LSE IDEAS Governing the Global Drug Wars

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LSE IDEAS Governing the Global Drug Wars Governing the Global Drug Wars SPECIALREPORT SR014 October 2012 SPECIALREPORTS Guest Editor IDEAS Special Reports are unique one-off research products that John Collins harness LSE’s academic expertise to present in-depth analyses of issues of fundamental international importance. Special Reports can be commissioned IDEAS Reports Editor on request. Dr Nicholas Kitchen Email: [email protected] LSE IDEAS is a centre for the study of international affairs, diplomacy and Creative Director grand strategy. Its mission is to use LSE’s vast intellectual resources to help train Indira Endaya skilled and open-minded leaders and to study international affairs through world-class scholarship and engagement Cover photo with practitioners and decision-makers. As its name implies, IDEAS aims at Michal Novotny understanding how today’s world http://www.michalnovotny.com/ came into being and how it may be changed, in line with LSE’s old motto: rerum cognoscere causas – to understand the causes of things. Supported by grants from the Open Society Foundations and the LSE Annual Fund. Annual Fund 2 Contents SR014 October 2012 SPECIALREPORTS Re-examining the Drug Problem Through a Fresh Lens 2 Juan Manuel Santos, President of the Republic of Colombia Executive Summary 4 John Collins, Guest Editor The International Drug Control System 8 Reflections On a Century of International Drug Control 10 William B. McAllister Why We Make War on Some Drugs but not on Others 17 David T. Courtwright Science, Diplomacy and Cannabis 25 James H. Mills Appraising the Consequences of Policy 31 Joseph F. Spillane Latin America 37 Paul Gootenberg Switzerland 43 Diane Steber Buechli and Ruth Dreifuss The United Nations 49 David R. Bewley-Taylor Towards a Human Rights Framework 56 Damon Barrett Overhauling Oversight: Human Rights at the INCB 63 Joanne Csete Re-examining the Drug Problem Through a Fresh Lens Juan Manuel Santos, President of the Republic of Colombia The global commitment to fight the drug problem has – without a doubt – grown stronger and more resilient during the past four decades. Governments and international organisations, as well as the scientific and academic communities, have all worked together to understand and tackle this matter, responsible for inconceivable amounts of violence and distress throughout our countries. Colombia has experienced progress in this fight, and historic results have been achieved. We are no longer the world’s top cocaine producer, according to the latest report by the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy. Not only have we reduced crops and trafficking, but with strong determination, we have dismantled menacing drug cartels. Decades of hard work and sacrifice have yielded significant achievements. However, we are now witnessing, with profound concern, how this situation is drifting to neighbouring countries, along with all the pain, violence and corruption it entails, which we have endured in our country for too many years. Therefore, we are now called upon to invest all of our power and determination towards finding new ways to increase the effectiveness of this fight if we truly wish to outwit this problem and prevent it from causing more suffering and destruction. The Colombian Government strongly believes that the time has come to take a fresh look and we invite world leaders, scientists and experts to start an open, serious and honest debate about this war. The time has come to think outside the box. Our invitation is to dutifully study new formulas and approaches screened through an academic, scientific and non-politicised lens, because this war has proven to be extremely challenging and oftentimes, highly frustrating. This is a global problem that demands a global solution, and therefore a new international consensus is needed. We must all make a sustained effort at thinking about creative and innovative ways to eradicate this scourge from our societies. 2 We are already moving toward this reality. During the past Summit of the Americas, held in Cartagena, Colombia, thirty Presidents and Heads of State agreed – for the first time ever – to engage in discussions – led by experts – on the War on Drugs, its effectiveness and prospects. Our hope is to witness steps of this same magnitude, or even greater ones, multiplying around the world. This report is a valuable contribution to this healthy and necessary debate. By re-examining the international approach to the drug problem from an academic perspective, we are nourishing the discussion and setting the conditions to find a new and more efficient strategy. Let us relentlessly search for, study, think and debate, with all our courage and determination, seeking to discover and implement bolder and smarter answers to this pressing problem. Our world needs us to step up to this challenge. Our countries trust we will. ■ 3 Executive Summary John Collins, Guest Editor International drug control efforts began in 1909, with the aim of eradicating the abuse of certain drugs by controlling their supply. A complex international system of enforcement grew up based on this belief in supply control. A century on, the empirical data is available and overwhelming: the system has failed. Worse, it has become increasingly clear that the human cost of pursuing many of its policies renders them unjustifiable. From mass incarceration in the United States and Asia, to the HIV/AIDS epidemic flooding Russia and the waves of violence rippling through Latin America – current global drug policies are worsening current global drug problems. This is no longer a point of controversy, but as Joseph Spillane suggests, is something which ‘no serious scholar questions’. Nevertheless, driven by a mixture of bureaucratic and ideological inertia, the international drug control system, governed through the UN and enforced by a number of core states, continues to pursue many of the same failed policies. This report asks why the system evolved in the way that it did, and explores the potential for reform. Often, those seeking to understand the complex and opaque international drug control system look to the wording of its various conventions and governing treaties – both of which are open to wide interpretation. However, as William McAllister points out, the system evolved through complex diplomatic, bureaucratic, social and interpersonal forces. It is only through an understanding of these broader forces that we can properly explain how the system was constructed and why it continues to function in the way that it does. Building on this discussion of historical complexity, David Courtwright examines the reasons why some drugs have traditionally been the subjects of ‘war,’ while others have become deeply ingrained in the mainstream economy. This is a question expanded upon by James Mill’s survey of the questionable scientific evidence underpinning cannabis’ co-option into international controls. As Joseph Spillane’s analysis shows, in order to better understand current international drug policies we should focus more attention on the considerable harms that these policies create. In particular he suggests that researchers should concentrate on the wealth of evidence available from the daily experience of contemporary drug addicts, which reveals the, often-harrowing impacts of the various drug wars. Paul Gootenberg analyses the interaction between international policies and shifting cocaine ‘commodity chains’ in Latin America over the last century, culminating in the current Mexican crisis. In so doing, he highlights a seemingly inherent tendency of international drug policy makers to create larger and more violent problems than their interdictionist policies resolve. Former Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss and her colleague Diane Steber evaluate Switzerland’s interaction with the international system, highlighting the pressure exerted on states trying to pursue policies outside the traditional supply-centric paradigm. David Bewley-Taylor then examines ‘the UNGASS decade’ between 1998 and 2008, when the international community committed itself to achieving ‘a drug free world’. He argues that the consensus that characterised this period is now fracturing as nation states are more openly pursuing alternative approaches. 4 In the final section of this report we look towards the future of the system and highlight specific areas in need of immediate reform. Damon Barrett shows that the current system is lacking in basic human rights oversight, and as a result is permitting systematic human rights abuses. Joanne Csete focuses on the International Narcotics Control Board’s (INCB) support for unscientific policies internationally and its refusal to endorse best practice public health policies, particularly around HIV/AIDS prevention. She argues that the INCB remains ‘the most closed and least transparent of any entity supported by the United Nations.’ The machinery of international drug control has solidified around outdated modes of thinking and failed policies. Despite this, it has proved remarkably successful at restricting policy experimentation worldwide and encouraging the continuation of counterproductive approaches. Two steps need to be taken. First, there need to be immediate measures to incorporate basic human rights standards and improve the level of oversight within the system. This is particularly urgent in the areas of international funding decisions and the operation of the INCB. Second, an independent root and branch review of the approach to, and apparatus governing, international
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