''End the War on Drugs'': Nobel Economists, Reagan's Secretary of State

“The list of people agreeing that drug abuse is a public health problem keeps getting longer and more prestigious. Does any thinking person still believe the drug war is working?” asked Major Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

George Shultz, former Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan

(WASHINGTON DC) - Eliminating drug use is not possible and prohibition leads to mass incarceration, human rights abuses, a degradation of fundamental rights, corruption and violence. That is the conclusion reached by a report signed by five Nobel-winning economists, Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz, British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, former EU foreign policy Javier Solana and other international luminaries.

The report, published by the London School of Economics, recommends shifting resources from law enforcement to harm reduction and treatment and hopes to pressure the UN to allow countries to develop their own policies of regulation and control as alternatives to prohibition. The editor of the report, LSE International Drug Policy Project Coordinator John Collins, calls for the decriminalization of all drugs.

“The list of people agreeing that drug abuse is a public health problem keeps getting longer and more prestigious. Does any thinking person still believe the drug war is working?” asked Major Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

Guatemala, whose president, Otto Pérez Molina, has said the country may work to legalize marijuana and opium poppies this year, has publicly backed the report and the authors hope other nations will follow suit.

Special thanks to Darby Beck and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition