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[lordcooper]

Firstly, a plea:  Please do not turn this into a thread debating the rights or wrongs of deregulation.  I'm all for discussion, but make another thread for that if you feel the need to rehash old arguments.  People tend not to change their mind because of strangers on the internet.  I'm posting this solely to raise awareness of what I feel may be a chance to change a great flaw in our nations laws.

There is a real opportunity here to change the world in a positive way.  I'm going to simply paste the entire e-mail I received here and hopefully some of you will see this as a cause worthy of supporting.  If you do, then please sign your name on this and help spread the word in any way that you can.  There's nothing to lose and potentially a lot for our societies to gain through this.

Prohibition has failed, maybe education should take its place?

Dear friends,

In days, we could finally see the beginning of the end of the ‘war on drugs’. This expensive war has completely failed to curb the plague of drug addiction, while costing countless lives, devastating communities, and funneling trillions of dollars into violent organized crime networks.

Experts all agree that the most sensible policy is to regulate, but politicians are afraid to touch the issue. Indays, a global commission including former heads of state and foreign policy chiefs of the UN, EU, US, Brazil, Mexico and more will break the taboo and publicly call for new approaches including decriminalization and regulation of drugs.

This could be a once-in-a-generation tipping-point moment -- if enough of us call for an end to this madness. Politicians say they understand that the war on drugs has failed, but claim the public isn't ready for an alternative. Let's show them we not only accept a sane and humane policy -- we demand it. Click below to sign the petition and share with everyone --if we reach 1 million voices, it will be personally delivered to world leaders by the global commission:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/end_the_war_on_drugs/97.php?cl_tta_sign=f81b8ded264af962cdb49ffca3c86334

For 50 years current drug policies have failedeveryone, everywhere but public debate is stuck in the mud of fear and misinformation. Everyone, even the UN Office on Drugs and Crime which is responsible for enforcing this approach agrees -- deploying militaries and police to burn drug farms, hunting down traffickers, and imprisoning dealers and addicts – is an expensive mistake. And with massive human cost -- from Afghanistan, to Mexico, to the USA the illegal drug trade is destroying countries around the world, while addiction, overdose deaths, and HIV/AIDS infections continue to rise.

Meanwhile, countries with less-harsh enforcement -- like Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Australia -- have not seen the explosion in drug use that proponents of the drug war have darkly predicted. Instead, they have seen significant reductions in drug-related crime, addiction and deaths, and are able to focus squarely on dismantling criminal empires.

Powerful lobbies still stand in the way of change, includingmilitary, law enforcement, and prison departments whose budgets are at stake. And politicians fear that voters will throw them out of office if they support alternative approaches, as they will appear weak on law and order. But many former drugs Ministers and Heads of State have come out in favour of reform since leaving office, and polls show that citizens across the world know the current approach is a catastrophe. Momentum is gathering towards new improved policies, particularly in regions that are ravaged by the drug trade.

If we can create a worldwide outcry in the next few days to support the bold calls of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, we can overpower the stale excuses for the status quo. Our voices hold the key to change -- Sign the petition and spread the word:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/end_the_war_on_drugs/97.php?cl_tta_sign=f81b8ded264af962cdb49ffca3c86334

We have a chance to enter the closing chapter of this brutal 'war' that has destroyed millions of lives. Global public opinion will determine if this catastrophic policy is stopped or if politicians shy away from reform. Let's rally urgently to push our hesitating leaders from doubt and fear, over the edge, and into reason.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Laura, Ricken, Maria Paz, Shibayan and the whole Avaaz team

SOURCES:

Reports that show the war on drugs has failed:
http://idpc.net/publications/failure-regime-selected-publications

Reports that show alternative approaches of decriminalisation and regulation are working:
http://idpc.net/publications/alternative-strategies-selected-publications

General report on drug law reform in practice:
http://www.tni.org/report/legislative-innovation-drug-policy

The Global Comission on Drug Policy that will call on the UN to end the war on drugs
http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/Documents.aspx

Drug War by the Numbers
http://www.drugpolicy.org/facts/drug-war-numbers

Final Report of the Latin American Comission on Drugs and Democracy
http://www.drogasedemocracia.org/English/Destaques.asp?IdRegistro=8

General report on drug lawreform in practice:
http://www.tni.org/report/legislative-innovation-drug-policy

[Strife26]

If this makes more than the tiniest splash in any sense of the word, I'll be quite surprised.

[Jackrabbit]

Frankly, I think they have a point. The war on drugs really did cause an increase in drugs and drug-related crime, and regulation sounds like a sensible approach.

Not that I think this'll garner that much success. Maybe it's because it's 11:30 and I got up at 5 but I think disinterest will kill this dead.

[lordcooper]

If this makes more than the tiniest splash in any sense of the word, I'll be quite surprised.

In all honesty, so will I.  There's no harm in being guardedly optimistic though.  At least it's being seriously discussed now.

Frankly, I think they have a point. The war on drugs really did cause an increase in drugs and drug-related crime, and regulation sounds like a sensible approach.

Not that I think this'll garner that much success. Maybe it's because it's 11:30 and I got up at 5 but I think disinterest will kill this dead.

It's estimated that around 40-60% of Brits (Can't remember the exact number at this moment in time) have tried Cannabis at least once.  That's only one out of hundreds of proscribed substances.  Surely this would be relevant to all of them, along with anyone who gives a toss about the global economy (think how much tax would be raised if drugs were taken out of the hands of criminals and how many jobs would be created), personal freedoms and the increased potential for medical research.

[RedKing]

Ditto. Something like this would be much more effective if the timing was better. Drug policy is so far off the radar right now that this is likely to go into the wastebasket of peoples' minds pretty fast.

[jester]

Im in, but ahhh, as an aussie I had no idea we have less harsh enforcement, I have a friend doing time for possession atm, and im definitely in Australia.
  How bloody bad is this in the rest of the world
 EDIT Shit, im seeing about 2 signups a second here, maybe this will do something

[freeformschooler]

Well I signed it. I don't really care what happens in terms of drug legalization but anything that has a chance of disrupting or lessening the preposterous amount of drug related crimes has my vote.

fakeedit: holy nuts look at dem signups

[Astral]

Signed in a heartbeat.

People should be able to do what they want, really. Regulating drugs in general much as we do alcohol or tobacco would be a step in the right direction. By criminalizing it, we spend far too much money on trying to keep it down, while it simply leaks throughout the world, regardless of what laws are in place to stop it.

[Sheb]

Totally favor it and signed it a while ago. Here in Europe for instance, France got both the most repressive cannabis laws and the most cannabis user.

Although I wonder how the government would go around selling heroin or the like. That shit is toxic for god's sake.

[lordcooper]

Totally favor it and signed it a while ago. Here in Europe for instance, France got both the most repressive cannabis laws and the most cannabis user.

Although I wonder how the government would go around selling heroin or the like. That shit is toxic for god's sake.

I assume it would end up being handled rather similarly to alcohol, tobacco and other toxic substances.

[Cthulhu]

Crack, PCP, heroin, and the like are not on the same level as alcohol and tobacco.  I've heard of ideas for places where heroin addicts can go, receive free, clean needles, and do heroin in a safe environment where they're not putting themselves and others in danger.  I wouldn't be entirely opposed to that, although I think it should definitely also include outreach for people who want to quit and maybe even some rehabilitation facilities.

[Sheb]

Well, I'm all for legalizing "soft" drugs such as cannabis, but heroin...

Actually, here in Belgium, they had a program where the police would hand out heroin, so that at least crackhead got "clean" stuff.

[Levi]

I am completely in favor of this, but I don't think it'll ever fly in the states.  The war on drugs is practically part of your culture.  At the very least the prisons lobby groups would prevent this from happening.

[lordcooper]

Crack, PCP, heroin, and the like are not on the same level as alcohol and tobacco.  I've heard of ideas for places where heroin addicts can go, receive free, clean needles, and do heroin in a safe environment where they're not putting themselves and others in danger.  I wouldn't be entirely opposed to that, although I think it should definitely also include outreach for people who want to quit and maybe even some rehabilitation facilities.

Available rehab facilities are a definite neccessity (IMO anyway) for those that wish to quit any addictive substance.  It's also pretty commonly accepted that some of the chemicals used to cut heroin and other synthetic drugs are in fact far more dangerous than the actual drug itself.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not recommending that anybody should be taking it, just that they should have the right to.  Easy access to cheaper, cleaner heroin would be a massive advantage too, in that the amount of people pumping themselves full of untested chemicals and being forced into prostitution/theft/whatever would likely decrease pretty drastically.

EDIT:  To put it into perspective, I could easily synthesise heroin in my kitchen and cut it with the poison of my choice.  If a clean, cheap, mass produced supply was available, then I wouldn't be able to compete and would quickly be pushed out of business.

[Vector]

The war on drugs is practically part of your culture.

... as of perhaps 40 years at most.

We've had a socially conservative swing.  Just about time for us to move back.