The End of the War on Drugs

Public pressure is finally forcing an end to the misguided "War on Drugs". The people of the rich world are beginning to realise that, while drugs may be bad, current policy regarding them is much worse.

This page is a source for good news about the War on Drugs and a celebration of its collapse.

How is the War on Drugs still not over? Why are drugs still illegal? The testimonies, the moral arguments, the numbers: all point with inescapable logic to the fact that drug prohibition and its enforcement is more costly than its alternatives. More and more people are speaking out against it: see here, here, here and here for news articles written just in the past two days by mainstream media outlets concerned that the War on Drugs is unwinnable, unnecessary, an attack on our freedoms and an assault on the lives and livelihoods of millions. I will let their words explain the arguments further. Suffice it to say, nearly every country in the world, every major city, is feeling the pain of organised crime and state violence.

More violence is being employed in the fight against the “scourge” of drug trafficking. I was under the impression that the targeting of poppy farms in Afghanistan would be terminated, and I approved. It turned out, however, that we were misled. The violence against Afghan poppy farmers has just taken a dangerous and probably illegal twist.

We need a shift in mindset. Very few problems are permanently solved with laws, police, violence, repression, incarceration or war. We treat the mentally and physically ill like patients, smokers as victims and drug users as criminals. We ignore the quiet but powerful special interests that perpetuate the War on Drugs. And democrats need to believe in and use the power of their political system to change failed and foolish policies. I suggest writing to your congresspeople or members of parliament to legalise all drugs, to help make the world safer and smarter.

As logical as the arguments against the War on Drugs are, they may require an infusion of pathos, the other element in a persuasive argument. I would like to see more articles like this one prominently displayed in newspapers. The photo that greets is of a body, freshly bathed in blood from Jamaica’s drug war, and the article title is “Jamaica bleeds for our ‘war on drugs’”. Let mainstream media show more of the victims of this wrongheaded policy and ask more of the questions that need to be asked: when will American politicians rebuff the special interests and do what is right; when will foreign state representatives reject American pressure to fight their war; when will the people on the fence start paying attention and acting; when will more media join in the chorus.

At the moment, entrenched interests are blocking chances at reform. But there is hope. As even in the notoriously conservative United States a rising number of people is in favour of legalising marijuana, there are ever more signs that the War on Drugs is coming to an end. Those of you who agree with me, keep pushing: soon the scales will tip.

After years of wrongheaded “War on Drugs” policies in Afghanistan, the United States says it has changed. Richard Holbrooke, a highly experienced diplomat, now US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said “we’re going to phase out eradication” of heroin-producing poppies. This can only be good.

87% of the heroin bought in the world in 2004 was made from poppies grown in Afghanistan. (1) That number has climbed from 70% in the 1990s, a big drop in 2000 due to a ban on poppy farming by the Taliban (2), and a resurgence to as much as 90% today (3) (though figures vary).

Eradication efforts do indeed destroy some acreage of poppy farms, but they do not help reach any of the US’s goals. The UN Office of Drugs and Crime report that “the Taliban and other anti-government forces” earned between 50 and 70 million dollars from poppy production in 2008. (4) Antonio Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, says that the same people may also be hoarding poppy stocks, in order to decrease the amount available on the market and push up prices. (4) Moreover, spraying crops punishes the innocent farmers growing them. If Afghan farmers lose their crops to foreign invaders, who are they likely to turn to for protection? If more poppies are eradicated, the price of heroin goes up, the so-called insurgents make more money and gain more allies. Is it any wonder they are putting up such a fight?

In fact, President Barack’s focus is shifting from Iraq to Afghanistan precisely because it is becoming the more difficult of the two conflicts to win. Iraq has always been seen as the pointless, unnecessary war, the bad war, and the one most frequently designated a quagmire. The reality has changed as Iraq has become more stable and Afghanistan conflict has become to look intractable. Richard Holbrooke has been saying since he was sworn in as Special Representative that Afghanistan will be “much tougher than Iraq” (5), and since a year earlier that US counter-narcotic policy in Afghanistan “may be the single most ineffective program in the history of American foreign policy”. (6) He also said that “Nato’s future is on the line”. He is surely right. More importantly, a collapse of NATO’s operations in Afghanistan could mean more violence in Central Asia, more radical Islamism and more suicide terrorism in America and Europe.

For now, let’s get back to drugs. There are alternatives to destroying poppies (though Afghanistan’s Ministry of Counter Narcotics might disagree (7)). Growing poppies could be considered an advantage rather than a scourge. The Senlis Council suggests using them to manufacture opiate-based, legal painkillers such as morphine. (8) Other countries, such as Turkey, grow poppies legally and sell opiates to the United States. Giving farmers a rich market for their crops would mean giving them a livelihood and delivering them from the Taliban. Decriminalising poppy production in Afghanistan will help the cause of NATO forces.

Spokespeople have used the words “phasing out” to explain their shift in policy away from spraying poppy fields. These words make it sound like a slow process that will not end overnight. Nevertheless, policy is moving in the right direction. An end to the eradication of poppies could be the turning point in the war for a democratic and stable Afghanistan.

The peaceful cultivation of marijuana has made another step forward. Oregon's Congress has voted to legalise hemp production, making it the sixth state in the US to do so. (Read the Raw Story here.) It has done well. It should do more.

Hemp is a useful plant, but the lawmakers were careful to say that it is not marijuana that has been legalised. You still cannot grow marijuana, even for personal use. That means that marijuana users, the population of which Oregon is one of the highest ranking states, still need to buy their drugs from Mexico. In case you have not read the latest news from the front, the drug war is raging in Mexico and threatening its downfall.

Oregon is a relatively liberal state that has just relaxed its laws. It should go further to legalise marijuana and help put an end to the war.

Argentina's supreme court has ruled that punishing people for possessing marijuana for personal use is unconstitutional. While it will not solve all drug problems, this decision means less state intervention into private lives, less state money spent on punishing people for their taste in recreation and the right step towards a wise drug policy.

According to the BBC, Argentina's is the latest action in a trend in Latin America of softening drug laws. Mexico, currently experiencing deadly conflict over drugs, has decriminalised small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, meth and LSD.

The president of Argentina's supreme court said it best: "The state cannot establish morality."

Goodbye foolish drug laws. You have overstayed your welcome.

When I was in high school, half of the kids in school smoked pot. At 15, I tried it. I liked it. I did it some more. I never considered the consequences.

I am not an expert on this subject, so forgive me if my facts are wrong. Per capita, after a few poor nations, Canada is the world's highest consumer of cannabis, with the US, Western Europe and Australia not far behind. So we are getting high. And hey, it's fun, it's relaxing, it feels great. But like we are doing with food and consumer goods more and more, we should consider where the things we buy come from, and how they affect others.

It is hard for people like me who live privileged, sheltered lives to understand what the War on Drugs really means. We hear news about increasing gang violence in Vancouver (and the Olympics are next year). We read reports about guerrillas in Colombia kidnapping and controlling towns. We hear that Mexico is on the brink of civil war because of the audacity of its drug gangs and the enormous force the army and the police are putting into fighting them. And I cannot help but feel responsible.

The simple way to beat drug violence is to legalise drugs. This idea does not appeal to everyone because legalisation sounds like legitimacy. But while it is almost certain that a few more people would start taking drugs and even dying from them, far fewer would be dying in Vancouver and Colombia and Mexico. Organised crime and corrupt law enforcement would slow down. And the illegal nature of drugs means we cannot know if they are coming from a small farmer down the block or a Mexican cartel. I will not reproduce the full drug debate here, as you can find it elsewhere. But it is very likely that the violence and the corruption is being fueled by consumption in rich countries. As long as people are getting high illegally, the killing will continue.

When the rich world began to realise that their consumption of diamonds was driving the civil war in Sierra Leone, fewer people bought diamonds. Those who did buy them were more likely to insist on seeing a certificate of authenticity, to make sure they were not conflict diamonds. More than half the world, including all of the rich world, joined the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to ensure that diamonds come from places free of conflict. Now, Sierra Leone is at peace.

So I urge you, as someone who sympathises with drug users, please help stop the violence. Either campaign for drug legalisation or, at the least, stop buying drugs. Help end the killing and the corruption.