Top Medical Experts Call for Decriminalization of All Non-Violent Drug Use

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/35945-top-medical-experts-call-for-decriminalization-of-all-non-violent-drug-use


In a lengthy review of the state of global drug policy, the Hopkins-Lancet experts conclude that the prohibitionist anti-drug policies of the past 50 years "directly and indirectly contribute to lethal violence, disease, discrimination, forced displacement, injustice and the undermining of people’s right to health." They cite, among other things:

A "striking increase" in homicide in Mexico since the government decided to militarize its response to the drug trade in 2006. The increase has been so great that experts have had to revise life expectancy downward in that country;

The "excessive use" of incarceration as a drug control measure, which the experts identify as the "biggest contribution" to higher rates of HIV and Hepatitis C infection among drug users;

Stark racial disparities in drug law enforcement, particularly in the United States;

And human rights violations arising from excessively punitive drug control measures, including an increase in the torture and abuse of drug prisoners in places like Mexico.

"The goal of prohibiting all use, possession, production and trafficking of illicit drugs is the basis of many of our national drug laws, but these policies are based on ideas about drug use and drug dependence that are not scientifically grounded," said Commissioner Dr. Chris Beyrer of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in a statement.

[potone]

1. This is important.

When medical experts say that our "war on drugs" has been a disaster and has increased, rather than decreased, disease and violence, it is time for the government to abolish these cruel and counter-productive laws.

[Maraya1969]

2. What is "Violent" drug use?

[SHRED]

8. Aggressive coke chopping?

[B Calm]

9. Bar room fighting.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

12. Drugs like PCP.

[TeamPooka]

3. K&R!

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

I so hope common sense will prevail but fear nothing will be done till well after the election

UNLES
Obama has a giant Fuck it plan as he leaves office.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

13. And I for one would NOT be shocked at all.

[valerief]

5. But aren't these results what TPTB want? nt

[Eric J in MN]

6. Under current law, it's a felony in most states to be in possession

...even of residue of cocaine or heroin.

Our country labels people felons for personal use.

[Scuba]

10. Got a $20 bill in your pocket? Then you're likely guilty.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/14/cocaine.traces.money/index.html

90 percent of U.S. bills carry traces of cocaine

Research presented this weekend reinforced previous findings that 90 percent of paper money circulating in U.S. cities contains traces of cocaine.

[hollysmom]

7. I hve such strong feelings on this it would take to long to make them coherent, ha

but I just would rather not spend money on prisons except for criminals we have to isolate. I wish for certain people we could have an isolated society not a prison (pediphiles, and other people who are dangerous just to children and animals).

[RussBLib]

11. Brookings Institute joins the chorus

I just get more and more pissed thinking about Obama refusing to reclassify weed.

Brookings Bombshell: America Needs High-Quality Marijuana Medications
John Hudak, a researcher with the nonpartisan Brookings Institution think tank, concluded in a March 22 study that the White House and Congress must act immediately to save American lives by passing the CARERS act, a marijuana liberalization law that would lift barriers to medical marijuana research, protect doctors and patients, and ultimately re-schedule marijuana so that therapeutic formulations can be made available in all 50 states and territories.

Children are dying due to the absence of safe, tested, uniform pot products, Hudak writes in “The Medical Marijuana Mess — A prescription for fixing a broken policy. Parents are becoming refugees in their own country — moving thousands of miles to experiment with non-standardized marijuana regimens far from their home states. For those that can’t move, an unregulated, online industry of extract sellers like Morgue Juice has popped up promising cure-alls to meet vast demand.

Hudak essentially says this is all unconscionable and that we need to immediately re-schedule marijuana, and de-schedule CBD as drugs. The medical marijuana movement began far away from such mainstream institutions like Brookings, in places like Oakland, which helped pass Proposition 215 in 1996 and made marijuana crime its lowest police enforcement priority under Measure Z. Oakland has among the most robust medical cannabis industries in the world, with lab-testing and third party-certified products widely available on shelves and for delivery. In other parts of California, however, access to advanced medical cannabis formulas is as limited as Virginia, where medical pot is still banned.

Original.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Too many control freaks enjoy shit like putting pot smokers in prison.