Here’s a wacky idea from some of the top institutional minds in the world, including former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anon and Virgin Groups Big Cheese Richard Branson. Let’s legalize drugs.
Here’s the forward from the Global Commission on Drug Policy’s final report:
“We are driven by a sense of urgency. There is a widespread acknowledgment that the current system is not working, but also recognition that change is both necessary and achievable. We are convinced that the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) is an historic opportunity to discuss the shortcomings of the drug control regime, identify workable alternatives and align the debate with ongoing debates on the post-2015 development agenda and human rights.”
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Former President of Brazil (1994-2002)
Aside from the fact that forty years of prohibition hasn’t done anything to reduce drug use or availability, a collateral damage is the loss of our civil liberties and the alienation of the government and the police from the citizenry. Unconfirmed reports say that the police used to “serve and protect.” These days, the saying goes, the police will “serve and protect the shit out of you.”
Clarence Darrow said, “Laws should be like clothes. They should be made to fit the people they serve.” So one wonders whom the drug laws serve. The U.S. currently incarcerates a greater percentage of its citizens than any other country in the world. It’s time the citizens of the United States took their country back. It’s time the government stopped its war on its own citizens.