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Frank Tempel

Ending the International War on Drugs

“It is already clear that the legalization of cannabis in Colorado and Washington weakened Mexican drug cartels. The decriminalization of drug users, which the former Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan has urged as well, would be a step in the right direction for Germany. I suggest that the Federal Government looks to its EU partner Portugal, which decriminalized the possession of drugs more than ten years ago in compliance with international agreements. Uruguay also found a commendable balance between prevention and decriminalization. It is thus feasible,” declares Frank Tempel, the spokesperson for drug policy for the parliamentary group DIE LINKE in the Bundestag, on occasion of the UN International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking tomorrow. Tempel continues:

“In the next year the Federal Government has the opportunity to campaign for the renunciation of policies of repression at the planned UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs. Until then the Federal Government must advocate more strongly for the condemnation of the death penalty that countries such as Indonesia or Saudi Arabia impose due to possession of drugs. Arms shipments to Mexico are to be ceased immediately because of the drug war there.”