Pubdate: Wed, 20 May 2009
Source: NOW Magazine (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 NOW Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nowtoronto.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/282
Author: Enzo Di Matteo
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

10 REASONS WHY WE NEED TO DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS

1. Drug laws are unconstitutional.

Yeah, you're reading right. Courts at every level have ruled on the 
fact that drug use and addiction are health issues, not legal 
infractions. It's image-conscious politicians who have chosen to 
wilfully ignore those rulings. Yet the courts have been unwilling to 
hold lawmakers accountable. It's a vicious circle - a conspiracy even.

It's not clear how marijuana even got on the list of prohibited drugs 
back in 1923. It mysteriously appeared on the schedule without a 
debate in Parliament.

2. Drug laws are rooted in racism.

Drug use has been used to demonize whole races of people. From 
musings about "lazy" Hispanic migrant farm workers partaking of the 
weed to Chinese opium dens and the accusation by suffragist Emily 
Murphy - she claimed pot smoking renders users "completely insane. 
raving maniacs liable to kill" - the earliest drug laws were sold as 
solutions to a crime problem created by blacks and browns. The ripple 
effects are being felt today. The 1995 Commission on Systemic Racism 
in the Justice System identified a continued pattern of racism in 
drug enforcement: blacks are 27 times more likely to end up in jail 
to await trial on drug charges than whites, and three times more 
likely to be charged with trafficking than whites.

3. Drug laws = war, corruption and terrorism.

Think the war in Afghanistan is about the Taliban and al Qaeda? 
You're only half right. The war on drugs and the war on terror are 
often one and the same.

The propaganda fed us by the self-interested, i.e., cops and 
politicians, is that drug use is what fuels the drug trade. Reality 
check: smart policy-makers know it's prohibition that creates the 
black market that makes the drug trade so lucrative. See Colombia, 
where the illegal cocaine trade has fuelled a five-decade civil war. 
And what about 9/11?

According to a report by John Thompson of the Mackenzie Institute, 
money from drugs is "probably the single biggest money earner" for 
Muslim fundamentalists.

4. Drug laws encourage the spread of disease.

Nearly two-thirds of offenders entering the federal corrections 
system have drug abuse problems. Sending addicts to jail on minor 
drug charges is a death sentence for many. The spread of HIV/AIDS and 
other diseases like hep C only accelerates behind bars.

About 15 per cent of the jail population reports injecting heroin or 
cocaine behind bars. Former inmates say they've seen as many as 40 
fellow inmates sharing one needle. If that isn't a recipe.... The 
feds' proposed mandatory minimum drug sentences would only jail more 
people who shouldn't be there and increase the spread of disease, 
says the Canadian HIV/AIDS Network.

5. Drug laws are compromising our sovereignty.

DEA agents stationed in Canada,  U.S. drug czars threatening trade 
sanctions for all that BC bud making it over the border.

The U.S. propaganda machine hasn't stopped snorting about our liberal 
enforcement of drug laws.

Blame our own lawmakers for pushing the big lie that we can't reform 
our drug laws because international conventions keep us tied to the 
will of other countries (read the U.S). Canada is under no obligation 
to continue criminal prohibition of drug use. The stated goal of 
Canada's Drug Strategy is to reduce harm. The feds have been lying to us.

6. Drug laws have been a complete failure.

Alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs and certain prescription drugs are 
linked to more than 47,000 deaths and many thousands more injuries 
and disabilities every year in Canada, according to the Health 
Officers Council of British Columbia paper Regulation Of Psychoactive 
Substances In Canada: Seeking A Coherent Public Health Approach. 
That's not counting the $40 billion blown every year on what the 
report terms "inadequate, inappropriate and ineffective regulation." 
Bottom line: we're blowing it.

7. Drug laws are killing the economy.

The feds estimate total sale of drugs in Canada at about $18 billion 
annually. BC's annual marijuana crop alone, if valued at retail 
street prices and sold by the cigarette, is worth more than $7 
billion annually, according to a 2004 study by the Fraser Institute. 
That's bigger than mining, logging, manufacturing, construction and 
agriculture in that province. Do the math. Canada spends $2.3 billion 
on enforcement every year and another $1.1 in health care costs 
directly related to illegal drug use - when $1 spent on treatment 
will achieve the same reduction of flow of cocaine as $7.3 spent on 
enforcement.

8. Drug laws amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Sending people to jail for the relatively benign act of taking drugs, 
a victimless "crime," only exposes them to physical and other forms 
of abuse behind bars. Now the Harper Tories want to introduce new 
mandatory minimum sentencing that will only fill prisons with more 
small-time addicts. Prison admission trends for drug offences are 
showing dramatic increases. Ontario's crime rate is comparable to 
Quebec's, but our incarceration rate is about one-third higher.

9. Drug laws are not reducing drug use.

Governments are slowly coming around to the view. Portugal's 
experiment with decriminalization, which started almost a decade ago, 
has resulted in decreased drug use among teens and a marked reduction 
in HIV/AIDS infections caused by the sharing of contaminated needles. 
Portugal's rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 is now 
the lowest in the EU: 10 per cent. The EU seems to be coming around 
on decrim. More than a dozen countries have agreed on a draft 
resolution urging the UN and its member states to establish a "system 
for the legal control and regulation of the production, sale and 
consumption of substances which are currently illegal."

10. The majority of Canadians oppose drug laws.

Calls to end prohibition aren't just coming from weed advocates. The 
Globe and Ottawa Citizen called for the decriminalization of drugs 
more than a decade ago. The right-wing Fraser Institute has advocated 
legalization, calling the war on drugs a "complete failure." A 
majority of Canadians support the legalization of pot, according to 
an Angus Reid poll last year. More than 90 per cent believe it should 
be legal for medical purposes. The powers that be are messing with 
the will of the people.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom