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posted by chromas on Monday October 01 2018, @04:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the prohibition-always-works dept.

Canada signs on to U.S.-led renewal of war on drugs

Canada was rebuked on Monday by a group of world leaders and experts on drug policy for endorsing a Trump-led declaration renewing the "war on drugs" and for passing up a critical moment to provide global leadership on drug regulation.

The Trudeau government's decision to sign on to the declaration, released by the White House on the sidelines of U.S. President Donald Trump's first attendance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, contradicts Ottawa's previous skepticism of Washington's drugs war at home and abroad, and comes just weeks before cannabis legalization in Canada.

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said she believed that both Canada and Mexico − which also signed the declaration even though president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has repeatedly said that the "war on drugs" has failed and he will pursue new policy − likely have signed on reluctantly, held hostage by the North American free-trade agreement talks in Washington, over which a critical deadline looms.

Countries that signed the "Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem" were promised an invitation for their leader to attend a kick-off event with Mr. Trump in New York. The statement was not drafted in the usual multilateral process of a declaration from the UN and the wording was presented as non-negotiable. One hundred and thirty countries signed but 63 did not; the dissenters include major U.S. allies such as Germany, Norway and Spain.

Previously: Canada Becomes the Second Nation to Legalize Cannabis

Related: WP says Marijuana Legalization Makes World a Better Place


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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday October 02 2018, @02:10AM (1 child)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday October 02 2018, @02:10AM (#742604) Journal

    Let me break this down for you in tiny little pieces: the US's luck, and it WAS luck, was not a "scam." The Marshall Plan, however, was a masterful piece of political brinksmanship, notable for being probably the most benign of its kind ever enacted, but still put into place with the aim of essentially turning all Europe into an American vassal (see: NATO). The US is far, far less friendly with other (read: brown) people: witness, as just one example, what was done in Iran in 1953.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02 2018, @02:43AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02 2018, @02:43AM (#742612)

    Well, at the end of World War II, the US economy was the only one not in a complete shambles. This, along with the Marshall Plan, allowed the US to gain a massive cultural foothold across almost all the Western world.

    And what part of this is being considered the US scamming the other countries by the anon?

    Let me break this down for you in tiny little pieces: the US's luck, and it WAS luck, was not a "scam." The Marshall Plan, however, was a masterful piece of political brinksmanship, notable for being probably the most benign of its kind ever enacted, but still put into place with the aim of essentially turning all Europe into an American vassal (see: NATO). The US is far, far less friendly with other (read: brown) people: witness, as just one example, what was done in Iran in 1953.

    So, the US did not get its advantage due to "scamming" according to you, it was "luck" and "masterful" decisions/behaviors by the elites of that nation.

    Great, please explain that to the other AC who claimed it was via scamming or tie that in so we can get back to the original point.