darby.beck@leap.cc March 2, 2015
(+1) 415.823.5496
LAW ENFORCEMENT GROUP ARGUES FOR UN RESTORING NATIONAL
SOVEREIGNTY AS INCB RELEASES ANNUAL REPORT
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Proposes Treaty Amendment to Allow
National Sovereignty in Drug Policy, Co-Sponsors Side Event at UN Commission on
Narcotic Drugs
3rd, only days before the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) meets in Vienna,
Austria. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a NGO in consultative status
with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) led by police officers and other
criminal justice professionals opposed to the drug war, will attend the 58th Session of the
CND and promote a proposal of amendment to the three UN drug-control treaties that
serve as fountainhead for the failed global drug prohibition. LEAP argues that this model
has accelerated rather than reversed the “rising trend in the illicit production of, demand
for and traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances” (Preamble, par. 1, 1961
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs) the treaties were designed to address. The LEAP
Proposed Amendment would vest principal authority for drug control in the hands of
sovereign nations, cooperatively, rather than mandate national subservience to
international prohibition. Attending LEAP representatives will be available to comment
on the report and LEAP’s Treaty Amendment draft.
The data provided by the INCB and the UNODC reports will help serve as a guide for the
58th Session of the CND, which precede and serve as preparation for the Special Session
of the UN General Assembly on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS) in 2016. The
INCB and its President, Dr. Lochan Naidoo, have expressed great concern over the
widespread problems related to drug use and abuse, yet continue to cling to the failed
prohibition model that decades of policy have proven ineffective.
“Drug abuse affects nearly every aspect of culture and society, yet our existing policies to
address it have clearly failed,” said Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive director of
LEAP. “We need to acknowledge that the current prohibition model of drug control has
failed and allow countries to find the solutions that work for them.”
One of the major issues to be discussed will likely be the Brownfield flexibility doctrine,
announced last year by William R. Brownfield, US Assistant Secretary of State for the
Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). This doctrine
stated that existing conventions are flexible enough to embrace differing national drug
policies including developing world drug legalization. While this seems like a positive
development, since it allows room for American states and countries like Uruguay to
legalize cannabis, for instance, the doctrine fails to challenge the treaties themselves or
the flawed theory of prohibition underlying them. In a statement in early February,
International Narcotics Control Board President Dr. Lochan Naidoo denounced the idea
of flexibility.
Former Prosecutor Jim Gierach, board member and draftsman of the proposed treaty
amendment for LEAP, said: “Dr. Naidoo is right. UN drug treaties are inflexible and
unmistakably prohibit and criminalize the production, supply and recreational use of all
drugs. The INCB must recognize the serious shortcomings of prohibition ‘drug control’
and lead the nations of the world away from the criminalization and incarceration model
to new and higher ground. To reach that higher ground, change in the structure and role
of international drug control bodies is essential, just as amendment of the three
conventions is essential. Treaty ‘flexible construction’ is no answer.”
LEAP and the Czech Republic will co-sponsor a unique side event in Vienna to discuss
“Treaty Amendment: A Choice for Drug Policy Reform,” to which all media are invited.
The side event will be presented Monday, March 9, at 2:20 pm CET at the Vienna
International Centre (VIC) in Room MOE79 and will offer an opportunity for more
informal discussion, networking and collaboration between delegations regarding the
proposed treaty amendment.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is an organization of criminal justice
professionals who want to end the gang violence, skyrocketing incarceration, and
dangerous underground markets fueled by the war on drugs and return to a world in
which law enforcement officials are free to focus on serious crime.
###
No comments:
Post a Comment