Newsbrief, TerraViva United Nations

Global Drug Policy Needs Re-Thinking

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 5 2015 (IPS) - Global drug policy must be renewed with human rights in mind, UN University (UNU) said in a new report, leading up to the 2016 General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) next April.

The report, What Comes After the War on Drugs – Flexibility, Fragmentation or Principled Pluralism? launched on Nov. 3, explores trends and impacts of global drug policy. It was produced following year-long consultations with numerous member States, UN agencies, and civil society organizations.

While introducing the report, Head of UNU’s Office and one of the report’s authors James Cockayne said: “UNGASS 2016 reflects a growing sense amongst some Member States that global drug policy needs rethinking.”

The UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) is set to convene in April 2016 to discuss the global drug problem. A special session on drugs was last held in 1998 when the focus was total elimination of drugs from the world.

However, despite the previous UNGASS and several decades of the US-led ‘War on Drugs’, the report noted that there is a concern that the current global drug control regime has failed and has caused a range of negative consequences.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), illicit drug use has been stable at approximately 5.0 percent of the global population. In 2014, global opium production increased and reached the second highest level since the 1930s. Drug supply and use has led to public health issues.

Currently, opiates are the major source of overdose deaths worldwide. Outside of Sub-Saharan Africa, people who inject drugs also account for 30 percent of all new HIV infections.

The global drug trade is also associated to political instability and violence. UN Development Programme (UNDP) notes that drug trafficking groups in control of territories often commit significant human rights violations against residents.

However, militarized law enforcement and prohibitionist policies have also led to human rights abuses, the report added.

“Military and police interventions…risk significant human, economic, physical and social collateral damage, as entire neighbourhoods are destabilized and people are forcibly displaced,” the authors remark.

Such policies have disproportionately affected young, poor, marginalized communities which, in some cases, have lifelong and multi-generational consequences on human and social development.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), despite similar rates of drug use between white and black populations in the US, black people are jailed on drug charges 10 times more often than white people are.

The report highlighted the economic costs incurred by the ineffective drug control approach around the world, costing approximately 100 billion dollars per year.

“There is a real question as to whether these funds could be more productively spent in other ways with a more positive development pay-off,” the report stated.

The report noted that countries and institutions have begun to express skepticism on the use of orthodox, law enforcement first, approach to drug control. Entities including UNODC have emphasized the need to implement drug control policies that respect human rights and protect public health.

But perspectives still vary on drug policy, the report noted. Though some look to alternative approaches, other countries look to build on and strengthen the current policy.

The authors predict that member states will unite around an affirmation of the existing regime, along with a call for flexibility in its implementation. But they warn of policy fragmentation due to different interpretations of “flexibility.”

“The key to avoiding this outcome is to ensure that flexibility…is embedded in a process of collective drug policy development at the UN,” states UNU.

UNGASS could strengthen the global policy conversation which may lead to more effective drug policies, the report highlights.

“A more studied approach for developing policies…could deliver more tangible and achievable goals,” UNU’s Drug Policy Project Manager and co-author of the report Summer Walker told IPS.

She also told IPS that stronger drug policies should be based on scientific evidence, align with human rights and development, and feature public health.

The report’s recommendations include the creation of an Open Working Group on Drug Policy to develop global drug policy goals for 2019.

“We present the idea of an Open Working Group as a way for states to have an inclusive discussion of what works in drug policy and arrive at a set of agreed Global Drug Policy Goals,” Walker told IPS. Walker also added the importance of other groups including civil society organizations, health agencies, and education institutions in the discussion.

Other recommendations include the establishment of a forum to share evidence on drug control penal policy interventions and the development of UN-wide guidance on protection of human rights in drug programming.

“UNGASS 2016…should be seen not as the end of a conversation about drug policy, but as an opportunity to set up a structured and inclusive conversation between 2016 and 2019, when the current Political Declaration and Plan of Action comes to an end, and a new one will likely be adopted,” the report concluded.

Both the 1998 Political Declaration and 2009 Plan of Action were adopted by member States to fight the world drug problem including targets to reduce the supply and demand for illicit drugs by 2019.

In June 2015 on International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged for a redirection in drug policy. “We must consider alternatives to criminalization and incarceration of people who use drugs,” Ban stated.

“We should increase the focus on public health, prevention, treatment and care, as well as on economic, social and cultural strategies,” he continued.

Though the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) only contain one explicit target to prevent and treat substance abuse, member States will need to consider development and human rights in drug policy choices to align with all 17 SDGs.

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