Health

U.S., Mexico and Anti-Drug Orgs Sharply Critical of U.N. Drug Policy Commission

U.S., Mexico and Anti Drug Orgs Sharply Critical of U.N. Drug Policy CommissionLast week, the U.N.’s Global Commission on Drug Policy came out strongly in favor of decriminalizing drugs. The reaction from anti-legalization groups and politicians, alike, has been strong and pointed. As we reported last week, the commission called the drug war a failure and recommended a major overhaul:

Instead of punishing users who the report says “do no harm to others,” the commission argues that governments should end criminalization of drug use, experiment with legal models that would undermine organized crime syndicates and offer health and treatment services for drug-users in need.

The commission called for drug policies based on methods empirically proven to reduce crime, lead to better health and promote economic and social development.

Interestingly, the report is especially critical of the United States, saying that America should look at drug abuse more as a human rights and health care issue than an anti-crime one. Following the report’s release, the U.S. was quick to issue a counter statement. The L.A. Times has more:

“Drug use in America is half of what it was 30 years ago, cocaine production in Colombia has dropped by almost two-thirds, and we’re successfully diverting thousands of nonviolent offenders into treatment instead of jail by supporting alternatives to incarceration,” said Rafael Lemaitre, communications director of the White House drug policy office.

“Making drugs more available — as this report suggests — will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe,” Lemaitre said.

While the White House is coming out strongly against the report, back in 2004, President Obama also called the drug war a “failure.” But, policy speaks louder than rhetoric, as the administration has requested $1.7 billion for “drug prevention programs” in its 2012 budget (a 7.9% increase from 2011). The total U.S. investment in the anti-drug fight? $26.2 billion. Below, watch Obama discuss the drug war, calling it an “utter failure” back in 2004:

Since the commission released its recommendations, the administration has been sure to reinforce its anti-legalization views in multiple forums. In an article for The Hill, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske explains that America’s drug-control strategies are science-based. He writes:

…science shows that illegal drug use is associated with specialty treatment admissions, fatal drugged driving accidents, mental illness, and emergency room admissions. Illicit drug use has huge costs to our society, outside of just criminal justice costs.

In his piece, Kerlikowske took particular issue with the notion that drug abuse is a “victimless crime.” In the end, Kerlikowske claims that the war on drugs has, indeed, been effective.

The U.S. isn’t alone in pushing back against the U.N. panel. According to the L.A. Times, Mexico is rejecting the commission’s recommendations as well:

In Mexico, President Felipe Calderon’s government has consistently stated that it does not support the legalization of drugs but remains open to debate. The position was reaffirmed this week by the president’s top national-security spokesman, Alejandro Piore (link in Spanish).

Piore said the Mexican government “categorically rejects the impression that in Mexico, by definition, a stronger application of the law on the part of the authorities shall result in an increase in violence on the part of the narco-traffickers.”

Legalization, his statement also said, “does not do away with organized crime, nor with its rivalries and violence.

Ian Oliver, an author, former chief constable of Scotland’s Grampian Police, and a consultant with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, joins the chorus with some strong words for the commission. He calls the report “grossly inaccurate” and pokes holes in the group’s ideologies. He writes:

Sadly this report, supported by people who seem not to have done any research into the subject, alleged that successes in places like Portugal and Canada are justification for their recommendations when the reverse is true. No mention is made of the fact that after over 30 years of toleration the government of the Netherlands has recognised the error, actively seeking to abolish the cannabis cafes and has moved to prevent access to them by foreigners.

Anti-drug groups here in America are also less than enthusiastic about the findings. In an interview with The Blaze, Dr. Paul Chabot, the founder of The Coalition for a Drug Free California, explained his belief that President Obama’s change of heart on the drug war may be genuine. He said, ”In some ways, Obama has had an awakening on the drug issue.”

Chabot also talked about the influence he believes George Soros and his Open Society Institute have on America’s ongoing domestic battle over drug legalization:

“We’ve had three legalization bills in California that have been sponsored by Soros. Fourteen to 21 days before the 2010 marijuana legalization vote, Soros put $1 million behind it. The good news is we beat him.”

Linda Taylor, a California-based activist who works with Chabot, told The Blaze that the U.N. panel is strategic in their recommendations. According to Taylor:

“This report was not written by the UN. It’s written by a drug legalization group masquerading as a legitimate source of information.”

Interestingly, some of the commission’s panelists do, indeed, have ties to George Soros. For instance, Bernardo Sorj is listed under “secretariat.” He is the director of a group called Plataforma Democratica; George Soros‘ Open Society Institute is listed on the group’s web site. Additionally, many of the individuals on the commission previously worked together on a similar Latin American initiative that came to similar conclusions (the results are published on Soros’ web site).

Regardless of where one stands on this research or on the people who have come together to compile it, the data certainly opens the discussion up for debate. For more on the commission’s findings click here.

Comments (34)

  • THChemist
    Posted on June 21, 2011 at 5:17am

    Let’s get something straight about the interviewees above. “Dr.” Paul has an EdD in public administration or executive leadership or something like that, which isn’t specialized; how liberally the title “Dr” is used these days or are the prohibitchionists STILL purposefully misusing the title “Dr.”? Linda “Activist1Ton: Taylor is even worse and since a picture is worth a thousand words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an7neQrpc94&feature=player_embedded

    Report Post »  
  • TRUK62
    Posted on June 12, 2011 at 11:02pm

    The only thing I agree with is not prosecuting users of drugs and filling the jails with them. Only go after the people that push the stuff and the people that manufacture it. Make the sentences too painful to risk getting caught doing it and that is that. I think that our Doctors are risking the health of many people in need of pain medications because they think addiction is always a bad thing. I will tell you from an experienced standpoint… When you are in pain so bad that it makes you violently ill and a doctor says no to strong pain killers a feeling of helplessness comes over you like you would not believe. I would rather be dependent on painkillers, used responsibly for pain control than live a life of pain and uselessness. I have used painkillers of one form or another for the past 25 years and yes there are times when you have to slow down and make sure you aren’t taking too much for healthy living and safety. But if you take enough to kill pain and not feel drugged you are on target. If you start to get the feeling like you need to take more, you go to your doctor and discuss your alternatives. I have found that alternating drugs and drug types or combinations takes care of any need to over use prescription pain medications. The problem is when doctors treat you like a common criminal in search of a cheap and legal high. When this happens, people tend to find what they need the illegal way. Why put people in that position! Chronic, severe pain is real.

    Report Post » TRUK62  
    • The Gooch
      Posted on June 13, 2011 at 12:20pm

      What you or anybody else puts into his or her body is not my business and it’s not the govt.’s business. The laughable mentality that any govt. approved drug is better for you than what Caesar the Cad on the street corner is peddling is based on two assumptions: Pharmaceutical companies and physicians can subject you to mood altering and pain dampening substance because they are playing nice with the govt.; you, as a private citizen, are too dangerous and uninformed to make decisions about your own body.
      I don’t like junkies. I dislike ham-fisted, ill conceived totalitarianism far more.
      Manage your pain, get high, whatever. You aren’t harming me. As long as you aren’t driving, flying a plane or beating the hell out of a child, spouse or stranger, you can treat your body like an amusement park ride. You can pay for your drug of choice and any fallout from use/abuse.
      This mentality regarding drugs is the same busybody rant exhibited against homosexuals. Once again, private, adult behavior. Govt. needs to be in the business of governing… not acting in loco parentis. Once govt. enters any home to address a private matter that causes no harm to others, it has overstepped its bounds.
      But govt. excels at creating enemies and problems. Govt. playing doctor should be not surprise in its list of expanding roles.

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  • jstalwert
    Posted on June 12, 2011 at 4:31am

    Me thinks it is time to get out of the UN.

    js

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  • elphi43
    Posted on June 12, 2011 at 2:30am

    Again, I‘m reading or hearing George Soros’ name again. This guy is a major source of trouble for the US. Look up Soros address, and send in the Navy Seals.

    Report Post » elphi43  
  • Windsong
    Posted on June 12, 2011 at 1:29am

    I have lost all faith in the UN…period. The US and it‘s allies should pull out of the UN and form their own ’United’ organization. And, they should be very wary about those who apply to become a member. There are too may two-faced governments…as we have seen and heard during the last two years.
    You hate America? Great. America will stay out of your lives. The foreign aid alone will pay off our debt. And, when we design, invent or discover new things, like we did the Internet, we will not capitalize on them…we will share them with our allies, but no ‘American haters’. You can rely on Iran or China to upgrade and invent your new technologies.
    Enjoy your new lives……………………….

    Report Post »  
  • EJ1979
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 11:21pm

    Well hearing that Obama is for legalization, I may have to put out this joint…….what was I talking about?

    Report Post » EJ1979  
    • USAMEDIC3008
      Posted on June 12, 2011 at 12:39am

      Ever try oxymorons.thay will sure
      knock your Richard in the dirt.
      Do 2 or 3 Then snort some pep c
      Farm out Mann

      Report Post » USAMEDIC3008  
  • Akbarjonnie Shaheed
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 10:43pm

    This will be a savings for seniors. This must have been the savings obama was talking about for obamacare. Senoirs will no longer need doctors. At 55 you will be issued a PDRs and make your our scripts. Could this be obamas extermination program for Seniors? Seniors you had better vote for change in 2012.

    Report Post »  
  • Rev.sLeezy
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 8:32pm

    Holy Smokes. The Drug War is a huge sow nipple and the little piglets who get their continued funding from the nipple will never wander away from the sow.

    The Rev.sLeezy
    The Universal FLife Church of the Holy Smokes.

    Report Post » Rev.sLeezy  
  • republic2011
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 6:50pm

    Legalize drugs today! But you are on your own. No more government programs. We need to stop the nanny state and get back to individual rights and individual consequences. We don’t need another government beaurocracy, like immigration, the IRS, Obamacare, welfare, social security, etc. This country started to go down hill in 1914, and it hasn’t stopped… and it is all due to entitlements and progressive laws like prohibition and the war on drugs, etc. Get the government the hell out of our lives, once and for all!

    Report Post »  
  • flsnipe
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 3:04pm

    The UN is a joke lets get out and start doing whats right.

    Report Post » flsnipe  
    • Zorro6821
      Posted on June 12, 2011 at 6:45am

      The UN is a joke, but I have to agree, the War on Drugs” is a big waste of tax dollars. Big Pharma has figured out how to stone people out legally. They peddle opiates and meth (Oxy, Vicoden, Adderal on a massive scale legally.) The only difference is that Big Pharma has happy shareholders who share the wealth.

      Report Post »  
  • The Gooch
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 1:15pm

    Think REAL hard about what govt. is REALLY protecting when it defends a “war on drugs.” Govt. ain’t in the business of protecting you or me… at least not in the grand scheme of things. Govt. is in the business of protecting itself; alphabet soup agencies and bureaucrats excel at using fear and embracing an “in loco parentis” role to convince you it needs more power and more control over your life. Govt. believes it can “win” against human nature. Folks, that is some scary, draconian nonsense.
    Listen, I don’t believe in throwing people to the wolves, but I‘m along enough in years now to accept that sometimes the world doesn’t want to be saved, only left alone. I can empathize with the pain in watching someone you care about self-destruct, but my faith asserts man has free will. You can save those who who want to be saved from addiction; compelling people into treatment is even more insane than just throwing them in a hole.
    This criminalization approach has done nothing but create a market for a product that will ALWAYS be in demand and is now being directed by thugs who believe murder is standard business protocol. This is INSANITY. The criminalization of drugs allows for the funding of terrorism and smacks of a busy body mentality that acts on hubris, not fact. Is the 18th Amendment just a fairy tale?
    I’m no fan of the U.N.; let’s agree that a stop clocked will sometimes be right. Govt. hates to retreat…

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  • JustaThought
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 12:45pm

    Look, guys, if President Obama calls it a “failure” then it’s gotta be. After all … he’s an expert of failures.

    Report Post »  
    • The Gooch
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 1:48pm

      Review of the facts deems this p!ssing in the wind endeavor a failure… it’s not a matter of politicizing or blaming one ideology over another. Both sides of the spectrum crave power and have their busy bodies who will manufacture statistics to justify any “war on drugs” (i.e., war on human nature). R or D, left or right, the war on drugs is a failure with plenty of blame to go around in the state asserting we are all its children who shan’t be allowed to succeed or fail without its authoritarian guiding hand. I don’t advise using drugs… but isn’t it funny that pharmaceuticals can manufacture and doctors can RX similar substances… as long as Uncle Sam gives his stamp of approval? Govt. approved self-destruction and addiction is okay… and Obama can’t even be made to own that. I’d thank a lobbyist.

      Report Post »  
  • gravedanger
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 9:38am

    Actually this whole problem in this country started in the 1930s. after putting a prohibition on alcohol nationwide all they accomplished was to create a whole black market run by cartels and turn everyday citizens into criminals. Now today this so called war has created more cartels, street gangs and much death and violence protecting these illegal markets. This gov should not have an opinion what people do with their bodies. It should be left to the states to decide if they want it in their communities. That way free people can vote with their feet and decide for themselves. The fact is if people want drugs they will get them.

    Report Post »  
    • CaptainKook
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 9:56am

      True – when Prohibition was on its way to being repealed, the Federal agency that stood the most to lose in terms of lost budget dollars and jobs teamed up with certain industrial interests to find a reason to

      A) Justify the agency’s future existence
      and
      B) Do a favor for those industrial interests by suppressing an emerging competitor.

      The result:

      The passage of the “Marijuana Tax Act of 1937” that made possession or production of hemp or marijuana a Federal crime unless a huge tax was paid. That lasw was written so as to make compliance impossible [you had to present your untaxed hemp to a federal agent to be weighed - thus subjecting you to arrest for illegal possession because it was untaxed- SCOTUS tossed it out in 1969]

      That was sold to Congress and the public as being intended to stop a non-existent plague of drug use, but in practical effect it destroyed the emerging US hemp industry – hemp having been described in Popular Mechanics magazine a few years earlier as the new “billion dollar crop” given that hemp can be used to produce:

      paper

      better cloth than cotton

      paints, varnishes and similar products

      FUEL and PLASTICS

      and from hemp seeds:

      high-quality cooking oil

      high-protein food products

      beer

      etc

      see the reason why big business wanted hemp driven off the market?

      read the history here:

      http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/

      Report Post »  
  • EqualJustice
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 9:19am

    Great, now all the violent ANARCHISTS can be as high as kites when they attack!

    Report Post » EqualJustice  
    • The Gooch
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 1:24pm

      Ever consider working for the DEA? They love this brand of fear mongering. Kinda like their statistic that asserted an insane number of kids had been exposed to meth… and couldn’t be linked back to any study or organization. When an actual study was done, the stats didn’t back up this most deceitful of the govt.’s alphabet soup agencies. But, hey, they gotta budget to worry about… facts don‘t matter when you’re saving the world from human nature.

      Report Post »  
  • smalldog
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 8:04am

    We have ‘drug free’ school zones. Children go home to what? Drug addicted parents that don’t feed them? Don’t take care of them? Parents that live on welfare?

    Report Post »  
    • The Gooch
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 1:38pm

      What are your thoughts on people who are addicted to food… or electronic media? Shouldn’t those activities be regulated and possibly criminalized? Since heart disease is the number one killer in this country and costs this nation billions in health care costs, would you agree that the lack of self-control exhibited by the general populace is immoral and therefore merits govt. intervention? If you’re fat and lazy, how can you care for a child in a manner which satisfies me and my high moral standards? Isn’t that abuse and or neglect?
      The Internet, cell phones, Twitter… all of these activities are questionable and can be directly attributed to moral decay. I would assert that this concern can also be linked back to my first concern. So these pursuits are actually making people fat and negligent. This costs ME money and makes ME self-righteously indignant. There was a story some time back about parents neglecting their kid while gaming. Can’t find that link, but the Koreans are a stark reminder of the need for govt. to come into your home.
      http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/korean-girl-starved-online-game
      http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2005/06/547.ars
      At what point do we accept some of us shouldn’t be breeding, that not everyone makes it and bad things happend to good people? NEVER!!! Busy bodies wanna rule the world and be in my home, fridge and body. Thanks, jerks. Tilt away at your windmills.

      Report Post »  
  • SamIamTwo
    Posted on June 11, 2011 at 6:50am

    Evil…..

    Report Post » SamIamTwo  
    • chazman
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 8:03am

      Time to go after Soros and his Open Society … with a rope!

      Report Post »  
    • CaptainKook
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 9:24am

      The vested interest in keeping the phony “WEar on Drugs” are rallying to keep it going.

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs

      Way too much money being made by keeping it all illegal.

      Report Post »  
    • CaptainKook
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 9:27am

      “WEar on Drugs

      LOL

      Not me

      Report Post »  
    • Sinista MACE
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 9:57am

      I have a message for Obama and the UN.

      ***Blows a huge cloud of Kush smoke in their face***

      Why don’t ya come up and see me sometime, boys.

      I’m Kushed out and 2nd Amended to death…

      Report Post » V-MAN MACE  
    • Sinista MACE
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 9:58am

      American grown Bubba Kush makes your Mexican Dirt look like excrement.

      Report Post » V-MAN MACE  
    • fastfacts
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 10:27am

      The War on Drugs will always go on because if we ever stop the usage will increase such as was shown in the Netherlands. When something isn’t illegal people are fine with trying it out. If they try it out one time there is a good chance they will get addicted. All it takes is one time.

      It’s like with Weiner, he would have kept going if he wasn’t caught. Isn’t it interesting that the left still defends him. Then they blame those for any morals to say they are attacking those making bad choices or breaking the law. Here’s Chris Matthews doing just that: http://tiny.cc/15swd

      Report Post »  
    • CaptainKook
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 10:54am

      fastfacts
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 10:27am
      The War on Drugs will always go on because if we ever stop the usage will increase such as was shown in the Netherlands. When something isn’t illegal people are fine with trying it out. If they try it out one

      Wow.

      Or:

      complete BULLbleep

      Report Post »  
    • The Gooch
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 1:18pm

      What? The War on Drugs? Yep. Evil AND stupid. Not to mention the side order of racism. Ever hear of a guy named Harry Anslinger? There’s some shameless political opportunism for you, if not full blown evil.

      Report Post »  
    • Amos37
      Posted on June 11, 2011 at 6:43pm

      Why are all “drugs” classified as so? Our government as well as others have dictated so. Why should they be able to decide what we do? Is it because we are too stupid to know the difference between smoking weed and smoking meth? Or do they not know the difference?

      The government is flawed because it‘s truly one half of Satan’s system, the other of course being false religion. Both seem to work together here to prohibit something less necessary of prohibition than alcohol. Jesus, come quickly.

      Report Post »  

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