Fresh thinking on the war on drugs?
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- Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own -There are times when silence can be as eloquent as words. Take the case of Washington’s reaction to announcements, in quick succession, from Mexico and Argentina of changes in their drug policies that run counter to America’s own rigidly prohibitionist federal laws. No U.S. expressions of dismay or alarm.Contrast that with three years ago, when Mexico was close to enacting timid reforms almost identical to those that became effective on August 21. In 2006, shouts of shock and horror from the administration of George W. Bush reached such a pitch that the then Mexican president, Vicente Fox, abruptly vetoed a bill his own party had written and he had supported.What has changed? Was it a matter of something happening in August, when most of official Washington is on holiday? Or was it a sign of greater American readiness to rethink a war on drugs that has, in almost four decades, failed to curb production and stifle consumption of illicit drugs? And that despite law enforcement efforts that resulted in an average of around 4,700 arrests for drug offences every single day since the beginning of the millennium. (Just under 40 percent of those arrests are for possession of marijuana).Or was it a matter of more countries realising that, as drug reform advocate Ethan Nadelmann puts it, “looking to the United States as a role model for drug control is like looking to apartheid-era South Africa for how to deal with race.” Nadelmann heads the Drug Policy Alliance, one of several groups lobbying for reform of U.S. drug policies.Under the Mexican law that took effect in August, it is legal to possess small, precisely specified amounts, for personal use, of marijuana, heroin, opium, cocaine, methamphetamine and LSD. In Argentina, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional criminal sanctions for the possession of small quantities of marijuana for personal use. The ruling opened the door to legislation similar to Mexico’s.Brazil decriminalised drug possession in 2006; Ecuador is likely to follow suit this year. In much of Europe, drug use (as opposed to drug trafficking) is treated as an administrative offence rather than a criminal act. America’s hard-line approach has helped to make the United States the country with the world’s largest prison population.Advocates of more flexible policies say they feel the winds of change beginning to rise in the administration of Barack Obama, a president who has admitted that in his youth, he smoked marijuana frequently and used “a little blow”(of cocaine) when he could afford it. But hopes for a break from long-standing orthodoxy might be premature, even though a recent Zogby poll showed 52 percent support for treating marijuana as a legal, taxed and regulated drug.AMSTERDAM’S SCHIZOPHRENIC PRAGMATISM “As regards to legalization, it is not in the president’s vocabulary and it is not in mine,” Obama’s drug czar, former Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske said in July. “Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefits.”Oddly, he made the statement in California, where an estimated 250,000 people can legally buy marijuana with a letter of recommendation from their physician. The drug is used for a variety of illnesses, from chronic pain to insomnia and depression. There is extensive academic literature on the medical benefits of marijuana.Medical opinion, however, conflicts with the congressionally-mandated job description Kerlikowske inherited when he took up the post. It says that the director of the Office of National Drug Policy, the White House group in charge of drug war strategy, must “oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act.”Schedule I of the act, which took force in 1970 during the administration of Richard Nixon, the president who formally declared “war on drugs”, places marijuana alongside powerfully addictive drugs such as heroin. The wrong-headed classification matches that of an international treaty, the 1961 United Nations Single Convention of Narcotics Drugs. The convention is a major obstacle for signatory countries that want to legalize drugs.No country has actually done that. Even the Netherlands, the Mecca of marijuana aficionados, operates on a system best described as schizophrenic pragmatism. Amsterdam’s “coffee shops” are allowed to have 500 grams of marijuana on the premises and sell no more than 5 grams per person to people over 18. The runners who re-supply the shops routinely carry more than the legal quantity and violate the law. So do importers.While the failure of the drug war and the prohibitionist ideology that drives it have been analysed in great detail in scores of sober assessments by academics and government commissions, there have been few studies of the “how to” of legalization. What, for example, would happen to the criminal mafias that are now running a violent illicit business with a turnover estimated at more than $300 billion a year?Some drug traffickers would switch to other criminal activities and it is realistic to expect increases in such areas as cyber crime and extortion, according to Steve Rolles, Head of Research of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, a British think tank. “But the big picture will undoubtedly show a significant net fall in overall criminal activity in the longer term,” he said in an interview. “Getting rid of illegal drug markets is about reducing opportunities for crime.”Rolles is author of the optimistically titled “After the war on drugs: Blueprint for Regulation,” a book scheduled for publication in November and meant to kickstart a debate on what he sees as something of a blank slate – the specifics of regulation for currently illegal drugs.On a global scale, nothing much can happen unless there are changes in the world’s largest and most lucrative market for drugs, the United States. If they happen, they won’t happen fast. “I see this as a multi-generational effort, with incremental changes,” said Nadelmann, who has been involved in drug policy since he taught at Princeton University in the late 1980s. “But for the first time, I feel I have the wind in my back and not in my face.”(You can contact the author at Debusmann@Reuters.com)
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And here I thought you were going to say that the FDA had suddenly re-evaluated its position on such things as nutritional supplements, and ceased its efforts to alter the landscape in favor of prescription drugs. I have attempted to help addicts. They are the “first victims” of a drug policy that opens the door to more, easier to obtain mind-altering drugs. Keep in mind that you are not merely discussing marijuana, but also the various opium-type drugs and coca derivatives–AND synthetics, such as methamphetamine. Where marijuana proliferates, so do these other drugs. I am not necessarily opposed to legalizing marijuana, but I think that despite your impressive knowledge, you do not accept the fact that there is a connection between marijuana use and the use of “hard drugs.” I have confirmed this connection anecdotally many times in my conversations with addicts, and it is an important consideration in any change in drug policy.
I am just so glad I am not a poppy plant in Afganistan, I wouldn’t be able to handle so much attention and people fighting over me.
No country has actually done that. Even the Netherlands, the Mecca of marijuana aficionados, operates on a system best described as schizophrenic pragmatism. Amsterdam’s “coffee shops” are allowed to have 500 grams of marijuana on the premises and sell no more than 5 grams per person to people over 18. The runners who re-supply the shops routinely carry more than the legal quantity and violate the law. So do importers.
legalizing all drugs that have the same detrimental affect as alcohol would be a good start. the police would rather arrest someone smoking some marijuana then deal with some rowdy drunk. Most drug use is for escapism from misery or boredom release. The war on drug marches on with every more losses of freedoms, They cant even keep drugs out of prisons….yeesh. Becoming slaves to laws that deprive us of privacy and freedoms under the guise of moral or good intentions doesn’t make for a better world. I prefer the the little dangers in life….no seat belts, riding without bike helmets, free speech…from terrorist to drug cartels, they dont care about laws, and will circumvent them, meanwhile we have to abide and dance to the tune of government till even the dance is made illegal.
Obama need to fire his “drug czar” His prejudice and his thinking is tainted by his years in Seattle. Legalization and the reduction in street crimes, would equal less officers needed, layoffs etc and that would not be a good thing for the industry of law enforcement and prisons. Busting some poor pot puffer is a lot easier than taking on some of the thugs that really need attention. Am I being tough on law enforcement? YUP I am. Gils gotta go!!!
I live in California, and I thank the Lord God for his merciful gift of medical marijuana, and it’s availability. He gives all things for us (but to use responsibly).
Its not about the drugs and their differences. Its not about the addicts. The persistence of drug policy in the US is entirely due to the infrastructure that has been built around the law enforcement of those policies. Since Prohibition was repealed and marijuana was demonized in the obvious effort to discriminate against Latinos (the predominant group of users of marijuana in the 30s) a massive industry grew around the “control” of “illicit” drugs. At this point, there are so many thousands of people who directly earn their living off of the continued, however ridiculous, drug policies that any change must be incremental, like this Nadelmann says.Hoping for sudden change on this subject is quite pointless until we address what will be done with the industry of drug law enforcement.
“Drug” reform is long past due. Legalize MJ, tax it, regulate it, smoke it and use it to our advantage. Once it becomes legal it will completeley whipe out all of the negative effects we are seeing today, in terms of organized crime and the individuals that are making tons of money by growing and distributing. Once it becomes legal they are out of business.. That would be a job well done and a strategy that makes sense.In addition it would be a great way to create jobs, boost the economy, educate our children and decrease crime. The taxes could generate over a billion dollars a year.
@Steven Bradley: Correlation is not causation. That heroin users have also used marijuana some point in their lives does not mean that marijuana has caused them to move to stronger drugs. This is a very important point. It’s only correlation.
The marijuana laws in the United States are racist and uninformed. They are happily being kept propped in place by drug lords, politicians, and many corporations(like medical/pharma scared about medical marijuana toppling there patented prescription poisons).Here is how we know the law is pure idiocy, if every single person who uses marijuana medically and casually was to stand up, go to their local police office and demand to be arrested, it would be almost impossible arrest everyone, our prisons would become even more overflowing then they already are.What this seems to lead to is a great disparity in how some police officers treat it, bets are if your white, clean cut, and unassuming you have a much better chance to skate by with just a warning compared to someone with brown skin who in many cases faces much harsher penalties when so much personal latitude is allowed in applying the laws of the drug war.If the law can not actually be enforced unilaterally and realistically, then it needs serious revision or removal. Any good leader knows you don’t give an order that you know won’t be obeyed.
Pass the bong!
Sure. Legalize it all, like in Canada’s Police no-godistrict.Then the socialized degeneration will be almost complete.No longer slaves to drugs and drug Lords. You will have a new drug Lord. Obama. Seems fitting.
6,000 people were murdered by the cartels last year, at least 7,000 more will be killed by them this year – many of these victims are children, police officers and politicians. We MUST do what we can to end these murders,The ONLY way to end these deaths is by eliminating the cash flows that fund the cartels, and as two-thirds of the cartels’ incomes come from selling marijuana in the U.S. our only option to end this needless carnage is by undercutting cartel prices, stripping them of their customers and eliminating the $8 – 10 billion a year that they receive from marijuana.We MUST demand the right to commercially produce and sell marijuana to adults. We MUST undercut cartel prices, and we MUST end these brutal murders of so many innocent people!
Cigarettes and alcohol are legal. Both are seriously detrimental to your health. Yet, I cannot puff on my marijuana, which has been proven to inhibit cancer,because some guy says its bad for me? Or is it to protect the American cotton fiber. Hemp fibers are softer and more durable, its a shame the best hemp didn’t start off in America or perhaps we would have a much different policy on drugs.
The Single Convention must be repealed! How can we allow ourselves to be controlled by an obsolete piece of paper when support for its prohibition is dying in every country that signed it?If we are free men then we must be free to decide what laws we want to control us. We must NOT allow our freedom to be constrained by the mistakes of those who preceded us.
Hey Cameron: you forgot the mafia? You think those “vatos” that are blowing people away, the 17 recently in Mexico, are just going to go and call their CPA’s and write off their losses?They’re going to come to your cute “StarPuff”s shop and shove the sign up your nether regions if they don’t get their cut.Sure MUST is a good word. Lot’s of MUST in this world. It’s the appetite that runs the machine.Talk about that, as obama said “a little blow”.That little blow, is what is blowing away people.Why not put a MUST on that.
The amount of crimes committed directly because someone is using the drugs pales in comparision with the massive crimes and corruption and broken families caused directly by the policies. There will always be addicts. Make no mistake that that is what our government is trying help. These policies are big self fulling cycles that make lots of jobs at the expense of the people. I can think of many better ways to use those resources. The crimes that are committed while under the influence will still be punishable, just not ones choice of drug.Just take the bull by the horns legalize it, regulate it, tax it same as alcohol. People are going to use them either way. It is sick that our “free” country has so many people locked up for drugs.
The writer of this article is obviously high on dope.What’s next, legalized abduction and sex trafficking? Then that won’t be a crime either – we could let those criminals out of jail too.This article is sickening.
@Steven Bradley – have you considered that, by making marijuana illegal, those who wish to use it will have to go to the black market to find it, and when they do, they shall find more than just marijuana. If we decriminalized marijuana, you could then find it without running into the other drugs, which would reduce the (already low) number of folks who want to chase bigger highs.By the way, a cursory query of google for “gateway theory” debunks the myth quite thoroughly. Certainly, some small number of people will move on, but those people would have likely moved on from cigarettes, or alcohol, or sky-diving, etc.
legalize health care first. and then weed, stop making criminals out of top-notch individuals.If you ask me this whole country has been screwed up by people such as Richard Nixon, and his whole generation. It is time to fix it.
There is no perfect solution to the drug issue. But the current system is not working. Look at the forest fires in Southern California, caused by a cooking fire an Mexican weed-growing camp ..Prohibition of alcohol was a failure, and so is prohibition of marijuana.
in addition to throwing Gil out, toss this out, too:Medical opinion, however, conflicts with the congressionally-mandated job description Kerlikowske inherited when he took up the post. It says that the director of the Office of National Drug Policy, the White House group in charge of drug war strategy, must “oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act.”
People obviously aren’t reading the article clearly; the author is saying legalize marijuana, NOT cocaine, heroin and all the other horrible drugs out there. That will have the knock-on effect of lowering: Prison population; crime syndication; police ineffeciency (which is to say, if cops aren’t looking for tiny joints on otherwise law-abiding people, they can be at other places for other reasons).Also I think it’s worth noting that medical scientists have been offering evidence for years that marijuana can have some beneficial effects in certain circumstances. I can’t think of a single doctor who would prescribe alcohol or tobacco for any reason whatsoever.
I have heard it said that if mj is legal, there will be an increase of usage. Duuuuuuh??? Of course there will – beeeecauuuuse – people like me who are to chicken to get smoke on the street corner will be buying a boat load at the local liquor store!! Toke on friends
@thinkerThink harder, and don’t be ignorant. A responsible individual who decides to spark a bowl in the privacy of his/her home has no direct impact on the lives of others, much different from your non-relatable examples of abduction and sex trafficing. Our lives are OURS to live, and so long as our decisions do not negatively affect those of your life, then it is really none of your business. Smoking marijuana is NOT a criminal activity.
I have never found a reasonable answer to the question of why pot is illegal in the first place. Can’t be health, otherwise alcohol and tobacco would surely be banned. In 2000 or so years of documentation there are no cases of deaths from marijuana.So, who are we supposed to be protecting? Me? No thanks, I can make my own decisions.
@ thinker, you are an idiot. The demand for drugs is directly realted to…guess what?…drug violence. Be it weed, heroin, hashish, etc. A lot of finance for terrorist organizations come from narcotics. You are fool to believe that hop head sitting in his mother’s basement “sparking a bowl” doesn’t contibute to the killing of law enforcement, military, and civilians. Is there no tv in your mother’s basement? And God forbid you read a magazine, newpaper, or book. Get educated about YOUR life, the decisions YOU make, and how it affects the world.
Interesting point of view Napoleon, limiting government power and deregulating means socialism in your mind. Well I guess Socialism, much like Liberalism and Conservatism, no longer have definitions they’re just words to use as taglines based on nothing.As others have already said, who’s the #1 group in favor of the continuing criminalization of drugs? Murderous drug cartels filled with terrorists, if you support those groups, continue supporting the war on drugs.
Our current drug laws are defunct and costly. We spend billions each year, thousands of lives are lost, and deprive other thousands from a real medical treatment, and the irony is that it does little to curb the use of pot.I smoked weed in high school when I was 16, and didn’t start drinking until I was 19. It was actually way easier for me to get a hold of pot than it was alcohol.Then you have to think of the effects of either one. When drunk many of my friends would get very violent, and things could get ugly. When we were stoned, we were excessively happy, hungry, and would shortly fall asleep after eating.No, drug laws are used to control people, much like how drug laws governing the crimes of possessing crack and cocaine differ by an extreme level even though they are the same thing. Wake up people.
Those that want it smoke it already. There are some of us waiting for it to be legalized but we’re not holding our breaths either.The fact that tobacco and booze is acceptable and pot is not is laughable, but not really funny. The laws against it are stupid and it should be taxed and regulated to keep it from minors.The rest of the world looks at us like we’re a bunch of dummies. Rightfully so on this subject.
If there has ever been an example of “Failure” by government, it’s the war on drugs. Billions of dollars, thousands of lives, stupidity piled upon stupidity for three generations and for what? Not a damn thing has changed.Remember it the same people who want to be responsible for our health care.
@Bob-You wrote “@thinker” but your message seems inteneded for myself, so I will reply assuming such.The demand itself doesn’t lead to drug violence. As others have stated, if pot were legal and available in smoke shops etc, this would completely eliminate a user’s dependency on their dealer, which is where the drug violence starts. There is zero “alcohol violence”, because anybody of age can drive to their closest gas station and pick up a 6 pack when desired. There is no need for violence when a substance is available under regulation and control. Which is ironic, because an intoxicated drunk creates far more violence under their unfluence than does a pot-smoker under his, but that’s a separate issue.Also- nobody said anything about Mom’s basement. We all know what happens when you assume things, so don’t. Nor does reading have anything to do with pot usage. A large setback for marijuana advocates is the false public stigma associated with pot smoking, one I’m lead to believe you endorse. Smoking pot does not doom you to sit on your couch and stare at a wall. Pot, like nearly anything in this world, is safe and beneficial when used responsibly, by responsible people. It is the abuse of the drug that creates problems, no different than alcohol, tobacco, sex, money, power, etc. Certain people will always abuse thier privlidges, guarenteed, and this will not change. After all, people sniff markers and drink excess amounts of cough syrup. That doesn’t make cough syrup or markers bad for society, it simply means that some people are just plain stupid. Once again, I repeat- With smart and fair regulation, marijuana usage by responsible people is no more a crime than drinking coffee.
I agree, that in order to further the war on drugs, we need to make sacrifices.Legalize pot, then put an excise tax on it. Use the funds collected from the legalization of one drug to further the fight of the other drugs.Think it wont help? For a minor pot conviction a police officer spends about three hours, between the actual arrest, the booking (paperwork), arraignment, preliminary and other hearings he has to be a witness to.i am not saying everyone should be high, but we should redirect the funds from the drug traffikers to drug enforcement.what is the worst that happens? this plan blows up in our face? if it does, just go down to the smoke shop, take a couple of tokes and it wont matter… lol
There are more Killings in Chicago alone than both wars we are fighting. Our society started going down hill the day do gooders thought by making alcohol illegal would help. No it made this 100 times worse & the drug war has made things 100,000 times worse. Millions of people have been killed just to keep people from getting high. Let’s kill a million more people just to stop one kid from trying weed!
The illegality of marijuana serves a benevolent purpose – keeping law enforcement persons gainfully employed.The legalization of this substance (good or bad) would result in a full-scale economic depression, large groups of people in the ‘War on Drugs’ would be out of work.Which is one of the reasons, I believe, this arcane law is still on the books. (The more laws. The better).Keep the lid on marijuana.Drew
We were right then and we are right now. Legalize It!
The reason marijuana is illegal is because of the lobbyists. The state sponsored legal drug, alcohol and tobacco industries stand to lose a lot of money. That’s who owns the politicians, the lobbyists, not “we the people.” Let’s make cigarettes and alcohol illegal. How many thosands of people die from those products? We should make all legal drugs illegal, they kill more people than illegal drugs. Of course drug company lobbyists wouldn’t stand for that. The police don’t like it either, their budgets will be cut, police will lose their jobs and how will they get all of our names into a database. We lose all of our civil rights too. Don’t like your neighbor, call the police and tell them they have a grow house and bingo the police are kicking in your door. Goverment get out of our lives!!!
Drug prohibition is too much of a tool for the government to pry into other aspects of your life. That is precisely why marijuana has remained illegal. They couldn’t get Al Capone on murder; so they got him on tax evasion – same principal.I as a 44 year old man don’t need the govt. to tell me right from wrong. There is no harm in burning one in the privacy of your living room on a Saturday night. God forbid I then order a pizza and listen to some Pink Floyd.Also, do you think the owners / shareholders of privately run prisons (for the govt.) want to see drugs decriminalized ? They want that as much as they want to reduce recidivism or to rehabilitate prisoners. No, they want a full Big House.
Mr. Ham..your right. Power is colorless. It just is. Labels are the colors introduced for identification purposes only by the particulars involved.That is why I will always vote for Pedro.
Kudos, dude, kudos. Great article, I concur completely.
I am a Bible Christian. We are not recognized by any Church or Government….Thank God! The bible says “GOD gave man every herb bearing seed…” and I will NOT let the humans TAX what GOD gave me. So that they can use the money to promote whatever evil project they want. It cost about $50 an ounce if you buy from street dealers, I grow my own for about .17 cents an ounce (I DO NOT SELL IT). If the FEDs tax it, it will cost $100 to $200 an ounce. The government has run this country into the ground with their money schemes. Just say NO! (To taxation).Michael Scott
Currently, there are more people in US jails than there are in Chinese jails. How much bigger is the population of China? Three times the size? And less ‘criminals’?Smoking pot doesn’t hurt anyone. Therefore, it shouldn’t be a crime. Simple as that.
So Napoleon is it safe for me to assume that you’d like to take back the comment you made about moving closer towards socialism by the lessening of government in the drug war and the lessening of regulation on people?
@Pedro: Exactly, well put.Napolean wrote:”They’re going to come to your cute “StarPuff”s shop and shove the sign up your nether regions if they don’t get their cut.”So why isn’t organized crime taking a cut from all of the bars now since alcohol prohibition was lifted? Oops, forgot about that?@thinker: ‘thinkers’ traditionally use logic, your comment lacks any. BTW, we ARE letting criminals out of jail now because we wasted so many resources and prison space with the Drug War.
It’s refreshing to see that this issue is finally being examined. It is a large well organized entity that has both supporters and detractors. It’s time for a thorough examination of all the facts. A “Truth Commission” could be established to prevent the better funded groups (drug importers/dealers, law enforcement organizations) from dominating the conversation. There is too much power and money to leave it all to chance. The vacuum that would follow any major change would need containment. Legalization/Decriminalization has consequences but people are finally coming to the conclusion that those consequences may not all be bad. In fact they may even be far better than the status quo but we won’t ever know unless we take the first step. THINKING is the first step.
great article. there is also a great film titled; the union about the business and politics of this big mess and the film answers many questions, raises more, loved it. saw it on netflix.
Is there any other job for which Congress dictates a policy position that must be held by an individual? As sort of a mirror image of this, Bush’s Federal Election Commission guy, Bradley Smith, was a strong opponent of McCain-Feingold, which he was charged with implementing.Kerlikowske should challenge the law that created his job.
The evidence from Portugal since 2001 is that decriminalisation of drug use and possession has benefits and no harmful side-effects.source:
They should just decriminalise marijuana.If all the evidence regarding mental illness is incorrect, then there is no harm with using it.If all the evidence is correct, then these users deserve to develop mental illness. Serves them right for ignoring inconvenient evidence. Plus they get to be role models, by serving as a warning to potential users.Either way, problem sorted.
Michael Scott, $50 an ounce? That’s all you pay? Are you sure it wasn’t a bag of salad or clove cigarettes?