Alternet.org has a very thoughtful article by three members of the New York City Bar Association's Drugs and the Law Committee on the way international treaties impact efforts to legalize marijuana in the U.S.
The U.S. has signed the Single Convention on Narcotics (1961) and Article VI of the U.S. Constitution provides that federal law and treaties are the "supreme Law of the Land." The various states are governed by these treaties, and thus limit the ability of any state to legalize marijuana. This is certain to become an issue in the summer and fall of 2012 as the voters of Washington State, Colorado and Oregon consider initiatives to legalize marijuana. If one or more of these pass, these international treaties will be a factor in how the federal government responds.
The authors -- Heather J. Haase, Esq., Nicolas Eyle, and Joshua Schrimpf, Esq. -- note that the international consensus behind these treaties is being shaken.
A major change in the traditional protocol of the treaties -- don't rock the boat -- is coming from Bolivia. When Bolivia (and Peru) acceded to the Single Convention (what we in the U.S. call ratifying the treaty), they agreed to ban their long-time practices of coca chewing and drinking coca tea after 25 years (Article 49.2(e), Single Convention of Narcotics). Since 1987, they have not been in compliance.
A couple of years ago, Bolivia rewrote its constitution and decided to try to change the requirement that it disapprove of coca use. (Bolivia's President, Evo Morales, came to political prominence as the leader of the union of coca growers!).
Bolivia tried to get the U.N.'s Commission on Narcotics Drugs to change the prohibition on coca use, unsuccessfully.
Now Bolivia is using different approach which is to "withdraw" from the treaty (called "denunciation," Article 46, Single Convention on Narcotics) and then joining the treaty again ("accession," Article 40) but with reservations (Article 50.3). The reservation can be rejected if it is objected to by one-third of the countries that are party to the Single Convention within twelve months after a country notified the U.N. Secretary General it wants a reservation. That means that one-third of the 183 nations ("parties") have to object.
This type of strategy is outlined in chapter 6 in the excellent book by Robin Room, Benedict Fischer, Wayne Hall, Simon Lenton and Peter Reuter, Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate, (Oxford U. Press, 2010).
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
International treaties vs. marijuana legalization
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Crack hyperbole about tragedy in Brazil in Wall Street Journal
"Hundreds of zombie-like [crack] addicts who by night wander a downtown no man's land known as Cracolandia." That's the second sentence of the breathless, hyperbolic Wall Street Journal page one story, "Brazil's Emerging Market: Crack." Not until the end of the 19th paragraph, out of 22, do we learn why the crack addicts wander: "The simple reason is they have nowhere to go: Most treatment centers are full."
Practically leading with "zombies," a reader may suspect the story is likely to be the common stew of cliches and fright mongering. You won't be disappointed --
* The fiendishly clever drug traffickers "seek the path of least resistance" because the risk of prosecution in Brazil is less than in the U.S. No mention that 100s of thousands of American and other drug traffickers have ignored long U.S. penalties for 25 years.
* Bad countries (with governments not to the liking of the U.S. or the publisher, in this case, Rupert Murdoch) are complicit. In this story the villains are Bolivia and Peru "where populist leaders have less interest in combating [cocaine production]." But conveniently, no mention of the fact that for some time Bolivia, Brazil and the U.S. have been negotiating an anti-cocaine cooperation agreement -- which was signed yesterday, the BBC reports.
*Fiendish ploys of dealers "to market their wares" -- "confiscated crack rocks in packaging emblazoned with the face of Rondaldinho, one of Brazil's most prominent [soccer] stars," the better to lure innocent soccer loving youth to the deadly drug. Oh, how shamelessly evil. (Is it worth mentioning that tobacco and alcohol are routinely marketed in conjunction with celebrities and sports?)
*Frightening images: "Mobs of skeletal figures ambled in darkened streets. Some draped filthy blankets over their heads in the drizzly chill. They swarmed when a dealer arrived. Flames flared from crack pipes in the darkness."
This style of journalism is at least a century old. In the early 20th century, the Hearst newspapers also ran nearly identical front page stories about dope using exactly the same themes, according to historian Susan L. Speaker (For example, see her article,"The Struggle of Mankind Against its Deadliest Foe": Themes of Countersubversion in Anti-Narcotic Campaigns, 1920-1940. JOURNAL OF SOCIAL HISTORY, 2001, VOL 34; PART 3, pages 591-610.)
This is a sad departure from the usual sober reporting of the Wall Street Journal.
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