Today, the Global Commission on Drug Policy releases Taking Control: Pathways to Drug Policies that Work. The report calls on governments to rethink global drug policy, to take some immediate measures to address drug problems, and not to shy away from the transformative potential of responsible regulation as a longer term solution.
The recommendations come at a time when more and more governments are recognizing the conventional “war on drugs” approach is a failure, and that new approaches are necessary. As part of this recognition, the UN General Assembly has called for a Special Session (UNGASS) in 2016 to discuss solutions to the global drug problem. At UNGASS and other diplomatic gatherings, this report encourages UN delegates to recall the mandate of the United Nations, not least to ensure security, human rights and development.
Members of the Commission include, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, former Colombian President César Gaviria, former Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss, Richard Branson and others. As part of the release, the Commissioners are meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson to present the recommendations in the report.
Their recommendations are as follows:
- Putting health and community safety first requires a fundamental reorientation of policy priorities and resources, from failed punitive enforcement to proven health and social interventions.
- Ensure equitable access to essential medicines, in particular opiate- based medications for pain.
- Stop criminalizing people for drug use and possession – and stop imposing “compulsory treatment” on people whose only offense is drug use or possession.
- Rely on alternatives to incarceration for non-violent, low-level participants in illicit drug markets such as farmers, couriers and others involved in the production, transport and sale of illicit drugs.
- Focus on reducing the power of criminal organizations as well as the violence and insecurity that result from their competition with both one another and the state.
- Allow and encourage diverse experiments in legally regulating markets in currently illicit drugs, beginning with but not limited to cannabis, coca leaf and certain novel psychoactive substances.
- Take advantage of the opportunity presented by the upcoming UNGASS in 2016 to reform the global drug policy regime.
