http://www.infowars.com/united-nations-moves-to-impose-international-treaties-on-states-legalizing-marijuana/
The President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Raymond Yans, has voiced “grave concern about the outcome of recent referenda in the United States of America that would allow the non-medical use of cannabis by adults in the states of Colorado and Washington, and in some cities in the states of Michigan and Vermont,” according to an INCB press release. The INCB is a quasi-judicial “control organ” for the implementation of the United Nations drug conventions.
and....
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/11/20/un-drug-czar-pressing-us-feds-to-disregard-marijuana-legalization-in-co-and-wa/
Raymond Yans, who heads the International Narcotics Control Board, said legalization sends “a wrong message to the rest of the nation and it sends a wrong message abroad.”
United Nations Moves to Impose International Treaties On States Legalizing Marijuana
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
November 21, 2012
Infowars.com
November 21, 2012
The United Nations has declared Colorado and Washington in violation of international treaties following ballot initiatives that have legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
The President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Raymond Yans, has voiced “grave concern about the outcome of recent referenda in the United States of America that would allow the non-medical use of cannabis by adults in the states of Colorado and Washington, and in some cities in the states of Michigan and Vermont,” according to an INCB press release. The INCB is a quasi-judicial “control organ” for the implementation of the United Nations drug conventions.
Mr. Yans said the referenda in Colorado and Washington state “are in violation of the international drug control treaties, and pose a great threat to public health and the well-being of society far beyond those states.” Yans cited the standard nanny-state reasons for dictating what consenting adult Americans put in their bodies, including mental disorders, and cited the welfare of children as a primary concern of the internationalist organization.
“Legalization of cannabis within these states would send wrong and confusing signals to youth and society in general, giving the false impression that drug abuse might be considered normal and even, most disturbingly, safe. Such a development could result in the expansion of drug abuse, especially among young people, and we must remember that all young people have a right to be protected from drug abuse and drug dependency,” the globalist bureaucrat said.
Yans called for the U.S. federal government to “resolve the contradiction between the federal and state levels in the implementation of that country’s obligations under the drug control conventions” and demanded it “take the necessary measures to ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties within the entire territory of the United States, in order to protect the health and well-being of its citizens.”
In other words, the United Nations insists the federal government perpetuate the destructive and expensive War on Drugs that has fostered a massive prison-industrial complex and ruined countless lives over the last few decades.
As a consequence of the War on Drugs, the prison population in the United States has quadrupled since 1980, primarily as a direct result of mandatory sentencing for drug crimes. Around half of all inmates in federal prisons are there for drug offenses and more than 45 percent of all drug possession arrests in the U.S. last year were for marijuana, according to the FBI’s annual crime report. The United Nations supports this insanity with its call for the United States to obey international drug treaties.
Marijuana legalization is a classic states’ rights and federalist issue. “States should be allowed to make a lot of these decisions,” Rand Paul said earlier this week when asked about marijuana legalization. “I want things to be decided more at a local basis, with more compassion. I think it would make us as Republicans different.”
“I think, for example, we should tell young people, ‘I’m not in favor of you smoking pot, but if you get caught smoking pot, I don’t want to put you in jail for 20 years,’” Paul said.
Fortunately, the tide is slowly turning and many states are finally realizing the War on Drugs is not only grossly unfair, but an immense waste of law enforcement resources and tax payer money.
The United Nations is attempting to insert itself in decisions made by the states and by doing so is acting to perpetuate the War on Drugs. Americans should not only ignore the United Nations and the INCB Secretariat, but the federal government as well when it comes to decisions made by citizens on the local level.
and....
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/11/20/un-drug-czar-pressing-us-feds-to-disregard-marijuana-legalization-in-co-and-wa/
UN Drug Czar Pressing US Feds to Disregard Marijuana Legalization in Co. and Wa.
Apparently a democratic vote to decide what substances people can put in their own bodies isn't enough.
by John Glaser, November 20, 2012
The head of the UN drug watchdog agency is pressing US federal officials to challenge ballot measures in Colorado and Washington that decriminalized marijuana, in blatant disrespect for what the people voted for in those states.
Raymond Yans, who heads the International Narcotics Control Board, said legalization sends “a wrong message to the rest of the nation and it sends a wrong message abroad.”
Yans told The Associated Press on Tuesday he hopes US Attorney General Eric Holder “will take all the necessary measures” to ensure that marijuana possession and use remains illegal. Apparently a democratic vote to decide what substances people can put in their own bodies isn’t enough to overcome state violence against non-violence drug users.
Leaders in Latin America have repeatedly voiced support for legalization and decriminalization as a way to cut down on drug war violence, undermine the cartels, and preclude US meddling in the region. But the powers that be in Washington have vehemently battered this down.
Now, after democratic votes for legalization in Washington and Colorado, there may be an opening. Presidents from Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Costa Rica said on Monday that trends toward marijuana legalization in the US would make enforcement of prohibitionist policies in Latin America difficult to abide
“The four called for the Organization of American States to study the impact of the Colorado and Washington votes and said the United Nations’ General Assembly should hold a special session on the prohibition of drugs by 2015 at the latest,”according to the Associated Press.
The drug war justifies all kinds of aggressive US foreign policies in the region, supporting repressive governments and para-militaries, while allowing the prohibitionist policies to deepen the black market in drugs and embolden violent drug gangs.
Note Latin America seems to have figured out they have an opening to end the bloodshed in their countries which benefit rich drug dealers , consumers outside of Latin America and the partners of the drug dealing cartels...
http://news.yahoo.com/latam-leaders-call-review-us-legal-pot-vote-175137504--politics.html
LatAm leaders call for review of US legal pot vote
By | Associated Press – Tue, Nov 13, 2012- Enlarge Photo
Associated Press/Alexandre Meneghini - Honduras' President Porfirio Lobo, from left, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, Costa Rica's President Laura Chinchilla and Belize' Prime Minister Dean Barrow pose for
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A group of Latin American leaders declared Monday that votes by two U.S. states to legalize marijuana have important implications for efforts to quash drug smuggling, offering the first government reaction from a region increasingly frustrated with the U.S.-backed war on drugs.
The declaration by the leaders of Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Costa Rica did not explicitly say they were considering weakening their governments' efforts against marijuana smuggling, but it strongly implied the votes last week in Colorado and Washingtonwould make enforcement of marijuana bans more difficult.
The four called for the Organization of American States to study the impact of the Colorado and Washington votes and said the United Nations' General Assembly should hold a special session on the prohibition of drugs by 2015 at the latest.
Last week, the most influential adviser to Mexico's president-elect, who takes office Dec. 1, questioned how the country will enforce a ban on growing and smuggling a drug that is now legal under some U.S. state laws. The Obama administration has yet to make clear how strongly it will enforce a federal ban on marijuana that is not affected by the Colorado and Washington votes.
"It has become necessary to analyze in depth the implications for public policy and health in our nations emerging from the state and local moves to allow the legal production, consumption and distribution of marijuana in some countries of our continent," Mexican President Felipe Calderon said after a meeting with Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla and Prime Minister Dean Barrow of Belize.
Marijuana legalization by U.S. states is "a paradigm change on the part of those entities in respect to the current international system," Calderon said.
Mexico has seen tens of thousands of people killed over the last six years during a militarized government campaign against the country's drug cartels.
President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto has promised to shift Mexico's focus to preventing violence against ordinary citizens, although he says he intends to keep battling cartels and is opposed to drug legalization. Guatemala's president has advocated the international legalization of drugs.
Monday's statement by the four leaders "is an important indicator of the desire to engage in a more robust discussion of policy," said Eric Olson, associate director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
The call by the four presidents was welcomed by marijuana activists in the U.S. Forcing international review of drug policies was a stated goal of the campaigns for legalization in Colorado and Washington.
"Marijuana prohibition in this country has been detrimental — but it's been absolutely catastrophic to our southern neighbors," said Dan Riffle, an analyst and lobbying for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that largely financed the two campaigns.
Mexico is one of the primary suppliers of marijuana to the U.S., while Honduras and Belize are important stops on the northward passage of cocaine from South America. Costa Rica is seeing increasing use of its territory by drug traffickers.
Luis Videgaray, head of Pena Nieto's transition team, told Radio Formula on Wednesday that the votes in the two states complicated his country's commitment to stopping the growing and smuggling of marijuana.
"Obviously we can't handle a product that is illegal in Mexico, trying to stop its transfer to the United States, when in the United States, at least in part of the United States, it now has a different status," Videgaray said.
Videgaray stopped short of threatening to curtail Mexican enforcement of marijuana laws, but his comments appeared likely to increase pressure on the Obama administration to strictly enforce U.S. federal law, which still forbids recreational pot use.
http://antiwar.com/blog/2012/04/03/why-the-drug-war-wont-be-terminated/
Why the Drug War Won’t Be Terminated
John Glaser, April 03, 2012
Central America has become the most dangerous place on Earth. The prevalence of organized crime, corruption, and inordinate rates of homicide has “metastasized,” as this new report from the Council on Foreign Relations describes it. The U.S. hasflooded the region’s states with security assistance and aggressively pushed for a militarized approach to organized crime and drug trafficking. Together with prohibitionist drug policies which significantly increases profits for cartels, the “ironfisted” war-like approach has compounded the problem and intensified violence. Even as the report concedes that much about the dominant U.S. approach to Central America has “ultimately failed to ensure greater public security,” it recommends essentially that same approach, only tweaked.
The report does point to specific U.S. policies that exacerbate the problem. “Lax gun regulations,” it claims, along with “U.S. inaction on comprehensive immigration reform” and domestic drug consumption are preventing constructive progress. It even has the gall to suggest “U.S. government agencies should seriously consider the role that Americans who consume illicit drugs play in fueling criminal violence in Central America,” and make it known. I don’t doubt these contribute to the problem, but the author seems to be going a long way around to avoid the crux of the issue.
Completely absent from the report’s recommendations is of course the obvious, most comprehensive solution: decriminalization and/or legalization of drugs. Not only is such an approach an elementary part of understanding the problem the region faces, but Central American leaders have come out explicitly in favor of such a shift. Only to be met with stiff vetoes from the U.S.
“It’s worth discussing, but there is no possibility the Obama/Biden administration will change its policy on [drug] legalization,” he said after meeting with President Felipe Calderon….Biden’s trip [to Mexico and Honduras] takes place amid unprecedented pressure from political and business leaders to talk about decriminalizing drugs. The presidents of Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico have said in recent weeks they’d like to open up the discussion of legalizing drugs.
Guatemalan President Otto Perez, while he came into office vowing to wage war on drug gangs and organized crime, has been the foremost advocate of decriminalization. Just in the last few days, a conference he helped organized to consider decriminalization was suddenly boycotted. Perez suspects the hegemon is at fault.
Guatemalan President Otto Perez accused Washington on Thursday of pressuring Central American leaders to boycott a summit he convened last Saturday to discuss changes on drug policy in the region, including decriminalization of narcotics.“The boycott was because of fears in the United States that our region could unite around decriminalizing drugs,” Perez, a right-wing retired general, told reporters.
Washington’s refusal to consider decriminalization is a mix of a number of things, standard political paralysis and ideological stubbornness being included. But the military component to this is important. As Gen. Douglas M. Fraser, Commander of SOUTHCOM, told the House Armed Services Committee in early March: “The key to our defense-in- depth approach to Central America, South America, and the Caribbean has been persistent, sustained engagement, which supports the achievement of U.S. national security objectives by strengthening the security capacities of our partner nations. Militaries in our area of responsibility (AOR) are increasingly capable, professionalized, and rank among the most trusted institutions in many countries in the region.”
Even the CFL report disputes that last part: the militaries Washington supports are not professionalized or trusted, for obvious reasons. But the point is that Washington’s military dominance in Central America is long-standing and embedded into the policy structure. Resistance to solving the problem through decriminalization, I think, is similar to the State Department’s recent refusal to reduce aid to Egypt due to human rights concerns. As the New York Times reported “A delay or a cut in $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt risked breaking existing contracts with American arms manufacturers that could have shut down production lines in the middle of President Obama’s re-election campaign and involved significant financial penalties, according to officials involved in the debate.” The military-industrial-congressional-complexrelies on the status quo.
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