There is a definite possibility that some less restrictive policies could be on the horizon in the world of international drug law. It was reported earlier this week that Portugal’s previous Prime Minister António Guterres will most likely become the next Secretary General of the United Nation’s since none of the members of the UN Security Council opposed the idea on Wednesday in a secret vote. If Guterres survives an official vote, which is expected to happen on Thursday, it will then go before the UN General Assembly for further consideration.
“Today after our sixth straw poll, we have a clear favorite and his name is António Guterres,” Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told Reuters.
“We have decided to go to a formal vote tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock, and we hope it can be done by acclamation.” What makes this news so significant is that Guterres was the leading force behind Portugal’s decision to decriminalize all drugs back in 2001. Since this policy was put into place, low-level drug offenders are no longer being put in jail.
2015 report from the Drug Policy Alliance points out that since Portugal implemented its decriminalization law, there have not been any extreme increases in drug use, fewer teenagers are using drugs and more addicts are looking for treatment rather than continuing to sink further into the gutters of civil society. There are no promises that Guterres, as the UN’s Secretary General, would use his knowledge with decriminalization to influence a brand new scheme of international policy with respect to illegal drugs.
Policy experts say it is still too early to tell whether Guterres would use his power to revise international drug law, but suggest his controls could be beneficial in persuading world leaders to give some serious consideration to alternative penalties.
As Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, pointed out in his analysis of the situation, international drug treaties “Do not require nations to maintain criminal penalties on drug use,” which gives the global community an opening to explore a total decriminalization model.
Although there is some controversy over whether decriminalization actually works, with many American law enforcement agencies claiming the elimination of criminal penalties for drug possession only increases distribution, it is really the variation of local, state and federal law that causes all of the problems.
The United States would undoubtedly benefit from a uniform drug decriminalization policy similar to the concept that has been working in Portugal for the past 15 years. Law enforcement in some areas of Massachusetts, where the heroin epidemic is spiraling out of control, has opted to use a more common sense approach to the drug problem.
The Gloucester Police Department now offers complimentary treatment programs for drug offenders rather than send them to jail a concept that more police agencies all over the country could learn from. If all goes in favor of Guterres taking over as the leader of the UN, he would replace the current Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the beginning of 2017.
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