The global narrative on the war on drugs has shifted. A growing number of governments are moving towards embracing a public health approach to drugs and are turning away from using the criminal law and punishment as the primary strategy to address drug problems. Canada has an opportunity to play a key leadership role in this shift, one that will see new approaches to drugs based on public health, human rights and science. To do this our federal government will have to change direction.
Over the past 10 years, the Canadian government has doubled down on a “war on drugs” approach by implementing mandatory minimum sentencing for low level drug offenses, spending millions of dollars fighting cannabis policy reform, ramping up expenditures on prisons and passing legislation that obstructs the development of new harm reduction programs like supervised consumption services. It’s time to take a new approach.
The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC) currently engages in international drug policy in several ways.
We are a member of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), the New York Non-Governmental Committee on Drugs (NYNGOC) and the Vienna Non-Governmental Committee on Drugs (VNGOC).
We participate in the Canadian Civil Society Working Group on United Nations Drug Policy (CSOWG). The CSOWG is consulted by the Government of Canada (GOC), particularly in relation to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the primary United Nations policy making body for drug-related matters. The CSOWG provides input into official government statements, positions and language to consider during negotiations on resolutions. GOC also draws from the CSOWG membership for civil society representatives on the official Canadian government delegation that attends CND. For CND66 & CND67, CDPC was part of the delegation.
In March 2024, at CND67, we co-sponsored two side-events and spoke at one on “Decriminalization as a Public Health and Human Rights Approach to Drug Policy”.
We have also made contributions to other international processes and bodies such as:
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:
Submission for the study on the decriminalization of homelessness and extreme poverty
Submission regarding the Human Rights Council resolution 52/24 - “Contribution of the Human Rights Council with regard to the human rights implications of drug policy”
International Narcotics Control Board (INCB):
Statement during the INCB Civil Society Hearing on the topic of "scenarios and possible responses to the rapid expansion of synthetic drug manufacture, trafficking, marketing and consumption".
Internationally, there is growing attention to the harms of the three international drug control conventions and increasing attention to violations of human rights, environmental impacts and calls for decimalization and legal regulation. There was a historic moment at CND 67 when, for the first time ever, the term “harm reduction” appeared in a resolution (E/CN.7/2024/L.5/Rev.2) and two resolutions went to a vote instead of the decades-long norm of being adopted by consensus.
Resources on International Drug Policy Reform
