At the request of Latin American leaders who have grown weary of bloody battles over drugs, the United Nations held a summit last week on the “world drug problem” at its headquarters in New York City. For a moment, it seemed as if the global war on drugs was beginning to crumble under its own weight.
Before the summit even began, the UN officials were under fire for making concessions to powerful countries with harsh drug control regimes and failing to push the global discourse beyond the decades-old treaties that laid the foundation for international drug prohibition. Hundreds of political leaders and policy groups condemned the summit’s guiding statement for refusing to recognize that decades of prohibition have done more harm than good, fueling mass incarceration, organized crime, infectious diseases and general bloodshed across the world while failing to reduce supply or demand.
At a press conference during the summit, Nick Clegg, a former deputy prime minister of the UK and a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, said the UN system is “increasingly divorced from reality.” Former Columbian president and commission member César Gaviria, whose country has been violently ravaged by the drug war, said the idea that governments can rid society of drugs is “totally unrealistic” because 50 years of prohibition have “totally failed.” The commission, which supports drug decriminalization, is made up of current and former leaders from several countries, including Mexico, Switzerland, Canada and the United States.
Clearly, the global conversation around drugs has changed since the last drug summit in 1998. There, UN leadership declared that a “drug-free world” could be achieved within 10 years, a goal that now seems laughable. Since then, drug decriminalization in countries like the Czech Republic and Portugal has been linked to improvements in public health, and marijuana legalization efforts in major UN member states, including the United States and Canada, have caused political fissures throughout the stubborn institutions of prohibition. These efforts may well be undermining the international drug control framework altogether.
Calls for drug legalization are going mainstream, but millions of people continue to be arrested for nonviolent drug offenses each year, including 1.5 million in the US alone. Political leaders are only starting to catch up, at least on paper. Shortly before the UN summit, Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, along with 1,000 political and cultural leaders, signed a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for “a new global response to drugs” and declaring 20th century drug control regimes to be “disastrous for global health, security and human rights.”
The signatures of two major US presidential candidates on an international statement effectively condemning the global drug war mark a stark departure from decades of US policy. However, the letter appeared to have had little impact on the summit beyond a kerfuffle between UN security and activists dressed in prohibition-era costumes who showed up to distribute copies of it. The US served as the de facto leader of a global drug crackdown for decades after President Richard Nixon first declared the war on drugs, with the intention of crushing the Black liberation and antiwar movements. Yet recent changes in policies at home have left the United States in an awkward position on the current global stage.
Daniel Raymond, a spokesman for the Harm Reduction Coalition, a US-based group that sent advocates to the summit, told Truthout that the US diplomats have found themselves in a “double bind.” The US, Raymond said, must convince its international partners that a multibillion-dollar legal and medical marijuana industry in nearly half of US states can be reconciled with responsibilities to longstanding international drug control agreements.
“The US seems to have taken a middle-of-the-road approach in these negotiations: They are trying to play nice with everybody and keep all parties at the table,” said Raymond, who added that the US is more focused on UN procedure than real policy goals. “Because the United States has skin in a lot of different games, they have taken a less proactive role in the UN negotiations and occupied the middle.”
Hillary Clinton and Obama’s Drug War Legacy
Beyond a handful of outspoken progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans, drug policy reform never enjoyed much political capital in Washington, until recently. The movement for Black lives and widespread protests against law enforcement have drawn national attention to the drug war’s contributions to mass incarceration and racism in the criminal legal system. Meanwhile, the nation’s “opioid crisis” has put a whiter, wealthier and more politically salient face on drug addiction.
President Obama has responded by reducing sentences for some federal drug war prisoners and declaring the opioid crisis a public health challenge instead of a criminal problem. His current drug czar, Michael Botticelli, has been praised for prioritizing treatment over incarceration, when it comes to people charged with drug possession, but the White House continues to support law enforcement crackdowns on drug trafficking, which can drag marginalized people perceived as dealers into the criminal legal system. The administration has also been less than transparent about efforts to allow certain addiction medications in prisons, where people with opioid addictions are often cut off from prescribed regimens.
If elected, Hillary Clinton is expected to take a similar path. President Obama has asked Congress to appropriate $1 billion to combat the opioid crisis with treatment and prevention, and Clinton has proposed to spend $10 billion over the next decade. Clinton touts her support for reducing mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses and has said she would prioritize treatment over prison time for low-level offenders, but she has said nothing about defanging drug war institutions like the scandal-ridden US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Bernie Sanders says that the war on drugs has “failed” and proposes to go even further than Clinton by eliminating mandatory minimum sentences and removing marijuana from the list of federally outlawed drugs, but his chances of winning the Democratic nomination are increasingly slim.
Critics of the drug war predicted years ago that state laws prohibiting marijuana would slowly fall like dominos despite federal prohibition. These state-level initiatives provide perfect political cover for Clinton and the Republican candidates, who fear alienating older, socially conservative voters but know that the majority of people in the US now support marijuana legalization.
Clinton does not support legalizing weed, but she has promised not to interfere with state marijuana reforms, and to direct federal agents to focus on violent criminals instead of pot smokers. Republicans Donald Trump and even archconservative Ted Cruz, who have said little about drug policy beyond the debate over securing the US-Mexico border, agree that states should be free to decide the issue on their own, even if they personally oppose legalization. Only Ohio Gov. John Kasich has expressed firm opposition to legalization.
Marijuana has long been the media’s drug policy bellwether, but legal weed alone will not stop the violence ravaging Mexico, Latin America and cities across the United States. Allowing the vast marijuana industry to go legit would certainly put a dent in the profit margins of drug cartels, but it may also increase competition in black markets for drugs like cocaine and heroin, making those trades even more dangerous and bloody than they already are.
Still, localized marijuana legalization flies in the face of federal law and longstanding international drug control agreements, which continue to label marijuana as dangerous and illegal. US diplomats affirmed the three major drug prohibition and anti-trafficking treaties last week along with the rest of the UN, suggesting that these agreements are open to interpretation or can simply be ignored by policy makers on the ground.
“Once you start to say there is a place for legalization in controlled markets, then the [UN drug control] conventions can mean anything that you want them to,” Raymond said. “At the same time, you are pretending that they say something solid.”
How to End the War on Drugs
To end the war on drugs, the conversation around the uppers, downers and psychedelics with tougher reputations than weed must change as well. Politicians must accept a few facts, and not just behind closed doors, where drug reform lobbyists often find sympathetic lawmakers who claim their hands are politically tied.
First of all, humans have used psychoactive drugs for thousands of years and won’t be stopping anytime soon. From caffeine to codeine, drug use is inevitable in all realms of society, whether drugs are legal or not. We know this because prohibition has failed so miserably at its stated goal. Criminalizing drugs does not reduce the amount of harm they can cause; in fact, it has the opposite effect. Proven harm reduction strategies and medical treatments for addiction, on the other hand, can help make drug use safer for everyone.
We must also change the way we view drug users, who are much less dangerous than the drug warriors, as it turns out. Last month, an international team of experts sponsored by Johns Hopkins University pointed to the UN’s own data showing that only 11 percent of drug users worldwide are considered “problem users” because they have an addiction or drug abuse disorder. Drug prohibitionists, however, wrongly assume that there is no difference between use and abuse, and total abstinence is the only acceptable way to approach certain drugs. This mentality has fueled sensational and racist myths about “crack babies,” “bath salt zombies” and “reefer madness.”
Meanwhile, anti-drug laws have contributed to lethal violence, forced displacement, human rights abuses and an increase in the transmission of diseases like HIV and hepatitis C, according to the team sponsored by Johns Hopkins. The researchers called on governments to embrace harm reduction strategies like syringe exchange and decriminalize all minor drug offenses, suggesting that doctors and public health experts, not cops and politicians, should be guiding our personal and political decisions about drugs. Every day, people use drugs of all kinds without seriously hurting themselves or others, while the police are busy locking people in cages and reinforcing stigma that drives users underground and away from social services.
Research continually shows that drugs become much less dangerous when users can access health care and knowledge about how drugs work. That’s why honest public drug education based around reality, not just abstinence, is so crucial to ending the drug war.
Dr. Carl Hart, a neurologist who has studied the effects of illicit drugs for years, argues that drugs often deemed too dangerous to be legal could actually improve the quality of some people’s lives if used correctly. Many artists and writers could safely use amphetamines, for example, to boost their creativity and focus, as long as they stay hydrated, remember to eat and get enough sleep afterward. If we replace stigma with science and common sense, drugs begin to look more like complex tools than vice when used properly.
The global war on drugs will end when all nations agree that drug users have human rights, including the right to get high if they want to, as humans have always done. What happens after that is still up for debate. Activists agree that decriminalization is necessary, but not all agree that legalization is advisable. Decriminalization removes criminal penalties for using and possessing drugs, while legalization allows for some form of drug market regulated and sanctioned by the government. Governments could choose to regulate drugs for quality control and divert tax revenues to health care and addiction treatment, but they could also set up corporate monopolies on production and distribution and use drugs as a source of profit and social control.
Luckily, there are people all around us who can inform our political decisions on drugs: drug users. People who use drugs are best positioned to explain their own needs and provide insight on the real-life impacts of drugs and drug policy, so we can all decide what’s best for our own bodies and communities. Drug users and doctors, not diplomats and drug warriors, should be leading the conversation. Until that happens, the war on drugs — and on the millions of human beings who use, produce and sell them — is certain to continue.
Kwa ombi la viongozi wa Amerika ya Kusini ambao wamechoka na mapigano ya damu juu ya dawa za kulevya, Umoja wa Mataifa ulifanya mkutano wa kilele wiki iliyopita juu ya "tatizo la dawa za kulevya duniani" katika makao makuu yake huko New York City. Kwa muda, ilionekana kana kwamba vita vya ulimwengu dhidi ya dawa za kulevya vilikuwa vikianza kuporomoka chini ya uzito wake wenyewe. Hata kabla ya mkutano huo kuanza, maafisa wa Umoja wa Mataifa walikuwa chini ya shambulio kwa kufanya makubaliano na nchi zenye nguvu na serikali kali za kudhibiti dawa za kulevya na kushindwa kusukuma mazungumzo ya kimataifa zaidi ya mikataba ya miongo kadhaa ambayo iliweka msingi wa marufuku ya kimataifa ya dawa za kulevya. Mamia ya viongozi wa kisiasa na makundi ya sera yalikemea taarifa ya miongozo ya mkutano huo kwa kukataa kutambua kwamba miongo kadhaa ya marufuku imefanya madhara zaidi kuliko mema, ikichochea ufungwaji wa wingi, uhalifu uliopangwa, magonjwa ya kuambukiza na umwagaji damu kwa ujumla ulimwenguni kote wakati kushindwa kupunguza usambazaji au mahitaji. "Nick Clegg, aliyekuwa makamu wa waziri mkuu wa Uingereza na mwanachama wa Tume ya Kimataifa ya Sera ya Dawa za Kulevya, alisema mfumo wa Umoja wa Mataifa ""umekuwa ukiachana na hali halisi"" na ""hauna uhakika kabisa"" kwamba serikali zinaweza kuondoa dawa za kulevya katika jamii, kwa sababu miaka 50 ya marufuku imeshindwa kabisa." Kwa kweli, mazungumzo ya kimataifa kuhusu dawa za kulevya yamebadilika tangu mkutano wa mwisho wa madawa ya kulevya mnamo 1998. "Mwaka jana, viongozi wa Umoja wa Mataifa walitangaza kuwa ""dunia isiyo na dawa za kulevya"" inaweza kupatikana ndani ya miaka kumi, lengo ambalo sasa linaonekana kuwa la kuchekesha." Tangu wakati huo, kuondolewa kwa uhalifu wa dawa za kulevya katika nchi kama vile Jamhuri ya Czech na Ureno kumehusishwa na uboreshaji wa afya ya umma, na juhudi za kuhalalisha bangi katika nchi kuu wanachama wa Umoja wa Mataifa, pamoja na Marekani na Canada, zimesababisha ufa wa kisiasa katika taasisi za kuzuia. Jitihada hizo huenda zikawa zinadhoofisha kabisa mfumo wa kimataifa wa kudhibiti dawa za kulevya. Madai ya kuhalalisha dawa za kulevya yanaendelea, lakini mamilioni ya watu wanaendelea kukamatwa kwa makosa yasiyo ya vurugu ya dawa za kulevya kila mwaka, ikiwa ni pamoja na milioni 1.5 nchini Marekani pekee. Viongozi wa kisiasa wanaanza tu kukutana, angalau kwenye karatasi. "Kabla ya mkutano huo, wanademokrasia Hillary Clinton na Bernie Sanders, pamoja na viongozi 1,000 wa kisiasa na kitamaduni, walitia saini barua kwa Katibu Mkuu wa Umoja wa Mataifa Ban Ki-moon, wakitoa wito kwa ""jibu jipya la kimataifa kwa dawa za kulevya"" na kutangaza kuwa ""mfumo wa udhibiti wa dawa za kulevya wa karne ya 20 ni mbaya kwa afya ya kimataifa, usalama na haki za binadamu.""" Hata hivyo, barua hiyo ilionekana kuwa na athari ndogo kwenye mkutano huo zaidi ya ghasia kati ya usalama wa Umoja wa Mataifa na wanaharakati waliovalia mavazi ya enzi ya marufuku ambao walionekana kusambaza nakala zake. Marekani ilitumikia kama kiongozi wa kweli wa mapambano ya kimataifa dhidi ya dawa za kulevya kwa miongo kadhaa baada ya Rais Richard Nixon kutangaza vita dhidi ya dawa za kulevya, kwa nia ya kukandamiza harakati za uhuru wa weusi na kupinga vita. Hata hivyo, mabadiliko ya hivi karibuni katika sera za ndani yameiacha Marekani katika nafasi mbaya katika hatua ya sasa ya kimataifa. "Daniel Raymond, msemaji wa Harm Reduction Coalition, kundi la Marekani ambalo lilituma watetezi kwenye mkutano huo, aliliambia Truthout kwamba wanadiplomasia wa Marekani wamejikuta katika ""kifungo mara mbili"" Marekani, Raymond alisema, lazima iwashawishi washirika wake wa kimataifa kwamba sekta ya marijani ya kisheria na ya matibabu ya mabilioni ya dola katika karibu nusu ya majimbo ya Marekani inaweza kupatanishwa na majukumu ya mikataba ya kimataifa ya kudhibiti dawa za kulevya." "Marekani inaonekana kuchukua njia ya kati katika mazungumzo haya: wanajaribu kucheza vizuri na kila mtu na kuweka pande zote mezani, ""alisema Raymond, ambaye aliongeza kuwa Marekani inazingatia zaidi utaratibu wa Umoja wa Mataifa kuliko malengo halisi ya sera." """Kwa sababu Marekani ina ngozi katika michezo mingi tofauti, wamechukua jukumu la chini la uendeshaji katika mazungumzo ya Umoja wa Mataifa na walishikilia katikati,"" Hillary Clinton na Obama 'Urithi wa Vita vya Dawa za Kulevya ""Zaidi ya wachache wa wazi wa maendeleo ya kidemokrasia na wa Jamhuri wa uhuru, mageuzi ya sera ya dawa za kulevya kamwe kufurahia mtaji wa kisiasa katika Washington, hadi hivi karibuni." Harakati za maisha ya weusi na maandamano ya kuenea dhidi ya utekelezaji wa sheria yamevutia tahadhari ya kitaifa kwa michango ya vita vya dawa za kulevya kwa kifungo cha wingi na ubaguzi wa rangi katika mfumo wa kisheria wa jinai. Wakati huo huo, "mgogoro wa opioid" wa taifa umeweka uso mweupe, tajiri na wa kisiasa zaidi juu ya ulevi wa dawa za kulevya. Rais Obama amepunguza vifungo vya wafungwa wa vita vya madawa ya kulevya na kutangaza mgogoro wa opioid kuwa changamoto ya afya ya umma badala ya tatizo la jinai. Rais wa sasa wa Marekani, Michael Bottaselli, amepongezwa kwa kuipa kipaumbele matibabu kuliko kufungwa gerezani, lakini White House inaendelea kuunga mkono hatua za kutekeleza sheria dhidi ya biashara ya dawa za kulevya, ambayo inaweza kuwaingiza watu walioondolewa katika mfumo wa kisheria. Serikali pia haijatoa taarifa kuhusu juhudi za kuruhusu dawa fulani za kulevya katika magereza, ambapo watu wenye uraibu wa opioid mara nyingi hukataliwa kutoka kwa matibabu yaliyopendekezwa. Ikiwa atachaguliwa, Hillary Clinton anatarajiwa kuchukua njia kama hiyo. Rais Obama ameomba Bunge la Marekani kutoa dola bilioni moja kupambana na tatizo la dawa za kulevya na Clinton ameahidi kutumia dola bilioni 10 katika miaka 10 ijayo. Clinton amekuwa akitangaza kuunga mkono kupunguzwa kwa vifungo vya chini kwa makosa ya dawa za kulevya na amesema ataweka kipaumbele matibabu badala ya kifungo cha jela kwa wahalifu wa kiwango cha chini, lakini hakusema chochote kuhusu kuondoa taasisi za vita dhidi ya dawa za kulevya kama vile Shirika la Ulinzi wa Dawa za Kulevya la Marekani. Sanders anasema vita dhidi ya dawa za kulevya vimeshindwa na anapendekeza kwenda mbali zaidi kuliko Clinton kwa kuondoa hukumu za chini za lazima na kuondoa bangi kutoka kwenye orodha ya dawa za kulevya zilizopigwa marufuku, lakini nafasi zake za kushinda uteuzi wa chama cha Democratic zinaongezeka. "Wakosoaji wa vita dhidi ya dawa za kulevya walitabiri miaka mingi iliyopita kwamba sheria za serikali zinazopiga marijani zingepungua polepole kama domino licha ya marufuku ya shirikisho. """ "Hatua hizi za ngazi ya serikali hutoa kifuniko kamili cha kisiasa kwa Clinton na wagombea wa Republican, ambao wanaogopa kuwafukuza wapiga kura wazee, wa kihafidhina kijamii, lakini wanajua kwamba idadi kubwa ya watu nchini Marekani sasa inasaidia kuhalalisha bangi. """ Clinton anaunga mkono sheria ya kuhalalisha bangi lakini ameahidi kutoingilia mageuzi ya marijuana ya jimbo na kuwaelekeza maofisa wa serikali kuelekeza uangalifu wao kwa wahalifu wenye jeuri badala ya wavutaji bangi. "Wanachama wa chama cha Republican Donald Trump na hata Ted Cruz, ambao wamesema kidogo juu ya sera ya madawa ya kulevya zaidi ya mjadala juu ya kulinda mpaka wa Marekani na Mexico, wanakubaliana kwamba majimbo yanapaswa kuwa huru kuamua suala hilo peke yao, hata kama wao binafsi wanapinga uhalali. """ Gavana wa Ohio pekee. John Kasich ameonyesha upinzani mkali dhidi ya kuhalalisha. """Marijuana imekuwa kwa muda mrefu mwongozo wa sera za madawa ya kulevya, lakini dawa ya kulevya halali peke yake haitazuia vurugu zinazoharibu Mexico, Amerika ya Kusini na miji kote Marekani." "Kuruhusu sekta kubwa ya bangi kuwa halali bila shaka ingepunguza faida ya mashirika ya dawa za kulevya, lakini pia inaweza kuongeza ushindani katika masoko ya nyeusi ya dawa za kulevya kama vile cocaine na heroini, na kufanya biashara hizo kuwa hatari zaidi na za damu kuliko ilivyo sasa. """ "Hata hivyo, kuhalalisha bangi kwa kiwango cha ndani ni kinyume cha sheria za shirikisho na makubaliano ya kimataifa ya kudhibiti dawa za kulevya, ambayo yanaendelea kuashiria bangi kama hatari na haramu.""" """Wanadiplomasia wa Marekani walithibitisha mikataba mitatu mikubwa ya kuzuia na kupambana na biashara haramu ya dawa za kulevya wiki iliyopita pamoja na Umoja wa Mataifa, ikionyesha kwamba makubaliano haya yanaweza kutafsiriwa au yanaweza kupuuzwa na watunga sera." "Mara unapoanza kusema kuna nafasi ya kuhalalisha katika masoko yaliyosimamiwa, basi mikataba ya [udhibiti wa dawa za kulevya wa Umoja wa Mataifa] inaweza kumaanisha chochote unachotaka", Raymond alisema. "Kama vile, ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile"" ni ""Kama vile.""" """Wanasiasa wanapaswa kukubali ukweli wachache, na sio tu nyuma ya milango iliyofungwa, ambapo wanasheria wa marekebisho ya dawa za kulevya mara nyingi hupata wabunge wenye huruma ambao wanadai mikono yao imefungwa kisiasa." Kwanza kabisa, wanadamu wametumia dawa za kulevya kwa maelfu ya miaka na hawataacha hivi karibuni. Kuanzia caffeine hadi codeine, matumizi ya dawa za kulevya ni ya lazima katika nyanja zote za jamii, iwe dawa za kulevya ni halali au la. Tunajua hilo kwa sababu marufuku imeshindwa sana katika mradi wake uliotajwa. Kufanya dawa za kulevya ziwe uhalifu hakupunguzi uharibifu unaoweza kusababishwa nazo; kwa kweli, kuna matokeo kinyume. Mkakati wa kupunguza madhara na matibabu ya dawa za kulevya kwa kulevya, kwa upande mwingine, inaweza kusaidia kufanya matumizi ya dawa za kulevya salama kwa kila mtu. "Tunapaswa pia kubadilisha njia yetu ya kuona watumiaji wa dawa za kulevya, ambao ni hatari kidogo kuliko wapiganaji wa dawa za kulevya, kama inavyoonekana.""" "Mwezi uliopita, timu ya kimataifa ya wataalamu iliyofadhiliwa na Chuo Kikuu cha Johns Hopkins ilionyesha takwimu za Umoja wa Mataifa zinazoonyesha kuwa asilimia 11 tu ya watumiaji wa dawa za kulevya ulimwenguni kote huchukuliwa kuwa ""watumiaji wa tatizo"" kwa sababu wana tatizo la kulevya au matumizi mabaya ya dawa za kulevya." Hata hivyo, wale wanaopinga dawa za kulevya wanadhani kimakosa kwamba hakuna tofauti kati ya kutumia na kutumia vibaya dawa za kulevya, na kwamba kujizuia kabisa ni njia pekee inayokubalika ya kutumia dawa fulani za kulevya. "Mtazamo huu umesababisha hadithi za ubaguzi wa rangi na za kuvutia kuhusu ""watoto wa crack,"" ""zombies za chumvi ya kuoga"" na ""upumbavu wa Reefer,"" wakati huo huo, sheria za kupambana na dawa za kulevya zimechangia vurugu za mauti, uhamisho wa kulazimishwa, ukiukaji wa haki za binadamu na ongezeko la maambukizi ya magonjwa kama vile HIV na hepatitis C, kulingana na timu iliyofadhiliwa na Johns Hopkins." "Wanafunzi hao wamewataka serikali kuchukua mikakati ya kupunguza madhara kama vile kubadilishana sindano na kuondoa uhalifu wa dawa za kulevya, wakisema ""madaktari na wataalamu wa afya ya umma, sio polisi na wanasiasa, wanapaswa kuongoza maamuzi yetu ya kibinafsi na kisiasa kuhusu dawa za kulevya.""" Kila siku watu hutumia dawa za kulevya bila kujidhuru au kuwaumiza wengine, huku polisi wakifanya kazi ya kuwafunga watu ndani ya magereza na kuimarisha utambuzi ambao unawafanya watumiaji wa dawa za kulevya wajifiche chini ya ardhi na kujiepusha na huduma za kijamii. Utafiti unaonyesha mara kwa mara kwamba dawa za kulevya huwa na hatari kidogo wakati watumiaji wanaweza kupata huduma za afya na maarifa juu ya jinsi dawa zinavyofanya kazi. Hiyo ndiyo sababu elimu ya umma ya madawa ya kulevya kulingana na ukweli, sio kujizuia tu, ni muhimu sana kumaliza vita vya madawa ya kulevya. Daktari Carl Hart, mtaalamu wa mfumo wa neva ambaye amekuwa akichunguza athari za dawa za kulevya kwa miaka mingi, anasema dawa za kulevya ambazo mara nyingi huonwa kuwa hatari sana kuwa halali zinaweza kuboresha ubora wa maisha ya watu wengine ikiwa zitatumiwa kwa usahihi. Wasanii na waandishi wengi wanaweza kutumia amphetamines kwa usalama, kwa mfano, ili kuongeza ubunifu wao na kuzingatia, kwa muda mrefu kama wao kukaa hydrated, kumbuka kula na kupata usingizi wa kutosha baada ya. Kama sisi kuchukua nafasi ya stigma na sayansi na akili ya kawaida, madawa ya kulevya kuanza kuangalia zaidi kama zana tata kuliko uovu wakati kutumika vizuri. """Vita dhidi ya dawa za kulevya vitaisha wakati mataifa yote yatakapokubali kwamba watumiaji wa dawa za kulevya wana haki za binadamu, ikiwa ni pamoja na haki ya kupata dawa za kulevya ikiwa wanataka, kama wanadamu wamefanya tangu zamani." Kile kinachotokea baada ya hapo bado ni jambo la kubishana. Wanaharakati wanakubali kwamba kuondolewa kwa uhalifu ni muhimu, lakini si wote wanaokubali kwamba kuhalalisha ni jambo linalofaa. "Kutoka kwa sheria ya ""kushughulikia"" dawa za kulevya na kuifanya iwe halali, na kuifanya iwe halali, inamaanisha kwamba kuna uwezekano wa kuwa na soko la dawa za kulevya linaloendeshwa na serikali." Serikali zinaweza kuchagua kudhibiti dawa za kulevya kwa ajili ya udhibiti wa ubora na kuelekeza mapato ya kodi kwa huduma za afya na matibabu ya uraibu, lakini pia zinaweza kuanzisha usimamizi wa ushirika wa uzalishaji na usambazaji na kutumia dawa za kulevya kama chanzo cha faida na udhibiti wa kijamii. Kwa bahati nzuri, kuna watu karibu nasi ambao wanaweza kuelimisha maamuzi yetu ya kisiasa juu ya dawa za kulevya: watumiaji wa dawa za kulevya. Watu wanaotumia dawa za kulevya wako katika nafasi bora ya kuelezea mahitaji yao na kutoa ufahamu juu ya athari za maisha halisi za dawa za kulevya na sera za dawa za kulevya, kwa hivyo sote tunaweza kuamua ni nini bora kwa miili yetu na jamii. Watumiaji wa dawa za kulevya na madaktari, sio wanadiplomasia na wapiganaji wa dawa za kulevya, wanapaswa kuongoza mazungumzo. Mpaka hilo litakapotokea, vita dhidi ya dawa za kulevya - na dhidi ya mamilioni ya wanadamu wanaozitumia, kuzizalisha na kuziuza - ni hakika zitaendelea.