What Comes After Failed Global War on Drugs?

 "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade...[c]learly, what we have been doing has not worked and it is unfair for our incapacity...to be creating a situation" - Hillary Clinton.

Americans have obviously inflicted hardships on the rest of the world with next to no concern about others' well-being. Militarization in the "War on Terror," for instance, has polarized many and radicalized more than a few who would otherwise remain neutral as the United States takes a heavy-handed approach by playing the role of Globocop. Another somewhat lesser-known but equally unsuccessful Yanqui effort has been the "'War on Drugs" as the world's top consumer of hallucinogenics believes that it's a supply-side problem and not a demand-side one as their addled population breeds conflict in Latin America and beyond. Unfortunately, the American policing paradigm remains the world's most influential one. From the US-Mexican border to the hinterlands of Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle, the knock-on effects of American drug addiction are being felt worldwide. 

My erstwhile employer LSE IDEAS has a new report that sheds light on alternatives to the enforcement-based Globocop approach favored by certain North Americans. As I would argue, a lot of the problem stems from the demand-side; not enough Yanquis just say no to drugs as recreational substances and their consumption Stateside is a red, white and blue activity. (Ditto for Western Europeans and other addicted peoples.) Aside from reducing demand, there is also a more science-based approach to weaning these addled folks off their addictions once and for all. We may never cure these endlessly distracted Yanquis of their other addictions to debts 'n' fats, but hey, taking away the needle may mitigate the damage done. Below is the introduction to the LSE IDEAS report, followed by signatures from no less than five Nobel Prize winners in economics as well as our usual cronies. Heck, even Jeff Sachs has signed on for good measure so I guess nearly everyone with a conscience is on board for this effort to address matters on a human scale:

It is time to end the ‘war on drugs’ and massively redirect resources towards effective evidence-based policies underpinned by rigorous economic analysis. The pursuit of a militarised and enforcement-led global ‘war on drugs’ strategy has produced enormous negative outcomes and collateral damage. These include mass incarceration in the US, highly repressive policies in Asia, vast corruption and political destabilisation in Afghanistan and West Africa, immense violence in Latin America, an HIV epidemic in Russia, an acute global shortage of pain medication and the propagation of systematic human rights abuses around the world.

The strategy has failed based on its own terms. Evidence shows that drug prices have been declining while purity has been increasing. This has been despite drastic increases in global enforcement spending. Continuing to spend vast resources on punitive enforcement-led policies, generally at the expense of proven public health policies, can no longer be justified.

The United Nations has for too long tried to enforce a repressive, ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. It must now take the lead in advocating a new cooperative international framework based on the fundamental acceptance that different policies will work for different countries and regions. This new global drug strategy should be based on principles of public health, harm reduction, illicit market impact reduction, expanded access to essential medicines, minimisation of problematic consumption, rigorously monitored regulatory experimentation and an unwavering commitment to principles of human rights.
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[signed]

Professor Kenneth Arrow, 1972 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Luis Fernando Carrera Castro, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Guatemala.
Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Professor Paul Collier, CBE, University of Oxford.
Professor Michael Cox, LSE IDEAS.
Alejandro Gaviria Uribe, Minister of Health and Social Protection, Colombia.
Professor Conor Gearty, London School of Economics.
Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of the Republic of Poland (1995 – 2005).
Professor Margot Light,LSE IDEAS.
Baroness Molly Meacher, UK House of Lords.
Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides, 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Professor Danny Quah, LSE IDEAS.
Professor Dani Rodrik, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University.
Professor Thomas Schelling, 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics.
George Shultz, US Secretary of State (1982 – 1989).
Professor Vernon Smith, 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Dr Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy (1999 – 2009).
Baroness Vivien Stern, UK House of Lords.
Professor Arne Westad, LSE IDEAS.
Professor Oliver Williamson, 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics.