LEADING WORLD POLITICIANS URGE 'PARADIGM SHIFT' ON DRUGS POLICY

Kofi Annan, George Shultz and Richard Branson Among Those Urging
Public Health Approach

Former presidents, prime ministers, eminent economists and leading
members of the business community will unite behind a call for a
shift in global drug policy. The Global Commission on Drug Policy
will host a press conference at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York
to launch a report that describes the drug war as a failure and calls
for a "paradigm shift" in approaching the issue.

Those backing the call include Ernesto Zedillo, former president of
Mexico; George Papandreou, former prime minister of Greece; Cesar
Gaviria, former president of Colombia; Kofi Annan, former UN
secretary general; Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of
Brazil; George Shultz, former US secretary of state; Javier Solana,
former EU high representative; Virgin tycoon Richard Branson; and
Paul Volcker, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve.

The commission will call for drug policy to move from being focused
on criminal justice towards a public health approach. The global
advocacy organisation Avaaz, which has nine million members, will
present a petition in support of the commission's recommendations to
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

The commission is the most distinguished group to call for such
far-reaching changes in the way society deals with illicit drugs.
Danny Kushlick, head of external affairs at Transform, the drug
policy foundation that has consultative status with the UN, said
current events, such as the cartel-related violence in Mexico,
President Barack Obama's comments that it was "perfectly legitimate"
to question whether the war on drugs was working, and the wider
global economic crisis, had given calls for a comprehensive overhaul
of the world's drugs policy a fresh impetus.

Kushlick described this week's conference as hugely significant.
"What we have here is the greatest collection thus far of
ex-presidents and prime ministers calling very clearly for
decriminalisation and experiments with legal regulation," he said.
"It will be a watershed moment."

Transform believes the case for overhauling the prohibition approach
to drugs is now overwhelming. It quotes Nicholas Green, chairman of
the Bar Council, who observed that drug-related crime costs the UK
economy around UKP13bn a year. "Decriminalising personal use can have
positive consequences; it can free up huge amounts of police
resources, reduce crime and recidivism and improve public health," he said.

But while politicians no longer in office are vocal in calling for a
change, incumbents appear less likely to back the idea of any radical
shift in policy. In its 2002 review of UK drug policy, the
parliamentary home affairs select committee, which included the prime
minister, David Cameron, called for the government to "initiate a
discussion" into the possibility of legalising and regulating drugs.

Despite the calls successive ministers have declined to endorse them.