Pubdate: Wed, 11 Mar 2009
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2009 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: Toby Green
Cited: Release http://www.release.org.uk/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)

UN SUMMIT TORN OVER PURSUIT OF 'WAR ON DRUGS'

A landmark UN summit in Vienna opens today to review the 10-year-old 
global "war on drugs" policy amid tensions between the US and 
European governments over what many see as a flawed approach.

"It's been a failure and it's been a licence for impunity," said 
Genevieve Horwood, an adviser to the UK drugs charity Release. "It 
has been a failure in the sense that the world drug problem has 
increased and in the sense that new consequences and problems have 
arisen as a result of the enforcement-heavy and supply 
reduction-heavy decade," she added.

UN members are to sign a drug strategy declaration during the two-day 
summit. But a key point of contention is whether the document will 
include "harm reduction" strategies, such as providing drug-users 
with needle-exchange programs and treatment. Along with Australia, 
New Zealand and some Latin American countries, most EU nations 
support this being included, but have found themselves lined up 
against the United States and Russia.

However, there are hopes that the US position will soften now that 
Barack Obama is President; one of his first acts in office was to 
support the removal of a ban on federal funding for needle-exchange 
programmes. An EU spokesman said yesterday: "My understanding is 
they're pretty close to a consensus."

Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs 
and Crime, which is hosting the conference, has defended the UN 
record, and said that "from a historical perspective, the first 
century of drug control shows a positive balance sheet".

In a paper prepared for the summit, Mr Costa said "international 
controls" had been an "undeniable success", but admitted it had also 
had a "dramatic unintended consequence: a criminal market of 
staggering proportions".

He added: "The crime and corruption associated with the drug trade 
are providing strong evidence to a vocal minority of pro-drug 
lobbyists to argue that the cure is worse than the disease, and that 
drug legalisation is the solution."

Ms Horwood is not confident that the meeting will result in a shift 
in the UN's drug policy. "I think they will rubber-stamp another 10 
years of failure," she said. "Ideally I'd like them to commit to 
reviewing the goals of the international drug policy, to have a real 
review of not only its implementation but its goal, and find a more 
humane, rights-based, health-based drug policy to move forward with." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake