Pubdate: Wed, 16 Apr 2003
Source: San Mateo County Times, The (CA)
Copyright: 2003, MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Contact: 
http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87%257E2524%257E,00.html
Website: http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/392
Author: William J. Kole, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

CRITICS SAY NO TO U.S. ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN

VIENNA, Austria -- Critics of a U.S.-led global crackdown on illicit drugs 
declared the policy a failure Tuesday, calling it "the war that America 
cannot win" and urging a United Nations commission to consider other 
approaches to the problem.

Activists, think tanks and non-governmental organizations asked the U.N. 
Commission on Narcotic Drugs to examine what they called a disturbing lack 
of progress midway through a global campaign to curb drug cultivation, 
trafficking and consumption by 2008.

Their harsh assessment came as delegates from 116 countries met in Vienna 
to review the ambitious anti-drug effort, launched by the U.N. General 
Assembly in 1998 and loosely modeled after the United States' "war on drugs."

"This strategy has failed," the European Drug Policy Fund said in a 
statement. "Far from making progress toward the goal of a 'drug-free world 
by 2008,' drug consumption is in effect on the rise in both industrial and 
developing countries, as are drug-related crime and other social ill-effects."

Consensus is building in Europe "that after years of continuous setbacks, 
and with billions of dollars spent on destroying crops and putting people 
in jail, it is now time to look at more promising alternatives," it said.

The Open Society Institute, a private foundation started by financier 
George Soros, said the U.N.'s strict drug control treaties are undermining 
efforts to prevent the spread of AIDS because they discourage countries 
from introducing effective public health measures.

It pointed to Russia and Ukraine, two countries it said have paid more 
attention to cracking down on traffickers than on the health consequences 
of intravenous drug use -- and now have some of the world's fastest-growing 
rates of HIV infection.

AIDS cases also are rising rapidly in Iran and Pakistan and across Central 
Asia where, the OSI said, authorities are cracking down on drug cultivation 
and trafficking at the expense of treatment and prevention programs.

"In countries that are experiencing a rapid increase of drug use, the 
reflex reaction is to become tougher on drug users," said Kasia 
Malinowska-Sempruch, an OSI drug abuse expert.

"Locking up users in prisons is not a solution. It only serves to drive 
users underground, making them less likely to seek out what few services do 
exist for them."

Despite the criticism, this week's conference -- organized by the 
Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime -- appeared unlikely to steer 
the United Nations away from its goals of ridding the world of as much drug 
use and crime as possible over the next five years.

Hassela Nordic Network, a Swedish organization, presented the U.N. agency 
Monday with 1.3 million signatures collected from people in 48 countries 
supporting the ongoing anti-drug campaign.

However, the campaign's goals remain elusive, U.N. drug agency chief 
Antonio Maria Costa conceded in a report issued ahead of the conference.

Although heroin and cocaine abuse have stabilized or declined in some 
countries, the use of marijuana and illicit synthetic drugs such as 
amphetamines, methamphetamines and Ecstasy is growing in others, the report 
said.

Raymond Kendall, a retired director of Interpol with the European Drug 
Policy Fund's delegation, is among many in Vienna questioning the point of 
sticking with interdiction-based efforts. The Paris-based group said it was 
the war that America cannot win.

We cannot legalize our way out of the problem and we cannot arrest our way 
out of the problem, Kendall said. We must pursue those solutions that have 
proved effective, and try to improve the situation in small steps that are 
also acceptable to society as a whole.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager