Drug Trafficking Act
A resolution to improve world security by boosting police and military budgets.
Category: International Security
Strength: Mild
Proposed by: Enn
Description: The General Assembly,
Recognising the right of nations to legalise, illegalise, restrict or tax recreational drugs as they see fit, within the bounds of any past or future WA resolutions concerning such substances,
Aware that nations with widely differing policies on recreational drugs may share borders,
Conscious of the high priority many nations place on maintaining strong border control,
Asserting that nations on both sides of any international border are equally responsible for the prevention of the illegal trafficking of any goods, in either direction, across said border,
Recognising the right of nations to punish, according to their own laws, persons convicted of the production, transport, purchase or supply of illegal substances within their borders,
Worried that lack of accord over such issues may lead to conflict and division between WA member states, persecution of innocent states or individuals ostensibly to prevent traffic of recreational drugs, and/or aggressive support of illegal traffickers in order to strain, subvert and destabilise national law enforcement agencies,
1. Defines, for the purposes of this resolution, drugs as chemical substances that affect the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and/or potential addiction, and defining all drugs as being recreational, unless they are widely recognised within individual nations as legitimate medical substances and used in a manner deemed appropriate by medical experts, or they are used for a recognised sacramental purpose;
2. Demands that all nations, in taking action to suppress illegal drug trafficking, recognise the sovereignty of other nations; neither pressuring said nations to adopt changes in their recreational drugs policy, nor violating international borders in military or policing actions, covert or otherwise, without consent; nor using domestic recreational drugs policy as justification for any breach of human rights or international law;
3. Requires that no nation take action against recreational drug production by biological, chemical or biochemical methods, such as the introduction of crop-destroying pests or of abortive strains, which may be judged likely to affect the production of nations wherein said crops are legal, or likely to create health risks;
4. Requests that the law enforcement, customs and border officials of any nations sharing borders cooperate and share information, as judged relevant by both nations, in order to better prevent illegal traffic;
5. Urges that all nations producing recreational drugs closely monitor and publish records dealing with the production capacity and exchange record of any body or individual producing, transporting or purchasing such substances other than for personal consumption;
6. Recognises the right of vessels, engaged in the transport of recreational drugs legal in both exporting and importing countries, to use international territory without threat of impediment or harassment from other nations;
7. Reaffirms the right of nations to monitor vessels using international territory in order to prevent illicit activity;
8. Recognises the duty of both exporting and importing nations to closely monitor said goods at point of departure and arrival;
9. Recognises the right of nations to deny entry to vessels transporting recreational drugs.
Co-authored by Rehochipe
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I'm sure a few of you have noticed the presence of this in the proposal list. I submitted it earlier this week as a dry run, to try and see what level of delegate involvement there is in the list these days, without any TG campaign.
I was somewhat surprised to see the number of endorsements it's received. Without any direct campaigning by myself, and without a thread open on here, it's already got to about 80% of quorum, and a day left. So I thought it might be good to open up a debate thread.
I had a thread open on this back in January, but wasn't able to do any submitting back then. I thought it better to open a new one, since several months had passed, and some of the debates back then aren't really relevent to this.
FAQ:
1. Who is Rehochipe? A former nation, from about 5 years back. The core of this is a UN proposal draft they came up with but never submitted. With permission, I've adapted it over the years since. I would be very, very surprised to find a proposal with a longer drafting period. I mean seriously, 5 years?
2. What's with the definition of drug? This has been a sometimes vexing issue during the long drafting process. I would like to clarify that, as stated in the text, this definition can only be regardied as holding true 'for the purposes of this resolution'. If your nation has differing definitions for other contexts, that still holds true.
3. Doesn't this cover caffeine and alcohol? In a word, yes. They are drugs. In many, many places, they are perfectly legal. That doesn't change the fact that they are drugs. Also, it is not outside imagination that there might be countries where either or both of these are illegal - Mormon states for caffeine, for instance, and strict sharia states for alcohol.
4. Why isn't this in the Drugs category? Because it doesn't change member states' laws regarding the legality of recreational drugs. It is about how nations interact regarding particular substances.
5. What's with the 'The General Assembly' at the start, and the lack of a committee? I'm a bit old-fashioned when it comes to resolutions. Starting with the body doing the resolving makes it a bit clearer. I also don't see the need for endless committees. Resolutions are binding; they do not need committees to keep them enforced.
