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AUS - It's over. We've lost drugs war, report says

poledriver

poledriver

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AUS - It's over. We've lost drugs war, report says

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Report urges politicians to accept war on drugs has failed
Says illegal drug trade allows organised crime to flourish
Calls for debate on decriminalisation
Click to expand...

THE war on drugs has failed according to a new report calling for a national debate on the controversial topic of decriminalising drugs.

The report, released today, urges politicians to face the taboo subject. It says a massive re-think is needed to tackle the illegal drug trade that allows organised crime to flourish and is "killing our children".

The report draws on the views of high profile Australians and health experts.

Its verdict is that the tough law and order approach is doing more harm than good.

Put together by not-for-profit think-tank Australia21, the report includes the views of former federal law enforcement officers, health ministers, and premiers.

Former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery is quoted as being "strongly in favour of legalising, regulating, controlling and taxing all drugs".

"A first step towards such a regime could be decriminalisation, similar to the approach adopted 10 years ago in Portugal or an adaptation of that approach," he writes.

But he does not advocate making all drugs available to "anybody wanting them".

Australia21 stops short of directly backing decriminalisation but one former top prosecutor says in the report drugs should be legalised, regulated and taxed to control use.​

http://www.news.com.au/national/its...-war-report-says/story-e6frfkvr-1226316949594
 
Drugs war 'a failure' that bred criminals

Drugs war 'a failure' that bred criminals

THE Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, is among a group of prominent Australians who have declared the ''war on drugs'' a failure in the most significant challenge to drug laws in decades.

''The prohibition of illicit drugs is killing and criminalising our children and we are letting it happen,'' says a report released today by the group, which includes the former federal police chief Mick Palmer, the former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, QC, the former West Australian premier Geoff Gallop, a former Defence Department secretary, Paul Barratt, the former federal health ministers Michael Wooldridge and Peter Baume, and the drug addiction expert Alex Wodak.

Senator Carr, the former NSW premier, agreed to join the campaign before becoming Foreign Affairs Minister. In his contribution to the report he questions whether the pursuit of marijuana users is the best use of police time.

Advocate of law reform ... Nicholas Cowdery.

''An issue that worried me while I was in NSW politics was the police hitting railway stations with sniffer dogs. It was marijuana that was the focus.''
This was a victimless crime and he would have preferred police ''to do things like make public transport safe and clean up Cabramatta'', he said.
A spokesman for Senator Carr said last night that he supported drug law reform but as a federal minister would be supporting government policy in this area.

The report was written by the population health expert Emeritus Professor Bob Douglas and a social research consultant, David McDonald, for the think tank Australia21, which held a roundtable at Sydney University in January.

It calls for a fundamental rethink of drug policies and ''an end to the tough on drugs approach''. Last year the Global Commission on Drug Policy said the war on drugs had failed ''with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world''.

Dr Wooldridge, who as health minister supported a heroin trial in the ACT which was blocked by the then prime minister, John Howard, says in the new report: ''The key message is that we have 40 years of experience of a law and order approach to drugs and it has failed.''

Mr Cowdery, a long-time advocate of drug law reform, said the prohibition of drug use created social and health problems, as well as a ''proliferation of crime … and an increase in the corruption of law enforcement''.

He strongly favoured legalising, regulating, controlling and taxing all drugs.
''A first step towards such a regime could be decriminalisation, similar to the approach adopted 10 years ago in Portugal,'' Mr Cowdery said.

''The key as I see it is to try to reduce substantially the profit potentially able to be made by criminal activity in the drug trade and the only way to do that as I see it, ultimately, is to legalise, regulate, control and tax all drugs.''

Mr Cowdery said politicians were reluctant to reopen the debate ''for fear it would be politically disadvantageous''.

''That's why I think we need to have the discussion in the community and … to demonstrate to the politicians that there is a significant proportion of people that want something better.''

About 15 per cent of Australians used one or more illicit drugs in 2009, the latest statistics published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show. But the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy said in a report last year that 22 per cent of people used illegal drugs in 1998.​

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/polit...ilure-that-bred-criminals-20120402-1w8v3.html
 
Beat me to it MFer :p
I saw this in the paper on my lunchbreak today. There's been a lot of support about this since that report came out. Doesn't surprise me so much Bailleau and Gillard are against it, they probably think it'll send 'em spiralling downwards in the polls, and we know Gillard can't afford that eh. I think I recall one of the guys questioned suggesting that they not go overboard and start with legalizing heroin, see how that goes. I have a feeling that won't get a whole lot of support...
Well at least the world's finally waking up to itself. Australia, the next Portugal! We all need something to aim for, right? :D
 
aussies are obviuosly more intelligent than americans. especialy there govts.
 
Read this in my lunch break.

Hell fucking yeah.

Of course anything on this scale will take forever to pass legislation if it ever is even decided upon...

Maybe a prime ministerial candidate will try and swing the election with a policy like this if the polls show the majority of the public (which i believe it is) is in favour of this.

Just a theory.

Like I said, if it ever happens it'll take years.
 
doubt it will happen in the next 10 or so yrs, too many fuckwits in power still.
 
its all talk bro, nothing will happen here. we follow the usa. Sadly.
 
^The US has excellent technology. But when it comes to common sense and reasoning, the general population is totally clueless and all for drug laws which is why prominent figures haven't really taken the common sense stance on the matter.

When Eric Holder says he's against the drug war we might be getting somewhere. But until then he's just going to keep covering his ass over "Fast&Furious" (scandal over exposed gun-running straight to the Mexican cartels to "track" the weapons with no way of actually tracing them).
 
It needs a lot more public backing before anyone in a real position of power can support it. There's a reason so many of the supporters are retired, someone who plans on running for office again can't risk committing political suicide by backing drug reform and pissing off the conservative baby boomer crowd.

Luckily support seems to be building, slowly.
 
poledriver said:
But he does not advocate making all drugs available to "anybody wanting them".
Click to expand...

That's what keeping drugs illegal does, it virtually enables you to get as much of any one drug as you could possibly ever want.

Only by making drugs pure, legal, and available, will we then be able to create reasonable quantity restrictions.

Until then, the drug trade flourishes.
 
Captain.Heroin said:
That's what keeping drugs illegal does, it virtually enables you to get as much of any one drug as you could possibly ever want.

Only by making drugs pure, legal, and available, will we then be able to create reasonable quantity restrictions.

Until then, the drug trade flourishes.
Click to expand...

Even if there are quantity restrictions, how could it possible work? How would they regulate quantity, by the person? Say they were to allow each person only a certain amount, non-users will just get some and sell to users....Users will always be able to abuse as much as they do now, legal or not. Don't get me wrong I'm all for legalization of drugs for a number of reasons, just playing devil's advocate here :p
 
Yeah i wonder how it would work, how they would sell it if it was all legal, and in what quantities and with what restrictions.
 
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trappedpenguin7 said:
Even if there are quantity restrictions, how could it possible work? How would they regulate quantity, by the person? Say they were to allow each person only a certain amount, non-users will just get some and sell to users....Users will always be able to abuse as much as they do now, legal or not. Don't get me wrong I'm all for legalization of drugs for a number of reasons, just playing devil's advocate here :p
Click to expand...
poledriver said:
Yeah i wonder how it would work, how they would sell it if it was all legal, and in what quantities and with what restrictions.
Click to expand...
Pseudoephedrine and prescription drugs are a very good example of how legalization and regulation of all drugs should work IMO.

Making people buy buy benzos and opiates from people with prescriptions curbs drug abuse somewhat and also keeps the money flowing inside the US, and not to foreign thugs like cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin.

We've already proven the drugs are readily available to meet demand, why not take the cartels out of the equation and make the industry safer, along with the potential of adverse side effects from tainted drugs significantly less? Drugs are much less likely to be tainted if they come from a company that could actually get sued for releasing tainted products
 
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Its great to see authorities recognizing that what the government have been spending millions on is a worthless cause, but at the end of the day we are still 20 years ATLEAST away from reaching a solution to the problem and America is maybe 50! In my home country we have legalised heroin for the most hardcore addicts, cannnabis has been socially accepted although never legal for many years even though they have cracked down on that due to drug tourism and the EU but even where I live now which is a country that will send you many years to prison for selling small amounts of any drug, allows you to carry up to 2 grams of powder and its considered possession, governments talk but never do shit, i know Oz and atleast when i was there the cannabis laws in NSW were fairly reasonable. either way good luck guys down under!
 
Lets get some discussion going here... It's all been in other counties.
I'm glad to see it starting up! :)
 
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