To confront the global drug problem we must put people first, UNODC tells World Health Assembly

30 May 2016 - Globally, some 27 million people suffer from drug use disorders, with almost 200,000 losing their lives each year to overdose and other drug-related causes. Meanwhile, some 13 per cent of those who inject drugs are infected with HIV, compared with less than one per cent among the general population. Against this backdrop, these, and other challenges, were addressed in a statement issued to the Secretariat of the WHO's 69th World Health Assembly.

UNODC Statement at the Sixty-ninth World Health Assembly

Geneva, 27/28 May 2016

In 2009, the UN adopted the Political Declaration and Plan of Action on International Cooperation towards an Integrated and Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem. This defined the action to be taken by Member States as well as goals to be achieved by 2019.

The challenges posed by the world drug problem continue and change at a pace that is straining on the capacities of many health authorities, as well as criminal justice systems.

• Globally, some 27 million people suffer from drug use disorders.
• Almost 200,000 people lose their lives each year to overdose and other drug-related causes.
• Some 13 per cent of people who inject drugs are infected with HIV, compared with less than one per cent among the general population.
• Three-quarters of the world's population have little or no access to controlled medicines for pain relief, including an estimated 5.5 million terminal cancer patients and one million end-stage AIDS patients every year.
• New psychoactive substances continue to proliferate at unprecedented rates with more than 600 substances reported in over 100 countries, and have led to increased abuse, hospital emergency admissions and in some cases fatalities.

The 2016 Special Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGASS) on Drugs, only the third in the history of the United Nations, therefore took place at a critical time, and offered the chance to assess progress and setbacks, and to find a way forward.

The message that has emerged from the many discussions held at UNGASS was that global drug policies must put people first.

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Thumbnail: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime