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US - Is Drug War Violation of Human Rights?

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edgarshade

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Opposing views

Submitted by Reason Foundation on Mar 18, 2012

By Brian Doherty

With reader comments

Good observations from the fine law enforcement officers of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) on the closing of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting this week:

During consideration of a U.S.-sponsored resolution to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first laws banning opium, Norway’s delegation attempted to insert the phrase “while observing human rights,” but even this move encountered resistance from the US delegation, which preferred not to mention human rights.

“Fundamentally, the three UN prohibitionist treaties are incompatible to human rights. We can have human rights or drug war, but not both,” said Maria Lucia Karam, a retired judge from Brazil and a board member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).
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More...
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/drug-law/drug-war-violation-human-rights
 
The war on drugs = war on human rights
Simple as that.

We (should) have a fundamental right to control our own consciousness.
And also one to use the plants that nature has made (and, somewhat arguably, the chemicals people have made).
Simple as that.

But the article is revealing about US attitudes towards human rights.
 
I said this in the Current Events forum already, but I think people would sooner sympathize with legalization of banned plants than with the legalization of banned chemical entities. Like, I can see the soccer moms of the world sympathizing with the fundamental right to consume plants way before they sympathize with the human right to anally ingest psychoactive powders.

So then, I would make a major push for the legalization of all crops, including cannabis, khat, coca, opium and psychedelic grasses/cacti/fungi. How much harm can widely-available coca and khat cause, and wouldn't many more-moderate people prefer to chew those than to smoke meth or crack?

I mean, the right to consume plants is so intuitive that it's in the Bible! It's ingrained into the collective unconscious, and it's powerfully seductive. Politically, I think it's a winner.
 
235360287471352662 said:
I said this in the Current Events forum already, but I think people would sooner sympathize with legalization of banned plants than with the legalization of banned chemical entities. Like, I can see the soccer moms of the world sympathizing with the fundamental right to consume plants way before they sympathize with the human right to anally ingest psychoactive powders.

So then, I would make a major push for the legalization of all crops, including cannabis, khat, coca, opium and psychedelic grasses/cacti/fungi. How much harm can widely-available coca and khat cause, and wouldn't many more-moderate people prefer to chew those than to smoke meth or crack?

I mean, the right to consume plants is so intuitive that it's in the Bible! It's ingrained into the collective unconscious, and it's powerfully seductive. Politically, I think it's a winner.
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In this case, though, you are making an arbitrary moral distinction between natural and synthetic chemicals, which I believe is unfair and goes against an egalitarian view of substance use and control of one's own consciousness. That said, it's definitely more likely to find acceptance with the general population.
 
The emergence of synthetic drugs has largely come about because of the ban on naturally occuring ones. That's just my opinion and I think most people would agree. If someone had the freewill to grow poppies or coca plants in their own backyard and harvest their own stuff without the threat of incarceration, they would be much less inclined to go out and purchase something like street meth, bath salts, etc.
 
Of course its a violation of our human rights.................these new governments have pissed all over the constitution & will continue to do so until they have created their own constitution overlapping the one that started our nation.
 
Not only is it a clear breach of human rights and privacy, but it is counterproductive to the well being of society. No one deserves to go to jail just for drugs, whether selling,manufacturing, consuming, or possessing. Granted there should be some level of regulation such as age limit.
 
The war on drugs is essentially a war on poor people perpetrated by gov't politicians, lawyers, judges, cops, prison guards, for profit prisons, 'drug' companies, etc.. One casualty I find interesting is that there are cops whose kids grow up without dads because of the so called drug war and cops are so brainwashed they think they are doing something good.

Aside from LEAP I'd love to meet some cops who follow up with the drug addicts/dealers they arrest and actually do something to help them- like let them move into their houses after they get out of jail and provide them with a support system, etc.

The drug war is a war against people, I say poor ppl b/c wealthy drug users dont' get jammed up nearly as often, and they charge the very people they are attacking to fund it. Joke is on us. Standard.
 
hmmm...if i put something in my body that is not harming anyone else besides myself should it be a crime? hell no. Now if i was to do a bunch of meth or PCP and killed my neighbor hell ya put me away, i shouldnt be doing drugs. But im not like that. To be honest i am more likely to kill someone on alcohol then any other drug i have done. The legal drug. go fucking figure. HAPPY FUCKIN FRIDYA NIGHT!!!
 
^^ Really? Japan? Honestly I didn't know, nor did I think Japan of all places has such harsh drug laws.
 
ro4eva said:
^^ Really? Japan? Honestly I didn't know, nor did I think Japan of all places has such harsh drug laws.
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Japan has some of the harshest drug laws in the world, maybe thats why they have one of the highest suicide rates in the world............all that mental stress for their people & no way of letting go psychologically.
 
TheLostBoys said:
Japan has some of the harshest drug laws in the world, maybe thats why they have one of the highest suicide rates in the world............all that mental stress for their people & no way of letting go psychologically.
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Damn... Well... At least they have Nintendo.










It's me - Mario!

Edit - "It's me - Mario!" in Japanese:

Sore wa Mario wa watashidesu!
 
thujone said:
I would be curious to hear more from you, seeing as you are supposedly located in a country that is known for some of the harshest drug laws in the first world.
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What's interesting is that everything here was fair game until McArthur and the neo-Puritans came in and shat on it. They mindlessly follow suit with everything the U.S. does.
 
Mushrooms and peyote were only just criminalized a few years ago. Until that they were available through a loophole--not for human consumption, and sold as "incense".

They really don't care for the most part as long as it's not drawing attention. The biggest problem is that once something is criminalized, there's very little chance of changing. They hate change.
 
Japan has very harsh drug laws and a very high rate of suicide.

You'd think the two would be directly coorelated by now.
 
^Well they have their shabu at least.

Actually it amuses me, this one Japanese detective show I watch (相棒, if you're curious, we get subtitled stuff on the Japanese channel with good old analog television over here), it's always just vague references to "drugs" when such things are involved. I guess their pop culture is so ill-informed on the matter they can't even have the horribly sensationalist depictions of things in US shows. I'm not complaining though.

It's pretty fucked up though, I know the other year some singer got 3 years for cannabis or something.
 
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