War on drugs has ‘completely and utterly’ failed, United Nations Human Rights Commissioner says

War On Drugs Has ‘Completely And Utterly’ Failed, United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Says

46 comments

  2. The war on drugs has been a colossal failure. Decades of prohibition, mass incarceration, and billions of dollars spent have not only failed to curb drug use but have also fueled organized crime, corruption, and human rights abuses.
    While this disastrous policy has devastated countless lives, one group has consistently profited: drug cartels. They thrive on the black market created by prohibition, amassing immense wealth and power. It’s time to rethink this failed approach and explore evidence-based strategies like harm reduction and treatment.

  5. I’d like to congratulate drugs for winning the war on drugs.

  7. Well damn.

    I guess the only reasonable thing for us to do is continue with it anyway.

  8. Vancouver started treating “the person, not punishing the drug use disorder” and look where it is now over 230,000 opioid users in the province. This doesn’t even include the other hard illicit substances. So where is the money going to come from to supposedly treat these people?

  12. Oh, I liked their last album, but I’m gonna believe the UN

  13. Irony, weed is more legal than ever and consumption is on the decline.

  14. it’s been a huge success for the prison industrial complex…

  15. I remember playing arcade games at the mall where it had anti-drug warning that didn’t influence players not to use drug. 😛

  16. Best solution is to educate, in the same way that you tell people to stay away from all the other poisonous or dangerous things that life has to offer.

  17. Can we legalize everything and buy it at the pharmacy now without a prescription? I’m tired of being sold fake Molly…

  18. Thanks captain obvious, any historical prohibition shows simply fighting it won’t solve it. Supply and demand will find a way, kill the demand and the supply will follow

    Education, but also stronger communities and bonds. The lonely, hurt and confused often seek drugs as a relief and a way to find peace.

  20. Congratulations to drugs for winning the war on drugs!

  21. A certain percentage of the population will want to get high even if it destroys them.

    This is true no matter how rich, advanced or otherwise “superior” your society may be. This is a simple fact of human nature. You could give your people everything they want, some would want to get high while laying on the street.

    What makes the war on drugs so specially absurd is that it does absolutely nothing to fix the problem in the rich countries; does anyone in the US, UK, Germany, Spain or wherever has any real issue getting drugs if they want to?

    In fact, it makes it worse because addicts do not know what they’re getting. They may want to use a relatively not as harmful drug but it gets mixed with whatever and they end up dying.

    AND because it has destroyed entire countries for no reason.

    I’m from Colombia and the deaths related directly or indirectly to the war on drugs can be counted in the tens of thousands, maybe even above hundreds of thousands, and it has permanently damaged the country because all that money has massively increased corruption. Most will be familiar with what it has done to Mexico. Ever seen a map of the murder rate in South America? wonder why Chile, Argentina and Uruguay’s are so comparatively low? because you can’t grow cocaine in their climate and their location means they’re not transit routs for drugs either to the US or Europe.

    All of that just so some Americans can feel like they’re hard on crime, they’re hard on drugs, they’re protecting the children from those evil, foreign drugs.

    When in reality it just makes the problem worse and created entirely new catastrophic problems elsewhere.

    And in a way I think it makes it one of the most sickening injustices in the world because it’s not even a powerful country invading and destroying another for their own personal gain, that is awful but there’s a logic to it, it’s the US doing that just because… a section of their society is just backwards that way. It hurts their own country, it destroys others, but none of that actually matters, logic does not matter, decency does not matter, it’s just because a significant percentage of the population of the most powerful country in the world are just dumb in this specific way so it would be political suicide to ever change this. So the problem just keeps getting worse and tens of thousands keep dying elsewhere for no real reason.

    It’s total madness, really shows how crazy the world is.

  22. Criminalization has failed us and brought us to fentanyl analogues and random benzos or strange ultra potent substances being sold on the streets.

    We need a legal framework and people want reasonable access to recreational substances.

    Drugs are overly demonized and most drug users are ordinary people who don’t deserve to be persecuted just for existing

  27. Hmmm. Interesting why Singapore don’t have this problem? Maybe, just maybe, we should start using real punishment (ehmm – death penalty) instead of spanking.
    Just a thought.

  28. >The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling on the international community to move away from punitive, criminal drug policies, saying that the global war on drugs “has failed, completely and utterly.”

    >“Criminalisation and prohibition have failed to reduce drug use and failed to deter drug-related crime,” Commissioner Volker Türk said on Thursday at a conference in Warsaw that included leaders and experts from across Europe. “These policies are simply not working—and we are failing some of the most vulnerable groups in our societies.”

    >Türk urged a shift to a more evidence-based, human rights-centered approach to drug policies “prioritising people over punishment.”

    >“We need to start treating the person, not punishing the drug use disorder,” he said, according to a UN press release. “Historically, people who use drugs are marginalised, criminalised, discriminated against and left behind—very often stripped of their dignity and their rights.”

    >Rather than ostracize or punish drug users, Türk said their perspectives should be included in discussions about how to craft policies that minimize harm. “We are destined to fail unless we ensure their genuine participation in formulating and implementing drug policy,” he said.

    >“The evidence is clear. The so-called war on drugs has failed, completely and utterly,” the UN official added. “And prioritising people over punishment means more lives are saved.”

    >Türk posted a short video statement to social media highlighting his comments at the Warsaw conference.

    >“The so-called war on drugs has destroyed countless lives and damaged entire communities,” Türk said in the video statement. “We have record numbers of drug related deaths, more people than ever with drug use disorders and higher levels of the illegal production of many drugs. Criminalization and prohibition have failed to reduce drug use and failed to deter drug related crime. These policies are simply not working, and we are failing some of the most vulnerable groups in our societies.”

    >“We need a transformative approach,” he continued, “and the International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy provide a framework for developing human rights-based approaches that prioritize health, dignity, and inclusion. Instead of punitive measures, we need gender-sensitive and evidence-based drug policies grounded in public health. Instead of scapegoating with must ensure inclusive access to voluntary medical care and other social services.”

    >Türk’s comments come on the heels of a statement earlier this year from UN special rapporteurs, experts and working groups earlier that asserted the drug war “has resulted in a range of serious human rights violations, as documented by a number of UN human rights experts over the years.”

    >“We collectively urge Member States and all UN entities to put evidence and communities at the centre of drug policies, by shifting from punishment towards support, and invest in the full array of evidence-based health interventions for people who use drugs, ranging from prevention to harm reduction, treatment and aftercare, emphasizing the need for a voluntary basis and in full respect of human rights norms and standards,” that statement said.

    >The UN experts’ statement also highlighted a number of other UN agency reports, positions, resolutions as well as actions in favor of prioritizing prevention and harm reduction over punishment.

    >It pointed, for example, to what it called a “landmark report” published by the UN special rapporteur on human rights that encouraged nations to abandon the criminal war on drugs and instead adopt harm-reduction policies—such as decriminalization, supervised consumption sites, drug checking and widespread availability of overdose reversal drugs like naloxone—while also moving toward “alternative regulatory approaches” for currently controlled substances.

    >That report noted that “over-criminalisation, stigmatisation and discrimination linked to drug use represent structural barriers leading to poorer health outcomes.”

  32. The war on drugs failed right out the gate unless you count the militarization of the US police force as a win and if you do you are trash.

  35. Except in the US it’s made massive amounts of money for republican donors….
    Let’s have a war on the disease of addiction and let’s fund it for the next five to ten years like the war on drugs.

  37. More than failed, the drug industry is worth more than any other company on the planet. Ever see an advert on TV for cocaine? They don’t even need to advertise to sell their product. Word of mouth is plenty to get it out there to the masses. With profits like that, you’re never going to stop it.

  38. If the US could decriminalize all personal consumption, that’d be great. Ideally, a supply of pharmaceutical grade of whatever people want to consume, responsibly, would be cool.

  40. When you have a “war”, you have innocent casualties.

  41. How are the War on Poverty and the War on Terror doing?

  42. I mean the first mistake was declaring war on an inanimate object that makes people feel awesome

  43. Not continuing the war has been equally bad for society.

  45. It’s always just been ‘class war’, on drugs!

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