Specially due to the appearance of several different synthetic substances and analogues (RCs) and the so-called "legal-highs", the european commission is planning to toughen the response on drugs (havent we seen this before? :evil: ).

http://ec.europa.eu/just...ugs/news/20111025_en.htm

They want to develop in the next months new measures that the different member States must adopt. They opened a period of consulting for european society, from 28th october till 20th january 2012.

If you want to say something, either as an organization or as an individual, you can do it here:

http://ec.europa.eu/just...gs/opinion/111027_en.htm

filling the formulaire, or sending an email to: JUST-DRUGSPOLICY@ec.europa.eu

The guiding questions they give for the feedback:

Questions

1) What actions should the EU take to prevent the production of illicit drugs and their smuggling to and within the EU?

2) What regulatory measures should the EU develop to contain the spread of new psychoactive substances?

3) How can the EU help improve the availability, accessibility and quality of drug prevention, treatment and harm reduction services in the Member States?


Please tell them what they think, lets give some elaborate responses and hope someone does read them and it helps with something

done it. thanks for bringing it up

Thanks!

I was thinking of writting an answer with references to why the current drug policies dont work, why softer responses/legalization are better, etc (Even though im sure they know it and its not in their interest, still better to give a very informed response than none at all, at least we cant say we didnt try ). Does anybody have relevant publications that can be cited?

Just to help you to keep your IP and country of origin undetected you can use this little program download here to imitate your IP. The program is demo version and works only for 7 minutes than you have to reconnect. The login and password is "demo"

If I may suggest write your answers down first and then use it so you have enough time to copy and paste it to the website.

Thank you endlessness for the heads up and for the post

The best compilation of drug war information I am aware of, besides all the specific entries in drug-related communities such as MAPS or Erowid, is this one.

I will send today a thorough response to the questionnaire. And I don't think I have to mask my IP when submitting this. We should send realistic replies, not radical wide all-drug legalization requests, if we really intend to be taken into consideration at all. Not that I am very confident in changing significantly the outcome of the debate through our suggestions, but if we mean to influence any policy, we have to make something else than strong points - we need to send comments that can be taken seriously and implemented. And considering the current state of things, that implies moderation imho. Also, bringing up economics.

Some of the points that could be made are:

- The huge proliferation of new, potentially dangerous RCs is direct consequence of the draconian limitations placed upon known, traditional, safe substances (cannabis, psilocybin, MDMA or LSD, for instance). In that sense, chemical engineering will always find a workaround to bypass current legality, not only bringing further legal pressure into failure, but also putting europeans health at risks that could be easily avoided by making safer, traditional alternatives available.

- For the mentioned reason, increase of legal pressure upon new chemicals is only, at best, encouraging further development of new RCs that will progressively become more unsafe. Lots of examples around the world back this up (meth in northern america, krokodil in Russia, etc.)

- In the actual critical financial context, the funds allocated in drug war policies should be decreased, not increased. The cost-effectiveness of law enforcement so far has proven to be a disaster. Productive, long term effective measures should be taken.

- Allowing and encouraging clinical research with plants and active ingredients that do have therapeutic applications and are extremely unlikely to pose any real threat for public health is the way to go. That will not only fight effectively a potentially harmful, absurdly diversified RC black market, but soon deliver important research results and significantly contribute to the european welfare.

There's probably many more. What do you guys think?

Yes!! Good post

As for the second point you made, another good example is that the countries with most RC in europe are also the ones with tough laws against drugs, for example Poland's recent problems with legal highs and all their emergency scheduling of large classes of drugs, or also whats been happening in england with mephedrone etc.

In the third point, numbers that express well and impact the reader should be used. Like, how much was spent in war against drugs over the years vs what happened in reality..

What you wrote so far is very good! I will talk to some people I work with regarding harm reduction and see if we can come up with some more good arguments and data.

Done. Didn't write much for each question, but these are my views on the matter.

What actions should the EU take to prevent the production of illicit drugs and their smuggling to and within the EU?

Legalisation and control of these substancs with fair taxing, focus on EDUCATION, and increased funding with regards to rehabilitation and mental welfare, and an end to this ridiculous 'war on drugs' which has plagued our planet for far too long now.

What regulatory measures should the EU develop to contain the spread of new psychoactive substances?

There should be regulatory boards that ensure the purity and quality of each product, and honest education to youngsters instead of the outdated and frankly dangerous scare tactics that are used on sites such as 'Talk to Frank' which is full of innaccuracies and spin.

How can the EU help improve the availability, accessibility and quality of drug prevention, treatment and harm reduction services in the Member States?

Education. People will ALWAYS want to alter their consciousness regardless of the legality of the substance they wish to take. If less money was spent on the capture and prosecution of users, and more was spent on awareness with regards to health and safety, and rehabilitation then society would be healthier as a whole. Drug addicts are forced into the margins of society where they have little hope but to be sucked into a life of crime, by bringing them back into the mainstream with love and support i believe we can make changes that the current policies are truly lacking.

Wouldn´t it be better to send e-mails to individual MP´s?

Why not do both?

You are obviously better versed than I am

I just hope this consultation is more than a PPRR maneuver that will only gather feedback backing up already taken decisions. But if you can include references in your replies, do so by all means. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. I will elaborate a little more on that structure, adapt it to their three-question form, and submit it.

Salud.


Edit:



Maybe putting together a proper reply and sending it to every relevant recipient would be a good idea. Besides the online form, that is.

I think this is what every one of us should fill, as this could actually finally have a positive effect.