Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom

272 • Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom
the age of 12, or 47 percent, have used illegal drugs (Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition, n.d.). A similar percentage of high school students
have tried illegal drugs before graduation (Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition, n.d.).
Mike Trace, Chairman of the International Drug Policy Consortium,
has concluded that despite receiving “unequivocal political support and
massive financial investment,” the campaign to suppress drugs “has not
achieved the desired control and constriction of wholesale markets.”
Moreover, “efforts to stifle the flow of drugs from points of production to
retail markets (generally described as interdiction), have also met with
fundamental problems” (Trace, n.d.: 4). Demand reduction efforts have
been no more successful. Indeed, “Various mixtures of these strategies
and tactics have been implemented around the world over the last 50
years, but there is no evidence that any national government has been able
to achieve anything like the objective of a controlled and diminished drug
market, let alone a drug free world” (Trace, n.d.: 6).
In fact, enforcement often appears to correlate with increased use.
Attorney and author Glenn Greenwald noted that, “the prevalence rate
for cocaine usage in the United States was so much higher than the other
countries surveyed that the researchers formally characterized it as an
‘outlier’” (Greenwald, 2009: 24). Other countries with an emphasis on
enforcement, such as Australia and Canada, also exhibit higher than average
drug use. The Economist magazine stated simply that, “There is no
correlation between the harshness of drug laws and the incidence of drugtaking:
citizens living under tough regimes (notably America but also
Britain) take more drugs, not fewer” (Will, October 29, 2009).
The costs of the War on Drugs are felt throughout the world, starting
with America’s closest neighbors. The terrible price has sparked growing
interest in Latin America in decriminalization/legalization. Leading politicians,
including former Mexican presidents Vincente Fox and Ernesto
Zedillo, Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and Colombian
president Cesar Gaviria, have begun pressing for Drug Peace.
In a paper prepared for the Global Commission on Drug Policy,
Martin Jelsma of the Transnational Institute observed: “Some of the consequences
resulting from the escalation of the last two decades were a
nearly worldwide rapid increase in the prison population; human rights
violations; restricted access to essential medicines; criminalization of
users creating obstacles for health care, including strategies for HIV/
AIDS prevention” ( Jelsma, 2011: 8). In its June report the commission
concluded: “The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences
for individuals and societies around the world.” Yet despite
global enforcement efforts, consumption of cocaine, marijuana, and opiates
increased by 27 percent, 8.5 percent, and 34.5 percent, respectively,
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