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The United Nations and Drug Policy



Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Chair

May, 2004

The United Nations International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (Anti-Drug Day) will be observed on June 26 while our League is in summer recess. Observances range from public service announcements by Magic Johnson to mass public executions in China. As supporters of the UN, we must be aware of its drug policies.

In 1936 U. S. Representative Harry Anslinger, still seething from the repeal of the 18th Amendment, made a valiant pitch to the League of Nations in Geneva for a global ban on cannabis. It was voted down by all 26 nations present. By the early 1960s the international balance of power had changed. The United States was the most powerful nation on earth. The same Harry Anslinger was the US representative to the United Nations Narcotics Commission. Due to his influence three very influential international treaties on drug policy were passed. Signatory nations agreed to support drug prohibition. The International Narcotics Control Board, based in Vienna, is charged with implementing the treaties.

The Board has consistently taken a hard line in support of drug prohibition even refusing to implement sterile syringe programs in the face of the AIDS epidemic in Africa and Asia. The United Nations Drug Control Program does not even mention syringe exchange in its AIDS prevention documents.

On the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, in June 1998, 500 prominent people signed an open letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The signatories included former United States Secretary of State George Schultz, former United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cellar, former Greek President George Papandreou, Former President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica and former German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. The letter said in part “We believe the global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself…Human rights are violated, environmental assaults perpetrated and prisons inundated with thousands of drug law violators.”

The International Narcotics Control Board has not responded to such adivce. In its annual report this spring, the Board criticised Canada for allowing a safe injection site to be opened in Vancouver and for proposing changes to its federal cannabis laws. The report reiterated the Board’s opposition to allowing medical use of cannabis.

European criticism of UN policies is becoming harsh. The Senlis Council, a European think tank, recently accused the United Nations of unintentionally creating a flourishing black market for illegal drugs through its anti-drug policies. "[The current policy] fosters terrorism because it provides the funds for terrorism and it endangers international security," said Sir Keith Morris, former British ambassador to Colombia. "The system is not working, but it is not being debated at the U.N.; it is a taboo." Raymond Kendall, former Interpol secretary general said the UN should "change its approach from repressive law enforcement to look at consumption and demand and harm-reduction methods."

The global drug war is not a war on plants and chemicals. It is a war on human beings who are all too often the poor and people of color. Unquestioning support of this US led war flies in the face of the UN’s purpose which Kofi Annan has described as “to make the world a more just, more peaceful, and happier place.”

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