Consequences of Prohibition
Politics & Advocacy
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) today released its latest annual report (available on February 20th here) on the global drug situation. The report strongly suggests that the INCB remains stuck in the last century when it comes to drug policy.
INCB brochure
One of the targets of the INCB's ire this year is marijuana, which the agency says the international community is underestimating. "The international community may wish to review the issue of cannabis," the report said. "Over the years, cannabis has become more potent and is associated with an increasing number of emergency room admissions," the report stated, adding that marijuana is frequently called a "gateway drug."
"In spite of all these facts, the use of cannabis is often trivialized and, in some countries, controls over the cultivation, possession and use of cannabis are less strict than for other drugs," the INCB complained. While some countries are lax on personal use and others allow medical use, public perceptions of the herb "are overlapping and confusing," the agency said.
It was also critical of opiate maintenance therapy and harm reduction programs. Heroin maintenance programs violate the UN conventions, while some harm reduction practices facilitate drug use, the INCB charges.
Another key concern for the INCB was the rise of the Internet in the trafficking of both licit and illicit drugs. "Drug traffickers are among the main users of encryption for Internet messaging and by this means evade law enforcement, coordinate shipments of drugs and launder money," the report warned. "A coordinated, global response is needed to meet this challenge."
The agency also reported that purveyors of chemicals used in the manufacture of illicit drugs are also using the Internet. Sometimes criminals will create fictitious companies or bogus authorizations to import such chemicals, the INCB charged.
But the INCB was also "alarmed" by the development of "rogue" Internet pharmacies. While it granted "that purchasing pharmaceuticals online can be beneficial, especially in areas where hospitals and pharmaceutical services are widely dispersed, [the INCB] is alarmed that 'rogue' pharmacies are encouraging drug abuse among vulnerable groups."
The report called for international action "to address the illegal sale of drugs on Internet pharmacies and web sites." "The Internet is a major problem," said professor Hamid Ghodse, the board's president. "That is why we started three years ago to have contact with Interpol on the issue. There are illicit Internet pharmacies and they do not have natural boundaries."
On the positive side, the INCB, which is charged with monitoring the use of opiate-based pain relievers, said "millions of patients" were suffering unnecessarily and urged governments to "stimulate" the use of such pain relievers." Although the access to controlled medicines, including morphine and codeine, is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be a human right, it is virtually non-existent in over 150 countries," the report said. "The WHO estimates that at least 30 million patients and possibly as many as 86 million annually suffer from untreated moderate to severe pain."
But overall, the report was full of doom and gloom, warning that the global drug trade was expanding and becoming more violent. When assessing blame for this state of affairs, the INCB should look in the mirror, critics said.
"With the release of its annual report today, the International Narcotics Control Board boldly reaffirmed its shameful commitment to politics over science as well as its shocking indifference to the failures and harmful consequences of the global drug prohibition regime," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
"The INCB is the last of the UN drug agencies to still prioritize abstinence-only ideology over evidence-based policies that have proven effective in reducing drug-related harms. Its recommendations regarding substitution treatment, cannabis policy, and harm reduction measures to reduce death, disease, crime and suffering are all at odds with both scientific evidence and evolving policies in many parts of the world," Nadelmann continued. "Perhaps most stunning is the board's failure to consider the crime, violence and corruption as well as over-incarceration and violations of human rights associated with the global drug prohibition regime."
"The tragic irony is that it is the board's inhumane, unjust and irrational policing of the UN drug control system that has created or exacerbated most of the problems outlined in its report," agreed Danny Kushlick of Transform, the British drug policy foundation. "The board is complicit in gifting the illegal drug market to terror groups, paramilitaries and organized criminals, contributing to the political and economic destabilization of producer and transit countries and putting millions at risk of contracting blood-borne viruses. The INCB and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime pose a greater threat to global well-being than drugs themselves."
Nadelmann pointed out that there are alternatives. "Coming on the heels of the report released last week by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, which came to very different conclusions with its call for a paradigm shift in global drug control policy, the INCB report seems sadly irrelevant to the most important issues in drug control today," he said. "Now that the Obama administration shows signs of joining with other nations in emphasizing health and science over anti-drug rhetoric and ideology, the INCB may soon be faced with the choice of evolving or going out of business. It will soon be one hundred years since the International Opium Congress convened in Shanghai in 1909, thereby initiating the global drug control system. An appropriate memorial would be the abolition of the INCB."
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
INCB GET OFF OF OUR PLANET!
INCB IS JUST ANOTHER TERRORIST PETROCHEMICEUTICAL INSIDER TRADING SCAM. SO TO ALL THE D.E.A.,F.D.A.INCB,ETC TERRORISTS YOUR REIGN OF TERROR IS OVER NOW END YOUR FRAUDULENT OCCUPATION OR SUFFER ! ALL PETROCHEMICEUTICAL PHARMACIES WHICH SPONSOR THE WAR AGAINST DRUGS YOU ARE ALSO FRAUDULENTLY OCCUPYING THIS LAND AND WATER AND AIR . SO DEATH TO THE INCB TERRORISTS AND ALL THEIR INSIDER TRADING SCAM TERRORIST SPONSORS ON LOCAL,STATE,FEDERAL,GLOBAL AND PRIVATE LEVELS ! GET OFF OF OUR PLANET ! INCB AND SUPPORTERS KILL YOURSELVES !
In reply to INCB GET OFF OF OUR PLANET! by Anonymous (not verified)
:)
I love you Anonymous. This is the cold truth and needs to be spammed to every human on earth. Maybe someone can supply the bullets for the supporters to shoot themselves?
In reply to :) by Anonymous (not verified)
Anonymous love, one night stand
Yes, I can understand your love!? But,I have no respect for anyone who gets on here, and spouts off with almost, insane rants. I also find it hard to understand why someone who would support it! Anyone who does not have enough guts to use a real name, and act insane, deserves no respect. Or love! IMHO
In reply to Anonymous love, one night stand by mlang52 (not verified)
but...
The sad thing is, as insane as that rant might seem at first glance, it's pretty much the truth.
In reply to but... by Anonymous (not verified)
Yes, well........
I guess if you want the opposition to be able to point out that we just look like a bunch of "crazy dopers"! It just seems like it does not make sense to give them any more ammunition!
But, do not take my advice as suppression of free speech. Everyone, on here, has absolutely ever right to express their feelings.
In reply to INCB GET OFF OF OUR PLANET! by Anonymous (not verified)
End Prohibition or Perish
End Prohibition or Perish... Ought to be our mantra... broadcast it loud and clear... for the fools to hear.. before they are held accountable!
In reply to INCB GET OFF OF OUR PLANET! by Anonymous (not verified)
We don't need terrorists on our side
When anti-prohibition speech turns to calling for people to be killed or kill themselves, it moves way beyond the point of being helpful. Instead, it gives credence to the anti-drug propaganda that says that drug users are deranged maniacs who place no value on human life.
Thanks, Anonymous, to contributing to the enemy position.
INCB are Olly North style drug dealers insider trading stocks
No one who has the ability to think actually believes that the I.N.C.B. are not doing the same thing that Oliver North did. The war against drugs was declared unconstitutional when alcohol prohibition was declared unconstitutional. this means that the war against drugs is part foreign occupation,part insider trading scam, and last but not least ; a group of local,state,federal,global and private terrorist war mongers who have hijacked the planet.
Dr. Ron Paul ,Ralph Nader,Harry Browne and others have spoken
Now its time for everyone to not only listen but actually remove all these I.N.C.B./D.E.A.,politicians and police who force this terrorist operated war against drugs and all the wars and pain they force on all ! I suggest unrelenting phone calls and emails to the D.E.A.,I.N.C.B.,politicians,and police who force this fraudulent war and war against drugs on everyone with the demand disband and report to the prisons they built.
Go have a drink of your favorite drug, INCB flaming hypocrites
Look in the mirror guys. Can't you see the blood on your hands? Oh, you have to open your eyes to do that. Well, give it a try. Alcohol is so more dangerous and deadly than cannabis that there is utterly no comparison. What a pack of bigots and thugs.
Battling the fascists polluting the U.N.
Washington D.C. and Tel Aviv, bent on taking control of the world's natural resources, and also bent on implementing an agenda that creates a global police and slave state, (with them stealing from, and controlling, the masses), are using the U.N. to help them spread thweir reign of terror and fascism.
This economic collapse has given us a chance to rise up and successfully demand an end to their attacks on civil liberties, human rights, and Earth's destruction.
INCB does not oppose subsitution therapy
INCB does not oppose substitution therapy. The President is clear on that in his foreword ('the Board agrees to the use of substitution therapy in the treatment of drug dependence....") And drugs are already legal and can be used freely ... for medical and scientific purposes. Unfettered legalisation is no viable option to address this complex issue.
In reply to INCB does not oppose subsitution therapy by Anonymous (not verified)
wrong
Cannabis should be lgalized for adults immediately. It is therapeutic and harmless. The hard drugs should be dispensed by physicians and those who need help should get it, not be incarcerated.
The dark ages are over, this is a new century, and old, outmoded, outdated, and misguided agencies like INCB, ONDCP, and PDFA (just to name a few of the biggest embarrassments) should be abolished. That money could be much better spent elswhere.
In reply to INCB does not oppose subsitution therapy by Anonymous (not verified)
Unfettered legalization?
I have heard no one on here call for that! I, for one, don't think anyone under the age of 18 should even have a choice of any intoxicant! But, the way it is right now, those, in control, guarantee that the kids, of any age, can get anything they want, after a couple hours at school. Illegal drugs are easier for them to get than booze or cigarettes!
Heroin is a form of morphine and should be legal, as a pain med, anyway. Cannabis was used years ago for its medicinal purposes, and needs re-legalized. Technically methamphetamine and cocaine are legal, class 2, drugs. The CSA appears to be very arbitrary, if one considers those facts.!
And what do they substitute? Methadone is a dangerous drug, in itself. One can die from an acceptable dose of it, if it has an adverse effect on the heart, which it has a tendency to do, to some people.
It is just more proof that the INCB has no clue. It is just more propaganda.
TO MLANG
MAYBE IF WE GIVE TYRANTS LIKE THE D.E.A. AND WAR AGAINST PEOPLE/DRUGS OPERATORS FLOWERS IN THEIR GUNS AND PEACE SIGNS THEY WILL REALIZE THAT THE DRUG WAR IS TERRORISM AND STOP THEIR ATTACKS?
In reply to TO MLANG by Anonymous (not verified)
flower power?
You know they would laugh in our faces! I don't mean to say they are nice guys. They have not proven to be, so far! Evidenced by sending a kid to prison after, breaking into his house, and scaring him into shooting, and killing, a cop! Now Ryan gets to pay for their stupidity! There is a lot of injustice out there!
In reply to flower power? by mlang52 (not verified)
ummmm...
I think that was sarcasm...
Been there done that, they shot us at Kent State. Let's not do that again please...
In reply to ummmm... by Anonymous (not verified)
But that is what they did!
Sarcasm? oops! Was not real clear to me.
We have too many on here spouting out that we just need to start violent actions. It might work, if we were as well armed as the military! Otherwise, its just a crazy idea, unless we want to be martyrs. Sorry, but I am not wanting to die! That is why I don't drink!
Tel Aviv?
Tel Aviv?
Apparently we have some neo Nazis as allies?
I.N.C.B. is violent insider trading group.
the comment is the subject and this war on drugs is over when these terrorists are physically removed and put out and have their lives destroyed . Violence is as violence does and the war on drugs is ran by violent terrorists
Peaceful people can make a difference.
Peaceful words or violent rants ? How much more insanity can be tolerated while not being accepted ? Do violent bullies whether legal or illegal really care about peaceful people ? I believe in Americas people. I believe in this planets people. So would the real police and military please remove the war against drugs people and their terrorism from this planet ?
Fu*k the whole lot of them
Drugs are not the problem, the war on drugs, is the problem.
It pisses me the fu*k off, this is US government sanctioned terrorism on the whole fu*king world.
The US government doesn't own the world as much as they would like to think they do.
And, like an earlier post said, the government is violating the constitution by making these illegal laws, and their enforcement makes it a criminal act upon the American citizens.
It's beyond pathetic when a government has to break laws to make laws, and not admit there wrong.
For over 30 years.
This practice does not serve the best interest of the nation, in fact, just the opposite. Any law that causes more death than it prevents, is a bad law, no matter how many rights have to be violated to enforce it.
A key phrase in the law is "harm", laws are to prevent "harm", not cause it.
The US government has been inflicting harm on it's citizens, in the name of an illegal "law" long enough.
The US government is a terrorist regime.
non recognition of unconstitutional leaders
every time someone is terrorized by police over herbs state clearly to the arresting officers "your unconstitutional forced religious cult is no longer recognized so get your terrorist government out ! I dont recognize Randolph Hearst or Harry Anslinger as valid lawmakers."
END PROHIBITION OR PERISH ! RIGHT ON !
IM SHOUTING END PROHIBITION OR PERISH! END WAR OR PERISH! WHITE TEE SHIRTS WITH BOLD BLACK LETTERS WITH THE SLOGANS ARE NEXT. AND BUMBER STICKERS PLACED ON POLICE CARS
Unite or Perish
Either we co-ordinate a campaign to end governmental control over what substances we put into our bodies or we give up and admit the fascists actually won the 2nd world war.
If you are interested, visit www.dismasarisen.blogspot.com, the host blog site for S.T.E.P.- the Society To End Prohibition.
I believe that the drug laws in place serve only those in power. It allows them to spread the lie the drug use is drug abuse.
We must unite to spread the truth; 100 years ago there were no laws restricting what anyone could do with their bodies so long as they harmed no one else. And how interesting that there was no drug problem. It was only after the medical profession allied with the B.N.D.D. in the 1920s to require prescriptions that only doctors could issue did we suddenly discover a "drug problem" in our midst.
As for myself, I lost my career(lawyer) because I was caught with a bag of pot in my car. And the irony was I was stopped,searched and convicted all in contravention of my 'one time "constitutional" rights.
So we either fight back and change the laws or we go to our graves knowing we spent our lives being controlled by the powers that b
In reply to Unite or Perish by Anonymous (not verified)
Drug laws in the past
In fact, they put a lot of doctors (thousands) in jail, right after the laws made it illegal for physicians to treat addicts. After that scare, is it any wonder they all gave in to government control?! They have been scaring the doctors into being puppets, ever since! If one doesn't play the government's game, one ends up unemployed, like you did! How sick!
In reply to Unite or Perish by Anonymous (not verified)
In the US
I am convinced that massive recall efforts by citizens on all federal and state legislators is the ONLY way we are going to move this issue (and many others) in the direction of freedom. They ignore us when we call or write, voting changes nothing, but they most certainly will get the picture when we start legally recalling them from office.
I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!
RE: WE DONT NEED TERRORISTS ON OUR SIDE
YOURE CORRECT. WE DONT NEED TERRORISTS ON OUR SIDE. AND THIS FORUM IS FOR PEOPLE TO FREELY VENT . KINDA LIKE A PUNCHING BAG WITHOUT HITTING ANYTHING BUT THE KEYS. IF YOU HAVENT NOTICED THE WARS AND WAR AGAINST DRUGS PEOPLE ARE TERRORISTS ,BULLIES ,THUGS, THE LIST GOES ON. AND THERE WAS NO CALL TO KILL THE WAR AGAINST DRUGS PEOPLE,ONLY FOR THEM TO BE REMOVED,ELIMINATED,BLAH YADDA, AND AS FAR AS CALLING FOR THE WAR/DRUG WAR PUSHERS TO KILL THEMSELVES, THEY ARE ALREADY KILLING THEMSELVES BY OPERATING A CRUEL DICTATORSHIP AT LOCAL STATE,FEDERAL,GLOBAL AND PRIVATE LEVELS. WE ARE SIMPLY ASKING THE CONSTITUTIONAL POLICE FOLKS AND CONSTITUTIONAL POLITICIAN FOLKS, AND CONSTITUTIONAL MILITARY FOLKS TO IMMEDIATELY REMOVE THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL POLICE,POLITICIANS AND MILITARY. THE WAR/DRUG WAR PUSHERS TERRORIST WALL STREET PETROCHEMICEUTICAL INSIDER TRADING SCAM HAS FRAUDULENTLY OCCUPIED THIS PLANET FOR FAR TOO LONG AND MUST BE REMOVED BEFORE THEY POOL UP THE REST OF THEIR BULLY BUDDIES AND COMMIT ANOTHER 911 STYLED ATTACK!
UNFETTERED LEGALIZATION NOW
UNFETTERED DRUG LEGALIZATION WAS MADE ILLEGAL ILLEGALLY BY THE FRAUDULENT OCCUPATION OF TERRORISTS YEARS AGO AND IS RUN BY THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS TODAY. PROHIBITION AND WAR/CONFLICT HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE TOOL OF GLOBAL TERRORISTS TO KILL OFF THE LOCAL ECONOMIES BY RESOURCE DEPRIVATION THEN STALKING,MENACING,KIDNAPPING,ETC. ANYONE WHO DISAGREES OR DEFIES ORDERS .THE WHOLE TIME REAPING THE INSIDER TRADING BENEFITS ON WALL STREET. LOOK AT HOW GLOBAL PETROCHEMICEUTICAL CORPORATIONS KEEP SPONSORING WAR AGAINST DRUGS TERRORISM FOR THE PROFIT OFF HUMAN MISERY.
INCB Religious Terrorists for Criminal Mercantilism
INCB meets with other religious terrorists
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2009/02/un-incb-religious-inquisition.html
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-obama-could-say-about-criminal.html
Click on the link at the end of the 2nd url...
Did I just read that correctly?
Online pharmacies are a problem but opiate-based pain killers are UNDER-UTILIZED??!!
Talk about mixed messages. Well, it makes perfect sense if you are a pharmaceutical company.
It's so obvious that prohibition is in place to protect the interests of big business and keeping wealth in the hands of a select segment of society. As banks continue to fail, economies falter, and people look to real science and industry, its only a matter of time before more people recognize the true motives of prohibition and wish to end this elaborate rouse.
Rogue Internet Pharmacies?
1)Interpol has no policing authority anywhere. The only thing they can do is alert local authorities.
2)These online vendors are not breaking any laws in their respective countries.Therefor, they cannot be stopped.
3)Everyone knows that when products leave a country, money flows in. No government would EVER stop any form of export trade. One can conclude that the online pharmaceutical trade will go on as long as there is an Internet.
Every drug raid is a terrorist attack
Angry rants may be counterproductive, but to anyone who has ever been victimized by drug cops they are totally understandable AND justified. Drug users didn't start the war.
Speaking of wars, in a world ravaged by civil wars and threatened by global warming, don't you think that those in power have more important things to do than worry about what's in our urine? Don't you think the leaders of the most powerful nation on Earth have more important things to do than decide how many cold tablets each of us can buy?
What right or obligation does the UN or the US have to dictate MY lifestyle choices?
Add new comment