World Health Commission Calls for End of Drug War Guy Bentley - The Daily Caller
go to original March 24, 2016

Health Poverty Action is calling for a new approach to drug policy, which puts people's health and rights first. (Health Poverty Action )

Governments across the world should decriminalize minor drug use and possession and put an end to the policy of aggressive prohibition.

So says a new report from one of the world’s leading health bodies — the Johns Hopkins-Lancet Commission. The report highlights failures of the 1998 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on drugs, which convened under the lofty slogan of “a drug-free world - we can do it!.”

The goal of total drug prohibition has been written into law in numerous countries, with government agencies spending billions of dollars attempting to crack down on drug trafficking and production.

In 2016, world leaders will once again gather in New York to discuss global drug policy. According to the Johns Hopkins-Lancet Commission, human rights, policy reform and recognition of past failures should be at the center of the meeting.

The report argues the scientific evidence and public health have been sidelined in global drug policy for the last 18 years. Instead, scientifically unfounded ideas about drug use and dependence have been allowed to run rampant and have had a major impact on policy.

They point to a 2015 report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights that concluded drug use is not an issue for law enforcement. Drug use “is neither a medical condition nor does it necessarily lead to drug dependence,” the report said.

Read the rest at The Daily Caller

Related: DEA Admits Total Failure to Fight Heroin in One Stunning Tweet (The Daily Caller)

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