Over 1,000 Leaders Worldwide Call for End to “Disastrous” Drug War, Ahead of UN Special Session

First let me say I am not a drug user except for nicotine when I was a smoker; never have been and I am old as dirt. But I did grow up playing in a rock and roll band and have several musician friends who got involved with all kinds of stuff. They are all (except for one. dead now; the one still alive looks dead).

I was to busy getting my pilot licenses to mess with illegal drug stuff plus I was afraid no one would ever want to fly with a druggie captain or the military would not accept me for their flight program.

OK OK now having said all that let me say the drug war is a total sham as many on this very sight know already. I think if someone wants to "do certain drugs" then go for it as far as I am concerned; natural selection works on many levels IMO.

Some good news seems to be coming out on the war on drugs B.S.

On the eve of the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the World Drug Problem, world leaders and activists have signed a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging him to set the stage “for real reform of global drug control policy.”

Will anything become of the letter...Maybe not but at least there is a growing awareness which is at least a beginning IMO.

“The drug control regime that emerged during the last century,” the letter says, “has proven disastrous for global health, security and human rights. Focused overwhelmingly on criminalization and punishment, it created a vast illicit market that has enriched criminal organizations, corrupted governments, triggered explosive violence, distorted economic markets and undermined basic moral values.

I agree with that statement even though it is understated .
www.activistpost.com...

a reply to: 727Sky

The federal government makes way to much money on both sides of the drug war to ever consider stopping.

a reply to: 727Sky

I agree that this 'war' needs to end. Drug transactions are two people engaging in consensual commerce. I do not see a victim or a crime here and certainly no need for Government interference.

I believe the first organization to call for a war on drugs was the UN for S.America . That is how it all started.We carried it to them for a while then brought the same reasoning back to us.

This is just a damned petition. To the head of the U.N. General Assembly, a functionary with absolutely no power to change anything at all.

There are no actual 'leaders' on the signatories list, just a couple of second-rate rich-country legislators, a few infamous tycoons and a failing American presidential candidate.

It is not news. Nothing will come of it except that a few has-been celebrities and fading public figures will obtain a little cheap publicity.

I'm all for it, but this reeks of a 'give' from the oligarchs in lieu of a potential backlash from us serfs as more and more of the corrupt machine is exposed.

Hastret, Hillary, Panama Papers, a dead Supreme, the sham that is the parties, Saudia #ing Arabia as human rights counsel?, BLM, The Kochs, Soros, 'vulture funds', the royals, fat Kim in NK, Fukushima, GMOs, too big to fails, the bikers in Waco, the flights out of Mena, the "company", Trump, and on and on, etc etc, ad infinitum.

Sooner or later something is gonna break.

This is a pressure release and something to prolong the system.

Imho.

I am all for legalization.. BUT... Criminals make their money by selling drugs or robbing people. If they no longer have drugs to sell, robberies will skyrocket. I would assume. Correct me if I am wrong.


iTruthSeeker

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Criminals would become legitimate business owners.

On the topic of America and the war on drugs. Remember the secret service prostitution scandal. Obama was in Latin America because the president there was asking to stop the war on drugs because it was ruining his country. But nothing ever happened.

If drugs were to be decriminalized, what would happen to those in jails and prisons for *just* drug offences? Would they be released?

originally posted by: Kentuckymama
If drugs were to be decriminalized, what would happen to those in jails and prisons for *just* drug offences? Would they be released?

I would hope so.

Records expunged as well.

Will never happen they will progressively end the drug war in a way that allows the big companies to manufacture and a way that allows them to massively overly regulate and tax it.

Also they will be putting hundreds of thousands of people out of jobs.

a reply to: onequestion

Thank you for replying. They should let them out if there are no other crimes than drugs.

originally posted by: Sillyosaurus
a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Criminals would become legitimate business owners.

On the topic of America and the war on drugs. Remember the secret service prostitution scandal. Obama was in Latin America because the president there was asking to stop the war on drugs because it was ruining his country. But nothing ever happened.

So then to sell legal drugs, the criminals are going to pay the tons of money (which they do not have ) for all the start up fees, etc to run a business, and comply with the millions of pages of code and regulations? Just like that they become saints? Sorry I am just trying to be realistic and logical. Also, a huge percentage of criminals are teenagers. So even IF they could, they are not old enough. Who will teach them to run a business?


iTruthSeeker

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

So then to sell legal drugs, the criminals are going to pay the tons of money (which they do not have ) for all the start up fees, etc to run a business, and comply with the millions of pages of code and regulations? Just like that they become saints? Sorry I am just trying to be realistic and logical. Also, a huge percentage of criminals are teenagers. So even IF they could, they are not old enough. Who will teach them to run a business?

You are ignoring that the criminalization of drugs is what made these people criminals to begin with. Before the 1900s there was really no concept of illegal drugs and it certainly didn't criminalize you. Heroin and coc aine were sold in tonics at the local patent medicine shop, and an addiction to one of these was seen as a nuisance. Similar to nicotine addictions or coffee addictions.

Yes people will trade in grey market and black market goods, just as they have since the beginning of regulations. That's what you are concerned about I guess. When I was a kid, other kids sold mix tapes. They weren't paying the artist royalties. Some kids sold food, candies, chocolates, some sold other stuff-firecrackers, and of course there was drugs, the biggest money makers-and what would turn those other kids into criminals.

Once they became criminals the chance of them succeeding in other areas vanished quickly.

Remove that and you remove the criminal. Will people still pirate music and movies? yes. Will people still look for other ways of breaking laws? Sure. Maybe cash business will get some influx. People selling Avon-style to each other. Who cares?

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Also. In the entire 'war on drugs' only the smallest entry level workers are kids. Do you think the kids make the required connections for cultivation, manufacturing, and distribution of these drugs? Most movers and shakers are young professional age and up. I would never trust a 14 year old with hundreds of thousands of dollars of product.

Yes the children in poor circumstances turn to criminal activity. But remove the criminal aspect and suddenly maybe the community is not depressed and oppressed.

Being a criminal is a result of the current laws. Make it legal and suddenly the businessman don't have to get violent, they can call the police. The big criminals won't be powerful either when economics pushed the price low.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

I agree with your view that too much has become exposed and something has to give.

I've always held the view that if booze and tobacco are legal then its sheer legal hypocracy to criminalise drugs. Also people should have freedom of choice given the cultural background of drug taking historically within virtually every culture in the world.

I suspect with the exposing of the court fines which are tax deductible many will be even more disgusted and the elite clearly know their time will come to a sticky end with the masses ultimately - so what little gesture is there left?

I hope this eventually happens because the government position is untenable and when even our top politicians seem to have been spotted in public with little bits of white powder round their snouts - what can we say……

The only thing is I just hope that they don't use any revenue collected to mount more wars instead of spending it public services.

originally posted by: PraetorianAZ
a reply to: 727Sky

The federal government makes way to much money on both sides of the drug war to ever consider stopping.

Sadly, your statement is too damn true.

originally posted by: iTruthSeeker
I am all for legalization.. BUT... Criminals make their money by selling drugs or robbing people. If they no longer have drugs to sell, robberies will skyrocket. I would assume. Correct me if I am wrong.


iTruthSeeker

That reasoning seems faulty. By that logic, all other crimes would "skyrocket".

If we examine the data regarding crime statistics here in the US both before and after the Volstead Act, we see that logic you offer did not play out.

The Volstead Act brought all sorts of crime increases, and its repeal brought back relative calm.

a reply to: 727Sky


Yes! It would be sooo much better if drugs were free to one and all and the countries that produce drugs either from the soil or in secret installations were allowed to do their jobs and ship that stuff all around the world without watchdogs at every port of entry. I'm sure they all signed the petition. While the War on Drugs was a failure, this new idea, like freely handing out needles if not dope to druggies is wrong-head liberalism to the max. It would bring about the degradation to the civilized world by the underworld (both the criminal kind and Third World countries) about the most unproductive endeavor that humans could get into other than starting a war over something else.

There is a world conspiracy to bring America to her knees. --As if we don't get enough help from our own liberal people.


Let's bring this idea down to earth: I have a son that is far from being a decent citizen. Eliminating any laws that will allow him to engage in more of his pleasurable activities will not be toward this country's betterment. Now, you can argue,"But the citizen, even he, will have more freedoms of choice in his life!" And that is the way you ruin a civilization.

We need to double down on the drug war!

Start carpet bombing there terrorist and commie nations that supply these evil dangrous drugs like Cocaine and weed!

All this legalisation of pot is just a commie plan to dumb our great nation down and pacify its population!

We need execution for ALL drug dealers and 25 years minimum sentences for ANY drug possesions charges!

@We need to crack down on states like califonia and colorada who sell this deadly drugs !

a reply to: Americanpatriot123

You post like Richard Nixon might, if he were here today.