http://www.bbc.co.uk...canada-13624303
It is a damning indictment. The group of world leaders, including former Presidents of Mexico and Colombia which are blighted by the trade in illegal drugs, says urgent changes are overdue. Their report says current policies to tackle drug abuse and the crime that preys on it are clearly not working, but result in thousands of deaths and rampant lawlessness.
It calls for an end to the 'criminalisation, marginalisation and stigmatisation of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others'.
The leading international figures behind the report do not pull their punches. They say sensible regulation of drugs is working in some countries but they accuse many governments around the world of pretending that the current war on drugs is effective when they know it isn't.
Drugs need to be decriminalised, they say, and addicts need to be treated as patients, not villains.
http://edmonton.ctv....ub=EdmontonHome
The group has quite a few familiar(well, known) faces, like Kofi Annan, Richard Branson and Paul Volcker(former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve and of the Economic Recovery Board, US). We also got Thorvald Stoltenberg, the father of our current PM and a hero on his own for the work he has done for refugees in his youth and the rest of his life. He also has a daughter with a heroin addiction(yes, our PM has a drug-addict for a sister, I would love to see that happen in the US/UK ) so you could say he has experience with the topic.
I hope this will help change the archaic attitude that most western nations have on the topic. I'm no drug user myself but I hate to see this criminal system being allowed to thrive because old dinosaurs refuse to accept the fact that sometimes the knee must bend.
Edited by duke_Qa, 03 June 2011 - 06:17 AM.