Leaked paper reveals UN split over war on drugs

Earlier treaties had only controlled opium, coca, and derivatives such as morphine, heroin and cocaine. The Single Convention, adopted in 1961, consolidated those treaties and broadened their scope to include cannabis and drugs whose effects are similar to those of the drugs specified. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the World Health Organization were empowered to add, remove, and transfer drugs among the treaty's four schedules of controlled substances. The International Narcotics Control Board was put in charge of administering controls on drug production, international trade, and dispensation. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was delegated the Board's day-to-day work of monitoring the situation in each country and working with national authorities to ensure compliance with the Single Convention. This treaty has since been supplemented by the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, which controls LSD, MDMA, and other psychoactive pharmaceuticals, and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which strengthens provisions against money laundering and other drug-related offenses.

As of May 2013, the Single Convention has 184 state parties. The Holy See plus all members of the UN are state parties, with the exception of Afghanistan, Chad, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, South Sudan, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

At the annual UN General Assembly meeting held in New York, presidents from around the world have the chance to state their views on the key international issues of the day. Not surprisingly, the crisis in Syria, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and the Millennium Development Goals took center stage this year. Yet a careful viewing of the speeches of the Latin American presidents illustrates the growing voice of Latin American leaders calling for meaningful reform of drug control policies.

Across the region, a dynamic debate – focused on the failure of present drug control policies to achieve their desired objectives and the need for more effective and humane alternatives – is underway, most recently evident in an innovative report on drug policy released by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Declaration of Antigua from the June 2013 OAS General Assembly meeting calling for an Extraordinary Session focused on drug policy to be held in 2014. Last week at the UN, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico united in bringing this regional debate to the General Assembly meeting, calling for consideration of alternative approaches to the drug issue, and for the efforts underway within the OAS to be used as tools for debate within the UN in the lead up to the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs to be held in New York in 2016.

The governments of Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico all called for developing more effective responses to drug trafficking based on promoting public health, respect for human rights and harm reduction. (Interestingly, all three countries used “reducción de daños” in their speeches, or harm reduction in English, though it was translated into “impact reduction”, “lessening damages” and “damage reduction” in the three speeches respectively.) In doing so, they essentially called for a paradigm shift – from a security approach to a public health and human rights-based approach – in dealing with issues related to illicit drugs. At the same time they recognized the need to reduce the levels of violence associated with the drug trade and reiterated a growing call from the region for increased international efforts to decrease the illegal flow of arms and money that fuel criminal networks. Finally, they united in calling for an open and wide-ranging debate leading up to the 2016 UNGASS, and pointed to the Declaration of Antigua of the General Assembly of the OAS as a “first step which leads us to the desired direction” towards the 2016 UNGASS.

...Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina went furthest of all in his comments, both in his address to the UN and in a separate speech at Columbia University. At the UN, in addition to the statement coordinated with Costa Rica and Mexico, President Pérez Molina commended the “visionary decision” of the citizens of the States of Colorado and Washington on their recent enactment of legal, regulated marijuana markets, as well as President Obama for his “wise decision of respecting the voice of the citizens of Washington and Colorado, to allow these innovative experiences to provide results.” He also added that the people of Guatemala “respect and are proud of” the government of Uruguay’s actions in proposing legislation regulating the cannabis market instead of “following the failed route of prohibition.” He emphasized the importance of experimentation with new models by each country to address the drug problem and announced the creation of a National Commission to explore more effective means of dealing with drug issues in Guatemala. Finally, he expressed his hope that the 2016 UNGASS “will draw on these innovative experiences, and pronounce itself decisively for public policies that are subject to objective evaluation.”

The U.S. government spent over $3 billion in recent years to combat drugs in Latin America, more than half of it to private contractors for planes, surveillance and training.

But a year-long investigation by a Senate subcommittee found little oversight over spending, lost contracts and $840 million in no-bid contracts, according to a report released this morning.

Most of the money went to five contractors: DynCorp; Lockheed Martin; Raytheon; ITT; and ARINC. Virginia-based DynCorp, a private military and aircraft maintenance company, received $1.1 billion of the spending during the five-year period.

More than half of the expenditures were related to aircraft, used for locating and spraying herbicides.

Senator Patrick Leahy, chair of the Appropriations Committee, blocked release of $95 million dollars in funding for the Merida Initiative, citing the lack of a clear strategy on the part of the U.S. State Department and the Mexican government.

The decision is a long-overdue recognition that the drug war in Mexico has been a bloody fiasco. The Merida Initiative, a Bush-era plan to attack cartels in Mexico and reduce trafficking of prohibited drugs to the U.S. market, began in 2008. Congress has appropriated $1.9 billion dollars from the federal budget for the program over the past five years, most aimed at bolstering Mexican security forces. Since the drug war was launched and armed forces deployed to fight the cartels, the homicide rate in Mexico soared 150%, between 2006 and 2012.

Last August the State Department asked the committee to obligate some $229 million assigned to the Merida Initiative in the 2012 budget. At first, Leahy decided to hold up the entire amount, after receiving a two-and-a-half page explanation from the State Department that he felt failed toadequately describe spending and objectives.

In April, the committee released $134 million,but held up the rest pending more information from State and the Mexican government on how the money would be spent, what the goals were and how the programs and resources would help achieve those goals.