Video

Summary/Abstract

Mr. Alexander Kwasniewski, the former president of Poland, advocates for the end of the Global Drug War in his opening plenary address at the Harm Reduction 2013 Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Content

There are three magical words very few politicans dare to utter: I was wrong. Mr. Alexander Kwasniewski, the former president of Poland is among them. Last May he published an op ed in the New York Times in which he publicly apoligized for signing a bill in 2000 that criminalized people who use drugs. He has realized that the society had to pay a terrible price for criminalization. It has not led to less drug use but filled prisons with young people and creates huge black market. This year he is attending the Harm Reduction 2013 Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he spoke at the opening plenary. The Drugreporter video advocacy team filmed his speech and we posted it uncut.