HUMAN RIGHTS FOR THE WORLD'S DRUG USERS

Fed Up With Being Stigmatized And Persecuted

It is understandable that drug use provokes fear and uncertainty. It is
absolutely right that we hold an informed and rational debate about it. But
the voices of drug users are rarely heard. Prohibition drives us, the drug
users, underground.

The stigma associated with being a public drug user is so great that many
break cover only when compelled to do so, by health, social or legal
problems. When we are asked to speak, it is often to play out scripted
roles, as victims or villains, repenting of our past indiscretions.
Politicians and the media wish to portray us only as hopeless, lost and in
need of redemption.

Frankly, we've had enough. There's a small but growing movement of users
who are no longer willing to sit back and have our human rights infringed
and our culture denigrated. For many of us, drug use is a dynamic and
exciting social activity and forms a key part of our culture. As such, drug
use is clearly protected by the United Nations Charter on Human Rights.

Some may argue that drug-related risks are self-inflicted. However, we
would not oppose the acute treatment and rehabilitation of those injured
while playing sports. Many sports in fact carry higher statistical risks of
death and injury than many forms of drug-taking.

When a dance-drug user takes ecstasy, he's statistically 700 times less
likely to die than a parachute jumper. This is despite the fact that
prohibition escalates and enhances the potential health and social risks of
drug use. Where drug users face difficulties, they would be better managed
in a climate free of judgment and punishment.

Mainstream culture borrows freely from drug culture. In fact, many
dance-drug takers feel that their culture has been repackaged by Tony Blair
as the "Cool Britannia" product. The vibrant, 24-hour cities promoted by
New Labour are the centers of dance-drugs culture. Yet New Labour's leaders
instinctively scapegoat drug users.

Many dance-drug users languish in British prisons for up to five years, for
buying the equivalent of a round of drinks. In Chemical Britannia, the drug
culture creates significant wealth for both illicit and legitimate
businesses, while expecting the consumers to live with a constant fear of
exposure and discrimination.

The move toward routine use of drug screening by the government and
companies threatens our rights to drive and to be employed, despite the
fact that a period of intoxication may have taken place more than a month
prior to the test.

This singles us out for persecution. Of course, with rights come
responsibilities. As drug users, we must engage in a dialogue about how to
manage and effectively regulate drug-taking. However, the refusal to
recognize the cultural significance of drug-taking only serves to reinforce
and widen the gap between the chemical generation--and those who smoked but
never inhaled.