误入歧途的"禁毒战争"
2009年6月26日
特写稿版投稿
诺瓦克（Manfred Nowak）、格罗沃尔（Anand Grover）
似乎一切都是"禁毒战争"。全世界的政府将其当作不受约束地侵犯人权和基于膝跳反射而不是科学证据的荒谬政策的借口。这已经导致了巨大的人权灾难，还破坏了毒品管制工作。
人权虐待十分普遍，这不是秘密。许多政府轻率地拒绝经过证实的保护吸毒者和社会健康的有效政策，这也不是秘密。二者都有充分的证据。
2003年，泰国执法官员在政府的"禁毒战争"中杀死了超过2，700人。超过30个联合国成员国----包括中国、印度尼西亚和马来西亚----违反国际法，对毒品犯罪保留了死刑----作为强制性刑罚。在俄罗斯，无数海洛因使用者无法获得鸦片替代治疗，因为政府禁止了美沙酮，尽管事实证明它是有效的。
在美国----和其他许多国家----因为吸毒者经常由于非暴力、低级的毒品犯罪而被监禁，导致监狱过度拥挤。这些犯人常常无法获得有效的毒品治疗或基本医疗保健。在哥伦比亚、阿富汗和其他国家，作物根除迫使成千上万罂粟和古柯种植者及其家庭深陷贫困，得不到任何替代性谋生方式，这种做法还损害了他们的健康。
在中国，成千上万吸毒者被迫进入戒毒所，他们可以被关押在那里长达三年，得不到任何审判、治疗或正当程序。在印度，人们死于不受约束的戒毒项目。
"禁毒战争"分散了各国在确保医用麻醉药能够得到这一义务上的注意力。结果全世界80%的人----包括550万癌症患者和100万晚期艾滋病患者----无法获得抑制巨痛的治疗；多数人由于处方限制无法获得适当的药物。
政府在确保获得供止痛或治疗毒品依赖用的管制药物上的失败，可能违反了禁止残忍、不人道或有辱人格的待遇或处罚的国际公约。此外，资源缺乏使有效的治疗变成了有效性得不到证实的项目。
这不仅是人权问题：这是糟糕的公共政策。研究显示：苛刻的毒品管制实践----包括大规模监禁----在控制非法毒品使用和与毒品有关的犯罪，保护公共健康上是无效的。科学证据显示：更加具有支持性的"减低危害"项目能够在注射吸毒者中预防HIV，保护人们的健康，未来的医疗成本也较低。对那些疼痛未经治疗的人来说，忽视他们的需要使他们和他们的照料者无法过有生产性的生活。
2009年3月，联合国在维也纳开会，以便为未来10年制订新的毒品政策。不幸的是，成员国所通过的战略中缺乏对人权的承诺。它为它所说的过去10年中毒品政策的成功向国际社会表示祝贺，而没有提到其所带来的损害。它提议在今后10年中继续这些政策，只做很少的改动。
周五，联合国将庆祝国际禁毒日（International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking）和支援酷刑受害者国际日（International Day in Support of Victims of Torture）。像联合国健康与酷刑问题特别报告员一样，我们利用这一机会来督促成员国结束苛刻政策，创造基于人权的毒品政策----其中包括减低危害，能够获得以证据为基础的毒品治疗和基本药物，以及受到保护以免在执法过程中遭到酷刑。
目前的把头埋在沙中的政治已经使太多的生命处于危险之中，如果联合国及其成员国继续把头埋在沙中，他们就会成为这些虐待行为的同谋。
格罗沃尔是一名印度律师和联合国健康问题特别报告员。诺瓦克是维也纳大学（Vienna University）人权教授和联合国酷刑问题特别报告员。
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/opinion/26iht-ednowak.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=anand grover&st=cse
June 26, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
A Misguided 'War on Drugs'
By MANFRED NOWAK ANAND GROVER
Anything goes in the "war on drugs," or so it seems. Governments around the world have used it as an excuse for unchecked human rights abuse and irrational policies based on knee-jerk reactions rather than scientific evidence. This has caused tremendous human suffering. It also undermines drug control efforts.
That human rights abuses are widespread is no secret. Nor is frivolous rejection by many governments of proven, effective strategies to protect the health of drug users and communities. Both have been well documented.
In 2003, law enforcement officials in Thailand killed more than 2,700 people in the government's "war on drugs." More than 30 U.N. member states, including China, Indonesia and Malaysia, retain the death penalty for drug offenses -- some as a mandatory sentence -- in violation of international law. In Russia, untold thousands of heroin users cannot obtain opioid substitution treatment because the government has banned methadone, despite its proven effectiveness.
In the United States -- and many other countries -- prisons are overflowing because drug users are routinely incarcerated for nonviolent, low-level drug offenses. These prisoners often have no access to effective drug treatment or basic medical care. In Colombia, Afghanistan and other countries, crop eradication has pushed thousands of poppy and coca farmers and their families deeper into poverty without offering them any alternative livelihood and has damaged their health.
In China, hundreds of thousands of drug users are forced into drug detoxification centers, where they can be detained for up to three years without trial, treatment, or due process. In India people are dying in uncontrolled detoxification programs.
The "war on drugs" has distracted countries from their obligation to ensure that narcotic drugs are available for medical purposes. As a result, 80 percent of the world population -- including 5.5 million cancer patients and 1 million terminally ill AIDS patients -- has no access to treatment for severe pain. Strong pain medications are almost unavailable in most African countries. In India alone some 1 million cancer patients endure severe pain; most have no access to appropriate medications because of restrictions on prescribing them.
Such failure by the governments to ensure access to controlled medicines for pain relief or to treat drug dependence may violate international conventions proscribing cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Moreover scarce resources are being diverted from effective treatment to programs with no proven efficacy.
This is not only a human rights problem: It is bad public policy. Research shows that abusive drug control practices, including mass incarceration, are ineffective in controlling illicit drug consumption and drug-related crime, and in protecting public health. Scientific evidence has shown that more supportive "harm-reduction" programs prevent HIV among injection drug users, protect people's health and lower future health costs. And for those with untreated pain, ignoring their needs removes them and their caregivers from productive life.
In March 2009, the United Nations met in Vienna to set new drug policies for the next 10 years. Sadly, the strategy adopted by member states contains scant human rights commitments. It congratulates the international community for what it says are successes of the past 10 years of drug policy, without mentioning its collateral damage. It proposes to continue those policies, with little change, for the next 10 years.
On Friday, the United Nations observes both the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. As the U.N. special rapporteurs on health and torture, we take this occasion to urge member states to end abusive policies and to create drug policies based on human rights that include harm reduction, access to evidence-based drug treatment and essential medicines, and protections against torture in law enforcement.
Too many lives are at stake for the current head-in-the-
Anand Grover is a lawyer in India, and a U.N. special rapporteur on health. Manfred Nowak is professor of human rights at Vienna Universityand a U.N. special rapporteur on torture.
http://www.nytimes.
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