Marc Salmon, Byron Bay
Your indignation seems only to be exceeded by your ignorance on this one, Paul Dixon (Letters July 24). Read Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari, or anything by the Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP), who said that the ‘global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world’, and advocates decriminalising drug use by those ‘who do no harm to others’.
The luminaries who make up the GCDP are too numerous to name, but include former world leaders (11 presidents, three prime ministers and one deputy prime minister), a former secretary-general of the UN, a former UN high commissioner for human rights, a former US secretary of state and former chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the director-general emeritus of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Between them, they hold four Nobel peace prizes and one for literature.
The GCDP was formed to ‘bring to the international level an informed, science-based discussion about humane and effective ways to reduce the harm caused by drugs to people and societies’. That is, through detailed study and analysis of the existing information and data from a wide variety of fields, including medical, criminal, financial, security, health, and social justice.
The NSW government’s current approach has not progressed beyond Nancy Reagan’s 1982 ‘Just say no’, and is definitely not science based. Rather it is founded on flawed logic and antiquated social objectives.
The whole thing’s a sham, Paul, and you should save your view until you have informed it.
