Top US International Drug Official Signals Green Light for Countries to Decriminalize
By Samuel Oakford
March 8, 2016
Washington's top international narcotics official gave a qualified go-ahead for countries to decriminalize drugs on Tuesday — the latest sign that the US is walking back decades of hardline rhetoric ahead of a pivotal special session of the United Nations General Assembly on global drug policy in April.
Speaking to reporters at the US Mission to the United Nations in New York, William Brownfield, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said American officials were attempting to "find areas of pragmatic reform" with other member states over drug policy. A consensus outcome document currently under negotiation at the Committee on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna is expected to be finalized by the middle of next week, he said, and will be presented at the UN special session (UNGASS).
In recent years, Brownfield has increasingly articulated a policy of flexibility in interpreting the three UN drug conventions that have guided domestic laws since the first was agreed upon in 1961. On Tuesday, he reiterated that the conventions allow exceptions in "relation to individual governments' constitutions."
Though advocates have for years pointed out that the conventions can be read as allowing countries space for progressive enforcement of drug laws — or no enforcement at all — such an interpretation is relatively new to Washington. Some advocates have gone so far as to say the entire convention system should be ripped apart, though that would be exceedingly unlikely given opposition from nearly all world powers.
Related: Iran Is About to Execute Another 100 Prisoners for Drug Offenses
Responding to questions about countries that have decriminalized drug use, like Portugal, Brownfield said that the point of narcotics laws wherever they are should be to staunch the ill-effects of substances, not throw people in jail. Since Portugal passed universal decriminalization legislation in 2001, drug use rates have fallen considerably, including among teenagers, as have drug-induced deaths. Other countries, including Jamaica and Argentina, have since decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
"The issue is not precisely whether a government has chosen to decriminalize or not to decriminalize," Brownfield remarked. "It is whether the government is working cooperatively to reduce the harm of a product."
"A nation can reach its own determination," he added, suggesting that countries should feel free to consider removing penalties for drug use.
Pressed by reporters on what exactly would not be allowed under the US government's "flexible" reading of the convention system, Brownfield demurred. He said it was up to the International Narcotics Control Board, a quasi-judicial body established by the first convention, to determine whether countries were in line with the three treaties. For years, the INCB was heavily criticized by advocates and diplomats alike for its hardline interpretation of the conventions. In 2014, former INCB chief Raymond Yans accused Uruguay of exhibiting a "pirate attitude" after the country allowed a regulated market for marijuana.
More recently, Washington has had to defend itself in front of the INCB after four US states legalized recreational marijuana and began regulating sales. Unlike Bolivia, which withdrew and re-acceded to the convention system with the stipulation that it be allowed a legal market for coca, the US is bound by the entirety of the convention's proscription.
cont https://news.vice.com/article/top-u...ls-green-light-for-countries-to-decriminalize
By Samuel Oakford
March 8, 2016
Washington's top international narcotics official gave a qualified go-ahead for countries to decriminalize drugs on Tuesday — the latest sign that the US is walking back decades of hardline rhetoric ahead of a pivotal special session of the United Nations General Assembly on global drug policy in April.
Speaking to reporters at the US Mission to the United Nations in New York, William Brownfield, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said American officials were attempting to "find areas of pragmatic reform" with other member states over drug policy. A consensus outcome document currently under negotiation at the Committee on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna is expected to be finalized by the middle of next week, he said, and will be presented at the UN special session (UNGASS).
In recent years, Brownfield has increasingly articulated a policy of flexibility in interpreting the three UN drug conventions that have guided domestic laws since the first was agreed upon in 1961. On Tuesday, he reiterated that the conventions allow exceptions in "relation to individual governments' constitutions."
Though advocates have for years pointed out that the conventions can be read as allowing countries space for progressive enforcement of drug laws — or no enforcement at all — such an interpretation is relatively new to Washington. Some advocates have gone so far as to say the entire convention system should be ripped apart, though that would be exceedingly unlikely given opposition from nearly all world powers.
Related: Iran Is About to Execute Another 100 Prisoners for Drug Offenses
Responding to questions about countries that have decriminalized drug use, like Portugal, Brownfield said that the point of narcotics laws wherever they are should be to staunch the ill-effects of substances, not throw people in jail. Since Portugal passed universal decriminalization legislation in 2001, drug use rates have fallen considerably, including among teenagers, as have drug-induced deaths. Other countries, including Jamaica and Argentina, have since decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
"The issue is not precisely whether a government has chosen to decriminalize or not to decriminalize," Brownfield remarked. "It is whether the government is working cooperatively to reduce the harm of a product."
"A nation can reach its own determination," he added, suggesting that countries should feel free to consider removing penalties for drug use.
Pressed by reporters on what exactly would not be allowed under the US government's "flexible" reading of the convention system, Brownfield demurred. He said it was up to the International Narcotics Control Board, a quasi-judicial body established by the first convention, to determine whether countries were in line with the three treaties. For years, the INCB was heavily criticized by advocates and diplomats alike for its hardline interpretation of the conventions. In 2014, former INCB chief Raymond Yans accused Uruguay of exhibiting a "pirate attitude" after the country allowed a regulated market for marijuana.
More recently, Washington has had to defend itself in front of the INCB after four US states legalized recreational marijuana and began regulating sales. Unlike Bolivia, which withdrew and re-acceded to the convention system with the stipulation that it be allowed a legal market for coca, the US is bound by the entirety of the convention's proscription.
cont https://news.vice.com/article/top-u...ls-green-light-for-countries-to-decriminalize
