High ranking group urges an end to drug prohibition

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Story
By Stephen C. Webster

A panel of former high ranking world officials issued a report Thursday calling for an end to the global war on drugs and a move toward policies that treat addiction as a health problem instead of as crime.

The group, calling themselves the Global Commission on Drug Policy, includes the former presidents of Switzerland, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, along with a former U.N. Secretary General, a former U.S. Secretary of State, the prime minister of Greece and the former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Commission members also include well known intellectuals, activists, entrepreneurs and human rights advocates.

"We have to look after those who are using drugs not as criminals, but as people who require some care," former Brazil President Fernando Henrique Cardoso told Raw Story via telephone. "It's not cool, necessarily, for a person to use drugs from time to time as a patient."

More at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/02/high-ranking-group-urges-an-end-to-drug-prohibition/