Why is Europe refusing to change course on drugs?
Members of the European parliament hold 'Je Suis Charlie' signs last month. But bravery on drug laws is often lacking on the continent.
Members of the European parliament hold 'Je Suis Charlie' signs last month. But bravery on drug laws is often lacking on the continent.
Is Europe being left behind? Sometimes it feels that way. In the US, Colorado and Washington have regulated recreational cannabis use, with Oregon and Alaska following suit. Uruguay is doing the same. Latin America leaders across the continent are turning against the war on drugs.
So it can be somewhat dispiriting to see such little progress in Europe. As the world changes, it feels as if Europe is in stasis.
It's partly the fault of the EU. While cannabis reform falls under member state jurisdiction, European law builds on the UN drug conventions which have enforced the global war on drugs. These restrict the use of cannabis to medical or scientific purposes and obliges member states to make recreational use a punishable offence. So European countries have an extra layer of legality to break through if they want to pursue a more rational approach to the drug – they must bust through their national laws, continental laws and the UN convention.
That's doable. The US and Uruguay, as well as other countries like Bolivia or Jamaica, have shown you can push up against the UN conventions and often get away with it. That's especially true now that the US is redefining the convention in a way which allows its own experiments to abide by it. Any continent with countries offering decriminalisation, as Portugal and the Czech Republic have done, to harsh criminalisation, such as Sweden, clearly has room to manoeuvre. It just takes political will. Unfortunately, that's lacking at the national and continental level.
But a briefing paper by Tom Blickman of the Transnational Institute shows that below the surface there is a vibrant and optimistic push for drug law reform in Europe. At its heart is the Cannabis Social Club movement. Above them are the local and regional authorities who are advocating change. The ingredients are there for grassroots change, even if national authorities often refuse to recognise the spectacular failure of the policy they have been pursuing for 50 years.
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Soft Secrets
