We are on the brink of a momentous change in international drug policy that will transform the entire globe. After decades on the margins of the debate, alternatives to prohibition are now not only part of the mainstream high-level debate, but actually becoming a reality, across the Americas and beyond. The work of the Global Commission on Drug Policy (of which I am a proud member) calling for an end to the war on drugs, has had an overwhelmingly positive response, revealing the appetite for change.
I have witnessed the catastrophic failure of the global war on drugs first hand in Colombia and Latin America. Even where successes were achieved – drugs seized, cartels defeated and violent criminals jailed – either the problems moved elsewhere, or other criminals emerged into the vacuum created. As our security situation improved, so it deteriorated elsewhere. Even as Colombia approaches a new era of peace, we, and our neighbors, still carry a terrible burden of violence and instability fueled by the war on drugs.
There is still much to be done. We can certainly focus our enforcement efforts on reducing the violence and bloodshed, rather than the endless and futile pursuit of eradicating drugs from the world completely. We must also strive for an immediate end to the criminalization of people who use drugs; it neither deters use, nor helps those with drug problems. Decriminalization must be the basis of any effective public-health response.
But these important steps are not enough. If we are to end the destructive criminal drugs market and the chaos it has sown across the world, we must take control of it, and the legalization and regulation of drugs within responsible government agencies is indeed the key to achieving this. We must do this not because drugs are safe, but precisely because they are risky – and we seek to manage and reduce those risks. We must deal with the reality of drugs, not some imagined utopia in which they have magically all been eradicated.
Legalization and regulation, as this book makes clear, does not mean an open market. Drugs must be strictly and responsibly regulated – according to their risks. We must learn from mistakes we have made with alcohol and tobacco in the past and get it right this time around. We must prioritize public health, human rights, security and development – not the interests of profit-making companies.
As the Global Commission has long hoped and predicted, the momentum for reform continues to gather pace. A better world is now there for the taking, one in which drug markets are controlled by governments, not gangsters. There is great cause for optimism as we go forward. I commend this book to you, and encourage all who read it to join the movement for change and help to end the ruinous war on drugs, and the catastrophe it has created.
César Gaviria
Former president of Colombia, and member of the Global Commission on Drugs