Maybe it doesn't have the same meaning to you as it does to me. My roommates will recall that the 2008 edition of the UN World Drug Report sat in our living room for a good three months while I was writing my final paper for Terrorism/Counter-Terrorism. It made a wonderful conversation piece and coaster. I didn't open the report until a week before the paper was due, which was a terrible mistake - tons of quantitative data on drug use and production everywhere in the world. Even better? The report is written in non-UN English so it's very readable.And getting back to the point: why should you care about the 2009 UN World Drug Report? Because it's scandalicious, that's why. Antonio Maria Costa,* the Secretary-General for UNODC, now advocates for the decriminalization of narcotics based on the results seen from Portugal's experience with decriminalization. Bam! That's a big change from the UNODC's traditional stance on global drug policy. I'm fairly ambivalent about the issue but in general I'm against any policy that could contribute to the growth of ultimate frisbee players and/or jam bands.
*Sidenote: Earlier this week, I was in the same elevator as Costa. He travels with an entourage. Amazing.
