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Found this on www.earth-link.nl
Ztupit...!
HUMAN RIGHTS FOR THE WORLD?S DRUG USERS
Fed up with being stigmatized and persecuted
By Mat Southwell
It is understandable that drug use provokes fear and uncertainty. It is absolutely right that we hold an informed and rational debate about it. But the voices of drug users are rarely heard. Prohibition drives us, the drug users, underground. The stigma associated with being a public drug user is so great that many break cover only when compelled to do so, by health, social or legal problems. When we are asked to speak, it is often to play out scripted roles, as victims or villains, repenting of our past indiscretions. Politicians and the media wish to portray us only as hopeless, lost and in need of redemption.
Frankly, we?ve had enough. There?s a small but growing movement of users who are no longer willing to sit back and have our human rights infringed and our culture denigrated. For many of us, drug use is a dynamic and exciting social activity and forms a key part of our culture. As such, drug use is clearly protected by the United Nations Charter on Human Rights.
Some may argue that drug-related risks are self-inflicted. However, we would not oppose the acute treatment and rehabilitation of those injured while playing sports. Many sports in fact carry higher statistical risks of death and injury than many forms of drug-taking. When a dance-drug user takes ecstasy, he?s statistically 700 times less likely to die than a parachute jumper. This is despite the fact that prohibition escalates and enhances the potential health and social risks of drug use. Where drug users face difficulties, they would be better managed in a climate free of judgment and punishment. Mainstream culture borrows freely from drug culture. In fact, many dance-drug takers feel that their culture has been repackaged by Tony Blair as the ?Cool Britannia? product. The vibrant, 24-hour cities promoted by New Labour are the centers of dance-drugs culture. Yet New Labour?s leaders instinctively scapegoat drug users. Many dance-drug users languish in British prisons for up to five years, for buying the equivalent of a round of drinks. In Chemical Britannia, the drug culture creates significant wealth for both illicit and legitimate businesses, while expecting the consumers to live with a constant fear of exposure and discrimination. The move toward routine use of drug screening by the government and companies threatens our rights to drive and to be employed, despite the fact that a period of intoxication may have taken place more than a month prior to the test. This singles us out for persecution.
Of course, with rights come responsibilities. As drug users, we must engage in a dialogue about how to manage and effectively regulate drug-taking. However, the refusal to recognize the cultural significance of drug-taking only serves to reinforce and widen the gap between the chemical generation-and those who smoke but never inhaled.
Southwell is the Network Coordinator for the National Drug Users Network and a founding member of the Dance Drugs Alliance.
(Newsweek, November 1, 1999)
Fed up with being stigmatized and persecuted
By Mat Southwell
It is understandable that drug use provokes fear and uncertainty. It is absolutely right that we hold an informed and rational debate about it. But the voices of drug users are rarely heard. Prohibition drives us, the drug users, underground. The stigma associated with being a public drug user is so great that many break cover only when compelled to do so, by health, social or legal problems. When we are asked to speak, it is often to play out scripted roles, as victims or villains, repenting of our past indiscretions. Politicians and the media wish to portray us only as hopeless, lost and in need of redemption.
Frankly, we?ve had enough. There?s a small but growing movement of users who are no longer willing to sit back and have our human rights infringed and our culture denigrated. For many of us, drug use is a dynamic and exciting social activity and forms a key part of our culture. As such, drug use is clearly protected by the United Nations Charter on Human Rights.
Some may argue that drug-related risks are self-inflicted. However, we would not oppose the acute treatment and rehabilitation of those injured while playing sports. Many sports in fact carry higher statistical risks of death and injury than many forms of drug-taking. When a dance-drug user takes ecstasy, he?s statistically 700 times less likely to die than a parachute jumper. This is despite the fact that prohibition escalates and enhances the potential health and social risks of drug use. Where drug users face difficulties, they would be better managed in a climate free of judgment and punishment. Mainstream culture borrows freely from drug culture. In fact, many dance-drug takers feel that their culture has been repackaged by Tony Blair as the ?Cool Britannia? product. The vibrant, 24-hour cities promoted by New Labour are the centers of dance-drugs culture. Yet New Labour?s leaders instinctively scapegoat drug users. Many dance-drug users languish in British prisons for up to five years, for buying the equivalent of a round of drinks. In Chemical Britannia, the drug culture creates significant wealth for both illicit and legitimate businesses, while expecting the consumers to live with a constant fear of exposure and discrimination. The move toward routine use of drug screening by the government and companies threatens our rights to drive and to be employed, despite the fact that a period of intoxication may have taken place more than a month prior to the test. This singles us out for persecution.
Of course, with rights come responsibilities. As drug users, we must engage in a dialogue about how to manage and effectively regulate drug-taking. However, the refusal to recognize the cultural significance of drug-taking only serves to reinforce and widen the gap between the chemical generation-and those who smoke but never inhaled.
Southwell is the Network Coordinator for the National Drug Users Network and a founding member of the Dance Drugs Alliance.
(Newsweek, November 1, 1999)
so I could read all that! hahaha
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