Innholdsfortegnelse
What went wrong with the war on drugs
Switzerland drug policy
A better solution
Utdrag
What went wrong with the war on drugs
President Nixon declared 40 years ago that drugs are public enemy number one. Today the numbers are in. The war on drugs has failed miserably and had devastating consequences.
It led to mass imprisonment in the USA, to corruption, political destabilization, and violence in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. The war on drugs has been a terrible disaster for everyone involved. Why? And could we do something different?
In 1961, the United Nations adopted the Single Convention of Narcotic Drugs, a treaty aimed at combatting drug abuse through coordinated international action.
The accord seeks to prohibit the use, trade, and production of drugs except for medical and scientific purposes, and to combat drug trafficking.
Yet despite efforts like this, failed interventions, and policies, as well as human rights violations related to drug use, have continued to stand in the way of progress at the local, national, and global levels.
We have much more to do to confront the many harms that drugs inflict on health, development, peace, and security, in all regions of the world.
The main strategy for the war on drugs is “no drugs no problem”. So almost all efforts in recent decades have been focused on eradicating the supply of drugs and imprisoning drug traffickers, but this ignores the most fundamental of market focus, supply, and demand.
If you reduce the supply of anything without reducing the demand first, its price goes up.
This might lower sales for many products, but not for drugs. Drugs will be consumed no matter what they cost.
Switzerland drug policy
There has been some victory along the road, but not on USA soil, but in Switzerland.
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