Wednesday, February 24, 2010

International Narcotics Control Board fears anti-drug policy may lose “coherence and effectiveness”

The International Narcotics Control Board is charged with policing the world's three anti-narcotics treaties, starting with the Single Convention on Narcotics of 1961. It issues an annual report pursuant to Article 15 of the Single Convention. In their reports, there is no such thing as drug use, only "drug abuse."

In 1998, it reminded the governments of the world ("the parties" in U.N. lingo) to make it a crime to write, say, sing, or depict any conduct, that might encourage people to use drugs. "Freedom of speech and the press," when it comes to drugs, is not part of the INDCB world.

The board wishes to remind parties, "to establish as a criminal offence public incitement or inducement to use drugs illicitly. The Board urges Governments to ensure that their national legislation contains such provisions and that those provisions are enforced, making violators liable to sanctions that have an appropriate deterrent effect."
In their latest annual report, released today, the INCB criticized Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico for decriminalizing marijuana, noting that this was part of a movement.

According to a Bloomberg news report on the Business Week website, oblivious to the irony, the INCB said,
If not “resolutely countered”, the decriminalization movement “poses a threat” to the “coherence and effectiveness” of the international drug control system and sends “the wrong message to the general public,” the report said. Paragraph 453, page 75.
Only the INCB could believe that the current international drug control system is either coherent or effective! To believe that, one would have to be hallucinating! How can these people be in charge of drugs? They sound like they are disconnected from reality. Isn't there a diagnosis for this in the DSM-IV?

And what do they make of what is happening in California?
The Board is concerned over the ongoing
discussion in several states on legalizing and taxing the
“recreational” use of cannabis, which would be a
serious contravention of the 1961 Convention. The
Board emphasizes that it is the responsibility of the
Government of the United States to fully implement
the provisions of the 1961 Convention with respect to
all narcotic drugs, including cannabis.

Sphere: Related Content

No comments: