U.S. Congress to Take Up New Drug Policy Commission

On October 15, a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives approved draft legislation that could represent a significant step toward a serious - and overdue - reconsideration of U.S. drug control policy. The bill, introduced with bi-partisan support, would create an independent "Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission" to recommend how to improve U.S. domestic and international drug control policies, an implicit recognition that the current drug-control strategy is not working. The bill would also assess the impact of Plan Colombia and the Merida Initiative.

WOLA's Senior Associate for Drug Policy, John Walsh, testified at a hearing on "Assessing U.S. Drug Policy in the Americas" at the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere following the mark-up of the bill. See John Walsh's testimony, where he lays out the need for such a commission.