ReageraMera

I England har ärkebiskopen av Canterbury stått i fokus för medias intresse på senaste tiden. Det började med att han i en artikel framförde att det kunde vara lämpligt att införa vissa delar av det islamiska rättssystemet, sharia, i Storbritannien. Uttalandet orsakade stort rabalder och inte lär det bli mindre rabalder efter att samme ärkebiskop nu gått ut och fördömt den brittiska regeringens liberalisering av de lagar som reglerar spelverksamheten i landet.

I en artikel i The Times citeras Rowan som säger att Vi förväntar oss att [spel]industrin städar upp sina utsläpp, ett uttalande som, apropå utsläpp av gift, kommer från samme person som anser att kriget mot narkotika nu orsakar mer skada än narkotikamissbruket i sig.  

Om ärkebiskopen bekymrar sig om utsläpp borde han ägna mer kraft åt att bekämpa missbruket av narkotika istället för att liera sig med narkotikapolitikens liberaliseringsförespråkare, vilket han gjorde då han som Right Reverend Rowan Williams, Bishop of Monmouth, i juni 1998 skrev under ett öppet brev* till FN:s dåvarande generalsekreterare Kofi Annan, i samband med UNGASS (The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs) där undertecknarna, inklusive 12 svenskar**, bland annat hävdade att kriget mot narkotika nu orsakar mer skada än narkotikamissbruket i sig.

Läs också:

Clean up your 'human pollution', Archbishop of Canterbury tells gambling trade

*

June 1, 1998

Mr. Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations
New York, New York
United States

Dear Secretary General,

On the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs in New York on June 8-10, 1998, we seek your leadership in stimulating a frank and honest evaluation of global drug control efforts.

We are all deeply concerned about the threat that drugs pose to our children, our fellow citizens and our societies. There is no choice but to work together, both within our countries and across borders, to reduce the harms associated with drugs. The United Nations has a legitimate and important role to play in this regard -- but only if it is willing to ask and address tough questions about the success or failure of its efforts.

We believe that the global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself.

Every decade the United Nations adopts new international conventions, focused largely on criminalization and punishment, that restrict the ability of individual nations to devise effective solutions to local drug problems. Every year governments enact more punitive and costly drug control measures. Every day politicians endorse harsher new drug war strategies.

What is the result? U.N. agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by the illegal drug industry at $400 billion, or the equivalent of roughly eight per cent of total international trade. This industry has empowered organized criminals, corrupted governments at all levels, eroded internal security, stimulated violence, and distorted both economic markets and moral values. These are the consequences not of drug use per se, but of decades of failed and futile drug war policies.

In many parts of the world, drug war politics impede public health efforts to stem the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other infectious diseases. Human rights are violated, environmental assaults perpetrated and prisons inundated with hundreds of thousands of drug law violators. Scarce resources better expended on health, education and economic development are squandered on ever more expensive interdiction efforts. Realistic proposals to reduce drug-related crime, disease and death are abandoned in favor of rhetorical proposals to create drug-free societies.

Persisting in our current policies will only result in more drug abuse, more empowerment of drug markets and criminals, and more disease and suffering. Too often those who call for open debate, rigorous analysis of current policies, and serious consideration of alternatives are accused of "surrendering." But the true surrender is when fear and inertia combine to shut off debate, suppress critical analysis, and dismiss all alternatives to current policies. Mr. Secretary General, we appeal to you to initiate a truly open and 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.

**

Anders Bergmark, Peter Curman, Ted Goldberg, Olof Lagercrantz, Leif Lenke, Claes Örtendahl, Ingemar Rexed, Jerzy Sarnecki, Sune Sunesson, Henrik Tham, Per Ole Träskman, Hanns von Hofer

Torgny Peterson
(som inte skrev under men som deltagare i den svenska regeringens delegation till UNGASS 1998 kunde konstatera att undertecknarna av det öppna brevet inte fick något av det stöd de räknat med).