There is no consistency in our policies on drugs – says Ruth Dreifuss, the former president of the Swiss Federation

On 18 November, Transform Drug Policy Foundation, in partnership with all the major UK drug policy organisations, held a private dinner and discussion for a select group of 30 key NGOs from the development, security, human rights and environment sectors at the Commonwealth Club in London. The high-level event featured presentations by the former president of Brazil and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy Henrique Fernando Cardoso (available to view below), the former president of Switzerland Ruth Dreifuss (also of the Global Commission) and Eduardo Medina Mora, Mexican ambassador to the UK and Mexico’s former attorney general.

Former president of Brazil calls on NGOs to support Count the Costs from Transform on Vimeo.   Ruth Dreifuss was president of the Swiss Federation on 1999 – the first woman to hold this position. As a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy she joined those leading figures who speak out openly against the global war on drugs and urge governments to find alternatives. On the video below she speaks at a Count the Costs campaign dinner event organized by Transform Drug Policy Foundation in London, UK. At the same event we had the pleasure to film another speech of another drug policy reformer, Danny Kushlick, Board Member of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, and one of the most brilliant minds of the movement, one of the few who have a coherent view on how the new model replacing prohibition should look like. „Winning is not important when you fight a threat,” he said. „Fighting is important. It is a war on drugs, it can never be won as long as drug abuses are identified as a threat.” The war will be going on until society realizes that the costs are higher than the benefits of the war.  

Posted by Peter Sarosi