Vers une réforme du système de contrôle mondial en matière de drogues : les enjeux pour Washington

Les réformes repoussant les limites du cadre juridique mondial instauré dans trois conventions onusiennes, deviennent un enjeu délicat pour Washington ainsi que pour la bureaucratie onusienne. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

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By Martin Jelsma, Transnational Institute

The extent to which the ongoing drug-control reforms across the Americas are pushing the boundaries of the global legal framework laid down in three UN drug-control conventions has become a delicate issue.The decriminalization of possession for personal use in several Latin American countries and the establishment of a supervised injection room in Vancouver, Canada have already triggered protracted legal disputes with the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the quasi-judicial organ for the conventions’ implementation.

Recently, Bolivia’s steps to legitimize coca leaf and the legal regulation of cannabis in the U.S. states of Washington and Colorado, as well as in Uruguay, have forever changed the drug policy landscape. The question today is no longer whether there is a need to reassess and modernize the UN drug-control system, but rather when and how to do it.

For Washington as well as the UN drug control bureaucracy, this is a nightmare scenario. Over the past century, the United States has invested more effort than any other nation to influence the design of the global control regimeand enforce its almost universal adherence. Opening the debate now risks undermining the legal instrument the United States has used so often to coerce other countries to operate in accordance with its own principles.

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