Ten Years Later, the United Nations Anti-Drug Efforts Have Accomplished Nothing
…nothing, that is, except filling prisons around the world, spreading disease, empowering a worldwide network of organized crime, and killing lots and lots of people:
The U.N. General Assembly session (UNGASS) met 10 years ago to declare that it was time to really get serious about winning the drug war and this is what they have to show for their efforts.
Yeah, it was more than naïve. It is truly appalling to see world leaders completely divorced from reality. Regardless of ideology, drug policy is a serious issue and must be approached rationally.
Anyone who thought the world’s drug problem could be contained in 10 years’ time is not qualified to work on drug policy issues. Seriously, if this is the type of expert analysis we can expect from the UN, they might as well hand the job over to a group of randomly-selected idiots off the street.
VIENNA (Reuters) - A United Nations campaign to cut supply and demand for illegal drugs has shown no progress globally in the decade since it was launched, a European Commission report said on Tuesday.
The U.N. General Assembly session (UNGASS) met 10 years ago to declare that it was time to really get serious about winning the drug war and this is what they have to show for their efforts.
Asked whether the UNGASS campaign had failed, Carel Edwards, head of the Commission's anti-drug unit, told a news conference: "This very clearly comes up with our conclusion that there is no indication that it has made any difference.
"We basically seem to be marking time on the spot," he said.
While a "world without drugs" was never part of the 1998 UNGASS declaration of intent, Edwards said, "nevertheless, at the time, there was an overwhelming publicity campaign that in 10 years we were going to lick this problem. (That) was naive."
Yeah, it was more than naïve. It is truly appalling to see world leaders completely divorced from reality. Regardless of ideology, drug policy is a serious issue and must be approached rationally.
Anyone who thought the world’s drug problem could be contained in 10 years’ time is not qualified to work on drug policy issues. Seriously, if this is the type of expert analysis we can expect from the UN, they might as well hand the job over to a group of randomly-selected idiots off the street.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
This reminds of communist govts and their 5 or 10 year plans
Prohibitionists never have an immediate solution to end any suffering. It's always years down the road in their never-ending drug war.
This is not the only report taht is 10 years old
From NORML:
Institute Of Medicine Report On Medical Marijuana Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary Next Week
Obama Administration "should heed the advice" of the IOM, and "remove federal legal restrictions so that states can regulate marijuana like other accepted prescription medicines," NORML says
Washington, DC: Next Tuesday marks the ten-year-anniversary of the publication of a National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine report that recommended Congress allow for the clinical investigation and use of medical marijuana.
Investigators from the nonpartisan Institute of Medicine (IOM) released their findings, "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," on March 17, 1999. The White House Office of National Drug Control commissioned the 267-page report shortly after voters in California passed the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which legalized the medical use of cannabis under state law.
The IOM report affirmed that marijuana and its constituents possessed numerous therapeutic properties, including the ability to control pain, nausea, and anxiety, and to stimulate appetite.
"[T]here are patients with debilitating symptoms for whom smoked marijuana might provide relief," the study concluded. "Except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range of effects tolerated for other medications."
Commenting on the ten-year-anniversary of the report, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said that interest into the therapeutic properties of cannabis is far greater today than it was ten years ago. According to a search on the PubMed website, there were 427 scientific studies or reviews on cannabis published in 1999. In 2008, there were over 2,100 studies published.
Armentano further noted that the focus of medicinal cannabis research has changed dramatically over the past decade. He said: "Ten years ago, researchers primarily assessed cannabis' ability to temporarily alleviate various disease symptoms. By contrast, scientists today are exploring the role of cannabis to treat actual disease, including the spread of cancer and the progression of multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease."
Armentano also said that scientists have now discovered alternative ways to safely, effectively, and rapidly deliver pot’s therapeutic properties to patients via the use of vaporizers – devices that heats the active ingredients in marijuana to a temperature where cannabis vapors form, but below the point of combustion. In 2007, investigators at San Francisco General Hospital assessed vaporization technology. "Vaporization of marijuana does not result in exposure to combustion gases, ... and [was] preferred by most subjects compared to marijuana cigarettes. ... The [vaporizer] device is an effective and apparently safe vehicle for THC delivery," researchers concluded.
"Today, the only practical impediments regarding the legal use of medical marijuana are political hurdles," Armentano concluded. "The Obama administration should heed the advice of the Institute of Medicine and initiate clinical trials regarding the medical use of cannabis, and it should remove federal legal restrictions so that states can regulate marijuana like other accepted prescription medicines."
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: [email protected] or Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500.
I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!
Drug Free A World Without Drugs?
Can you say Wall Street double standard based insider trading stock inflation scam by global petrochemiceutical corporations profiteering from human suffering?
Prohibitionists
Prohibitionists are an odd bunch of moral propagandists and profiteers.
Oregon House bill 3274
state regulated organically grown giant high thc potency medical cannabis for herb and every hemp job and product as huge high potency plants have proven to be far superior in every way to low potency. Jobs are restored, mills stay in business; things are getting much nicer!
UNGASS Drug-Free Publicity Worse Than Naïve
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
—Albert Einstein (attributed)
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