Former President Jimmy Carter: Call Off the Global Drug War

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/opinion/17carter.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

IN an extraordinary new initiative announced earlier this month, the Global Commission on Drug Policy has made some courageous and profoundly important recommendations in a report on how to bring more effective control over the illicit drug trade. The commission includes the former presidents or prime ministers of five countries, a former secretary general of the United Nations, human rights leaders, and business and government leaders, including Richard Branson, George P. Shultz and Paul A. Volcker.

The report describes the total failure of the present global antidrug effort, and in particular America’s “war on drugs,” which was declared 40 years ago today. It notes that the global consumption of opiates has increased 34.5 percent, cocaine 27 percent and cannabis 8.5 percent from 1998 to 2008. Its primary recommendations are to substitute treatment for imprisonment for people who use drugs but do no harm to others, and to concentrate more coordinated international effort on combating violent criminal organizations rather than nonviolent, low-level offenders.

These recommendations are compatible with United States drug policy from three decades ago. In a message to Congress in 1977, I said the country should decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, with a full program of treatment for addicts. I also cautioned against filling our prisons with young people who were no threat to society, and summarized by saying: “Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.”

These ideas were widely accepted at the time. But in the 1980s President Ronald Reagan and Congress began to shift from balanced drug policies, including the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts, toward futile efforts to control drug imports from foreign countries.

...Carter's message noted here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=1249126

Always has been.

And I'm glad he has the courage to stand up and speak the truth.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/nc/ncmenu.htm

this is specifically about cannabis - but definitely worth reading - and note this final comment:

We have carefully analyzed the interrelationship between marihuana the drug, marihuana use as a behavior, and marihuana as a social problem. Recognizing the extensive degree of misinformation about marihuana as a drug, we have tried to demythologize it. Viewing the use of marihuana in its wider social context, we have tried to desymbolize it.

Considering the range of social concerns in contemporary America, marihuana does not, in our considered judgment, rank very high. We would deemphasize marihuana as a problem.

The existing social and legal policy is out of proportion to the individual and social harm engendered by the use of the drug. To replace it, we have attempted to design a suitable social policy, which we believe is fair, cautious and attuned to the social realities of our time.

:applause:

He seems to understand the bigger picture.

because of the sexist views of females.

He not only thinks about issues - he has the courage of his convictions to do things that indicate the importance of discrimination against entire groups of people.

in order to get re-elected, and in 1976 he campaigned for president on a platform that included decriminalizing marijuana and ending federal criminal penalties for possession of up to 1 ounce of the drug.

The best President in my lifetime. He understood what peace in the world meant, he knew we needed to take care of Planet Earth.

and the importance of long term planning.

for lotsa reasons too :applause:

always have...

a second Carter term would have changed the course of this country in a positive way.

from a thread in editorials.

it's such a scary name... :)

Yes, it is :P

It's great to see the increased coverage on the WOD since the Global Commission on Drug Policy. It certainly sets the stage nicely for action.

so it's getting lots of coverage at the moment for that reason - but the reality that people are getting more and more fed up with wasting time, money and lives on victimless crimes.

I must say that I also like your name. It meshes especially well with the Linux penguin for some reason!

to the real "reefer madness."

declared war on anybody who was open-minded enough to experiment with drugs, i.e. liberals.

Like terrorism, you don't make "war" on drugs but on the people who are somehow involved with them.

you can bet the privatized prison lobby is rising up at the mere thought

the beer industry kicked in funds to the opposition.

a year, it is a drug war and prison complex, both force feeding each other our TAXES.

but i have always thought, since my hippie days, that weed would only be legalized when the Revolution actually happened and everyone went into the streets. then they would legalize weed and the revolution would immediately end. everyone would go home get stoned, and eat a bag of potato chips while watching the revolution on TV with the sound off.
:hippie:

in states where people can put initiatives on ballots and in states that have enough rational people to vote for sane laws.

the special interests that benefit from prohibition are powerful, tho, and have more politicians in their pockets than not, seems to me.

i think the prison cost estimate is pretty low, i have heard that with all the support, probably courts and lawyers it is more like $65 billion.

Those special interests will fiercely fight any change in this matter right to the very end.

Nothing even seems remotely near changing at the federal level. It'll have to go the way of alcohol prohibition, it seems - jury nullification and states giving the finger to the federal drug laws. From the citizens right to up the upper echelons.

http://www.iandrinstitute.org/statewide_i%26r.htm

24 states:

Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Florida | Idaho | Illinois | Maine | Mass. | Michigan | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | South Dakota | Utah | Washington | Wyoming

The following states have decriminalized cannabis possession:

Alaska | California |Colorado | Maine | Massachusetts | Minnesota | Mississippi |Nebraska | Nevada | New York | North Carolina | Ohio | Oregon

The following states have active medical marijuana programs - and those programs are operated differently, based upon the state:

Alaska | Arizona | California | Colorado | Delaware | District of Columbia | Hawaii | Maine | Maryland | Michigan | Montana | Nevada | New Jersey | New Mexico | Oregon | Rhode Island | Vermont | Washington

If people in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming wanted to put an initiative on the ballot for 2012 to decriminalize, seems like they could if they follow the link, above, and find out their state's processes for doing so.

that would be a great thing to see, btw.