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Matt
Federal marijuana legislation clears House of Commons, headed for the Senate
MPs passed the Liberal government’s bill to legalize cannabis Monday evening, sending the legislation down the hall to the Senate for further study and debate.
The legislation was largely supported along partisan lines, although it secured the support of the NDP and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. The final vote was 200 MPs in favour, with 82 against. Conservative MP Scott Reid voted for the bill after he polled constituents in his eastern Ontario riding, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, and found a plurality supported the Liberal plan.
A last-ditch Conservative effort to delay the bill — and send it to the Commons health committee for further study — failed by a vote of 83 to 199 with some Bloc Québecois MPs voting with Tory legislators. Conservative opposition will now fall to their national caucus colleagues in the Red Chamber, where some senators have already signalled they are prepared to give the bill a rough ride. Some Tories have said the government’s timeline for legalization, July 1, 2018, is far too ambitious.
Continues: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cannabis-legalization-legislation-1.4421910
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Matt
Global Commission on Drug Policy
Press conference for the new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy calling for an end to all criminal and civil penalties for drug consumption and possession for personal use. The Global Commission on Drug Policy comprises 23 high-level members, including nine former Heads of State and government and a former Secretary General of the United Nations.
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Matt
Taking a New Line on Drugs
‘Taking a New Line on Drugs’ assesses the situation in the UK as regards rising health harm from illegal drugs, with reference to their context within the wider ‘drugscape’ of legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, and sets out a new vision for a holistic public health-led approach to drugs policy at a UK-wide level
From a public health perspective, the purpose of a good drugs strategy should be to improve and protect the public’s health and wellbeing by preventing and reducing the harm linked to substance use, whilst also balancing any potential medicinal benefits. RSPH is calling for the UK to consider exploring, trialling and testing such an approach, rather than one reliant on the criminal justice system.
Read more: Taking a New Line on Drugs
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Matt
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Matt
Reforming international drug policy
“Drugs have destroyed many people, but wrong policies have destroyed many more”, said Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General. Indeed, international drug policy has been fraught with inconsistency and controversy. Global drug control started when the first international drug treaty—The International Opium Convention—was signed at The Hague, Netherlands, in 1912. However, a global system against narcotic drugs was not fully fledged until 1961, when the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was adopted. The Convention is an international treaty that seeks to prohibit production and allow supply of narcotic drugs exclusively for medical and scientific purposes, and combats drug trafficking through international cooperation. Although considered as a landmark convention in the history of the campaign against narcotic drugs and the bedrock of the current UN-based global drug control regime, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was also criticised as neither reflecting the huge negative impact of pursuing drug prohibition on public health and human rights nor being scientifically grounded. For the first time in two decades, the UN General Assembly’s Special Session (UNGASS; April 19–21, 2016) will be about the world drug problem. It will be a crucial moment for revisiting and reforming international drug policy.
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Matt
Why The War on Drugs Is a Huge Failure
The war against drugs has been a terrible disaster for everybody involved. Why? And can we do something differently?
Check out the Stop The Harm campaign: https://stoptheharm.org/
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Matt
Demand Action – Demand Drug Policy Reform
n April 2016, governments from around the world will convene in New York for the biggest global debate on drugs in nearly two decades – the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the World Drug Problem.
At the last UNGASS on drugs in 1998, global leaders pledged to secure a “drug-free world,” a goal that is not only unrealistic but has contributed to the needless criminalization of people who use drugs, soaring rates of drug-related deaths, HIV and hepatitis C epidemics, executions that violate international law and a restriction of access to essential pain relief medications.
The global drug policy system is well and truly broken and the 2016 UNGASS presents a vital opportunity to shift the debate and begin to ground drug policy firmly in public health, human rights and compassion. The time for reform is now!
http://www.talkingdrugs.org/demand-drug-policy-reform-ungass
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Matt
We Are A Movement For Freedom
International Drug Policy Reform Conference 2015
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Matt
World drug problem violates human rights in five key areas, says UN official
The global drug problem violates human rights in five key areas – the right to health, the rights relating to criminal justice and discrimination, the rights of the child and the rights of indigenous peoples, a senior United Nations official said today.
“It is clear that the world’s drug problem impacts the enjoyment of a wide range of human rights, often resulting in serious violations,” said Flavia Pansieri, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“It is, nevertheless, a positive development that human rights are increasingly being taken into account in the preparations for the General Assembly’s Special Session on the world drug problem to be held in April 2016,” she said.
Ms. Pansieri made the remarks during her presentation of the report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights during a panel discussion on issues related to human rights and drug policy taking place on the side lines of the 30th session of the Human Rights Council underway in Geneva, Switzerland.
She said “the report addresses the impact of the world drug problem in five main areas: the right to health, rights relating to criminal justice, the prohibition of discrimination including, in particular against ethnic minorities and women, the rights of the child and the rights of indigenous peoples.”
On the right to health, she said the report therefore encourages States to embrace harm reduction approaches when dealing with drug dependent persons.
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Matt
