35,000 Lives Lost to Drug-Related Violence in the Past 4 Years
June 2nd, 2011People are catching on that the money spent might not be worth the job done. Even among former US officials and foreign leaders dissent is ringing in the claims that the Drug War is wasteful financially and detrimental to young people. I was happy to see that cited some of our friends at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) who stated that public officials are going to have to start changing their tone about the drug war. Polls indicate that public opinions on the Drug War, and more specifically marijuana legalization, are growing stronger in support for decriminalization.
The Global Commission on Drug Policy, comprised of former leaders, foreign and domestic, deem this Drug War a lose-lose situation. That’s right; former officials that took part in enforcing the Drug War during their terms, like former Fed chair Paul Volcker and US Secretary of State George Shultz are stressing the importance of public health rather than incarceration for non-violent, drug related crimes.
In the past 4 years 35,000 lives have been lost in the bloody battles south of the border. alone in this country and locking up 25% of the overall prison population. Our pot-smoking-supporting character in the film, Bernie, is more than passionate about assuring the legalization of marijuana by the year 2019. It looks as if she has some more people on her team now.
The Global Commision is handing over a few suggestions to the government’s box:
-
end criminalization of drug users “who do no harm to others,” as well as low level farmers, couriers and “petty sellers”
-
experiment with legal regulation of drugs “to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens”
-
offer health and treatment services such as supervised use facilities and syringe access rather than “abusive practices carried out in the name of treatment — such as forced detention”
-
abandon the ‘just say no’ approach to education in favour of “efforts grounded in credible information and prevention programs that focus on social skills and peer influences”
-
focus law enforcement efforts “not on reducing drug markets per se but rather on reducing their harms”
This is probably a healthy place to start.
