SUPPRESSED REPORT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT DRUG POLICY

In 1991, an editorial in the British Journal of Addiction condemned
the inordinate amount of resources devoted to drug law enforcement,
and compared the war on drugs to the witch hunts of the past.

It's an apt comparison, since drug warriors around the world are
influenced more by myths, stereotypes and propaganda than by solid
evidence. And when confronted by evidence that conflicts with the
myths, stereotypes and propaganda of the drug war, the warriors seek
to bury it rather than address it head on.

The 1995 Cocaine Project, a joint effort of the World Health
Organization and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice
Research Institute, is a case in point.

You might never have heard of the Cocaine Project, and you might
wonder why we're discussing a report that's 14 years old. The answer
is simple: The WHO has never published the report, and even denied
its existence, at least until last week when it was leaked to a
Netherlands-based think-tank, The Transnational Institute.

This is unfortunate, given that the report sought the advice of
experts from around the world, assessed cocaine use from Australia to
Zimbabwe, and is the largest global study on cocaine ever conducted.

But a brief look at some of the study's conclusions and
recommendations reveals why it has been buried for the past 14 years.

For example, the report condemns the "over-reliance on law
enforcement measures," and recommends that "education, treatment and
rehabilitation" programs be increased to re-balance our approach to
problematic drug use.

Perhaps because the report was buried, this over-reliance on
enforcement continues today, and many experts are saying the same
thing the WHO said 14 years ago. But such recommendations don't sit
well with many drug warriors, who remain convinced of the seminal
importance of law enforcement in decreasing drug use.

Reasonable people can disagree on how best to deal with drug abuse.
But the facts are a different thing entirely, and what bothered the
drug warriors the most wasn't the report's recommendations, but its
statements of fact -- that is, its findings about the effects of cocaine use.

The report notes, for instance, that health problems from "the use of
legal substances, particularly alcohol and tobacco, are greater than
health problems from cocaine use."

If that weren't enough, it states that "few experts describe cocaine
as invariably harmful to health," and that problems "are mainly
limited to high-dosage users." Indeed, "occasional cocaine use does
not typically lead to severe or even minor physical or social
problems . . . a minority of people start using cocaine or related
products, use casually for a short or long period, and suffer little
or no negative consequences, even after years of use."

To top it off, the report states that the "use of coca leaves . . .
has positive therapeutic, sacred and social functions for indigenous
Andean populations" -- a reference to South American aboriginals who
have used coca leaves for thousands of years.

Now, however politically incorrect these conclusions are, they are
either factually correct or incorrect. If they're incorrect, they
ought to be countered vigorously; if correct, they ought to inform
our drug policy.

Instead, the WHO buried the report, largely as a result of pressure
from the United States.

It's interesting to note that in 2008, the WHO reported that the U.S.
has the highest rate of cocaine use in the world. Interesting, but
not surprising, for no drug control approach can be "proven" if it is
the result of intentionally ignoring the evidence.

In fact, the U.S. provides a perfect example of the folly of
attending to the evidence one likes, and ignoring the rest.

Now that the WHO report has been published by the Transnational
Institute, it's time for all countries, including Canada, to take a
long, hard look at their drug policy, and at the evidence, and to
ensure that the former is informed by the latter.