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Via Transform, UN Drug Czar Antonio-Maria Costa appears to be coming to grips with the inevitable consequences of the international drug war:

"The first unintended consequence is a huge criminal black market that thrives in order to get prohibited substances from producers to consumers, whether driven by a 'supply push’ or a 'demand pull', the financial incentives to enter this market are enormous. There is no shortage of criminals competing to claw out a share of a market in which hundred fold increases in price from production to retail are not uncommon." (p.10)

"The second unintended consequence is what one night call policy displacement. Public health, which is clearly the first principle of drug control…was displaced into the background." (p.10)

"The third unintended consequence is geographical displacement. lt is often called the balloon effect because squeezing (by tighter controls) one place produces a swelling (namely an increase)in another place…" (p.10)

"A system appears to have been created in which those who fall into the web of addiction find themselves excluded and marginalized from the social mainstream, tainted with a moral stigma, and often unable to find treatment even when they may be motivated to want it." (p.11)

"The concept of harm reduction is often made into an unnecessarily controversial issue as if there were a contradiction between (i) prevention and treatment on one hand and (ii) reducing the adverse health and social consequences of drug use on the other hand. This is a false dichotomy. These policies are complementary." (p.18)

"It stands to reason, then, that drug control, and the implementation of the drug Conventions, must proceed with due regard to health and human rights." (p.19)

Obviously, there are many good things to be said about all of this. One could never expect such candor from American drug warriors, thus Costa has taken a bold step towards a more honest and accountable drug policy discussion. Yet it was this same man who recently disparaged the attendees of the 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference as "lunatics" who were "obviously on drugs."

How then can one reconcile the above quotes from Costa with his vicious mischaracterization of the very people who've been saying those things for decades? He's literally mumbling our talking points out of one side of his mouth while hurling reckless insults at us from the other. He says things like "There is indeed a spirit of reform in the air," only to then bash the majority of reformers as crazy, drug-charged ideologues with nothing to contribute.

So, as the self-evident truth of our beliefs becomes increasingly impossible to ignore, don't expect the drug war leaders to thank us for our tireless efforts to bring such matters to light. We will always be elbowed to the side, even as our words and ideas work their way into the minds and out of the mouths of those we've lobbied for so long. On that glorious day when the wall comes crashing down, they will just pat one another on the back and behave as though this had been the plan from day one.

That is the future of drug policy reform. There will be no glory for the brave men and women that dedicated their minds and bodies to this, but it doesn't matter because that's never what it was about. The reward we seek is a healthier nation, a better world, the warm embrace of the freedom and justice we've been promised but have yet to behold. One needn't be insane or on drugs to dream of such things.

Editor's Note: Amanda B. Shaffer is an intern at StoptheDrugWar.org. Her bio is in our "staff" section at http://stopthedrugwar.org/about/staff

As Scott yesterday blogged, this past Wednesday Comedy Central aired an episode about children getting high off of cat urine resulting in the banning of cats in Southpark. The DEA gets called in to enforce the ban. At the end of the episode, Gerald (the man who leads a fight to prohibit cats) gets high himself off of cat urine. After being caught, he publicly states cats should once again be legal because “Cats aren’t the problem, we are the problem.”

The cat urine episode is based, in part, on reports that surfaced a few months ago about kids saving human feces, fermenting it, and then inhaling the gasses to get high. The show referred to the squirting of cat urine in one’s face as “cheesing,” likely a send-up of a hybrid drug that involves mixing heroin with over-the-counter cold tablets such as Tylenol PM. The mixture is snorted rather than injected like pure heroin.

The message here is that some kids will get high. If illegal drugs are inaccessible, curious youths will find other ways to alter their consciousness. Clearly outlawing cats is just as absurd as outlawing human feces.

However, this is not the first Southpark episode to deal with drugs, and I doubt it will be the last. The first episode concerning drugs was in season 4 entitled “Timmy 2000.” The episode discussed the overprescribing of prescription drugs to children, specifically Ritalin. In 2000, the overprescribing of Ritalin (a drug used for ADD) became a nation-wide concern. Southpark broached the subject by showing how dull all of the kids became when they took it, eventually landing them at a Phil Collins concert. A remedy made by Chef removed the Ritalin from their systems, and the children then realized that they openly chose to go an extremely lame concert.

A few episodes feature the character Towelie. Towelie is an engineered smart towel that appears whenever the boys’ conversation involves water. Towelie is known for always wanting to get high. But every time he does he runs into some sort of trouble. Mostly he forgets what he is doing or comes up with a bad idea. It seems to me that Stone and Parker use the Towelie character to illustrate that marijuana isn’t harmful; it just can make one forgetful sometimes and possibly leave one unable to decipher good ideas from the bad ones.

2004: the year steroid controversy engulfed the sports world and Southpark’s “Up and Down Steroid” aired. The episode depicted the dangers of using steroids when Jimmy turns to them to win top athlete in the Special Olympics. In the end Jimmy wins the honor of top athlete, breaking many Special Olympic records along the way, but also hurting the ones he loves. Eventually, guilt overcomes him, and Jimmy returns the medal presented to him by baseball superstars (and notorious steroid users) Mark McGuire, Jason Giambi, and Barry Bonds. He follows with a speech, stating that “Taking steroids is like pretending to be handicapped at the Special Olympics because you are taking all of the fairness out of the game.” Once again Parker and Stone brilliantly brought to light a serious and adverse issue.

During the same season, Southpark aired the episode “Quest for Ratings,” which depicted the dangers of cough medication (at least those containing dextromethorphan). Misinformed, some of the students drink cough syrup in order to come up with creative ideas to boost ratings for the Southpark Elementary’s News Show. After waking up with a hangover and without any ideas, the boys realize the dangers of cough medicine and agree to report on the use going on in school. They learned that getting high doesn’t necessarily aid in the creation of masterpieces; it isn’t until they are sober that the clever idea is thought up.

I am ecstatic that a popular television show continues to cleverly address drug issues. The show is truthful and is able to attract a large audience, and at the end of the episodes one of the children usually makes a speech about what was learned from all the crazy antics.

Kudos to Southpark for standing above the crowd.

Excuse me. I couldn't help but wonder…I always take interest in groups of people. If you don't mind my asking, what brings you folks together?

Maybe it was our mixed ages or the obvious absence of church clothes. He probably eats there every Sunday afternoon. Anyway, we all pause collectively, glancing at each other knowingly. Finally, Lennice Werth of Virginians Against Drug Violence breaks the silence, exclaiming, "Oh, you're gonna love this!"

Lennice and Michael Krawitz give the nice man a quick crash course in drug policy reform and he quickly expresses his support. Doug McVay presents him with a copy of Drug War Facts and the man returns to his frustrated wife, who clearly wishes he wouldn't talk to so many strangers. What fun.

I wish our politicians knew how easy it is to have a sensible conversation about drug policy.