The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has published a relationship in which he asks about end the war on drugs around the world, which, launched by former President Nixon in the 1970s, proved to be extremely unsuccessful.
The OHCHR recommends that States “adopt alternatives to criminalisation, zero tolerance and drug elimination, taking into account the decriminalization of use and one regulation responsible, to eliminate the profits of illegal trafficking, crime and violence".
The war on drugs has failed
This from the UN is a historic document, which openly denounces the failure of prohibitionist policies. Policies that instead of "freeing the world from drugs" have criminalized and violated the rights of simple consumers, exponentially increasing the power and resources of the mafia and drug traffickers.
They are indeed 296 million, according to World Drug Report of 2023, people who consume drugs, with an increase of 23% compared to the previous decade.
With an increase of 45%, however, 39.5 million people developed disorders related to drug use in 2021. But alone one in five people received the necessary treatments to treat his addiction.
As a consequence, the OHCHR emphasizes, "almost 660,000 die every year due to drug-related causes and 10% of all new HIV infections globally in 2021 were among people who inject drugs."
Prisons are exploding with consumers
A "war on drugs" that has proven to be awar on people". In fact, it is consumers, in most cases, who fill prisons around the world, especially Italian ones.
The last one highlights it Associazione Antigone report dating back to 2021. According to the analysis, up to one in three prisoners He is in prison for drug-related crimes. In particular, about the 34,88% of the prison population is already detained in Italy for a violation of the Consolidated Law on Narcotics, most of which for cannabis.
In Italy, prohibitionism rages (again) on the streets
Although the UN report, which calls for "the adoption of alternatives to criminalization and "zero tolerance", and the over 130 NGOs that have signed a declaration calling on the international community to implement "a global reform of drug policy,” our country continues to move in the completely opposite direction.
Our country which in fact, instead of protecting its citizens, spends approximately 600 million euros every year between law enforcement, the judiciary and the prison system. Money which, as happens in states where cannabis is legal, could be invested in socially useful initiatives.
The latest Meloni government is also continuing this crazy war, which unlike Germany passed a law to legalize cannabis, wants to increase up to 5 years the maximum penalty for drug-related crimes, even for minor cases.
*Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash
