Friday, February 27, 2009

Dare to Act!

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union is demanding that Dr. Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, give his explanation of a well known fact. In the Netherlands, where adults are allowed to buy and use marijuana, rates of use are actually lower than that of the United States. Significantly lower.

His explanation? Well... he's not quite ready to provide one. At least not one that the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union finds satifactory. Dr. Fredrick Polick, a dutch psychiatrist and leading European drug policy reformer, has asked Costa for his explanation on 4 occasions now.

The HCLU has created created a pretty nifty website to draw attention to this issue. I think you'll especially enjoy the personal introduction from Dr. Polick! You'll find descriptions and video for Polick's 4 "rounds" of questions and a 5th round asking you to put Costa on the spot next.

In 2008, Costa promised to publish a study that explains and provides evidence for his "availability increases use" theory. He's yet to publish it, but that doesn't mean he isn't working on it - SSDP is looking forward to reading it.

3 comments:

Irina Alexander said...

Don't forget that the first time he asked the question was at the New Orleans DPA conference which was co-sponsored by SSDP!

Jonathan Perri said...

ahh yes indeed it was!

Unknown said...

High Level Segment of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs will review the implementation of targets adopted by the UNGASS in 1998. HCLU launched a new campaign to raise awareness on the unintended consequences of the international drug control system and mobilize people to ask for change.

Please have a look at our brand new campaign site, Dare to Act, and make sure you send this link to as many people as possible.

We also launched a new YouTube group profile where people can upload their own messages to the governmental delegates - this intro video explains why and how.

This campaign will work only if you help us to circulate these links and post them to your websites or blogs - so we count on you!

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