The Right to Choose
Links ‘n’ Quotes about the right to choose what substances we use:
(Links are highlighted BLUE)
From: Drug Sense: War on Drugs Clock
The U.S. federal government spent over $19 billion dollars in 2003 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second. The budget has since been increased by over a billion dollars.
From LEAP’s (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) Mission Statement
Founded on March 16, 2002, LEAP is made up of current and former members of law enforcement who believe the existing drug policies have failed in their intended goals of addressing the problems of crime, drug abuse, addiction, juvenile drug use, stopping the flow of illegal drugs into this country and the internal sale and use of illegal drugs. By fighting a war on drugs the government has increased the problems of society and made them far worse. A system of regulation rather than prohibition is a less harmful, more ethical and a more effective public policy.
From: Therapeutic uses of cannabis by Jack Herer, as published on Safe Access Now
ACCEPTABLE RISKS
Every U.S. commission or federal judge who has studied the evidence has agreed that cannabis is one of the safest drugs known. With all its therapeutic uses, it has only one side effect that has been exaggerated as a concern: the “high.” The DEA says this is not acceptable, so cannabis continues to be totally illegal in utter disregard for both doctor and patient. Every day we entrust physicians to determine whether the risks associated with therapeutic, yet potentially dangerous, drugs are acceptable for their patients. Yet, doctors are not allowed to prescribe the herb that Federal Judge Francis Young in 1988 called “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.” We don’t put our doctors in charge of stopping violent crimes. The police, prosecutors and prison guards should not be in charge of which herbal therapies people may use to treat their personal health problems.
From ENCOD
ENCOD is a European platform of citizens who want an intelligent and effective approach to drug problems. We believe that only a legal regulation of the drugs market will reduce these problems. Such a regulation will improve the living standards of millions of people, while significantly diminishing one of the world’s major criminal income sources. One of our goals is to modify the 1961 Convention on drugs. We ask the UN to establish the right of every adult citizen of the world to grow and possess natural plants for personal use and non-commercial purposes,
using all technical equipment that is available for this. At the same time, individual countries should be allowed to experiment with policies that are not based on a prohibitionist regime. The war on drugs must end.
Help us to declare that peace should be our policy.
