To the President of the Philippines

Commissioners Fernando Cardoso, former President of Brazil; Louise Arbour, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Canada; and Sir Richard Branson, Entrepreneur, Founder of the Virgin Group write an open letter to President Duterte of the Philippines, published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

THE GLOBAL Commission on Drug Policy was born from the recognition that the prohibitionist and repressive “war on drugs,” which has persisted for the past 50 years, has failed. Drugs have always existed and have existed everywhere, and it is illusory to believe that their use can be eradicated completely, particularly through violent methods.

Indeed, four members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy were heads of state (Brazil, Mexico, Poland and Portugal) when the United Nations approved in 1998 a 10-year strategy to create drug-free societies. Ten years later, however, drugs produced, trafficked and consumed were more available than when the decision was taken—and that upward trend has continued since. We now admit that a war on drugs will always prove unable to prevent drug supply and use in the long term, leading only to more pain and suffering.

For example, the levels of supply of “shabu,” of particular concern in your country, appear to be equally high in Thailand and Malaysia as in the Philippines, despite repressive policies. In contrast, countries as diverse as New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Uruguay, Bolivia, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and West African nations are now considering and even implementing alternatives, including laws regulating the use, possession and/or production of drugs, with marked success in harm and crime reduction. Even the military regime in Thailand has recognized its failure to reduce drug trafficking, calling it “an unwinnable war.”

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Thumbnail: Flickr CC Prachatai