The World's Most Senseless War

Forgive me is this has been posted already, but a search revealed nothing to me. A few hours ago I received a very interesting email from avaaz.org (a petition website recently responsible for stopping the Uganda gay death penalty bill):

Dear friends,

In days, we could finally see the beginning of the end of the ‘war on drugs’. This expensive war has completely failed to curb the plague of drug addiction, while costing countless lives, devastating communities, and funneling trillions of dollars into violent organized crime networks.

Experts all agree that the most sensible policy is to regulate, but politicians are afraid to touch the issue. In days, a global commission including former heads of state and foreign policy chiefs of the UN, EU, US, Brazil, Mexico and more will break the taboo and publicly call for new approaches including decriminalization and regulation of drugs.

This could be a once-in-a-generation tipping-point moment -- if enough of us call for an end to this madness. Politicians say they understand that the war on drugs has failed, but claim the public isn't ready for an alternative. Let's show them we not only accept a sane and humane policy -- we demand it. Click below to sign the petition and share with everyone --if we reach 1 million voices, it will be personally delivered to world leaders by the global commission:

www.avaaz.org...


For 50 years current drug policies have failed everyone, everywhere but public debate is stuck in the mud of fear and misinformation. Everyone, even the UN Office on Drugs and Crime which is responsible for enforcing this approach agrees -- deploying militaries and police to burn drug farms, hunting down traffickers, and imprisoning dealers and addicts – is an expensive mistake. And with massive human cost -- from Afghanistan, to Mexico, to the USA the illegal drug trade is destroying countries around the world, while addiction, overdose deaths, and HIV/AIDS infections continue to rise.

Meanwhile, countries with less-harsh enforcement -- like Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Australia -- have not seen the explosion in drug use that proponents of the drug war have darkly predicted. Instead, they have seen significant reductions in drug-related crime, addiction and deaths, and are able to focus squarely on dismantling criminal empires.

Powerful lobbies still stand in the way of change, including military, law enforcement, and prison departments whose budgets are at stake. And politicians fear that voters will throw them out of office if they support alternative approaches, as they will appear weak on law and order. But many former drug Ministers and Heads of State have come out in favour of reform since leaving office, and polls show that citizens across the world know the current approach is a catastrophe. Momentum is gathering towards new improved policies, particularly in regions that are ravaged by the drug trade.

If we can create a worldwide outcry in the next few days to support the bold calls of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, we can overpower the stale excuses for the status quo. Our voices hold the key to change -- Sign the petition and spread the word:

www.avaaz.org...


We have a chance to enter the closing chapter of this brutal 'war' that has destroyed millions of lives. Global public opinion will determine if this catastrophic policy is stopped or if politicians shy away from reform. Let's rally urgently to push our hesitating leaders from doubt and fear, over the edge, and into reason.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Laura, Ricken, Maria Paz, Shibayan and the whole Avaaz team

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


I was unaware of this petition website so thank you for bringing it to my attention.
I've just 'signed', and judging by the counter on the site many others are signing too..

I really hope people browse though this letter. More and more people are signing it as we speak. Recently the same site had a campaign against the anti-gay law in Uganda. That has gotten 1.6 million signatures. 840,000 have signed to block an EU-law regulating the sale of herbal medicine. At 9 million members, this is a site that can rally support to causes.

reply to post by TheDarkAvenger

I've just 'signed', and judging by the counter on the site many others are signing too..

I signed to, but I didnt put my full last name, just first and last initial, or any contact info except for my email. The counter definantly seems to have alot of people signing up.

I think this petition is great, but dont really have alot of hope it will make much of a difference, atleast here in the US. I would guess if every other nation on earth ended the war on drugs, the US would be the last one

......mostly because the war allows them to do whatever the heck they want......trash the 4th amendment (Indiana last week)......take money from citizens whenever they want to (the Tennesee thread from a few days ago)......and not to mention for-profit private prisons,

Edit - Anyone know how to see how many people have signed???

reply to post by buni11687

Edit - Anyone know how to see how many people have signed???

Usually they have a really cool graph/counter that displays the number of votes, but I can't see it on this page. I can see the new signatures as they happen, but not the counter.

The campaign has just started, and they usually wait for a while to show the graphs. But, now it's up.

They managed to collect 86,000 so far, but they are just getting started. At the moment the goal is 500,000. You can see the ones who sign, along with their nationality in real-time. I definitively think they will make 100,000 first day. How much more is hard to say.