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World Health Organization documents failure of US drug policies

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The release of this article is telling. Many of the United States news organizations are spinning the data in the report to say that drug use is up across the world. The truth that is revealed in the article is simple. Countries with the strictest drug laws are also the countries with the highest drug use. Those countries with more tolerant drug laws show astonishingly lower rates of drug use.

"The numbers are startling. In the United States, 42.4 percent admitted having used marijuana. The only other nation that came close was New Zealand, another bastion of get-tough policies, at 41.9 percent. No one else was even close. The results for cocaine use were similar, with the United States leading the world by a large margin."

Our government officials are trying to play the report off by discrediting the World Health Organization.

Bloomberg News reported:

"The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy tried to dismiss the study.

Trying to find a link between drug use and drug enforcement doesn't make sense, said Tom Riley, spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington. "The U.S. has high crime rates but we spend a lot on law enforcement and prison,'' Riley said yesterday in a telephone interview. "Should we spend less? We're just a different kind of country. We have higher drug use rates, a higher crime rate, many things that go with a highly free and mobile society."

It's about time Americans and the rest of the world wise up. Adults are smart. They can and should be allowed to pick and choose what they do with their lives and bodies. The things they consume and activities pursued in the privacy of the home are beyond the reach of law or government.
Psychedelic

42 responses // World Health Organization documents failure of US drug policies

  • watch this comment being used here
    Our drug policies are not based on clinical studies, experience of success, or any factually based argumentation. It is fear of what will happen if drugs are available to the general public that drives our strict laws.
    There is a problem with that argument however. First of all, drugs of all kinds are readily available to all age groups. Particularly within the younger demographic, the protection of which drives most of the fear based arguments. Not only are drugs easy to access, all the efforts to prevent access haven't even been able to make them cost prohibitive.
    Unfortunately, the strength of the criminal elements that are supplying drugs has caused more danger to society than the drugs themselves. Drug money is by far the greatest source of wealth to the very powerful criminal element in this country. Our drug laws create an artificial market conducive to crime. The most disappointing part of this equation is the fact that we learned this lesson already during the alcohol prohibition years that occured so long ago.
    Simply put, our drug laws haven't worked, and we need to start looking for better solutions
    GavinTheMother
    3 responses to this
  • We can all Thank Kennedy for the "War on Drugs".
    JLAZ
    3 responses to this
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here, here and here
    Question: When you tell a teenaged person what they can't do, what happens next?
    Think of that on a national level.
    huntre
  • I'm going to go ahead and blame Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush. I will blame either an Obama or a McCain when the time comes for either.

    The DEA, signed into existence by Nixon on July 1st, 1973, has one proven end to all of its pointless means. And that end is extreme amounts of drug use and abuse.

    How do drug use and drug enforcement not link to one another, Tom Riley?? The purpose of enforcing the law against something is to deter that something. If the action is not deterred and doesn't violate the rights of any other citizen then why is enforcement even necessary?? If it's all a byproduct of living in a free, liberal society such as ours then why is it prohibited??

    God Bless the USA. Happy Fourth to everyone. One day, the War on Drugs will end and we as Americans will once again inhabit the greatest and most prosperous land on Earth.
    JudahEvan
  • http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZGKeq2HrBxA
    it all started with a man named Harry Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930-1962 and an enthusiastic Prohibitionist. He's the chief villain of this story. In league with some of the more yellow press and naive Hollywood, Anslinger created public hysteria over marijuana by blaming it for widespread murder and insanity. The feds and the states then banned marijuana without debate or scientific investigation. After an embarrassing study (commissioned by Mayor LaGuardia of New York) disproved Anslinger's preposterous allegations with regard to pot, Anslinger effectively stopped all research on it by cutting off the supply to researchers. Later, he encouraged the idea that marijuana was a commie plot, and then finally topped off his career by getting the UN to ban marijuana around the world. In short, with regard to pot, Anslinger was the metaphorical Hitler of the War on Drugs. Under Nixon, the war on pot was expanded, even though Nixon's own government panel recommended decriminalization. Carter favored decriminalization but lacked the clout to carry it through. After Carter's defeat, Reagan and Bush picked up where Nixon left off and further fueled the war. Ironically the liberal Clinton (who smoked pot but "never inhaled") turned out to be the biggest anti-pot warrior of all -- with more pot arrests under his administration that any previous.
    CTZNWES
  • Old Joe Kennedy was involved in supplying alcohol during prohibition. I'm not aware of their involvement in drugs.
    MoonLoon
  • None can stop Marijuana to be used. Today, Using canabis sativa become fashion.
    bloodyjag
  • If It's legal, i think less people will use it. Like cigarettes for example.
    Legalize it, than destroy it
    bloodyjag
    2 responses to this
  • Can you imagine how much revenue could be generated for the government and the war on terror if marijuana were taxed and licensed like alcohol? As it stands (and as advertised by the government) smoking a joint is no better than supporting terrorism. The money goes into the black market instead of being taxed and profiting the US government like alcohol currently does. I'm sure we'd all much rather be funding the war against terror, but it's not as if anyone has a choice. As for the gateway theory... if the liquor store were to run out of whiskey, they'd probably sell you beer instead, correct? Not cocaine. The gateway theory is relevant primarily due to the circumstance in which these drugs are only made available from the same illegal black market. If you didn't have to deal with criminals in order to aquire weed, you wouldn't have the connections to find harder drugs in the first place. Putting marijuana in the same legal class naturally makes harder drugs available from the same sources.
    hugemcgriffin
    1 response to this
  • I wish they would just give up.
    Susieee
  • Come on guys, it doesn't matter who started it, all that matters is that we end it.

    There is no question.

    Any person operating on logic instead of fear can produce and consume substantive, subjective evidence that the drug culture in our country DRIVES the criminal culture. All of the money that could be going into the coffers of entrepreneurs and government is, instead, going into the hands of drugdealers.

    What is worse about this, is that the vast majority the drugs done here aren't grown here! I remember bush being so concerned about the quality of drugs, and therefore using that as an excuse to enforce the illegality of buying them from Canada, or anywhere else.

    So all of the drug money is trafficked out of the country to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars. That is REAL money, people, that could be going to the rehabilitation of hardcore users that need help.

    What I don't understand about the situation, is that the drug czars don't have lobbyists in congress.... or do they?

    It is a sad reality that our citizens have been led to believe that our country is the greatest best thing that god has placed on the face of this earth. The potential is there, no doubt.
    CreditFigaro
  • i ♥ marijuana.
    piff
  • Not related?!

    Printed today:
    "There are more than 1.2 million people behind bars in the U.S., and a large percentage of them for nonviolent drug usage."
    http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-...
    scurf
    1 response to this
  • I think I'll roll a joint in celebration of its mediocrity to my psyche.
    guntown_kid82
  • sorry to sound like grump: but what does work in the U.S?
    kewal91
  • yeah...the kids and teens in urban cities, i'm sure, are not included in the survey. These numbers are totally inaccurate,
    but i wouldn't be surprised to know that people are using more drugs due to the fact that it is depressing to pay more for goods and get paid less since the dollar value sucks
    furryjenn
  • its a few thing. humans don't like being told no. humans don't like constant structure. then you take all of the humans in the world and throw them into the giant melting pot that is america. then you add drugs. what do you get? a cracked melting pot.
    diode
  • (toke) i forgot what i was going to say... ooh twinkies!
    gimp15
  • The key problem with drug laws is that they blindly classify wildly different things as the same..."illegal". In my experience, it has been stupid, misinformed, or criminally-minded people that cause most of the problems on both sides of the fence.

    If the government just took over the entire drug trade, required licenses, and only allowed the use of certain drugs in highly controlled environments, then perhaps the entire system could be fixed financially and circumstantially. Some drugs are much worse then others. If drug dealers were more like doctors, the world would be a much better place.

    Most users are not criminals, but because of the laws, they are treated as criminals and are forced to deal with the criminal elements of our society. Drug offenses should be treated completely differently then violent crimes, why do these people end up in the same prisons? The people that make the laws seem to be very out of touch with the reality of the problems they're trying to "solve".

    Marijuana should be put in a class by itself as a good starting point to build better policies. Drugs aren't the problem, people are the problem.
    damnneargenius
  • well when you put down a law people are more tempted to commit against. again its not a shock to me
    power_packed_ro
  • Ending drug prohibition, taxing and regulating drugs and spending tax dollars to treat addiction and dependency -- that's the alternative to the War on Drugs. Many of the world's industrialized countries are taking these approaches, and they work. We must demand our elected officials to adopt them as well.
    Julie_Soller
  • It's all about the money!!!... Don't smoke that weed, drink herbal tea, or prescribe to the wonderful healing properties of Golden seal for better health and life quality. A few, at the top, have already chosen what you will take. - Prozac- Now there's the ticket.
    When the few "Corporate Elitists", who dictate governmental policy, find it to be more profitable to legalize marijuana - it will be legal.
    Don't forget how the government loves to use "crime fighting" as an example; when they talk about "creating jobs".
    mijoe
  • "Trying to find a link between drug use and drug enforcement doesn't make sense, said Tom Riley, spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington."

    Say what?

    Then WTF is the point of "drug enforcement"? (Incidentally, funny phrase, dontcha think?)
    Scarabus
  • You all have the reasons for this all wrong. Do you have any idea how much money is made by corporation in contracts for the DEA, the money give always, the bribes grafts and corruption that takes place in countries where the money goes where the generals and politicians and business community siphon it all off . The contract prison systems, the benefits to the Alcohol industry, the bolstered police ranks, the work for lawyers, the money laundering for this business, and the benefit to the "legal" institutions get. Poor CA and Afghanistan farmers could be paid peanuts not to grow drugs, but no one would make money doing that. It has nothing to do with what's right.. wake up.. it has to do with money.. so many people making so much cash though keeping drugs illegal.. they have a very strong lobby that will not be overcome until there are several very high level clean politicians making this the centerpiece of their terms..
    brfindla
  • Pot's legal hear in California~but Clinton should have made Pot legal.on the Federal tip... then he would be remembered for that and the blowjob!!! That'n been Cool!
    hippisteve
  • There is no medical value in the leafs except tea or brownies, the bud 's are what you smoke thats where the thc is.I have ms and it helped mei 'll vouch for that.
    regularrf
  • In California I find it to hard to find anyone who has not tried pot. Thus, the national average may be skewed.
    tomofnorthcal
  • "So marijuana is illegal and alcohol is not. Shit-faced drunk versus pothead hippie. Mean, drunken, wife-beating, car-wrecking, child-abusing, fighting, swearing, brawling, puking alcoholic is allowed to buy booze at the corner liquor store. But flower-child hippie can be thrown in jail for a joint. It doesn't make any sense today and it didn't make any sense back in the sixties." -Ray Manzarek
    camilleRosetta
  • Interesting quote camille. Twisted isn't it?
    mijoe
  • You may not want to hear it but this goes with Gun Restriction as well... Stop law abiding citizens from having guns and *GASP* illegal gun crime against law abiding citizens goes up substantially...

    Just look at Chicago. (my home town) Guns are 100% illegal in the city limits yet a few weekends ago, FORTY PEOPLE were shot in ONE WEEKEND...

    Who was shooting and who got shot?

    GANG MEMBERS WERE SHOOTING AT GANG MEMBERS.

    They TRIED to say that all the young children that were shot were 'innocent victims' but they discovered that ALL THE YOUNG CHILDREN ON THE STREET AT 3:00am WHEN THE SHOOTING TOOK PLACE WERE ALREADY OFFICIAL GANG MEMBERS.

    11 year old gang members shooting at other 11 year old gang members.

    There was not a SINGLE "Innocent" or non-gang member shot!

    You try to ban guns and the criminals will be the only people with guns...

    You try to ban guns and you turn the law abiding citizen that wants to protect himself into a Felon.

    You try to ban drugs and you turn normal, law abiding citizens that just want to relax with a joint in to a Felon.

    The more you push... The more people will push back...

    It makes no sense...

    It is just the Government trying to control as much as they can.
    NekoMimi
  • The goverrnments laws about weed are some of the worse laws ever written. You would think with the technology we have now and what we know about the weed things could be different. It's all about control, so just keep buying your weed on the downlow and enjoy it. And share it with your friends.
    owner1
  • the government illegalizes weed to make profits off other drugs like the ones they advertise on tv. im not saying they should legalize weed, but the reallity of it is that since it is illegal, drug dealers and other dirty crooks are the ones making the big money.
    carlton_banks