Latin judges denounce drug policy as a failure

During the V Latin Conference on Harm Reduction held in Porto (Portugal) last July 1- 4, judges from Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Portugal and Spain gave a joint statement on drug policy and human rights. Among other issues, they stated: "Public drug policies have failed as they haven´t achieved the expected goals of reducing drug use nor have punished big criminal organisations (...) International co-operation in criminal matters is one of the weakest areas in Criminal Law, with a lot of bilateral, multilateral, international instruments that show general fragility and that must be improved within a global framework to achieve the goals they were conceived for".