[Courtesy of Transnational Institute]

TNI Press Release
June 26, 2008

Download PDF: http://www.ungassondrugs.org/images/stories/pr260608.pdf

UNODC rewrites history in new World Drug Report to hide failure

The new UN World Drug Report is an elaborate exercise of obscuring the failure of ten years of international drug control policy, according to the Transnational Institute (TNI). TNI is one of the leading non-governmental research institutes on drugs policy.

In spite of claims made in the report released today, the world is not any closer to achieving the 10-year targets set by the 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs. These goals were "eliminating or significantly reducing the illicit cultivation of coca bush, the cannabis plant and the opium poppy by the year 2008."

Instead global production of opium and cocaine has significantly increased over the last ten years. According to UNODCs own figures global illicit opium production doubled in the last ten years and cocaine production increased by 20%.

"There is overwhelming evidence that the current approach to drug control has failed", says Martin Jelsma, coordinator of the TNI Drugs & Democracy Programme. "Instead of setting unrealistic targets, we need to introduce a more rational, pragmatic and humane approach to the drugs phenomenon."

In an attempt to draw attention away from this clear failure, the report reviews 100 years of history, claiming success in comparison with Chinese opium production and use in the early 20th century. "The UNODC is trying to hide failures behind a bad history lesson", says Jelsma. "The report not only tries to rewrite history, it is also out of touch with today's dramatic consequences of drug policies."

TNI's research shows that the World Drug Report:

- Deliberately overestimates opium abuse in China in the early 20th century. Opium use in China was mostly moderate and relatively non-problematic, often for medicinal use.

- Wrongly attributes reductions in global opium production to the international drug control system.

- Mentions unintended consequences that have resulted from international drug control policies, but ignores the fact that to improve access to medicines, respect human rights, avoid militarisation and reduce current rates of imprisonment, fundamental changes in the treaty system are necessary.

On the positive side, the report concludes that the international control system needs to be refined and made 'fit for purpose,' focusing on crime prevention, harm reduction, and human rights. "The report contains many useful data and ends with meaningful proposals," says Jelsma.

"Drug control policies should be based on evidence, fully respect human rights and take a harm reduction approach," says Jelsma. "Otherwise we will see another ten years of failure."

TNI also released the Drug Policy Briefing, Rewriting history http://www.ungassondrugs.org/images/stories/brief26.pdf, as a response to the 2008 World Drug Report.

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Please contact: Drugs & Democracy Programme (TNI) Tel: +31-20-6626608 | Martin Jelsma at +31-6-55715893 (mjelsma@tni.org) or Tom Blickman at +31-6-21535809 (tblick@tni.org)

See also TNI's website www.ungassondrugs.org.

http://www.ungassondrugs.org launched to coincide with the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND)'s meeting in Vienna to review UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs for more background.

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Drugs & Democracy
Transnational Institute (TNI)
De Wittenstraat 25 | 1052 AK Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Tel +31-20-6626608 | Fax 6757176
drugs@tni.org
http://www.tni.org/drugs/

With Afghan opium and the heroin made from it flooding into Europe, Iran is one of the first bulwarks in the effort to stem the tide.

The Taliban made about $100 million last year by taxing Afghan farmers involved in growing opium poppies, Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) told

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For Immediate Release: June 23, 2008

NGO Delegate Organizations head to landmark UN Meeting on Narcotic Drugs

Who: Drug policy reform organizations from across USA

Contact: Michael Krawitz at 540-365-2141 or miguet@infionline.net, or Lennice Werth at 434-645-8816 or lennice@hifitown.com

What: "Beyond 2008" International United Nations NGO Forum, Vienna

When: July 6-9th 2008

Where: Vienna International Center, offices of United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime Prevention [UNODC], secretariat of International Narcotics Control Board [INCB]

Crewe, Virginia, 23 June 2008

- Virginians Against Drug Violence [VADV] leaders Lennice Werth and Michael Krawitz are heading to Vienna for what is likely to be a historic event, a first ever roundtable of 300 Non Governmental Organizations [NGO’s] with an expertise in drug use, policy and the international drug control treaties [international law] from all walks of life and representing all ideologies.

VADV is one of three organizations that has taken a leadership role in enabling 7 of the 26 North American NGO’s participate in the meeting with help in the form of a grant from the Open Society Institute [OSI] to facilitate the NGO leaders travel and accommodations to access the meeting in Vienna, Austria.

The 7 NGO’s from USA that will be participating in no small part thanks to OSI are:

-- Professor Rodney Skager Representing Safety First, http://www.safety1st.org
-- Sanho Tree, Spokesperson - Institute For Policy Studies, http://www.ips-dc.org
-- Graham Boyd, Spokesperson - American Civil Liberties Association National Drug Policy Litigation Project, http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/index.html
-- Deborah Small, Director - Break the Chains, http://www.breakchains.org
-- Jack Cole, Director – Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, http://www.leap.cc/
-- Allan Clear Executive Director, Harm Reduction Coalition, http://www.harmreduction.org
-- Kris Krane, Executive Director -- Students for Sensible Drug Policy, http://www.schoolsnotprisons.com/

Feel free to use contact info above to arrange an interview with any of these NGO leaders.

VADV UNGASS PRESS RELEASE PAGE 2

This meeting is part of a once a decade event as the international Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs is revisited, amended and reauthorized by signatory nations. As a signatory to this treaty, the United States constitution declares the treaty to be our supreme national law on drugs.

As the 26 June - International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking approaches we feel this press release is very timely.

The NGO forum that took place on 13 March 2007 during the 50th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs [CND] marked the start of this project undertaken by the Vienna NGO Committee in partnership with UNODC. The project aims at providing a voice to the NGO community in reflecting on its own achievements at the ten-year review of the UN General Assembly Special Session on Illicit Drugs (UNGASS).

Eighteen lead NGOs representing six regions--North Africa and the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean--presented their work on drugs in their respective region.

"Civil Society does not speak with one voice but it certainly constitutes one of the most integral partners in improving the health and the well-being of individuals across the globe. There are many points of consensus among us and it is our intention to mine those for the benefit of all," said Michel Perron, Chief Executive of the Canadian Center on Substance Abuse, who is leading this initiative on behalf of the Vienna NGO Committee.

The Executive Director of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, opened the forum. In his closing remarks to CND delegates, he said: "I was particularly impressed by this year's NGO forum. There was lively debate, in a balanced way that enabled all viewpoints to be expressed. Representations from all five continents made it a truly global event ... We should increase interaction between governmental and non-governmental bodies so that your policies can be implemented on the ground with greater impact.”

We would also like to bring to your attention to the following new harm reduction report from the UNODC: "Reducing the adverse health and social consequences of drug abuse: A comprehensive approach" According to Dr. Costa it is “inspired by the international drug control treaties and supported by a growing body of scientific and medical evidence. Moreover, it was prepared in close consultation with the International Narcotics Control Board.”

###

At the same time as the UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, please join us for a rally against the Thai Drug War and for humane treatment of drug users, including harm reduction.

Speakers will include:

* representatives of Thai civil society participating in the UN High Level Meeting
* US and international drug-user activists
* others, to be determined

In 2003, the Thai government escalated their drug war, and it led to the extrajudicial killing of almost 3,000 Thai citizens, half of whom were never found to have any connection to drugs. On April 2, 2008, the drug war was escalated again. The interior minister of Thailand was quoted as saying, "...for drug dealers, if they do not want to die, they had better quit staying on that road. Drugs suppression in my time as interior minister will follow the approach of Thaksin [former Thai Prime Minister]. If that will lead to 3,000-4,000 deaths of those who break the law, then so be it. That has to be done."

Additionally, 50% of injection drug users in Thailand are HIV+, and are being denied access to lifesaving treatment and comprehensive harm reduction services, including clean needles. UN member countries have committed time and again to Universal Access to HIV treatment. The escalation of the drug war will help fuel the HIV epidemic by driving drug users away from lifesaving care while doing little to stem drug use.

No death as a result of the Thai drug war is acceptable. The Thai government must stop the murder of Thai drug users and immediately prosecute state criminals responsible for past violations!

*This action is sponsored by: African Services Committee, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), Harm Reduction Coaltion, Health GAP, NYC AIDS Housing Network/VOCAL User¹s Union, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group

More information: Kaytee Riek, Health GAP (kaytee@healthgap.org or 215-397-4326).

Via Transform, UN Drug Czar Antonio-Maria Costa appears to be coming to grips with the inevitable consequences of the international drug war:

"The first unintended consequence is a huge criminal black market that thrives in order to get prohibited substances from producers to consumers, whether driven by a 'supply push’ or a 'demand pull', the financial incentives to enter this market are enormous. There is no shortage of criminals competing to claw out a share of a market in which hundred fold increases in price from production to retail are not uncommon." (p.10)

"The second unintended consequence is what one night call policy displacement. Public health, which is clearly the first principle of drug control…was displaced into the background." (p.10)

"The third unintended consequence is geographical displacement. lt is often called the balloon effect because squeezing (by tighter controls) one place produces a swelling (namely an increase)in another place…" (p.10)

"A system appears to have been created in which those who fall into the web of addiction find themselves excluded and marginalized from the social mainstream, tainted with a moral stigma, and often unable to find treatment even when they may be motivated to want it." (p.11)

"The concept of harm reduction is often made into an unnecessarily controversial issue as if there were a contradiction between (i) prevention and treatment on one hand and (ii) reducing the adverse health and social consequences of drug use on the other hand. This is a false dichotomy. These policies are complementary." (p.18)

"It stands to reason, then, that drug control, and the implementation of the drug Conventions, must proceed with due regard to health and human rights." (p.19)

Obviously, there are many good things to be said about all of this. One could never expect such candor from American drug warriors, thus Costa has taken a bold step towards a more honest and accountable drug policy discussion. Yet it was this same man who recently disparaged the attendees of the 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference as "lunatics" who were "obviously on drugs."

How then can one reconcile the above quotes from Costa with his vicious mischaracterization of the very people who've been saying those things for decades? He's literally mumbling our talking points out of one side of his mouth while hurling reckless insults at us from the other. He says things like "There is indeed a spirit of reform in the air," only to then bash the majority of reformers as crazy, drug-charged ideologues with nothing to contribute.

So, as the self-evident truth of our beliefs becomes increasingly impossible to ignore, don't expect the drug war leaders to thank us for our tireless efforts to bring such matters to light. We will always be elbowed to the side, even as our words and ideas work their way into the minds and out of the mouths of those we've lobbied for so long. On that glorious day when the wall comes crashing down, they will just pat one another on the back and behave as though this had been the plan from day one.

That is the future of drug policy reform. There will be no glory for the brave men and women that dedicated their minds and bodies to this, but it doesn't matter because that's never what it was about. The reward we seek is a healthier nation, a better world, the warm embrace of the freedom and justice we've been promised but have yet to behold. One needn't be insane or on drugs to dream of such things.

[Courtesy of Transform Drug Policy Foundation (TDPF)] 

Below is a copy of our latest press release, drawing attention to one of the more encouraging discussion papers to emerge from this month's UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna - although curiously not made available on the UNODC website (at time of writing). More coverage of the CND here here here and here. See also TNI and IHRA HR2 blogs. More discussion to follow.

UN building in Vienna, host to this years CND

Executive Director of UN Office on Drugs and Crime declares international drug control system is not ‘fit for purpose’

In an extraordinarily candid report, the head of the UN agency responsible for overseeing the international conventions on drugs, describes the multi-lateral drug control system as not ‘fit for purpose’. He also explains how the international regime has created significant unintended consequences.

The report, "Making drug control 'fit for purpose': Building on the UNGASS decade" was made available, but not widely disseminated, at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna earlier this month.

It states:

“There is indeed a spirit of reform in the air, to make the conventions fit for purpose and adapt them to a reality on the ground that is considerably different from the time they were drafted. With the multilateral machinery to adapt the conventions already available, all we need is: first, a renewed commitment to the principles of multilateralism and shared responsibility; secondly, a commitment to base our reform on empirical evidence and not ideology; and thirdly, to put in place concrete actions that support the above, going beyond mere rhetoric and pronouncement." (p.13)

“Looking back over the last century, we can see that the control system and its application have had several unintended consequences - they may or may not have been unexpected but they were certainly unintended.” (p.10)

“The first unintended consequence is a huge criminal black market that thrives in order to get prohibited substances from producers to consumers, whether driven by a 'supply push’ or a 'demand pull', the financial incentives to enter this market are enormous. There is no shortage of criminals competing to claw out a share of a market in which hundred fold increases in price from production to retail are not uncommon”. (p.10)

“The second unintended consequence is what one night call policy displacement. Public health, which is clearly the first principle of drug control…was displaced into the background”. (p.10)

“The third unintended consequence is geographical displacement. lt is often called the balloon effect because squeezing (by tighter controls) one place produces a swelling (namely an increase)in another place…” (p.10)

“A system appears to have been created in which those who fall into the web of addiction find themselves excluded and marginalized from the social mainstream, tainted with a moral stigma, and often unable to find treatment even when they may be motivated to want it.” (p.11)

“The concept of harm reduction is often made into an unnecessarily controversial issue as if there were a contradiction between (i) prevention and treatment on one hand and (ii) reducing the adverse health and social consequences of drug use on the other hand. This is a false dichotomy. These policies are complementary. (p.18)

“It stands to reason, then, that drug control, and the implementation of the drug Conventions, must proceed with due regard to health and human rights.” (p.19)

Danny Kushlick, Transform Drug Policy Foundation Director said:

“This report is a welcome contrast to the politically motivated rhetoric that has dominated much of the Commission on Narcotic Drug’s deliberations in the past. Mr Costa is to be congratulated for clearly stating what many in the drug policy reform movement have been saying for decades. That, for all its good intentions, the international drug control system has created unsustainable negative consequences and that its fitness for purpose in the modern world, and possible reforms, must be fundamentally explored.

“It is to be hoped that the issues that the Director has raised are seriously debated by and amongst member states in the coming year of review for the UN drug strategy. Despite the positive words from the UNODC director this substantive debate has clearly not begun yet.”

ENDS

Contact:

Danny Kushlick, Director +44 (0) 7970 174747
Steve Rolles, Information Officer +44 (0) 7980 213943

The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) is a global network of NGOs and professional networks that specialise in issues related to illegal drug production and use. The Consortium aims to promote objective and open debate on the effectiveness, direction and content of drug policies at national and international level, and supports evidence-based policies that are effective in reducing drug-related harm. It disseminates the reports of its member organisations about particular drug-related matters, and offers expert consultancy services to policymakers and officials around the world.

IDPC RESPONSE TO THE 2007 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD

The latest INCB Annual Report was published on 4th March 2008. This brief response explains the contents of the report, and comments on the positions taken by the Board on proportionality in drug law enforcement, the scheduling of coca leaf, and harm reduction.

http://idpc.info/php-bin/documents/IDPC_Response2INCB_AnnRpt07_EN.pdf

[Courtesy of ENCOD]

Here is a link to new videos made by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union at the CND: http://www.drogriporter.hu/en/node/937.

For decades, drug policy reformers have struggled to identify the perfect question, a point so simple and straightforward that no drug warrior can respond. It seems Frederick Polak of ENCOD and the Netherlands Drug Policy Foundation may have stumbled across it, nearly provoking a meltdown from UN Drug Czar Antonio-Maria Costa:

For the video-challenged, here's my rather loose approximation of how it went down:

Polak: How do you explain the fact that marijuana use in the Netherlands is lower than in surrounding countries despite the fact that it is sold freely to adults? Doesn't this fundamentally undermine the theory behind prohibition?

Costa: Thank you for your question. This is an issue I've considered at great length and which you misunderstand most profoundly. Allow me to begin by saying…oh for goodness' sake, I do believe I've left the oven on at my house. I must depart forthwith, but I'm grateful for your participation in this forum and my apologies for this most unfortunate oversight, which I must now attend to. Good day, my friends.

Indeed, remarkably low rates of marijuana use among the Dutch are a tremendously revealing phenomena. In fairness to Costa, it's certainly hard to imagine what he could say about such a thing, thus his rant about the controversy over Dutch coffeeshops was a good try despite its total irrelevance.

Next time, I recommend easing him into it by asking whether he even concedes that marijuana use in the Netherlands is lower than in surrounding nations. He'll respond by calling attention to a pretty bird perched outside the window. Attendees will turn their heads in unison to discover that the bird is not of notable prettiness.

[Courtesy of HaRdCOREhARMREdUCER]

First video online!!! (by INPUD)
News Flash from the 51st session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs 10-14 March Vienna:

• (video) Deborah Peterson Small (OSI) speaks at the 51st CND plenary session in Vienna

• Thursday March 13 at the CND in Vienna: ngo morning preparations for day 4

• Some more impressions from the CND

• INPUD Statement For The 51st Session Commission on Narcotic Drugs

• Statement by UNAIDS for the 51st session of the CND in Vienna

• Report back from Daniel Wolfe of OSI on the 51st session of the CND in Vienna, March 2008

• Wednesday March 12 at CND in Vienna: Coordinated Civil Society Approach

• Tuesday March 11, Ngo's teaming up for day 2 of the CND in Vienna

• Sunday March 9: Arrived in Vienna today (IHRA delegation for the CND)

• More CND Impressions

Using the annual meeting of the United Nation's Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna as a springboard, an international consortium of drug policy, harm reduction, and human rights groups Mo

As UN anti-drug bureaucrats, national delegations, and interested civil society groups converged on Vienna for this week's annual conference of the UN's Committee on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the head

[Courtesy of HaRdCOREhARMREdUCER]

Antonio Maria Costa, director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, lost his temper today at an NGO summit in Vienna. The event is intended to evaluate UN drug strategy from diverse perspectives, yet Costa began by insulting a huge number of professionals working to solve the drug problem:

"I attended the meeting of the drug alliance [DPA] in New Orleans last December, 1200 participants, 1000 lunatics, 200 good people to talk to. The other ones obviously on drugs." [Transform Drug Policy Foundation]

So I am a lunatic who was obviously on drugs when Costa maybe sort of saw part of my head from the stage as he spoke. Simply amazing. This is such a perfect depiction of the insulting and infantile tactics routinely employed by drug war supporters when their opposition gains momentum.

Believe me, the claim that attendees at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference 2007 were "obviously on drugs" is just a colossal lie. With this wildly disparaging characterization, Costa is attempting to attribute our values and beliefs to some drug-induced mania, thereby circumventing the need to take our arguments seriously. Yet anyone present at the conference knows precisely how dignified and impressive an event this truly was.

Witnessing this level of childishness from the world's top anti-drug official goes a long way towards explaining how the massive disaster of international drug prohibition is able to continue.

[Courtesy of The Sentencing Project]

Dear Friends,

The United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today called on the U.S. to automatically restore voting rights to people with felony convictions upon completion of their criminal sentence, and raised concern that such policies have a disparate racial and ethnic impact and may be in violation of international law.

"The Committee remains concerned about the disparate impact that existing felon disenfranchisement laws have on a large number of persons belonging to racial, ethnic and national minorities, in particular African-American persons, who are disproportionately represented at every stage of the criminal justice system," concluded the Committee in their recommendations to the U.S. Government.

The widespread practice of denying voting rights to people with felony convictions in the United States disenfranchises 5.3 million citizens. Eleven states restrict voting by people even after they have completed their sentence, including prison, probation and parole, and many are barred for life. Approximately 1.5 million people are disenfranchised post-sentence. No other democratic nation disenfranchises people for life even after completion of sentence, and many impose no restrictions at all on people with felony convictions.

These recommendations come on the heels of new research conducted by The Sentencing Project that finds 1 in 50 African-American women cannot vote, an increase of nearly 14% since 2000. This rate of disenfranchisement is nearly four times the rate for non-African-American women.Overall, an estimated 792,200 women are ineligible to vote as a result of U.S. felony disenfranchisement laws.

Currently, an estimated 1.4 million African-American men, 13%, are locked out of the ballot box, a rate seven times the national average. Given current rates of incarceration, three in ten of the next generation of black men can expect to be disenfranchised at some point in their lifetime.

To view a copy of the Committee's recommendations, please visit: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/co/CERD-C-USA-CO-6.pdf.

To learn more about U.S. felony disenfranchisement policy and its impact, see these reports by The Sentencing Project: Felony Disenfranchisement Rates for Women and Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States.

As part of its 2007 Annual Report, released Wednesday, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) issu

In its 2007 Annual Report, released Wednesday, the International Narcotics Control Board called on the governments o

Please join us at this workshop for interested NGOs to review their contribution to the UN drug policy review, and agree to actions for the next phase.

For more information, see: http://www.idpc.in

The Economic and Social Council established the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in 1946 as the central policy-making body of the United Nations in drug related matters. The Commission enables Member States to analyse the global drug situation, provide follow-up to the twentieth special session of the General Assembly on the world drug situation and to take measures at the global level within its scope of action. It also monitors the implementation of the three international drug control conventions and is empowered to consider all matters pertaining to the aim of the conventions, including the scheduling of substances to be brought under international control.