An international network of non-governmental organizations has submitted a \u201cshadow report\u201d to the United Nations, concluding that the war on drugs has been a \u201cspectacular failure\u201d \u2014 and calling on the world\u2019s governments to reconsider it. The report takes heart from the growing official tolerance of cannabis in several countries around the world, but warns of escalating and horrific repression in the name of drug enforcement in several others.<\/p>\n
The International Drug Policy Consortium, a global coalition of some 170 nonprofit organizations, released their \u201ccivil society shadow report\u201d on Oct. 21, documenting how the U.N.\u2019s own goal, officially adopted in 2009, to \u201celiminate or reduce significantly illegal drugs markets\u201d has been \u201cspectacularly missed\u201d \u2014 and has instead led to human rights abuses all over the world. The report urges world leaders to adopt a new, more tolerant and realistic drug policy when the U.N. revisits the question at the 10-year mark next March.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0IDPC<\/a>\u00a0report, titled\u00a0\u201cTaking Stock: A Decade of Drug Policy<\/a>,\u201d crunches the United Nations\u2019 own data, and complements it with academic research, as well as field reports and analysis from civil society groups. It notes that the role of civil society in the design, implementation and evaluation of global drug policy was recognized in the U.N.\u2019s 2009\u00a0Political Declaration and Plan of Action<\/a>\u00a0on drugs, as well as in the\u00a0Outcome Document<\/a>\u00a0of the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs.<\/p>\n The report states that the targets set in the 2009 declaration \u201chave not been achieved, and in many cases have resulted in counterproductive policies.\u201d The report also emphasizes that the U.N.\u2019s official analyses have overlooked key points. \u201cFocusing exclusively on measuring the scale of the illegal drug market is clearly not enough to understand the impact of drug policy on the key U.N. Charter commitments to health, human rights, development, peace and security,\u201d the report reads.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n In 2009, the U.N. identified two \u201ctargets\u201d for drug policing. The first was to \u201celiminate or reduce significantly and measurably the illicit cultivation of opium poppy, coca bush and cannabis plant.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the IDPC report finds that data from the U.N.\u2019s own Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC<\/a>) \u201cshows no reduction in the global scale of cultivation of opium, coca and cannabis between 2009 and 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, opium cultivation has in fact increased by 130 percent, the report concluded, adding that information on cannabis cultivation was unavailable, but that there was no sign of reduction.<\/p>\n The UNODC\u2019s\u00a02009 World Drug Report<\/a>\u00a0estimated that between 200,000 and 641,800 hectares around the world were under cannabis cultivation. While the UNODC has not updated its estimate for total hectares under cultivation since then, the 145 countries where cannabis is produced represent 94 percent of the world\u2019s total population.<\/p>\n The second target of the 2009 declaration was to \u201celiminate or reduce significantly and measurably the illicit demand for narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; and drug related health and social risks.\u201d<\/p>\n The IDPC shadow report similarly finds no progress \u2014 in fact, just the reverse.<\/p>\n \u201cThe overall number of people aged 15 to 64 who used drugs at least once in 2016 is estimated at 275 million, representing a 31 percent increase since 2011,\u201d the report notes. \u201cThe main drug of choice remains cannabis, followed by opioids, and amphetamines for which consumption has increased by 136 percent since 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n Not only has the eradicationist approach not worked, but it has had a grave impact in other areas \u2014 most notably human rights.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the past decade, overly punitive drug policies focusing on eradicating the illegal drug market have been associated with wide-ranging human rights violations,\u201d the shadow report finds. \u201cThese abuses have had dire implications on the lives of marginalized people and communities worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n The most obvious impact has been on the \u201cright to life.\u201d At least 3,940 people were executed for a drug offense over the past decade,\u00a0with 33 jurisdictions worldwide retaining\u00a0the death penalty for drug crimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are signs of hope here \u2014 since 2009, countries including India, Iran, Malaysia and Thailand \u201chave taken steps to reduce or eliminate the use of capital punishment for drug offenses.\u201d But others are moving to reinstate the practice, with such legislation pending in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n The report especially notes the \u201crecent escalation of punitive drug policies in South and South East Asia.\u201d It estimates that President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s\u00a0draconian crackdown in the Philippines has now resulted in the extrajudicial killings of over 27,000 people since he took office in June 2016.<\/p>\n Other countries in the region are emulating Duterte\u2019s example. In Bangladesh, at least 200 people were killed at the hands of the police between May and July 2018.<\/p>\n Then, there\u2019s the use of torture. The report especially calls out Indonesia and Russia for using beatings and other torture methods to extract confessions or information from drug suspects. The report emphasizes that the prohibition against such methods in the U.N.\u00a0Convention Against Torture<\/a>\u00a0is \u201cabsolute and non-derogable, even in time of public emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n The report also names Russia for use of arbitrary arrests and planted evidence against the drug suspects \u2014 and notes one case (not the only one)<\/a>\u00a0in which such methods have been used for purposes of political repression. In 2013, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention<\/a>\u00a0concluded that Russian anti-corruption campaigner Denis Mateev had been\u00a0falsely imprisoned on a drug charge<\/a>.<\/p>\n Arbitrary detentions are especially fast on the rise in South and Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, the\u00a0new \u201cdrug war\u201d<\/a>\u00a0launched in January 2017 has resulted in an 80 percent increase in arrests. In Bangladesh, more than 25,000 people were arrested in anti-drug sweeps between May and June 2018, the report notes.<\/p>\n In countries such as Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico, pre-trial detention is mandatory for all drug suspects \u2014 in defiance of recommendations from the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions.<\/p>\n The IDPC\u2019s shadow report portrays these abuses as the bitter fruit of the approach summed up in the United Nation\u2019s special session slogan adopted in 1998: \u201cA drug-free world, we can do it.\u201d This slogan was unveiled along with the SCOPE plan \u2014 the Strategy for Coca and Opium Poppy Elimination by 2008. Supported by the U.S., the SCOPE\u00a0plan was met with strong criticism from nonprofit organizations and civil society groups at the time, which ultimately prevented it from being formally adopted.<\/p>\n However, some of its language was included in the\u00a01998 Political Declaration<\/a>, especially in paragraph 19, which called for \u201celiminating or reducing significantly\u201d illicit cultivation of opium, coca and cannabis over the next decade.<\/p>\n This language was re-incorporated in 2009. Next year, the General Assembly will have the opportunity to rethink it.<\/p>\n The shadow report recommends that the U.N. consider \u201cadopting more meaningful goals and targets\u201d in line with international human rights commitments and the\u00a02030 Agenda for Sustainable Development<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and \u201cmove away from targets seeking to eliminate the illegal drug market.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.N.\u00a0Sustainable Development Goals<\/a>\u00a0include the elimination of poverty and hunger by 2030, as well as guaranteeing good health, quality education and gender equality for all world citizens.<\/p>\n The report especially names the\u00a0International Narcotics Control Board<\/a>, \u201cconsidered as the most conservative U.N. drug control body,\u201d as pushing policies that seek to \u201celiminate\u201d illegal drugs without regard for their human rights impact.<\/p>\n But the report did note that one crack in the dogmatic edifice has appeared: a \u201cnoticeable difference of tone on medicinal cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n As recently as 2013, the International Narcotics Control Board had warned that medical cannabis initiatives could prove to be \u201cbackdoor legalization.\u201d But in May 2018, the board held a meeting with civil society delegates \u201cto discuss the medical and non-medical uses of cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n The shadow report sees the cannabis question as \u201cone of the greatest disconnects between contemporary reality and the U.N.\u2019s 2019 drug policy targets.\u201d While UN. .drug control treaties place cannabis under the strictest of the official \u201cschedules,\u201d it remains \u201cby far the world\u2019s most widely used illegal drug.\u201d<\/p>\n The report notes that\u00a0\u201cinstead of persisting with efforts to ban cannabis markets, an increasing number of jurisdictions are choosing to provide for legal, regulated access to cannabis for adults for non-medical purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n Especially named, of course, are\u00a0Uruguay, Canada and the states in the U.S. that have actually legalized cannabis. Also, various European countries have followed the Netherlands into a more relaxed policy.<\/p>\n The Caribbean region is also making progress, where Jamaica already allows for cannabis use in religious ceremonies. St Vincent and the Grenadines is about to adopt a similar law. A recent report of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM<\/a>)\u00a0Regional Commission on Marijuana<\/a>\u00a0recommends that member states move away from a prohibitionist regime that has proven to be ineffective as well as unjust, having \u201ccaused more harm than it sought to prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n The shadow report finds that the U.N.\u2019s internal politics are \u201cfractured\u201d around cannabis. Even as the International Narcotics Control Board urges a hardline approach, the U.N.\u2019s\u00a0World Health Organization<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0studying the medical applications of cannabis<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and a potential challenge to its Schedule I status.<\/p>\n Even if a consensus is not reached on rescheduling or descheduling cannabis, U.N. member nations may invoke a \u201cunilateral procedure\u201d to opt out of treaty provisions in light of new evidence or circumstances \u2014 as\u00a0Bolivia has now done with regard to coca<\/a>. This procedure is provided for under Article 41 of the\u00a0Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties<\/a>.<\/p>\n The report closes by urging that, as the U.N. revisits the drug policy question next year, \u201cmember states should meaningfully reflect upon the impacts of drug control\u201d on the United Nations\u2019 own stated goals for the coming generation.<\/p>\n The text calls upon the U.N. to adopt practices that \u201creflect the realities of drug policies on the ground, both positive and negative, and discuss constructively the resulting tensions with the U.N. drug control treaties and any human rights concerns associated with drug control efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the lead contributors to the shadow report is former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who has\u00a0emerged as an outspoken critic<\/a>\u00a0of the global prohibition regime. In her introduction, she writes that in spite of this regime, \u201cconsumption and illegal trafficking of drugs have reached record levels,\u201d<\/p>\n But she concludes optimistically: \u201cI am certain that this Civil Society Shadow Report will greatly contribute to the global drug control debates and ensure that the coming decade will be better embedded in the international community\u2019s priorities of human rights, development, peace and security.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/b>\u00a0do you think the War on Drugs has failed?<\/p>\n The post U.N. \u2018Shadow Report\u2019 Blasts Drug War as \u2018Failure\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
An international network of non-governmental organizations has submitted a \u201cshadow report\u201d to the United Nations, concluding that the war on drugs has been a \u201cspectacular failure\u201d \u2014 and calling on the world\u2019s governments to reconsider it. The report takes heart from the growing official tolerance of cannabis in several countriesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,3711,35,6325,6018,415,81,6326,6327,667,97,1221,1173],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30257,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30256\/revisions\/30257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}No Big Surprise: Prohibition & Eradication Are Counter-Productive<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: U.N. \u2018Shadow Report\u2019 Blasts Drug War as \u2018Failure\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"