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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7295
Location: Amsterdam
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 Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:42 am Post subject: The ENCOD Bulletin: Drug Prohibition in Defence Mode |
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THE ENCOD BULLETIN
NR. 3. MARCH 2005
DRUG PROHIBITION IN DEFENCE MODE
The war on drugs is quickly approaching the date on which the last shreds of its
credibility it still maintains among the general public will expire. What is happening
around Europe these days demonstrates the moral crisis within authorities and others
who wish to maintain prohibition as the basis for drug policies. They are increasingly
showing signs of weakness. Instead of producing arguments that would prove to the
world the benefits of drug prohibition, supporters of the war on drugs avail
themselves of blackmail and defamation, or demonstrate an arrogance typical of
those whose cherished notions are being threatened by reality. Conditions for drug
policy reformers to move forward improve.
Europe, February 2005. Thirty years have passed since the possession and distribution
of small quantities of cannabis were decriminalised in the Netherlands. Virtually all
European cities make clean needles available to injecting drug users. Consumption
rooms are becoming a fully integrated instrument of official policies in more and more
countries. The same with facilities for pill testing. These and other measures, all
known under the broad banner of Harm Reduction, have not only saved thousands of
lives and improved many more: in fact, they alone are the cause of the only positive
results that can be presented by drug policy officials in their evaluation reports, like
those of the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction.
The importance of harm reduction in preventing infections, mortality and drug
problems in general is broadly recognised. In some ways, it has even become a
palliative to keep prohibition alive by giving it a more human face. Many harms
related to drug production, distribution and consumption, especially those caused by
the fact that drugs are illegal, continue unchallenged. However, questioning the
legitimacy of Harm Reduction would be extremely unwise. Still, that was the purpose
of the visit of Bobby Charles, a high level representative of the US State Department's
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, to Mr. Antonio Maria Costa,
Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime on 10 November last year.
Charles told Costa to make sure the UNODC would continue to oppose harm
reduction. Since the United States is one of the major donors to the UNODC (together
with Sweden and Italy) Costa quickly understood the message. The next day he
promised Charles in a letter ([url]http:www.encod.org/letundcp.htm[/url]) that Harm
Reduction will not make its way into the official UN discourse.
Of course, the US intervention is a foreseeable denunciation of all those governments
which have been applying harm reduction measures for an entire generation now and
believe in its effectiveness. Much more concerning is the fact that the UNODC, still
the world's most prominent authority on drug control, is willing to sacrifice common
sense if it is put under political and financial pressure, no matter how many people
will die from the consequences.
Accusing their opponents is another way in which supporters of drug prohibition try to
defend their cause. UNODC director Antonio Costa calls people who question drug
prohibition "pro-drug activists, who are becoming part of the drug problem". Others,
like the Scandinavian NGOs Hassela Nordic Network (HNN) or Europe Against
Drugs (EURAD), describe drug policy reformers as conspirators who are all funded
by billionnaire George Soros. This argument was used by the Chairperson of EURAD,
Graine Kenny, in a conference last September in Oslo, Norway, an effort to convince
the local authorities that opening a safe consumption room in their city would make
Norway fall prey to George Soros' global legalisation strategy. On 1 February 2005,
the first safe consumption room in Scandinavia was opened in Oslo. Injecting drug
users can make use of the facility 6 hours a day.
Finally, disrespect is the newest form in which authorities try to avoid the dialogue
with those who argue for drug policy reform. In early February, the UK's new Home
Secretary Charles Clark refused an invitation of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance to
speak at an event about the medical benefits of cannabis in Clark's own electoral
district of Norwich, saying he had "no respect for the LCA or it's members". Well, at
least he is being honest to his fellow citizens, some of whom might even have voted
for him in the last elections.
On the other hand, some European authorities are trying to find a rational way out of
the current dilemma of laws that do not reflect reality as long as the basis for
international drug legislation, the UN Conventions on Drugs, has not been up to
revision. Apart from the good news from Oslo, encouraging steps were taken by the
Polish Minister of Health, Marek Balicki, who presented in early January a proposal
to decriminalise drug consumption. One month later, the Belgian authorities
decriminalised the personal use of cannabis: from the first of February 2005, in the
heart of the European Union, you can grow 1 plant and have 3 grammes of cannabis in
your possession without fearing legal consequences.
And of course there are other positive initiatives that can become seeds of hope. Such
is the case of the decision by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home
Affairs of the European Parliament to organise a Public Hearing on EU Drug Policies
on 21 April, in order to influence on the elaboration process of a new European
Commission Action Plan On Drugs (2005 to 2009). The purpose of this hearing is to
enable both civil society representatives and authorities to discuss the integration of
evidence-based insights in future EU drug policies. It should be seen as the follow-up
on the reform-friendly Catania report that was approved in the European Parliament in
December.
Millions of European citizens who consume forbidden substances or care for the
impact of the drug issue on society are being held hostage by laws and policies whose
justification is dubious, illegitimate and harm-producing. The nature of the purported
benefits of prohibition is such that the general public somehow is not allowed to know
about them. On the other hand, the harms of prohibition are no longer limited to the
field of health. Drug prohibition has an impact on the food security, environment and
economy of many nations, and in terms of public safety, affects every citizen of the
world.
So while it becomes increasingly difficult to defend the current status quo, the fight
for different drug policies continues to be the responsibility of a tiny group of people
who are very susceptible to efforts to discredit them. Drug policy reformers have the
potential of growing from a single-issue-network related to people living in the
margins of global society into a social movement for change that reaches far beyond
its immediate goals. Reformers need to get organised, and that is what ENCOD is
trying to achieve.
In february ENCOD proposed to all the different European NGO networks involved in
the drug field to coordinate the involvement of civil society in the hearing in the
European Parliament in April. Unfortunately, the two main funding agencies working
on this issue, Open Society Institute and NEF/ Senlis Council, did not show interest
and the proposal failed. We also approach the hemp related industry suggesting them
to play a more active role - for instance by organising a hemp fair in Vienna during the
days of the CND Meeting in one of the coming years. This could help attract people to
a new international demonstration at the UN Headquarters. And we contribute to
making Saturday May 7, 2005, the Day of the Million Marijuana March, a worldwide
event to spread the seeds of hope for a different drug policy. Finally we continue to
look for VIPs who may support us, and we count on your support in spreading the
word on ENCOD so people can become a member or suscriber to our monthly
newsletter.
Joep Oomen
www.encod.org
http://www.encod.org/BULLETIN3.pdf
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entropical
Full member
Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 95
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| Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:56 pm Post subject: Re: The ENCOD Bulletin: Drug Prohibition in Defence Mode |
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| Ferre wrote: |
Accusing their opponents is another way in which supporters of drug prohibition try to
defend their cause. UNODC director Antonio Costa calls people who question drug
prohibition "pro-drug activists, who are becoming part of the drug problem". Others,
like the Scandinavian NGOs Hassela Nordic Network (HNN) or Europe Against
Drugs (EURAD), describe drug policy reformers as conspirators who are all funded
by billionnaire George Soros. This argument was used by the Chairperson of EURAD,
Graine Kenny, in a conference last September in Oslo, Norway, an effort to convince
the local authorities that opening a safe consumption room in their city would make
Norway fall prey to George Soros' global legalisation strategy. |
Of course they accuse their opponents. In their view, opponents are the devil - they want to legalize drugs, the most terrible thing on earth. Their goal is a drug free society and nothing else. I tell you, they are nazis in disquise. Wolves in sheep clothing. HNN torture and brainwash young people in their so called treatment centers. This is a documented fact, I tell you no lie. It is seen as positive, since drug users are not thought of as human beings. Their job then is to break down and utterly destroy the lowly filthy creature known as a junkie and create a human being from out of the ashes, understand. These are highly influential people, backed by powerful interests in high society. All these organizations link up and they recieve massive amounts of funding.
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"Rastafari is not a faith which can be converted to. No one person can say, 'This is exactly what the Rastafari doctrine is,' because the beauty of the faith is that it is seen through the eyes of the beholder...it is a way of life, which, like life itself, continues to grow in mind, body and spirit." |
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Mystic Power
admin THC-Ministry YahooGroup
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3605
Location: Key West
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| Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 3:05 pm Post subject: Re: The ENCOD Bulletin: Drug Prohibition in Defence Mode |
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| entropical wrote: |
| Of course they accuse their opponents. In their view, opponents are the devil ... I tell you, they are nazis in disquise. Wolves in sheep clothing ... drug users are not thought of as human beings ... |
I believe you have hit upon a very important component in this entire mess.
| ENCOD wrote: |
| So while it becomes increasingly difficult to defend the current status quo, the fight for different drug policies continues to be the responsibility of a tiny group of people who are very susceptible to efforts to discredit them. |
ENCOD has the right idea:Unity.
Follow your bliss,
Ben
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"We are the Ones we have been waiting for."
~Hopi Elder ~
"In Lak'ech"
~ Ancient Mayan: "I am another YOU." ~ |
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Fyrefly1
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 07 Sep 2004
Posts: 2209
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| Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:02 pm Post subject: Re: The ENCOD Bulletin: Drug Prohibition in Defence Mode |
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| Mystic Power wrote: |
| entropical wrote: |
| Of course they accuse their opponents. In their view, opponents are the devil ... I tell you, they are nazis in disquise. Wolves in sheep clothing ... drug users are not thought of as human beings ... |
I believe you have hit upon a very important component in this entire mess.
| ENCOD wrote: |
| So while it becomes increasingly difficult to defend the current status quo, the fight for different drug policies continues to be the responsibility of a tiny group of people who are very susceptible to efforts to discredit them. |
ENCOD has the right idea:Unity.
Follow your bliss,
Ben |
Our govt' has fallen...yes fallen into the same self-congratulatory and deceptive position of being liberators in a massive and false drug war...
Unfortunately they demonstrate the same attitude as the English government back in the 16th century with enslaving Africans, or the anti-indian crusade in the 1800's, the anti-jew movement of the Third Reich and the anti-Iraqi movement of the two Bush presidents....
It is the noxious, imperialistic attitude of a dangerous superiority complex that seems to be just as rampant in the modern world as it was a thousand years ago!
_________________
Fyrefly1
"All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th Century Philosopher |
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