The UNGASS last week revealed the willingness of some countries to admit the failure and negative consequences of the ‘war on drugs’ approach to drug policy, and to move forward to explore alternatives for the sake of the health, human rights, security and development of communities.
Realizing that simply telling people not to use drugs and arresting them when they do wouldn’t slow HIV infections, health workers advocated for a new approach: harm reduction.
One year ago, IDPC elaborated five main “asks” for the UNGASS on drugs. The UNGASS is now just a few weeks away – so how close have we come to realising these demands?
As a contribution to the 2016 UNGASS, the INCB has published a report on access to controlled medicines, entitled "Availability of International Controlled Drugs: Ensuring Adequate Access for Medical and Scientific Purposes: Indispensable, adequately available and not unduly restricted".
To encourage debate around the needed changes in drug policy, TB/HIV Care Association, with funding from Open Society Foundations, organised the RUN2016 SA Drug Policy Week from the 1st to the 4th of February 2016, with the slogan “we need to talk about drugs”.
When discussions about the international drug control regime were still relatively ‘tame’ in international fora, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) included in the agenda of its 128th Assembly, a Special Session on 'The Legalisation of Drugs: Can it help Curb Organized Crime?’.
Opening the event at the OAS to launch the policy guide, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, emphasized that the injustices caused by the excessive use of incarceration present a grave problem for the Americas and that the guide is a necessary tool to promote policy change.
