| Lindesmith
Letter to Kofi Annan
Under the leadership of Ethan Nadelmann, The Lindesmith Center
(now the Drug Policy Alliance) coordinated an open letter
to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in anticipation of the
1998 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS)
on the World Drug Problem. Appearing in the New York Times,
the letter was signed by over 500 prominent academics, scientists
and political leaders. The coalition urged the UN to call
off its "failed and futile" policies and instigate
"honest dialogue regarding the future of global drug
control policies - one in which fear, prejudice and punitive
prohibitions yield to common sense, science, public health
and human rights." Prominent signatories included former
UN chief Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru, Nobel Laureate and
ex-Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, former U.S. Secretary
of State George Shultz and U.S. Senators Alan Cranston and
Claireborne Pell. The campaign reverberated around the world,
gaining major media coverage in more than three dozen countries.
UNGASS 1998
Creating a major obstacle to the introduction
of pragmatic and compassionate international drug policies,
UNGASS was a disappointing perpetuation of unsuccessful, unrealistic
strategies. UNGASS was originally brought together to create
a forum for in-depth reflection on the effectiveness and viability
of drugs control over the past decade. Despite heated North-South
debate in the UN and a high-profile advocacy campaign coordinated
by The Lindesmith Center, the inaugural New York meeting merely
rehashed unrealistic assurances of a drug free world.
The result
was a declaration outlining a so-called 'comprehensive' global
strategy for the simultaneous reduction of both illicit supply
and demand. The Assembly laid out a mandate for the UN International
Drug Control Programme "….to develop strategies with
a view to eliminating or significantly reducing the illicit
cultivation of the coca bush, the cannabis plant and the opium
poppy by the year 2008." The UNGASS motto became, "A
Drug Free World - We can do it!"
Eradication
operations were aimed at Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Burma, Laos,
Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, eight of the poorest countries
in the world. These countries were expected to pay for a third
of the eradication programs and would only receive generous
loan opportunities from the World Bank if their anti-drug
programs showed success.
Failed
Four
years later, official UN figures show that the use of cannabis,
cocaine, heroin, and other
drugs has not decreased. HIV/AIDS and hepatitis rates across
the globe are soaring; the dimension
of the global illegal drugs trade continues to expand; and
the environmental, social, and economic
impact of crop spraying in Columbia and Bolivia has been disastrous.
Mid-way
Review: 2003
Despite
clear evidence that the UNGASS plan has failed, an April 2003
mid-term review that brought
together ministers and diplomats from the around the world
failed to result in meaningful reforms.
The critical evaluation component originally requested by
Mexico failed to materialize. Prohibitionist ideology and
bureaucratic intransigence dominated the review process. Despite
optimism over the growing number of European countries that
have abandoned the drug war in favor of harm reduction alternatives,
European politicians have yet to stand against the US or define
an alternative development policy framework for dealing with
illicit drug production and trafficking.
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