A slew of big-name former politicians are endorsing a report that says the war on drugs is not working and that drug enforcement policy needs to fundamentally change. The Global Commission on Drug Policy will urge a "paradigm shift" that emphasizes public health over criminalization tomorrow at a meeting in New York City, The Guardian reports.
Those backing the report include former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and former Fed Chair Paul Volcker. Former elected leaders of Greece, Brazil and Colombia have also signed on. See the full list of backers here.
"What we have here is the greatest collection thus far of ex-presidents and prime ministers calling very clearly for decriminalization and experiments with legal regulation," Danny Kushlick, spokesman for the drug policy center Transform, told the Guardian. "It will be a watershed moment."
But, faced with the list of "formers" backing the new recommendation, The Lookout couldn't help but wonder: Where are all the current office-holders who think the drug war has been a failure?
Tom Angell, spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of former and current police officers against the criminalization of drugs, tells The Lookout he thinks sitting politicians will have to change their tune as American public opinion changes.
[Source]
Well if you want to know why only former politicians are coming out and not current politicians aren't I'll explain it to you nice and simple. It comes down to race, perception and reality.
Most of the people who vote in the U.S. are white. Most of the people in jail because of the Drug War are not white. The day law enforcement starts to target them the way law enforcement targets others, their opinions will change. If you had entire generations of whites lost to the Drug War it would be over already. In lieu of that it will be a slow crawl toward doing the right thing.
This is a dead horse...
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