Our Campaigns
Above all else, the National Cannabis Industry Association exists to represent the interests of legitimate and responsible cannabis-related businesses on the national stage. Our primary mission in this regard is to ensure that our members are treated like individuals and businesses in any other industry in this country. Cannabis-related businesses should not pay higher effective tax rates than other businesses or struggle to find bank accounts. And business owners certainly should not face the possibility of arrest and prosecution by federal authorities when they are acting in compliance with state law.
In addition to direct lobbying for changes in the law, NCIA promotes the economic benefits of the cannabis industry to an audience largely unfamiliar with the incredible progress being seen across the country. We want to make sure that the industry is given the credit it deserves for creating jobs, generating tax revenue and operating in a manner that best serves its customers, while respecting the concerns of other members of society. To this end, most of our energy is focused on lobbying in Washington, D.C.
Current Federal Policy Objectives
Taxes : Banking : Prohibition : Protecting Businesses : Hemp : Accessories
OTHER INDUSTRY OBJECTIVES
Public Perceptions : Industry Standards
Sunday, 5 June 2011
. . NCIA . . National Cannabis Industry Association • P.O. Box 78062 • Washington, DC 20013 • Phone: (202) 379-4861 • Fax: (202)232-0442 • Info@TheCannabisIndustry.org ©Copyright 2011
Global Commission on Drug Policy | The Commission
Commissioners
» Asma Jahangir
- human rights activist, former UN Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Executions, Pakistan» Carlos Fuentes
- writer and public intellectual, Mexico» César Gaviria
- former President of Colômbia» Ernesto Zedillo
- former President of México» Fernando Henrique Cardoso
- former President of Brazil (chair)» George Papandreou
- Prime Minister of Greece» George Shultz
- former Secretary of State, United States (honorary chair)» Javier Solana
- former European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Spain» John Whitehead
- banker and civil servant, chair of the World Trade Center Memorial, United States» Kofi Annan
- former Secretary General of the United Nations, Ghana» Louise Arbour
- former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, president of the International Crisis Group, Canada» Maria Cattaui
- Member of the Board, Petroplus Holdings; former Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce, Switzerland» Marion Caspers-Merk
- former State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Health, Germany» Mario Vargas Llosa
- writer and public intellectual, Peru» Michel Kazatchkine
- executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, France» Paul Volcker
- former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve and of the Economic Recovery Board, US» Richard Branson
- entrepreneur, advocate for social causes, founder of the Virgin Group, cofounder of The Elders, United Kingdom» Ruth Dreifuss
- former President of Switzerland and Minister of Home Affairs» Thorvald Stoltenberg
- former Minister of Foreign Affairs and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Norway
Secretariat» Bernardo Sorj
» Ilona Szabó de Carvalho
» Miguel Darcy de Oliveira
Context
The purpose of The Global Commission on Drug Policy is to bring to the international level an informed, science-based discussion about humane and effective ways to reduce the harm caused by drugs to people and societies.
Drugs are a complex and controversial issue. There is a growing perception that the ‘war on drugs’ approach has failed. Eradication of production and criminalization of consumption did not reduce drug traffic and drug use. In many countries the harm caused by drug prohibition in terms of corruption, violence and violation of human rights largely exceeds the harm caused by drugs.
The Global Commission on Drug Policy will build on the successful experience of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy convened by former presidents Cardoso of Brazil, Gaviria of Colombia and Zedillo of Mexico. Persuaded that the association between drug trade, violence and corruption was a threat to democracy in Latin America, the Commission reviewed the current ‘war on drugs’ policies and opened a public debate about an issue that tends to be surrounded by fear and misinformation.
These goals were fulfilled with the publication on February 2009 of the Commission’s statement, Drugs and Democracy: Toward a Paradigm Shift. This statement received wide coverage by the regional and global media and the ensuing debate led to positive drug policy changes in Mexico and Argentina. Change is imminent in Brazil.
No country has come up with a fully satisfactory set of policies. The polarization between legalization and prohibition blocks the debate. In many countries repressive policies remain firmly in place. Hence the need for engaging many actors - legislators and policymakers, scientists and health professionals, educators, law enforcement officers, parents and the young - in a constructive debate about viable alternatives, both at the national and international level.
Goals
» review the basic assumption, effectiveness and consequences of the 'war on drugs' approach
» evaluate the risks and benefits of different national responses to the drug problem
» develop actionable, evidence-based recommendations for constructive legal and drug policy reform
Main areas of inquiry
Six background papers are being prepared covering the Commission’s main areas of inquiry and substantive engagement:
The current international drug control regime
The ‘logical framework’ behind drug policy: what objectives it sets out to achieve and what assumptions it makes about how best to meet these objectives. The extent to which these objectives have been achieved over the past 50 years and the problems encountered. Main impediments to the reform of drug policy.Global overview of drug policy and laws
Good practices and innovations in drug law reform. Main contested issues: harm reduction and decriminalization by law or in practice of cannabis and other drugs. Opportunities and pathways for improving national drug laws and for changing the UN drug control system.Confronting the production and supply chain
Effectiveness of law enforcement activities aimed at production controls, including eradication and interdiction. Changes in production, transportation, retail and wholesale caused by the supply reduction approach. Trends in crimes associated with the production and supply chain, including money laundering, arms trafficking and corruption.Criminal justice challenges
The criminalization and incarceration of people involved in retail drug markets and of people charged with possession or use of illicit drugs. Risks and benefits of eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana possession for personal use and other forms of sentencing reform. Risks and benefits of distinguishing trafficking from small-scale dealing and of compulsory drug treatment.Demand reduction: prevention, harm reduction and treatment
The effectiveness of drug prevention campaigns: a cultural and educational challenge. Lessons learned from the successful campaigns to reduce tobacco consumption and to prevent the spread of HIV-AIDS. Harm reduction and treatment: practices, consequences and results. Recommendations for improving public health and community safety.Drug trade and organized crime: economic and political implications
The rising scope and ramifications of the global drug business and market. Drug trade, violence and corruption: the risk to undermine democratic institutions. Drug trade, money laundering and illegal arms smuggling. Drug trade and armed conflict. Transnational drug trade and ‘failed’ or ‘rogue’ states. The evolving and elusive nature of global drug networks.
CONTACT US AT:
Global Commission on Drug Policy | Background Papers
Background Papers
» DEMAND REDUCTION AND HARM REDUCTION
Dr Alex Wodak AM» DRUG POLICY, CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND MASS IMPRISONMENT
Bryan Stevenson» ASSESSING SUPPLY-SIDE POLICY AND PRACTICE: ERADICATION AND ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT
David Mansfiled» DRUG POLICY: LESSONS LEARNED AND OPTIONS FOR THE FUTURE
Mike Trace» THE DRUG TRADE: THE POLITICIZATION OF CRIMINALS AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF POLITICIANS
Moisés Naím
CONTACT US AT:
CONTACT US AT: Calls to legalise cannabis and ecstasy - World Politics, World - The Independent
It isn't working. It never has worked. And so long as it continues to be fought in its current form, the "war on drugs" will do little to curb the spread of illegal narcotics or prevent hundreds of thousands of people from continuing to lose their lives each year as a result of the international drug trade.
So says a panel of world leaders who called yesterday for the biggest shake-up of drug laws in half a century. "The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," declared the Global Commission on Drug Policy. "Fundamental reforms... are urgently needed."
The Commission, which counts the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan along with former presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia as members, believes governments must now experiment with "legal regulation of drugs." "This recommendation applies especially to cannabis," reads a major report it published in New York yesterday. "But we would also encourage other experiments in decriminalisation."
Ecstasy, which is currently considered a class-A substance, ought to be reclassified in line with medical opinion that it is far less dangerous than legal drugs such as nicotine and alcohol, the report suggests. Users of narcotics should be offered education and treatment, rather than being incarcerated, it advises. And countries which insist on continuing a "law enforcement" approach to drug crime should focus resources on taking down high-level traffickers, rather than arresting everyday drug mules and street dealers.
Although the recommendations are regarded as a statement of the obvious by many experts, they fly in the face of the official policies of most Western nations. Their endorsement by the Global Commission is therefore likely to be highly controversial. However, campaigners for drug reform are hoping that yesterday's report may herald a shift in the way drug policy is debated by the international community.
The 24-page document notes that years of prohibition have resulted in a steady rise in the number of people regularly using drugs, which the UN currently estimates at around 250 million worldwide. Opiate use has grown by around 35 percent in the past decade, while world consumption of cocaine and cannabis has risen 27 and 8.5 percent respectively.
Current laws leave this growing industry in the hands of criminal gangs, resulting in spiralling violence from the slums of West Africa to swaths of Central and Latin America. In Mexico, a supposed government crackdown on drug gangs has resulted in 38,000 deaths in the past four and a half years.
The Commission, which also counts Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, George Shultz, the former US Secretary of State, and Sir Richard Branson among its 19 members, says the UN should now lead an "urgent" rethink of global drug policies, based on scientific evidence rather than political expediency.
Citing the success of liberal drug policies in countries such as Portugal, Holland and Australia, it recommends taking money spent on costly law enforcement campaigns and investing it instead in preventive drug education and treatment programmes proved to curb addiction rates and prevent health problems among users.
"Overwhelming evidence from Europe, Canada and Australia now demonstrates the human and social benefits of treating drug addiction as a health rather than criminal justice problem," said co-author Ruth Dreifuss, the former Swiss president, at yesterday's launch of the report in New York. "These policies need to be adopted worldwide, with requisite changes to the international drug control conventions."
The "war on drugs" was declared in 1971 by the US president Richard Nixon, a decade after UN members signed the "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs" which established the fundamentals of the world's current policies. It was reinforced by the Reagan administration which told young people to "just say no" to drugs.
Today, polls indicate the public still support the current, tough laws. As a result, Bruce Bagley, an expert on drug trafficking at the University of Miami, told The Independent he believes there is "about zero" chance of the Commission's recommendations being taken up by the US and other major nations.
"That said, this is a significant contribution from some very prominent individuals, which form part of an emerging conversation," he said.
Timeline: 50-year campaign
1961 The United Nations passes the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, enshrining drug prohibition in domestic law across the world. It remains the keystone for global narcotics policies.
1970 The Nixon administration funds an expansion of methadone programmes in Washington, run by Dr Robert De Pont, who first documented a link between drugs and crime in 1969. Within a year, burglaries in the city decrease by 41 per cent.
1971 In January, the UK Misuse of Drugs Act is passed classifying illicit substances and outlining punishments for illegal drug possession. It remains the basis for UK drug policy today. Five months later, President Richard Nixon officially declares a "war on drugs" and identifies drug abuse as "public enemy No 1" in the US.
1977 Jimmy Carter endorses a federal decriminalisation bill for marijuana, but it garners little support and momentum fizzles out. The UK Misuse of Drugs Act is amended to include MDMA (Ecstasy) as a Class A drug.
1982 Notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar is elected to Colombian Congress.
1984 Nancy Reagan launches her famous "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. By 1988 more than 12,000 "Just Say No" centres existed globally.
1985 Colombia extradites drug traffickers to the US for the first time.
1986 President Reagan signs the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which assigns $1.7bn to continue fighting the "war on drugs" and imposes mandatory minimum penalties for drug offences.
1989 Forbes magazine lists Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar as the seventh-richest man in the world. President George H W Bush creates the Office of National Drug Control Policy. William Bennett is appointed first US "drug tsar", and aims to make drug misuse socially unacceptable.
2000 Colombian President Andres Pastrana Arango wins $1.3bn US funding to combat drug-trafficking, decrease cocaine production by spraying coca crops with toxic herbicides, and fight guerrilla rebels who profit from and protect the drug trade, under a campaign dubbed "Plan Colombia".
2002 Portugal decriminalises possession of all drugs for personal use.
2004 President Hamid Karzai calls for a jihad against Afghanistan's multibillion-dollar drugs industry. The campaign costs British taxpayers £850m between 2002 and 2009. The UK reclassifies cannabis to Class C.
2009 US diplomat Richard Holbrooke announces that Western policies to eradicate Afghanistan's opium crops "have been a failure. They did not result in any damage to the Taliban, but they put farmers out of work." The Obama administration drops prohibitive, "war on drugs" rhetoric in favour of prevention and harm reduction strategies favoured by Europe.
2011 A report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy says the global "war on drugs" has failed. It calls for the legalisation of some drugs and an end to the criminalisation of drug users
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