MK Wilf: Legalize soft drugs

The Knesset Committee on Drug Abuse was scheduled on Sunday to discuss the conclusions of a report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which has declared the worldwide "war on drugs" a failure.

The report, authored by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other high-ranking policymakers from around the world, urges an "end [to] the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others." The report also recommends that governments experiment with "models of legal regulation" of some soft drugs.

In light of these conclusions, MK Einat Wilf (Atzmaut) on Sunday called for the establishment of a public committee to examine equating the status of soft drugs with that of alcohol and cigarettes, making their sale legal and regulated.

According to Wilf, the "Economist" magazine called for the legalization of soft drugs 14 years ago, after multiple studies showed that the global war on drugs had failed.

"We are not contesting that drugs, like alcohol and cigarettes, are problematic and even dangerous and harmful," Wilf said.

"At the same time," she added, "the information accumulated over many unproductive years of the war on drugs shows that there is room to explore policies beyond dealing with drugs as a criminal problem and to deal with them as a public health issue through educational, health and welfare systems."

"Not only have existing enforcement mechanisms not decreased levels of drug use, they have even created and worsened the problem of international organized crime," Wilf said.