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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Panel: Global drug war has utterly failed - War Room - Salon.com

Panel: Global drug war has utterly failed - War Room - Salon.com: It's pretty much impossible to imagine a panel that is more distinguished and establishment-friendly than the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which is today releasing a report describing the multi-decade "war on drugs" by governments around the world as a disastrous failure.

The commission includes former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former Reagan administration Secretary of State George Schultz, former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, and the writer Mario Vargas Llosa, among others.

The 19-member group, after studying the issue, came to an unambiguous conclusion.

"The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," the executive summary of the panel's report begins. "Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the US government’s war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed."