The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) met on 23rd April 2013, and elected by secret ballot five members for five-year terms beginning on 2 March 2015. Four members were elected in the first voting round:

Following a subsequent special ballot to break a tie between Zhimin Liu (China) and Flore Ndembiyembe (Cameroon), 

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

ECOSOC elects INCB members

An INCB mission visited Iceland from 25 to 27 March 2014. The mission was conducted by the First Vice-President of the Board, Dr. Galina Korchagina, accompanied by Ms. Beate Hammond of the INCB Secretariat. The purpose of the mission was to discuss specific issues related to the country's implementation of the three international drug control conventions, to which it is party. This was the first mission of the Board to Iceland.

The mission met with senior officials from the Ministry of Welfare, the Directorate of Health, the Icelandic Medicines Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, the Ministry of Interior, the Directorate of Customs and the Metropolitan Police. The mission also had the opportunity to visit Vogur Hospital which is managed by SAA, the National Centre of Addiction Medicine. Meetings were also held with representatives from the Icelandic Red Cross as well as FRÆ, the Center of Drug and Alcohol Prevention.

Deliberations focused on recent developments in drug trafficking and abuse in Iceland, the Government's cooperation with INCB, measures taken by the Government to control narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and the chemicals needed for their illicit manufacture and policies to reduce the demand for illicit drugs and to treat and rehabilitate drug users. The consumption of methylphenidate in Iceland was also discussed with the national authorities.

The findings of the mission will be reviewed by the Board at its forthcoming session in May 2014 and will be reflected in the INCB Annual Report for 2014, which will be published in early 2015.

INCB visits Iceland

INPUD: "Drug conventions are not biblical texts"

On the 26th June 2013, people in 41 cities around the world gathered for a ‘Day of Action’ as part of the Support. Don’t Punish campaign – a global advocacy campaign to raise awareness of the harms caused by the criminalisation of people who use drugs.

To promote the ‘Day of Action’ for this year, the campaign team have worked with the professional video producers Not by Hook to create a new video – a call to all those who want to get involved in the campaign in 2014.

This video reviews the past year of the Support. Don't Punish campaign -- a global call to raise awareness of the harms caused by the criminalisation of people who use drugs -- and looks forward to what you can do in 2014.

Please click here to read more about this event.

Support. Don't punish-Let's make 2014 even bigger!

Coletta Youngers, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America says the International Narcotics Control Board overstepped its mandage in its criticism of Uruguay's legalization of cannabis. In addition, she emphasizes that the INCB is the only UN agency that works in secrecy.

Coletta Youngers says that the INCB is a tool of the Member States not the contrary and it is the only UN agency that does not have any transparency.

The INCB must be transparent 

Mike Trace, the chair of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) is sending a message to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) - a body that monitors the compliance to the UN drug conventions.

INCB should focus on its original mandate

The President of the INCB, Raymond Yans, accused Uruguay of acting as a "pirate" after having approved the autocultivation and legal trade of cannabis. However, Uruguay does not only have international obligations with regards to drugs, but also with regards to human rights.To read the full arcile by Rodrigo Uprimny in El Espectador (in Spanish), please see below.

EL presidente de la Junta Internacional de Fiscalización de Estupefacientes (JIFE), Raymond Yans, acusó a Uruguay de actuar como un “pirata”, por haber aprobado el autocultivo y el suministro legal, pero estrictamente regulado, de marihuana.

La JIFE es la institución encargada de supervisar el cumplimiento de las convenciones sobre drogas y Yans opina que la decisión tomada por Uruguay las viola. Una interpretación aislada de las convenciones parece darle la razón, pues éstas sólo admiten el consumo legal de marihuana para fines médicos o de experimentación científica, mientras que la nueva ley uruguaya prevé también formas legales de acceso a la marihuana para usos recreativos. ¿Significa eso que Uruguay es un pirata que desprecia el derecho internacional por admitir un suministro legal de marihuana para fines recreativos?

No lo creo, pues Uruguay, al igual que las demás naciones, no sólo tiene obligaciones internacionales en drogas sino también en derechos humanos. Y estas obligaciones en derechos humanos prevalecen sobre los mandatos derivados de las convenciones sobre drogas, como lo sostuve en una reciente columna. No puede entonces acusarse a la ligera como pirata a un Estado que decide adoptar una política que entra en tensión con lo prescrito hace más de 50 años por la Convención Única de Estupefacientes de 1961, si ese Estado justifica razonablemente que esa nueva política es necesaria para garantizar los derechos humanos. Ese Estado, en el fondo, busca respetar en mejor forma el derecho internacional pues prefiere cumplir con las obligaciones en derechos humanos, que son prevalentes.

Esto sucede en Uruguay pues la nueva ley tiene una clara perspectiva de derechos humanos y de salud pública; su propósito es evitar que los consumidores adultos de marihuana sigan sometidos a redes ilegales y mafiosas de distribución, pero sin crear un mercado libre de esa sustancia, que podría tener riesgos sanitarios. La ley prevé entonces formas legales pero estrictamente reguladas de autocultivo y distribución de marihuana. Por ejemplo, al igual que con el alcohol, no está autorizado el acceso a la sustancia por menores de edad; quienes produzcan sin autorización o manejen trabados serán sancionados; la publicidad está prohibida, etc.

Dados los desastrosos efectos sociales y humanos que ha tenido el prohibicionismo, los Estados tienen derecho a experimentar nuevas políticas en este campo, como la que está intentando Uruguay, a fin de garantizar en mejor forma la salud pública y el respeto a los derechos humanos.

La política uruguaya es controvertida y requerirá evaluaciones y ajustes, pero que Yans acuse a Uruguay de comportarse como un pirata por intentarla no habla mal de Uruguay sino de la JIFE. Muestra que en el fondo el pirata es Yans, que con su interpretación aislada y fundamentalista de las convenciones de droga, desprecia el derecho internacional, pues ignora las obligaciones prevalentes que tienen los Estados en derechos humanos.

And who is the drugs pirate?

During the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, INCB President Raymond Yans participated in an informal dialogue with NGOs. A summary of the meeting is available below:

We tend to meet with government agencies, but also NGOs. Those we meet are advised by us. NGOs are an important link for us. They are important for drug prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. 

Given the changes taking place in Uruguay, USA and Europe around drug policy, how can the INCB react to these changes in the future?

The INCB’s role is that of a monitor. We look in all the scope of our drug policies. Our role is not just law enforcement. We also deal with prevention and treatment as fundamental pillars of drug policy. We also advise agencies, and when there is a breach in the conventions we have the duty to advise states when they are no longer in line with the countries. Governments are fully responsible to establish their own drug policies. We always insist that effectiveness of prevention programmes depends on how balanced their strategy is. We can assist member states with our technical knowledge. NGOs help us on how to promote the best approach. Kazakhstan, Spain, and others, have different attitudes towards drug policy. We have to appear as independent as we cannot force countries to adopt cultural values or policies that are not in line with their cultural considerations. 

We welcomed the INCB statement on the death penalty. Will the INCB also do the same for harm reduction?

There is a misunderstanding which may be only based on semantics and ideology. In your question you ask whether we would recognise harm reduction as under human rights. As if harm reduction were a human right! Human rights are access to health. The conventions do not contain or refer or define harm reduction. The conventions say that countries need to take measures for prevention, treatment, after care and rehab. Certain aspects of the so-called harm reduction measures are of course useful, but member states are not obliged by the conventions to adopt what some of you call harm reduction. Let’s be frank, harm reduction is ideological. They should not be carried out as an alternative to other interventions such as drug abuse prevention. To come back to pragmatism, let’s see what harm reduction is – we can really call them prevention measures. Some of these measures can be considered as useful – treatment measures can be useful. If you take NSPs, these are in line with the conventions. Those of you who were there when I presented the report, you will have heard me mention access to essential medicines, including methadone and buprenorphine. These are in line with the conventions – but are not required – member states have the power to allow for those or not. We remind governments of the fact that none of the conventions require users to be punished. But governments may choose to do so. Drug users should be considered as human beings, not outcasts and proportionate responses should be given. VNGOC explains that harm reduction was never defined by us to be an alternative to other measures. We need to be clear on definitions.


How does the INCB work when countries’ proposals for estimates for access to essential medicines are clearly insufficient for their needs?

The use of drugs should be limited because of their addictive nature, to medical and scientific purposes. There are annual estimates made by every member state at the beginning of each year. Countries are also free to submit reports on statistics and trade on their needs for import, export, etc. If a country does not submit an estimate (e.g. on morphine), the INCB does it automatically so that the country would not be prevented to improve the medicine. We do it on the basis of a standard daily dose based on consumption in the region. If we consider that an estimate is too low, we suggest increasing the dose, but this is up to the country. The INCB advises but does not decide. We have drafted a global report on the availability of internationally controlled drugs where we give recommendations to member states. 

We decided to upgrade our work with NGOs, in particular in West Africa. We ask them to provide the INCB information about the needs of people on the medical use of controlled substances so that the INCB can have more global information than the partial one (or scarcity) sent by governments. 

Compulsory treatment – what is the position of the INCB on the use of these programmes? 

We have to deal with the words in different political, traditional and cultural uses. INCB will support all member states in their way of tackling the drug problem as long as policies are within the framework of the three UN drug conventions. Concerning the example of Cambodia, after analysing the results of the Board’s mission, we urged it to continue developing community-based drug treatment programmes. We did that because there were two systems – camps being one of them, and the other being community-based treatment programmes. The results of the community-based treatment programmes worked better. In Kazakhstan, treatment was forced on people because there was no other alternative in the community. No doubt, we will promote community-based treatment there when it is possible to do so. But the INCB is not in a position to oblige countries to close down compulsory treatment if there is no other alternative. It was not the case in Cambodia where there are community based centres. VNGOC: if the INCB could strongly encourage countries to set up community-based programmes, in line with other UN agencies, it would be appreciated by NGOs. 

This is an ongoing dialogue. NGOs are invited to be in contact with the INCB Secretariat to provide the Board with analysis and data on the problems arising in individual countries. It is important for us as the whole drug control community is aware that governments are necessary, but the work of NGOs on prevention is essential. Drug users are human beings.

NGO dialogue with INCB President Raymond Yans

During the CND High Level Segment, INCB President Raymond Yans delivered the following speech

The examination of the political declaration and plan of action focuses on the health and welfare of mankind. We could ask ourselves what kind of situation we would be in today without these conventions. Without them, we would probably have about 100 million people consume drugs across the world. In fact today, we have 5 times less. UNODC estimated that the prevalence was much lower than alcohol and tobacco, two substances that kill much more people than narcotic and psychotropic substances.

It is true that time and circumstances changed since 1961. We had less UN members, there was no internet, no globalisation, no some global health challenges such as HIV/AIDS. Incidentally, today's high concentration of THC in cannabis was also different. Not that this alters the basic principles of the 1961 Convention. The access to these substances was only for medical and scientific substances, on the advice of the World Health Organisation. The second principle is that of multilateral consensus implementation.

High Level Segment - Statement by Raymond Yans 

From the 13th to the 21st March, UN member states gathered in Vienna for the annual Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). This year’s meeting included a High Level Segment in which countries reviewed (the lack of) progress made in drug control over the last five years, and agreed a Joint Ministerial Statement to reflect the challenges and ways forward.

Negotiations on this Statement ran for more than seven months, with countries unable to reach consensus on core issues such as harm reduction, the death penalty, and preparations for the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs. In the end, the final Statement ended up being another bland ‘as-you-were’ outcome from these multilateral discussions – something that was reflected in the relatively low turn-out from high-level officials (there were no Heads of State present, and few senior ministers).

But the statements and discussions at the meeting itself told a different story – one of a strained consensus, increasing frustration, and more open questioning of current policies. During the High Level Segment, statements from Switzerland, Uruguay, Norway, Guatemala, France, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, India and others all pointed towards the need to develop a health- and human rights-based approach to drug control. Ecuador went even further, calling for a reform of the drug control treaties: “The current UN drug system needs deep changes… We should not believe that one country or that one policy is enough to beat the problem… We need to demilitarise the current approach and accept social and cultural uses within a framework that respects human rights. Ecuador exhorts the world to be focussed on human beings not the substances”.

At the end of the High Level Segment – having failed to secure progressive language on the death penalty in the Join Ministerial Statement due to resistance from Iran, Pakistan, China and others – the European Union made an “interpretative statement” on behalf of 58 countries to declare their condemnation of capital punishment for drug offences. A responding statement from Iran, supported by more than 10 other countries, then stated that “the death penalty is not under the mandate of the CND… It is a criminal matter to be decided by each sovereign state… The death penalty serves as a deterrent against drug trafficking”.

During the ‘normal’ part of the CND meeting the following week, the debates and bad feeling were clearly persisting. In the Committee of the Whole (where individual resolutions are negotiated and adopted by consensus by Member States), frustrations were clear as Pakistan, Egypt and others continued to block any progressive language (even trying to renegotiate text that had been directly copied from the Joint Ministerial Statement, approved just a few days before). Resolutions this year covered topics as varied as recovery, ketamine, education and austerity – and the Russian Federation also submitted one on the role of sport and the ‘Olympic Ideal’ in drug prevention! But each resolution was subjected to tortuous debate, editing and obvious obstructionism.

As a result, the CND negotiations went right to the wire. The resolution outlining preparations for the 2016 UNGASS on drugs was the subject of fierce discussion and debate behind closed doors for much of the week, and compromise was eventually reached late on Friday 21st – long after most of the 275 NGOs present at CND had left.

The reason for the debate was that a number of countries – principally those from Latin America – wanted to make sure that the 2016 UNGASS was allowed to be “a broad and diverse debate without roadblocks or taboos” (in the words of Uruguay), a reference to the frustrations experienced with the Joint Ministerial Statement and the CND in general. The flash-points in the resolution focused on the role of CND in 2016, the role of other UN agencies and bodies, the role of civil society, and the physical location of the preparations (Vienna or New York). In the spirit of consensus – which permeates the proceedings at CND – language was eventually found to appease countries on both sides (the Chair threw off his headphones and everyone applauded when this was finally achieved).

Overall, it is important to look beyond the specific battles over individual paragraphs in resolutions – because the sense of frustration and dissatisfaction in Vienna was tangible and is clearly increasing over time. In a press conference, the UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov was asked how CND can claim there is a consensus on drug policy, when the use of certain drugs can lead to execution in one country and be completely legal in another. He glibly replied, 

It is a broad consensus”. But even that broad consensus is under increasing strain in the build up to a major review of the current approach in 2016.

For more details about CND, please click on the following items:

organised at CND, in particular on West Africa, cannabis regulation in Uruguay and the USA, the OAS reports on drug policy, modernising drug law enforcement, scheduling, etc.

CND 2014: Disappointing outcomes but the debate is heating up

The HCLU’s Drugreporter is launching a video campaign to debunk the offensive of the International Narcotics Control Board against drug policy reform initiatives.

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) is almost as old as the global drug control system itself: it was created in 1961, the year when the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was signed by UN member states. This treaty banned the non-scientific and non-medical use of some drugs (other than those popular in Western societies).

The INCB was created to monitor the implementation of the treaty and to ensure that illicit drugs are available for pain medication. The Single Convention is now more than 50 years old, but has never been evaluated. Without evidence to support the policies based on this convention, it has become dogma - holy text recited at the annual meetings of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) - light-years away from the reality on the streets. The original purpose of the convention – to protect public health and human rights – has been obliterated.

Debunk the INCB! – Video Campaign

Governments will convene in Vienna for the next ten days for the 57th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and its High Level Segment. They will meet to discuss the status of drug control and many will attempt to reaffirm the status quo and restate their commitment to a ‘drug-free’ world. But for the first time it is expected that a few other brave governments will no longer have the stomach to go along with this charade, and will openly question the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to drugs that has relied so heavily on law enforcement and supply reduction measures at the expense of human rights, public health and rational evidence-based policy making.

Today, at last, we can talk of real, actual legal reforms on drug policy that are outside the prohibitionist paradigm that has been dominant for so long.

In December 2013, Uruguay became the first country to make cannabis available to adults for recreational use, with the government regulating cannabis production, trade and sale. Two states in the USA, Washington and Colorado, have voted to create legally regulated cannabis markets, and Colorado began cannabis sales through licensed shops on 1 January 2014.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

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