The coca-cocaine issue has gained momentum by the ascending of a peasant leader to the presidency in Bolivia, who announced making a case for the de-scheduling of the coca leaf from it's current classification as a dangerous narcotic drug in the international drug control conventions. Time has come to clarify longstanding confusion on the distinction between the coca leaf and its principal derivate cocaine.
It is unfortunate that 35 years after the first chemical spraying in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, we are still writing about aerial sprayings in Colombia, demanding the current government to definitely defer an ecocide and incompetent policy.
That increasing numbers of California's youth end up in prison may yield some short term perceptions of declining crime rates, but what about the long-term education deficit?
The assumption that reducing opium production would lead to less drug use has been proven wrong. It has instead contributed to a pattern of an increased use of stronger drugs and more harmful patterns of use.
State-level cannabis reforms have exposed the inability of the United States to abide by the terms of the legal bedrock of the global drug control system. It is calls for a conversation the US federal government wishes to avoid. The result is a new official position on the UN drugs treaties that, despite its seductively progressive tone, serves only to sustain the status quo and may cause damage beyond drug policy.
John Walsh, Ann Fordham, Martin Jelsma, Hannah Hetzer
22 September 2018
Article
The "Global Call to Action" document that the U.S. government is circulating—and heavily pressuring reluctant countries to sign—is explicitly “not open for negotiation.” Far from an effort at achieving mutual understanding and genuine consensus, it is an instance of heavy-handed U.S. “with us or against us” diplomacy.
It is the 200th anniversary of Mexico's independence and the 100th anniversary of its revolution. But the celebrations taking place this week are premature.
The US financed "war on drugs" in Bolivia has not only failed in its intention to diminish the flow of cocaine into the United States, it has also negatively impacted the human rights situation in the country.
De Verenigde Staten gaan Mexico helpen in de strijd tegen drugs. Een delegatie onder leiding van de Amerikaanse ministers Clinton en Gates, belooft Mexico onder meer geld en extra manschappen. Tom Blickman van Transnational Institute doet onderzoek naar drugsbeleid over de hele wereld en schat de effectiviteit van de steun in.
Mexicans don't want the current ill conceived war on drugs. It is fought with disregard to the high costs in terms of human rights and lives and mistakenly portrayed as 'courageous'.
