Civil society organisations in West Africa have been urged to effectively strategise and work together and with their respective governments to influence better policies aimed at addressing the drug problem in the region.
A recent ruling in Australia could result in naloxone, the life-saving drug that reverses opioid overdoses, being available without prescription from February 2016.
In Moscow alone there are more than 30,000 people who use drugs and activists there allege that people who use drugs are frequently denied their rights.
Following the dramatic executions of drug traffickers in April 2015, the Indonesian government decided to step up its anti-narcotics efforts, reinforcing public condemnation of drugs while slashing activists' hopes for progressive reforms.
After a UNODC paper promoting drug decriminalisation was leaked, UNODC claimed that the paper did not constitute a policy position. Transform analyses the full story behind the controversial paper.
The goal of the hearing was to update member states on Civil Society Task Force activities as well as to provide valuable input from civil society in preparation for the 2016 UNGASS on drugs.
Ahead of the UNGASS 2016, senior representatives of several United Nations agencies have taken part in a high-level multi-stakeholder perspective in Geneva to discuss the intersections between public health, human rights and the world drug problem.