The ACLU’s Graham Boyd reports on the first day of the U.N. Forum on International Drug Policy in Vienna. He notes:

In all but one region of the world, the NGOs found an appalling over-reliance on arrest and incarceration — appalling both because it proves ineffective in addressing drug addiction and because it destroys so many lives at such great cost. In all but one region, the NGOs called for applying human rights norms to their nations’ drug policies. In all but one region, the NGOs described their work in reducing the harms of drugs by providing sterile syringes to drug users to stop the spread of AIDS.

The one region to part course on these fronts was the United States.

Of course. He also includes this nugget about a “regional meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida [attended by] a chorus of organizations that are funded by or collaborate closely with the U.S. Drug Czar’s office:”

It’s hard to select a low point in the presentation of the Florida meeting, but I’ll go with this one: according Calvina Fay, director of the Drug Free America Foundation and a former advisor to the ONDCP, “the criminal justice system is a good referral system for treatment.”

A city upon a hill, folks; a city upon a hill. (via Drug WarRant)