WHO calls for the decriminalization of drug use

http://www.shadpost.review/2018/01/who-calls-for-decriminalization-of-drug.html

The United Nations' leading health agency, the World Health Organization, has called on countries around the world to end the criminalisation of people who use drugs. The call was made in a report published this month that looked at policy responses for dealing with HIV among key populations - men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, people in prisons and other closed settings, sex workers and transgender people. The WHO's unambiguous recommendation is clearly grounded in concerns for public health and human rights. Whilst the call is made in the context of the policy response to HIV specifically, it clearly has broader ramifications, specifically including drug use other than injecting.


Comments


[126 Points] _PrinterPam_:

Like many of the UN's other findings & recommendations, the United States will ignore this at best, and at worst label it as "irresponsible," "bone-headed," and "giving in to the terrorists."


[27 Points] Brookklyn:

If I want to get high then guess what? I’m going to get high


[20 Points] Y10NRDY:

Interesting since it was the U.N. who created the BS drug schedules that Nixon enacted, which was the basis for the whole fricking War on Drugs. Don’t trust anything they say or do. The War on Drugs is illegal from the neck down based on the Constitution and, specifically, the 10th & 18th Amendments.


[17 Points] JaysouneHorn:

In the report, the WHO says:

“Countries should work toward developing policies and laws that decriminalize injection and other use of drugs and, thereby, reduce incarceration. Countries should work toward developing policies and laws that decriminalize the use of clean needles and syringes (and that permit NSPs[needle and syringe programs]) and that legalize OST [opiate substitution treatment] for people who are opioid-dependent. Countries should ban compulsory treatment for people who use and/or inject drugs ” The report also highlights Portugal's success in decriminalising personal drug possession and treating drug use as a health, rather than a criminal justice, issue.

This latest call from a UN agency is likely to have been informed by recommendations made in 2012 by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law (pdf), an independent body convened by the United Nations Development Programme and UNAIDS to explore the discrimination experienced by people living with HIV. The Commission's final report contained the folowing statement:

“Reform approaches towards drug use. Rather than punishing people who use drugs but do no harm to others, governments must offer them access to effective HIV and health services, including harm reduction programmes and voluntary, evidence-based treatment for drug dependence”

The growing chorus of UN voices calling for the same progressive drug policy reform offers some hope that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the body that oversees the current international drug control regime, will adopt a similarly pragmatic and humane approach to dealing with people who use drugs. Ending criminalisation remains something that the UNODC has hinted at but so far never called for as explicitly as their UN colleagues. Given that the WHO, UNAIDS and UNODC share responsibility for HIV policy, it is surely only a matter of time.


[9 Points] Ande2101:

The Who have never been against drugs, Pete Townshend is 72 years old and is a fucking animal on the nosebag. He does more on a Tuesday morning than you and your boys do all weekend.


[6 Points] TangoBlastTX:

WHO calls for it? Me, motherfucker


[3 Points] stabBarbie:

I can't wait to travel the world doing drugs in every ditch, alley and brothel my nose finds its way into


[3 Points] GeneralStarkk:

A big step forward in ending this 'war'. If you boil this whole drug ordeal down to its most basic ideas, lets leave out the fact that drug prohibition leads to shit like fentanyl killing thousands, the fact that you could be thrown in jail for a plant, and all the other bullshit prohibition brings along with it.

Distill it down to its roots. The those roots are the idea that somebody else knows better, and has to protect you for the greater good. Let me break down a sensible ideal that most of the sensible folks here may agree with. As long as you're not harming others it shouldn't matter what you do.

The idea that a governing body, or person, can dictate to you what you can, and can't put into your body is Ludacris and we should all react violently to the concept that, this is the reality we are living in.

A world were black is actually white, and mcdonalds is your god. Even a world were LSD is considered to be more dangerous then Heroin. This is our reality.

Its obvious that the idea that drugs shouldn't be 'illegal' is growing. The majority is seeing now that smoking pot will not, turn you into a crazed rapist. There is no need to hide all your white woman. The kids will be alright.

I won't predict a time the shift of our perception on how drugs should be given out should work, but I think everybody, even those that had little intrest in the matter of drugs before, even they can see that the tide is changing.


[2 Points] dadankness:

I hate that pot users get lumped in with intravenous users. so fucking dumb, i agree tho, let those who want to fuck up their life do so.


[2 Points] reddituser00001111:

Drugs are illegal?!


[2 Points] Machiabelly165:

I call for the decriminalization of drug use!


[2 Points] CommaCazes:

WHO calls for the decriminalization of drug use

I do!


[2 Points] bikramdrugsbikram:

This kind of post reminds me of r/dnms 2-3 years ago (miss you Gwern) thank you for this important info and for providing a place to discuss this.


[2 Points] samwise4444:

Why doesn't big pharma just get with the fucking program and start throwing their money into pot farms, and head shops - it they were smart that's what they should do. Like when the tobacco companies bought up and produced all the nicotine gum, patches, and "quitting smoking" aids - hedge you bets on both sides !! But they're fucking morons with no ethics so probably not :(


[2 Points] USMCLee:

Wasn't it about 15-20 years ago WHO tried to do this and the US stopped them?

I wonder if they got it passed this time because US' stature has fallen so much.


[2 Points] Amanda-Binds:

Men who have sex with men. Men who have sex with sheep.

men who inject drugs. Men who inject drugs into sheep.

Men who inject drugs into sheep and have sex with them.

Men who inject drugs into sheep and have sex with them...

With other men :(


[2 Points] Xantactic:

Jeff Sessions would have a fucking heart attack


[2 Points] billinsandiego:

The main reason this will never happen has to do more with the alcohol lobby than anything else. Consequently, it is the real reason Jeff Sessions want to criminalize marijuana.

I do think we are on the right path (making drugs legal) because Democrats and Republicans (in Colorado, California, etc) strongly want the decriminalization of marijuana.


[1 Points] BilliCrystaal:

The Guess Who


[1 Points] infectedLysergic:

not gunna happen


[1 Points] totallyachickfromus:

"Sanction me with your army. Oh, that's right,you don't have an army" - Black Bush


[1 Points] Yangonin2:

I love the World Health Organization.


[1 Points] UrbanKhan:

Phishing link


[1 Points] WickrCocaColaCompany:

no. government will give molopoly to friends + tax. they have enough already


[1 Points] Compoundsdomestic:

I do. I call for it


[1 Points] CoachHouseStudio:

I read the title and was excited, but then I was disappointed to read that this is about HIV infections instead of saving the lives of addicts and users who die from overdoses, impurities, cartel/gang/drug related violence, personal health neglect , desperation leading to incarceration.. you name it. It's not the drugs, its the situation surrounding them that are killing people.

With a regulated supply, people could go back to work and be productive instead of trying to drum up a couple notes to score and be well until the next day. What a waste of time and life - yet that is the life of MANY addicts - and that is their daily routine. Beg, score, sleep.. It's awful - and the state of mind this must put people in is dreadful. I don't think calling it "Depression" would even cover it.. nothing to live for and no variation, I think you would go insane..