War on Drugs a massive failure.

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The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," says the Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy in its opening statement. "Fifty years after the initiation of the U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the U.S. government's war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed."

The 19-member commission, a private venture chaired by ex-Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, includes George Schultz, President Reagan's secretary of state; Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group; former U.N. secretary general Koffi Anna; George Papandreou, prime minister of Greece; Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve; and Javier Solana, former EU foreign minister.

Read the short recap and the full report.
 
Bound to turn political and get locked and or deleted.

But I agree, It is human nature to crave what they are told they cannot have. Informing kids how bad things are just makes them more curious and find out for themselves.

The effort taken to prosecute users is best spent elsewhere, but it keeps money in the pockets in the powers that be, and that's how every thing will always be decided in the end.
 
I remember when this 'war' was declared in the mid-1980's....gawd, the endless 'drug education' classes we had in school!

Thing is, this isn't new information...most have known the war was a failure...back in the late 1990's!
 
I'm not taking a position on whether or not I think the drug war has been a failure, or whether or not this panel's solution of just legalizing drugs has merit.

But I ask: should we take seriously the recommendations of any panel whose members include current Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan? Sheesh...
 
Originally Posted By: wallyuwl
I'm not taking a position on whether or not I think the drug war has been a failure, or whether or not this panel's solution of just legalizing drugs has merit.

But I ask: should we take seriously the recommendations of any panel whose members include current Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan? Sheesh...


Why not? There are other people there whom you would probably approve.
 
There is no right answer. There are always going to be a portion of the population looking to escape reality via drugs (not talking pain control type). If only there was a harness that stupidity and put it back into the system to benefit the undoped portion of the population.
 
All their proposed solutions are being and essentially have been adopted for quite sometime.

Quote:
Among the commission's recommendations:

- End the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others.


Unfortunately finding drug addicted people who cause no harm to others is harder than it sounds. Finding those who are drug addicted and can contribute enough to society to carry even their own weight is even tougher.

Some things are always work and will continue to be as long as people have human natures.
 
Just say no...
wink.gif
 
I can see it now, " i've asked congress to produce the taxpayer subsidized work for drugs program, so that needy addicts can get the drugs they desperately need!"
 
How can you say the WOD has failed? Do you know how many people's livelihood depends upon WOD?

I am absolutely amazed that in the past this country was able to repeal prohibition as one would have thought both mobsters and feds had vested interest in keeping the prohibition going.

How did the country managed to repeal it then? Unless we learn from that history, we will NOT be able to repeat it. I am genuinely curious. I am also hoping that discussing the history would keep it from getting locked.

- Vikas
 
I don't think it has failed, just that it hasn't succeeded. It wasn't that bad to begin with (at least in the US) but unless you can eradicate militia and warlords, and establish law and order that are not corrupted in the entire world, the drug problem (primarily the criminal organization living off drug distribution profit) would not end. It wouldn't end unless we have world peace, which is a pipe dream.

The best we can say is we suppressed it rather than letting it becomes epidemic, the worst we can say is we wasted a bunch of money not getting the result we wanted.
 
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
There is no right answer. There are always going to be a portion of the population looking to escape reality via drugs (not talking pain control type).


I agree with you that there is no right answer.
Legalize and you create a whole bunch of new problems (including what the criminal murderers in Mexico who are making their fortune on the drug trade are going to do when the money stops coming back over the border)
Don't legalize and you don't solve any of the existing problems.

But there are as many people who are legally addicted to prescription drugs in their own domestic and socially acceptable manner as there are toothless meth addicts in trailer homes.

I'm not saying people don't live with pain, I'm just saying that if you are taking Oxycontin, Vicodin, Xanax, Soma, and Lunesta....all at the same time, you might be a drug addict.

Don't laugh... I know someone who does. And he's got a thousand reasons why he "needs" every one of those. But none of them are because he is addicted.
 
Perhaps they should treat it like a war.

Shoot drug dealers on sight unless they surrender.

Throw them in a prison camp till the war is over if they do surrender.
 
I don't know.
On the one hand, the current system lands hundreds of thousands of Americans in state and federal prisons each year, at a cost of >$20K each for every year they are sentenced to serve.
It has also resulted in the narco-mafias' reins of terror in nations to the south of us.
On the other hand, to the extent that we have a drug problem in our country, how much worse might it be were drugs decriminalized?
I really don't know.
All illegal drugs have recreational users who remain just that.
Most also have addicts who are essentially untreatable.
How much worse would things be with decriminalization?
I really don't know, and I'm not sure that anyone does.
I do know that users can find drugs easily and pretty cheaply anywhere in our country, and I also know that we have many people in our country addicted to legal prescription drugs.
What is the soloution?
Does anyone have any kind of comprehensive plan, or are we still at the slogan stage after all these years?
 
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
There is no right answer. There are always going to be a portion of the population looking to escape reality via drugs (not talking pain control type). If only there was a harness that stupidity and put it back into the system to benefit the undoped portion of the population.


Well, the doped portion of the population does get the oil out of the ground for us!
grin.gif
 
"If there is a war on drugs, then many of our family members are the enemy. And I don't know how you wage war on your own family." - Traffic
 
As others have said, it has been a failure for a long time now.

Despite the government's efforts, it's still incredibly easy to find drugs. I even had a guy sitting in his car at a red light next to my truck offer to sell me pot.

What some probably don't realize is that there is still a variety to choose from too, and the war on drugs has led to a lot more hillbilly and ghetto "ingenuity" than I think the government expected. People were not making meth at home until after the war on drugs started.

It's hard to say if just legalizing drugs in general would work. I do think certain drugs are so dangerous they have no place in society, but obviously the laws against them are not working. I also believe that at least one certain other drug should be completely legal, as I have yet to see why it is any kind of danger to society (you can probably guess what that is).
 
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