The Drug Policy Website of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union

A Mysterious Disease Takes Its Toll Among Politicians

14 May, 2012 - 08:26
News
Regulation and Control

The former Polish president is the latest victim of the Post-Retirement Drug Policy Enlightenment Syndrome - and the first registered case in Eastern-Europe

A spectre is haunting the world – the spectre of drug policy reform. All the powers of the old world have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: the Pope and the UN drug czar, Putin and Obama, Chinese party officials and American prosecutors.

However, a strange new epidemic has broken out among the members of the holy alliance. Scientists call it the "Post-Retirement Drug Policy Enlightenment Syndrome" (PRDPES). It is most prevalent among former law enforcement officials and former political decision makers. The most vulnerable are those who have previously made a significant contribution to the global war on drugs. Symptoms of the disease are remorse, turning against conventional beliefs, radical improvement of cognitive functions and a strong incentive to promote drug policy reform.

Some PRDPES patients have formed advocacy groups to promote access to life-saving treatment for societies devastated by the war on drugs. One example is LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, made up mostly of former policemen, prosecutors and judges, many of them fierce and devoted drug warriors before contracting the disease. The epidemic has taken its highest toll among former Latin-American presidents, who have joined the Global Commission on Drug Policy  to promote drug policy reform.

Recently a new PRDPES case has been recorded in Eastern Europe. The former president of Poland, Aleksandr Kwasniewski, once a strong supporter of the restrictive drug law of his country, has become the latest victim. In an op-ed in the New York Times, he shows obvious symptoms of the disease. He admits something a healthy political decision-maker never does – that he was wrong. What is more, he encourages “political leaders from other regions of the world to sign on and show their support for policies that actually protect citizens”.

 


Our movie on drug policy reform in Poland - you can turn on the English subtitles!

Based on the findings of laboratory studies, we can hypothesize that PRDPES is an infectious disease, and current decision-makers can contract it too. However, only a few transmissions have been recorded so far, between former and current decision-makers.


Posted by Peter Sarosi

 

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Submitted by Tom (not verified) on 14 May, 2012 - 11:24

Let's hope the current decision makers get infected en mass soon 'eh?

Submitted by sarosip on 14 May, 2012 - 13:24

Let's work on a new, more contagious form of the virus :)

Submitted by Miki (not verified) on 14 May, 2012 - 13:09

many weed smokers are highly intelligent people including many artists of all kind but also lawyers etc. so why do we let this freakin' idiots decide about our lives? when is anyone gonna confront a lawmaker and get them to explain in what way is alcohol better then marijuana?? because the only thing what's better in alcohol is that it is legal, and everything what comes from this. nothing else. treating marijuana users as criminals is wrong and people who made the law that criminalised them should be put in prison for destroying thousand of lives. not just in poland but everywhere else in the world. i know i am right. you know i am right. politicians knows nothing. i look down on them c*nts.

Submitted by sarosip on 14 May, 2012 - 13:26

Unfortunately it is not only because of the decision makers, you should blame the public perceptions on drugs too! That's why we believe in public eduction as an antidote of the drug war.

Submitted by shona schonning (not verified) on 14 May, 2012 - 15:01

love the epidemic metaphor guys! Lets hope it spreads and mutates to currently-in-power politicians!

Submitted by sarosip on 14 May, 2012 - 19:23

retired-to-current transmission (RTCT) should be in the focus of our research :)

Submitted by Gart Valenc (not verified) on 14 May, 2012 - 16:34

Couldn’t agree more. We must keep in mind, too, that drug producing countries have also been devastated by a hideous condition major drug consuming countries have been afflicted by for many decades: acute hypocrisy.
As an European citizen who looks in horror at the heinous consequences Prohibition and the so-called War on Drugs policies have had on drug producing and transit countries, in particular Latin American ones, I cannot help but feel ashamed by the total lack of support shown so far by European countries for the call made by sitting Latin American presidents to engage in an open debate to find alternatives to current drugs policies.
Why have we not heard a single word of encouragement, let alone support, from European countries that have "quasi legalised" their demand for, as well as their domestic supply of, drugs?
How can we explain the silence of countries such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, among many others, which have de jure or de facto depenalised or decriminalised the personal consumption of some drugs? Or of countries that allow users to grow a number of marijuana plants in their homes and for their own consumption, or tolerate the operation of so called “cannabis social clubs”, or authorise the cultivation of marijuana to supply dispensaries where consumption on medical grounds is allowed?
I do not have any doubts that harm reduction programmes, decriminalisation or depenalisation of the demand for drugs are sensible and necessary policies. But if we were serious about tackling the so-called drug problem, we should be accompanying those policies regarding the demand with equally sensible policies towards the supply of drugs coming from Latin America—or from any other part of the world for that matter.
It is disgraceful, not to say nauseating, to see that while Latin America is trying to promote the discussion of current and alternative drug policies, we behave in the most cowardly fashion: we remain in silence.
Our mutism is totally inexcusable, for in the final analysis the onus is on us, drug consuming countries in the developed world. We should be the ones promoting the Legalisation & Regulation of the supply. We should be the ones making all the noises calling for a change in the national and international legislation on drugs. We should be spearheading the movement seeking the end of Prohibition and the War on Drugs, and the regulation of the production and distribution of all drugs.
Gart Valenc
Twitter: @gartvalenc

Submitted by Martin Powell (not verified) on 14 May, 2012 - 16:56

Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, open to decriminalize drug use

Expresidente chileno Ricardo Lagos, abierto a despenalizar consumo de droga

http://tinyurl.com/d9vafqe

Who will be next...?

Submitted by sarosip on 15 May, 2012 - 07:33

Martin: maybe Margaret Thatcher? :)

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