BEYOND 2008

On February 4-5, 2008 in Vancouver, BC, the second of two "Beyond
2008: North America Regional Consultations" took place in preparation
for a 4th International NGO Forum on UN Drug Conventions. It was held
at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, http://www.sfu.ca/dialog/,
a venue extremely conducive to this type of event with it's circular
seating arrangement and clear audio system.

I represented the Canadian Cannabis Coalition - an umbrella group
founded in 1999 that now has over a 130 national cannabis advocacy
organizations and stakeholders along with some international
affiliates, including 16 other attendees.

The Forum had an unwavering agenda to highlight achievements; review
the practice and collaboration of NGOs, governments and UN agencies;
and to adopt a series of high order principles to serve as a guide
for future deliberations on drug policy matters. The slogan, "A Drug
Free World - We can do it!" adopted as the 1998 UNGASS motto with a
target date of 2008 was noticeably absent and replaced with 'the
achievement of "significant and measurable results."

Participants represented NGO's with a diverse range of interests in
the health, treatment, prevention, criminal justice, human rights,
alternative development, prohibitionist and consumer sectors, and
spoke with passion and eloquence about their concerns.

What I found so unique about this particular dialogue was for the
first time (at least for me), instead of the usual preaching to the
choir, there were several front-line U.S. and Canadian civilian drug
warriors sitting in the same room.

This gave the "legalizers" faces, voices and a strong message their
foes had to listen to in a respectful manner. The "drug warriors"
also had faces and voices - Kelly Corcoran of Drug Free America, an
organization which would be laughed out of existence in Canada, along
with former Senior Speech Writer and Spokesman for Office of National
Drug Control Policy Kevin Sabet of SUNDIAL (Supporting United Nations
Drug Initiatives and Legislation).

They heard Dale Gieringer of California NORML express dissatisfaction
with having to travel to another country just to have his voice heard
because the conference which took place in Florida was only open to
those who advocate prohibition.

Someone else asked if forums held on racism were only attended by
whites, or women's issues attended only by men - and if not, where
were the voices of those affected by this issue included? In
Vancouver, the voices of drug users were heard along with those who
champion for and against them.

A representative from one of the levels of the UN was observing and
participating when asked, whereas I think he had the option of just
reading the report. He heard our concerns, and also communicated a
very clear message to us - the people who attend the UN meetings are
government representatives from our countries, and those are the
voices the UN hears. If we want those voices to sing a different
tune, then our work is to change the representatives to ones who
speak our language.

There was discussion about NGO's gaining Special Consultative Status
with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations like Drug
Free America Foundation has, but Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition (LEAP) mentioned his NGO made a request three years ago
and are still waiting for a reply.

There was so much to absorb - and unless I missed something, it
seemed to end abruptly without notifying us of a cut off for speakers
(like they did during the breaks), so I never made a couple of quick
points not mentioned yet, but will be included in a written report
which participants can submit for a short period afterwards.

The next step will be to combine all the reports from these regional
consultations for a final meeting in Vienna in July 2008: "Beyond
2008 - A Global Forum on the 1998-2008 Review of the United Nations
General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Illicit Drugs". I
understand they are hoping to have 300 delegates from North America
in attendance, so fund-raising is a big concern.

There were so many good points made, and so many quality speakers, so
be watching for other reports that have or will be posted. An
official report will be released on the UN NGO website,
http://www.vngoc.org/ along with the reports from the other regional
consultations.

DrugSense hosts a section for material related to the United Nations
Conventions so participants or other interested parties can
contribute and share resources and material at:
http://drugsense.org/downloads/un/

On the evening of the first night, the mayor of Vancouver, Sam
Sullivan, hosted a reception for all participants at the Ocean View
Suites in the Pan Pacific Hotel at Canada Place which provided an
excellent way to network along with delicious food and beverages.

Many thanks to local factivists [sic] Rielle Capler, David Malmo-
Levine, Kirk Tousaw and Michelle Rainey who hosted events and
assisted in many ways to make participants comfortable and the stay
enjoyable. There were great and random acts of kindness going on everywhere.

It was exciting to meet so many kindred spirits from eastern Canada
and the U.S. who live so far away and whom I can never cross the
border to see! I look forward to meeting and hearing from you all again soon.