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Search Results: war on drugs (862)

Rise in Teen Marijuana Use Shows Failure of War on Drugs

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By on News

Youth Partners

Despite 750,000 Annual Marijuana Possession Arrests, Teens Consistently Report That Marijuana is Easier to Obtain Than Alcohol
Teen Cigarette Smoking Continues Dramatic Decline — Demonstrating Success of Non-Criminal, Public Health-Based Approach
The 23rd annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) was released Wednesday, showing an increase in teen marijuana use and reductions in prescription drug misuse and especially cigarette smoking.
Smoking rates have declined with 22 percent of teens reporting smoking cigarettes in the past month –  down 19 percent from 27 percent last year. Past-month usage of marijuana, though, grew from 19 percent in 2008 to 27 percent last year.
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Moms Unite To End The War On Drugs

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By on Culture, News

Moms United to End the War On Drugs

Mothers Groups, Who Played Key Role in Ending Alcohol Prohibition, Aspiring to Repeat Success 80 Years Later
 
Moms, Cops and Students From Around Country to Share Personal Experiences of Tragic Drug War and Unveil “Mom’s Bill of Rights”
 
Mothers from around the country will join with law enforcement and students at the National Press Club on May 2nd in honor of Mother’s Day. The press conference will launch a new campaign comprised of national organizations representing mothers, police and students that seek to finally end the disastrous Drug War.
Moms, cops and students will share powerful stories of losing loved ones to drug prohibition-related violence, incarceration, overdose and addiction, unveil the “Mom’s Bill of Rights,” and highlight a series of activities around the country timed to Mother’s Day.
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Human Rights Is A Foreign Concept In The UN’s War On Drugs

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By on Culture, Global, Legislation

Your Black Bloggers

​Latin American Presidents’ Calls For Legalization Debate Go Unheeded At UN Drug Policy Meeting

The annual Drug War meeting of the United Nations is just wrapping up in Vienna, and sadly, none of the sentiments recently expressed by Latin American presidents about the need to consider legalization were raised during the sessions.
“Alarmingly, the U.S. even opposed amending one of its resolutions to include mention of the need to consider human rights when implementing drug policies,” Tom Angell, media relations director at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), told Toke of the Town on Friday morning.

Even while several Latin American presidents are calling for an outright debate on drug legalization, delegates at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting this week failed to even discuss a change in the global prohibitionist drug treaties, reports a group of judges, prosecutors and jailers who were at the meeting in Vienna to promote reform.
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Branson, Nadelmann To Speak In DC About Failed War On Drugs

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By on Legislation, News

Drug Policy Alliance
Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson (left) will join Drug Policy Alliance Executive Directeor Ethan Nadelmann (right) to speak about the need for greater momentum and political debate to end the failed War On Drugs

​To Be Discussed Thursday, March 15: Legalization Debate in Latin America, Portugal’s Decriminalization Experience, Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiatives in Colorado and Washington, and the State of National Drug Policy Reform Efforts
Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson will join Drug Policy Alliance Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann to speak about the need for greater momentum and political debate to end the failed Drug War this Thursday, March 15, at a forum organized by The Atlantic (600 New Hampshire Ave. NW, 8th Floor) from 9:15 to 10:30 a.m.
Steve Clemons, editor at large of The Atlantic, will host the session and interview Branson and Nadelmann before opening to questions from the audience and media.
In the past year, Branson has stepped out as a prominent supporter of drug policy reform. His involvement with the Global Commission on Drug Policy electrified the international media and brought a new level of attention to the growing movement to end the 40-year-old War On Drugs.
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Debate On Ending The War On Drugs Gains Momentum

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By on Global, News

Osocio

​Latin America Leads The Way; UN Remains Closed To Change

The 55th annual session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) started on Monday in Vienna, Austria, with a focus on strengthening the drug program of the United Nations. Government representatives from more than 100 countries will discuss international cooperation in combating drugs, and the enforcement of the current prohibition model. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime will invite delegates to celebrate 100 years of “successful” drug control. Are these people disconnected from reality?
“No changes to the UN conventions or even constructive discussions on alternative policies on drugs are to be expected at this meeting,” said Ruth Dreifuss, former president of Switzerland and member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP), a group of international leaders that has called for an end of the global War On Drugs.
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Rally & Concert To End The War On Drugs: L.A., Nov. 3

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By on Culture, News, Products

Punk Rock Gypsy
Arise Roots, an up and coming reggae band from L.A., will headline the No More Drug War rally in Los Angeles on Thursday, November 3.

​The international movement against the War On Drugs will convene at Levitt Pavilion in historic MacArthur Park, Los Angeles, on Thursday, November 3, for the largest-ever “No More Drug War” mass protest.

Hundreds of people will gather to acknowledge this year’s 40th anniversary of Nixon’s declaring a War On Drugs, demand health-centered alternatives, and celebrate this incredible diverse moment. The event will acknowledge the violence in Mexico, California’s mass incarceration crisis, and the nation’s overdose epidemic, among other topics.
The rally and concert will feature a host of gourmet food trucks, live reggae music by Arise Roots, spoken word artists, youth performers, and international reform leaders — most prominently Javier Sicilia, the Mexican poet who lost his son to Drug War violence and who is now leading a mass movement against the Drug War that brings tens of thousands to the streets of Mexico.
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War On Drugs: Worth It, Or Worthless? Debate Sept. 21

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By on Culture, News

SSDP

​Should we continue to fight the War On Drugs, or should we look toward alternative approaches such as legalization? If you have an opinion on this question, you’ll be interested in a debate scheduled for Wednesday night.

The University of Arkansas Chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), in coordination with University Programs, is hosting a debate between Ethan Nadelmann, a former Princeton professor and current executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, and former DEA Administrator and U.S. Congressman Asa Hutchinson.
The two will debate whether we should continue to fight the War On Drugs or look for other solutions including regulation.
Both speakers bring years of experience to the table, of vastly different kinds.
Hutchinson held the top position at the Drug Enforcement Administration from 2001 to 2003. Ethan Nadelmann is a leading voice in the drug policy reform movement worldwide, and is executive director of the DPA.
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Black Government Employees Call For End To War On Drugs

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By on Culture, News

Photo: Truth of Success Blog
Retired U.S. Marshal Matthew Fogg, LEAP: “The war on drugs has put blacks behind bars for drug offenses at more than 10 times the rate of whites”

​Group Joins Police Officers In Calling For Legalization

Blacks In Government (BIG), a group representing the interests of African-American government employees at the federal, state, county and municipal levels, overwhelmingly passed a resolution at its national delegates meeting last week calling for an end to the failed and racially biased “War On Drugs.”
The resolution, which will be delivered to President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, calls for “alternatives to incarceration that may, in part, include a model to regulate and control the distribution of some drugs.”
The resolution pointed to the words of Maryland State Police Major Neill Franklin and U.S. Marshal Matthew Fogg, both members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of police, judges, prosecutors and prison wardens who support legalizing and regulating drugs.
BIG and LEAP noted that African Americans constitute 53.5 percent of all persons in prison because of a drug conviction, despite the fact that blacks are no more likely than whites to use drugs.
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NAACP Joins Call To End War On Drugs

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By on Uncategorized

Photo: The Daily Record
Benjamin Jealous, NAACP president and CEO: “These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African American communities must be stopped”

​The NAACP has just joined the list of prominent organizations and individuals calling for a major paradigm shift away from the failed and punitive “War On Drugs” and toward a health-based approach with a historic resolution passed Tuesday at the organization’s national conference in Los Angeles.

“Today the NAACP has taken a major step towards equity, justice, and effective law enforcement,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP. “These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidence-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America.”
Neill Franklin, an African American former narcotics cop from Baltimore and executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), had presented a talk on the need to end the War On Drugs at the NAACP conference on Monday.
“The NAACP has been on the forefront of the struggle for civil rights and social justice in this country for over a century,” Franklin said Tuesday about the passage of the resolution.
“The fact that these leaders are joining others like the National Black Police Association in calling for an end to the ‘war on drugs’ should be a wake up call to those politicians — including and especially President Obama — who still have not come to terms with the devastation that the ‘drug war’ causes in our society and especially in communities of color,” Franklin said.
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