AVAAZ seeks 1 million supporters for petition to end the war on drugs

 

The ever impressive online actvitist organisation AVAAZ are challenging the war on drugs and calling for a new approach based on 'decriminalisation, regulation, public health and education' in their latest mobilisation. AVAAZ describe themselves as follows:

'Avaaz—meaning "voice" in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages—launched in 2007 with a simple democratic mission: organize citizens of all nations to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want.

Avaaz empowers millions of people from all walks of life to take action on pressing global, regional and national issues, from corruption and poverty to conflict and climate change. Our model of internet organising allows thousands of individual efforts, however small, to be rapidly combined into a powerful collective force. '

The latest campaign petition statement - which you can sign here - is as follows:

To Ban Ki Moon and all heads of State

"We call on you to end the war on drugs and the prohibition regime, and move towards a system based on decriminalisation, regulation, public health and education. This 50 year old policy has failed, fuels violent organised crime, devastates lives and is costing billions. It is time for a humane and effective approach."

The preamble text notes that the campaign is timed to coincide with the launch of the Global Commission on Drugs report (produced by 'heads of state and foreign policy chiefs of the UN, EU, Brazil, Mexico' ), set to make similar recommendations next month.

The campaign is seeking to get 1 million supporters - something that AVAAZ, with more than 8 million subscribers is more than capable of achieving (all were emailed today - and as we write the total is already over 100k with many more signing every second).

Petitions can often be ineffectual, but something of this scale, at this key juncture in the debate can have a real impact so we urge all our readers and supporters to help promote this initiative around their contacts and networks in any way you can.