ADVERTISEMENT
  • The Membership Club
  • PT Hausa
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
Friday, February 26, 2021
Premium Times Nigeria
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
Premium Times Nigeria
BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
UN headquarters (UN) [Photo: Google.com]

UN headquarters [Photo: Google.com]

UN’s drug war ‘killing our loved ones’ — Activists

byBen Ezeamalu
April 7, 2016
2 min read

Families of drug victims across the world will march on the United Nations headquarters in New York on April 18 demanding an end to the global drug war.

The UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Drugs holds this month and 50 families will be represented at the protest; nine‎ will share their personal stories of bereavement and harm as a result of the drug war.

“The stories of the family members involved in the Anyone’s Child campaign reveal the tragic human costs of the global drug war,” said Jane Slater, Coordinator of Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control.

“There is a hollow ring to the UNGASS slogan ‘A better tomorrow for today’s youth’ for the bereaved parents coming together at the UN,” said Slater, whose organization is helping to organize the protest

“Their presence here demonstrates that punitive drug laws have brought untold grief to every corner of the globe. Just as US alcohol Prohibition was repealed because it caused far more harm than good, it is now time to end the War on Drugs.”

Activists say the UN’s war on drugs has come under increased criticisms as the policy on drug prohibition has placed the drugs business in the hands of criminals, causing suffering to millions.

The drugs trade has an estimated annual turnover of $320 billion.

A commission set up by John Hopkins University and Lancet medical‎ journal noted, last month, that while drug laws had failed to curb drug abuse, they had fuelled violent crime as well as helped to spread HIV and Hepatitis C by encouraging unsafe injecting.

Gretchen Bergman, lead organizer of Moms United to End the War on Drugs, said prohibitionist policies must be ended for the sake of children across the world.

RelatedNews

VIDEO: What Bawa told Senate about himself

Facebook to invest $1bn in news industry

VIDEO: How missing Pharmacy admission made me into a passionate farmer -Chinonye

VIDEO: How we survived bandits’ attack, abduction — Kagara College Students

“Mothers are taking a lead position in calling for health-oriented strategies and widespread global drug policy reform in order to stop the devastating loss of lives,” Bergman said.

“The war on drugs has become a war against our own families. My sons are survivors of both incarceration and accidental overdose, but non-violent drug charges have a lifelong impact.”

The UNGASS on Drugs was billed to be held in 2018 – two decades after the last session.

Dangote adbanner 728x90_2 (1)

But countries such as Guatemala, Mexico, and Columbia pushed, in 2012, for the session to be brought forward by two years.

The countries cited an urgent need to reform the global drug control policy.

Donna May, a Canadian parent of a drug victim, urged the UN to demonstrate leadership and support an end to the global drug war “that killed our loved ones.”

“‎We are uniting with families all over the world. We here to tell our stories directly to our national leaders,” said May.

Another parent, Anne-Marie Cockburn, said she lost her only child, Martha, aged 15, to an accidental ecstasy overdose.

“She wanted to get high, but she didn’t want to die,” said Cockburn, a UK national.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Our drug laws are not protecting our children, they’re destroying families like mine everyday. We urgently need to end the drug war.”

  • WhatsApp
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Telegram
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket

Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.

Donate


TEXT AD: To advertise here . Call Willie +2347088095401...


JOIN THE CONVERSATION

  • Disqus (0)
premiumtimes



PT Mag Campaign AD

Previous Post

#PanamaPapers: Africa’s richest man, Dangote, his brother, Dantata, linked to shell companies in tax havens

Next Post

Labour laments Nigeria’s harsh economic condition, says fuel scarcity unacceptable

Ben Ezeamalu

Ben Ezeamalu

Ben Ezeamalu is an Assistant Managing Editor and the Head of Lagos Operations/Metro Editor at PREMIUM TIMES. A graduate of Microbiology from the University of Jos, Ben won the 2015 Africa Fact-Check Awards and was a runner-up in the 2014 CNN/Multichoice African Journalists of the Year. Twitter: @callmebenfigo.

More News

The panel of four Finnish judges listens to testimony in Liberia in the trial of Gibril Massaquoi. Leslie Lumeh/New Narratives.

War Crimes Trial: Witnesses tell court Massaquoi killed families

February 25, 2021
Ghana gets delivery of COVID19 vaccines from the COVAX facility [PHOTO CREDIT: @WHOAFRO]

Ghana receives 600,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine

February 24, 2021
Map of Ecuador

Ecuador: At least 50 dead in prison riots

February 24, 2021
War crimes suspect Alieu Kosiah in the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. New Narratives/Leslie Lumeh

‘Kosiah raped me four times,’ Swiss court hears

February 23, 2021
Gibril Massaquoi appears on the first day of his trial in Tampere, Finland. As his trial continues in Liberia, he will appear by video link from Finland because of security concerns. Saila Huusko/New Narratives

Massaquoi war crimes trial opens in Liberia

February 23, 2021
Pfizer vaccines used to illustrate the story.

Early data suggests great news about COVID-19 vaccine

February 23, 2021
Next Post
NLC PRESIDENT, COMRADE AYUBA WABBA, GIVING HIS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

Labour laments Nigeria's harsh economic condition, says fuel scarcity unacceptable

APC will shock those behind National Assembly crisis — Rep

Outraged by #PanamaPapers revelations, Nigerians ask Buhari to probe, prosecute named officials

Discussion about this post

Search

#EndSARS: Latest Updates




Polaris Bank


JAIZ Ad


NITDA Ad





Glo Ad

Subscribe to News via Email

Enter your email address and receive notifications of news by email.

Join 1,624,822 other subscribers.

Advertisement






netherland biz school Advert

Zenith Advert
ADVERTISEMENT

Our Digital Network

  • PT Hausa
  • Election Centre
  • Human Trafficking Investigation
  • Centre for Investigative Journalism
  • National Conference
  • Press Attack Tracker
  • PT Academy
  • Dubawa
  • LeaksNG
  • Campus Reporter

Resources

  • Oil & Gas Facts
  • List of Universities in Nigeria
  • LIST: Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria
  • NYSC Orientation Camps in Nigeria
  • Nigeria’s Federal/States’ Budgets since 2005
  • Malabu Scandal Thread
  • World Cup 2018
  • Panama Papers Game
  • Our Digital Network
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Data & Infographics
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • Parliament Watch
    • AGAHRIN
  • Opinion
  • PT Hausa
  • The Membership Club
  • Dubawa
    • Dubawa NG
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Store
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

Our website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.