Times are changing. Are they losing the Drug war?

Has anyone else noticed a shift in the drug war recently. Since the focus of media and politics has been on the War on Terrorism and the War on Iraq, it seems like new steps have been made to rationalise drug laws.

In belgium there have been steps to legalise Pot.
America is seeing a big shift in politics.
Canada has dropped many cases about minor drug offences.
etc...

Looks like the times'a'changin...

http://www.drugsense.org/


What do people think... Are they changing?

[quote]America is seeing a big shift in politics.[/quote]

please expand?!

http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2003/ds03.n295.html


Well, maybe not such a BIG shift. But take a look at some of the articles. Seems like a few people in high places are taking Drugs as a secondary agenda now. Leaving room for other reforms to take the lead and change opinion.

I'm all for it

yes i think it is to a degree. but im unsure where its headed. i think there are still too many factors till i suppose drugs are "legalised" or regulated maturely/properly for one of better words by governement authorites. not only moral, but also financial.

but i think that education to the general public is changing, which i think has alot to do with the generation replacement factor. ie us. even recently there was what i considered to be a generous article regarding pills in the SYDNEY morning HERALD.

i think that people here were involved also.

I would suggest that drug politics are at a moment of crossroads.

On the one hand you have human rights atrocities like that which is currently being perpetrated in Thailand, where governments can actually get away with the extrajudicial execution of 2000 drug users. And there's Plan Colombia, the forced sterilisation of drug users, China's annual mass-executions on "UN Anti-Drug Trafficking Day".... the list goes on.
Many of the nations which made big leaps in drug policy as a result of the emergence of HIV/AIDS - like Australia - have been locked into harm reduction accords for a decade, and despite some amazing programs, there have been no major leaps forward. In fact, the Howard government continues to whittle away at harm reduction, slowly changing definitions to force peer-based NGOs out of the equation and turn the drug sector over to groups like the Salvos and ToughLove.

The flipside, though, is that this is galvanising a response from drug user activists - a second wave of drug user liberation movements, if you like.

And its a very diverse movement now - there's the wondeful pill-testing crews, Ravesafes, deliberately unfunded activist groups, funded drug user organisations, and we're currently putting together the proposal for a founding conference of an international drug user activist organisation. Then there are the alliances we have developed with those non-users who put their necks out - like those behind drugsense.org , the International Harm Reduction Association etc.
one thing is fairly clear I think... small steps aren't enough anymore, and a massive international drug war police-industrial complex will not simply wither away - it will need a thorough kicking to topple.
There is an incredible feeling on the international user activist list that enough is fucking enough, and a willingness to explore the avenues to give it that kick.

So get involved people!

My interpretation of all of this is that authorities need to generate fear to hold sway over their population. The recent drug scares have always turned up at the times when other fear tactics were waning.

Reagan led the first modern crusade against drugs at the time when the Cold War was cooling down even more. The Soviets were in decline, and were not generating enough domestic fear for the populace to be complacent. The moral panic over drugs handily diverted attention away from the reduction in civil liberties, and the increasing power of the corporate state. This was made even more apparent when, with the total collapse of state communism, the War on Drugs was given capitalisation, in the sense of gaining massive funds as well as gaining Big Letters.

Now, however, there is less need for this strategy, as The War On Terror supplies not only foreign excursions and distractions but plenty of Homeland fear and loathign as well. The War On Drugs was always doomed for failure, as it was essentially a War On Human Nature (insert pop group joke here), and although the War On Terror is equally absurd, the authorities are unlikely to see much profit in fighting two unwinnable Wars on Abstracts.

[/lefty rant]