Losing the Battle

image credit: Dr. Case

In a report released last week by the Global Commission on Drug Policy revealed something we've been suspecting for years;

" we have lost the war on drugs"

In 1971 the then President Nixon of the United States of America said that drug use was the number one enemy in the US and began one of the most intensive military interventions by the US and other allied countries to counteract the production, trade and proliferation of psychoactive drugs.

This year the war on drugs turns 40 years old, and at such a significant anniversary it is important to look back and review the policies that have shaped the War on Drugs and their effectiveness in curbing its production, trade and proliferation.

According to Colorlines.org, that produced a well laid out infograph, the war has been carried out in mostly poor neighborhoods in the US occupied by people of color. Most of the people incarcerated through the policies of the Drug War are people of color who have suffered harsh penalties for non-violent offenses like possession.

The Global Comission on Drug Policy consists of people with high credentials including a former UN secretary-general, former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, a former US Secretary of State and a host of public intellectuals, human rights activists and politicians. Their report claims that the war on drugs has only served to increase the illegal movement of capital around the World, incredible loss of lives in trafficking and sale and the stigmatization of people who become addicted to the drugs.

In the US, the legalization of drugs is not feasible, according to DEA Dawn Dearden, a clear indication that the power brokers in the war on drugs are inflexible to the much needed change required to allow for globalized change.

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