Drugs, Law and Conflict

Save the date and register early for the 2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference, to be held November 12-14, 2009 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

All information can be found here.

This event is co-hosted by the Drug Policy Alliance, the ACLU Drug Policy Reform Project, the Open Society Institue, the Marijuana Policy Project, SSDP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, the Harm Reduction Coalition and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

A few resources on the intersection between drug policy and human rights…

• The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN), Human Rights Watch and the International Harm Reduction Association recently came together to call for an end to the death penalty for drug offenses in Asia–perhaps one of the most serious violations of human rights related to the global drug war. See their statement here.

• A Human Rights Watch Fact Sheet: “Ten Ways Drug Policy Affects Human Rights”. Also, a wonderful overview of Human Rights Watch’s work on drug policy around the world is available here.

• Early in 2009, the International Harm Reduction Association released a report entitled “Harm Reduction and Human Rights: The Global Response to Drug-Related HIV Epidemics.” You can read the report here, and follow the work of the Harm Reduction and Human Rights program on their blog.

A friend recently directed me toward the website of The Foundation for a Drug-Free World, a Los Angeles-based non-profit whose tagline is “an effective drug education and drug prevention program.” I was shocked and dismayed to see the “drug facts” section (they seem to have a monopoly on “the truth” about drugs), which reads like an amateur 1950s terror campaign.

Marijuana, inexplicably listed under the headline “joints,” apparently will cause you to have a heart attack, and eventually will lead to psychosis.

For MDMA, the complete list of short-term effects is as follows:

• impaired judgment
• false sense of affection
• confusion
• depression
• sleep problems
• severe anxiety
• paranoia
• drug craving
• muscle tension
• involuntary teeth clenching
• nausea
• blurred vision
• faintness and chills or sweating.

Someone clearly misnamed that drug ecstasy!

Aren’t we past this fear-mongering and misinformation? Even the federal government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse acknowledges that “studies testing the effectiveness of information dissemination or fear-arousal approaches have consistently shown that they do not work.”

To actually reduce our drug abuse and addiction problems (and they are severe [1]), we need better. And we should expect better, even from an organization founded by the Church of Scientology.

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[1] According to the NIDA, in 2006, 23 million people, or nearly 10% of the American population over age 12, needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem. Nevertheless, of those 23 million, only 10.8% received treatment, leaving some 21 million without.

Human Rights Watch before the UN Human Rights Council for the Universal Periodic Review of Mexico:

Since President Calderon deployed thousands of troops to combat drug trafficking, there has been a dramatic increase in complaints of military abuses. The dysfunctional Mexican military justice system routinely takes over the investigation of even the most egregious abuses, including alleged rapes, killings, arbitrary detentions, and torture, by adopting an excessively broad definition of what constitutes an “act of service.” This broken system has led to impunity. As of April 2009, the military attorney general has been unable to provide a single example in the last ten years in which a member of the military accused of committing a human rights violation was convicted by military courts.

Read the full oral statement here.

Also check out this joint oral statement on the independence of judges, delivered with the Miguel Austin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (Center Prodh), among others. Centro Prodh is doing some really important work on civilian control over the armed forces in the drug war here, as evidenced by their recent reports.

Media from the Universal Periodic Review is available from the OHCHR’s website.

Human Rights Watch is hiring researchers for Brazil and Mexico, two countries where they have strong work related to rights violations in the drug war.

They recently released an important 76-page report on Mexico, “Uniform Impunity,” focusing on the lack of justice for human rights abuses committed during counter-drug and public security operations. The Mexico country page features all related letters, reports and denuncias. Job description for the researcher here.

In Brazil, HRW’s work has focused on the abysmal prison system and police violence. See the country page for more information, and check out the Brazil job description here.

Just the Facts, the spectacular database on US security policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean, features a super-useful calendar, with public events, legislative hearings and congressional deadlines. Makes me want to be in DC!