United Nations Listens to the Drug Advocacy movement

Today I listened as a coalition of advocates and a few naysayers made their case to a UN representative at the Wosk Center for Dialogue at the downtown SFU campus.This morning the Province newspaper headline read: "War on Drugs a Dismal Failure." Evidently, the message was coming through loud and clear. There was some reference to a bit of name calling that occurred Yesterday but this afternoon there was no spark from the prohibitionist crowd. The representative for DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) was passionate in his goal of keeping young people from falling into the drug lifestyle but was in agreement with most of what was being said today. The sole voice for the "more of the same" position was SUNDIAL(Supporting United Nations Drug Initiatives and Legislation) who was as boring and redundant as the title of his organization. He championed the "success" of the US in driving the meth manufacturers into Mexico. He didn't explain how making the Mexican Mafia stronger and richer was a good thing but his views were heartfelt. He also trumpeted the indictment of money launderers as something to be proud of. There was no mention of why these indictments were necessary in the first place. This was prohibition's champion. I've sent a synopsis to Dave Borden and I hope he will present the news in a more coherent piece than I could hack out. Meanwhile, another young man has been killed in drug war violence. He was one of two men who drove through a bridge railing into the Nechako river, killing one man. The van had been full of marijuana plants. Police are calling it a drug gang death.