seek your
             leadership in stimulating a frank and honest evaluation of global
             drug control efforts. 

             We are all deeply concerned about the threat that drugs pose to
             our children, our fellow citizens and our societies. There is no
             choice but to work together, both within our countries and across
             borders, to reduce the harms associated with drugs. The United
             Nations has a legitimate and important role to play in this
regard
             -- but only if it is willing to ask and address tough
questions about
             the success or failure of its efforts. 

             We believe that the global war on drugs is now causing more
             harm than drug abuse itself. 

             Every decade the United Nations adopts new international

             conventions, focused largely on criminalization and punishment,
             that restrict the ability of individual nations to devise
effective
             solutions to local drug problems. Every year governments enact
             more punitive and costly drug control measures. Every day
             politicians endorse harsher new drug war strategies. 

             What is the result? U.N. agencies estimate the annual revenue
             generated by the illegal drug industry at $400 billion, or the
             equivalent of roughly eight per cent of total international
trade.
             This industry has empowered organized criminals, corrupted
             governments at all levels, eroded internal security, stimulated
             violence, and distorted both economic markets and moral values.
             These are the consequences not of drug use per se, but of
             decades of failed and futile drug war policies. 

             In many parts of the world, drug war politics impede public
health
             efforts to stem the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other infectious
             diseases. Human rights are violated, environmental assaults
             perpetrated and prisons inundated with hundreds of thousands of
             drug law violators. Scarce resources better expended on health,
             education and economic development are squandered on ever
             more expensive interdiction efforts. Realistic proposals to
reduce
             drug-related crime, disease and death are abandoned in favor of
             rhetorical proposals to create drug-free societies. 

             Persisting in our current policies will only result in more drug
             abuse, more empowerment of drug markets and criminals, and
             more disease and suffering. Too often those who call for open
             debate, rigorous analysis of current policies, and serious
             consideration of alternatives are accused of "surrendering." But
             the true surrender is when fear and inertia combine to shut off
             debate, suppress critical analysis, and dismiss all
alternatives to
             current policies. Mr. Secretary General, we appeal to you to
             initiate a truly open and honest dialogue regarding the future of
             global drug control policies - one in which fear, prejudice and
             punitive prohibitions yield to common sense, science, public
             health and human rights. 

----------

There are a gang of heads of state gathering at the UN, with
cavalcades of limosines and guards racing around Manhattan
to indifference, except for me, the only one jumping hurray at the
sirens, whirling lights and bristling vans. All the SS guys facing 
backwards finger shot my middle digit aimed at them, then a 
sniper behind me put a red dot on it, scaring me shitless, I ran
home.