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What people say…

I believe that drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrong government policies have destroyed many more. In what other areas of public health do we criminalise patients in need of help? Surely it cannot be the job of the criminal justice system to prescribe remedies to deal with public health concerns. This is the job of public health professionals.

Kofi Annanformer General Secretary of the United Nations (May 2015)

For too long ideology and ‘tough on crime’ posturing have dominated global and national drug policy debates. It is time to be humble about the mistakes of the past and to embrace a rational and responsible policy on drugs.

George SorosChair, Open Society Foundations

Drug control measures cannot take precedence over health, safety, human welfare and well-being any longer. Our countries have suffered enough. The human costs are too high.

Cesar Gaviriaformer President of Colombia

For social problems like these, law enforcement isn’t the answer. Ice has been on the scene for over a decade and we’ve had a really strong law enforcement approach and it hasn’t resolved the problem. The time’s right now to look at the other options.

Ken LayHead of the National Ice Taskforce, Former Victorian Police Commissioner

Capital punishment for drug-related offences should be suspended all over the world, and there are both opportunities and pressures for countries retaining capital punishment to change course.

Ruth Dreifussformer President of Switzerland

A preference for policing over treatment and rehabilitation is worrying because evidence from the United States suggests that for every dollar spent on drug treatment we save $7 to the community, compared with $2 for stronger policing.

The Hon Stephen Jones MPShadow Federal Assistant Health Minister

This is an issue we’re not going to police our way out of.

The Hon Michael Keenan MPFederal Justice Minister

The time has come for the international community to acknowledge the evidence, call for and deliver evidence-based harm reduction strategies of global scale to reduce HIV and hepatitis C infections, and so protect the health of people who use drugs.

Michel KazatchkineUN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

New Zealand chose to take an innovative, harm-minimisation approach through regulating the market.

Peter DunneAssociate Minister of Health of New Zealand

There is plenty of evidence that declaring the War on Drugs was essentially a political decision with total disregard for medical or other pertinent scientific considerations about the problem.

Ernesto Zedilloformer President of Mexico

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