3 Mar 2005 @ 15:22, by Beto Hoisel
To break the vicious circle in which we wrapped ourselves; for us to leave this disturbing drugs combat impasse, I propose a solution to be implemented by the UN that can be summarized in the following points:
1) To distinguish, by an international commission of scientists specialists on the theme, which drugs are clearly harmful from the ones that only do harm if they became object of abuse. Among the first group, certainly there will be heroine, morphine, opium, tobacco and cocaine that create a slavish dependence, liquidating the unhappy users who cannot get free of them. Among the ones of the second group, will be – possibly – marijuana, LSD, alcohol, hashish and others that research indicate.
2) The substances of the first group should have their production and distribution criminalized – as, in fact, it already happens to most of them. Those of the second group will be regulated one by one and liberated, after being evaluated and supervised. Their liberation should be accompanied of permanent and intensive campaign by the media, informing the public of the current dangers of abuse (it will be needed to define clearly what means the abuse of each one of them). The collected taxes will revert to an international fund administered by the UN that will finance the researches and the advertising campaigns.
3) The international commission suggested above should be permanent and linked to the World Health Organization. Their members will be renewed periodically and will have the attribution of emitting statements about the classification and regulation of the use of the psychotropic substances existent in the world, and also of those that go being discovered in nature or synthesized at the laboratories. The regulation will be attribution of each country, however following the model of the UN. An International Treaty will be indispensable, explaining the commitments of the countries members.
4) Linked to UNESCO, a second ecumenical commission of masters, spiritual leaders and priests of the no exclusionists religions, will examine and to emit statements on the therapeutic/spiritual value of the range of experiences that each substance can trigger in the context of the several philosophies, religions and organized sects that make use of them. Except for the cult freedom principle, it will be necessary to look particularly at the level of seriousness and respect, the ritual context and the doctrinaire base adopted in each case.
5) The two commissions above will elaborate an International Statute of Altered States of Consciousness jointly, containing guidelines, recommendations and models so that each country makes its own legislation. The criminalization of the forbidden drugs and the regulated liberation of the others will be the tonic of this Statute, but it suits to observe that the verification of the use of any psychotropic substance associated to harmful actions inflicted to anyone should add seriousness to the charges.
Our proposal is based in the recognition that:
a) The world war against the producers and illegal distributors of drugs is virtually lost and its results are opposed to those intended; we fell in a vicious circle that should be broken.
b) If the drug traffic moves such high values, it is because a considerable demand exists to be supplied, representing an enormous consuming market all over the world. To ignore that is inadmissible naivety or rude hypocrisy, because that market is disseminated by all levels of income and culture.
c) Every human being has in his or her soul a natural pulse for transcendence that needs to be understood as a right that the society should propitiate, together with the other fundamental human rights, as feeding, work, house, health, education, free traffic, manifestation of the thought, sexual option etc.
d) Every human being is responsible for his or her own destiny and if, even properly informed, to insist on staying with practices that can destroy him or her, it is not ethical to anybody to impede that he accomplishes his or her fate, since it doesn't cause damage to property or to other people.
e) The practice of the information and education already has shown its effectiveness in the cases of the tobacco and of the aids, whose statistical incidence is being reduced where the population is better informed; however it’s still high in the areas where ignorance prevails.
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