As I mentioned in my previous blog, representatives of the CDPC are here in Vienna at the annual week-long meetings of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs. The opening plenary on Monday March 11th included an extremely engaging speech from Evo Morales, President of Bolivia. While most speakers reiterated their support for international drug control efforts and continually emphasized the need for “international cooperation”, Morales pushed through the usual dull diplomatic language to speak some truth to power. He opened his speech by asking if there was tension in the room and he wondered if it was related to the knowledge that “the fight against drugs has failed globally?”
This isn’t something that’s said very often here in heart of international drug control policy-making.
Morales thanked the 169 countries who supported Bolivia’s re-accession to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. After a first attempt to amend the Single Convention failed in 2011, Bolivia left the Convention with the intent to rejoin with a new reservation designed to align its international obligations with its constitution, which protects indigenous rights.
The reservation, which legalizes coca for local use, applies only to Bolivian territory and the exportation of coca internationally remains prohibited. With the support of those 169 countries Bolivia re-entered the Convention with the reservation in place. Only 15 countries objected, including Canada.
Morales reminded his audience that traditional and indigenous use of coca leaf has important social and health benefits and that its inclusion in the 1961 Convention was an error. In its natural state it has many medicinal properties, and he suggested that international drug controls have hindered scientific research into these benefits. He was careful to emphasize that Bolivia does not support the trade in cocaine but he pointedly noted that efforts to control drug trafficking are intertwined with other geopolitical goals of “mastery” and “dominance”. He chastised the U.S. for trying force Bolivia to curb its coca farming with threats and by tying eradication of coca to the building of schools in the 1980s. In no uncertain terms, Morales drew a parallel between these policies and American efforts to control the region. No doubt, in a sedate and conservative institution like the CND, his words stung for some delegates.
His speech was a reminder that the edifice of international drug control has some serious cracks. Not only are other Latin American leaders speaking out on the need for debate about the way forward, but the recent legalization of cannabis in Colorado and Washington, a proposal by the Norwegian government to decriminalize heroin smoking (a way of using heroin considered to be more safe than injecting because the risk of overdose is less), and the now fairly long-standing decriminalization of drugs in Portugal, represents the efforts of jurisdictions to plot a new way forward guided more by the principles of justice and public health than by law enforcement. In fact, in eight U.S. states bills legalizing cannabis have been introduced in recent months.
It looks like the long-term efforts to broaden the scope of policy options for drug issues is beginning to reap rewards. Let’s hope the CND can catch up.
