The 2024 Mid-term review: Paving the way towards transformative drug policies grounded in reality

In March 2019, UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) adopted the ‘Ministerial declaration on strengthening our actions at the national, regional and international levels to accelerate the implementation of our joint commitments to address and counter the world drug problem’. At the time, Member States had agreed to conduct a mid-term review of progress made ‘in implementing all our international drug policy commitments’ in 2024, with a final review planned in 2029.

The mid-term review will be held at the margins of the 67th session of the CND in March 2024. This high-level segment is set to take place against a backdrop of devastating human rights abuses and major drug-related public health crises affecting numerous countries, while initiatives to regulate drugs at national level and calls for global reform are putting the international drug control system under unprecedented pressure.

In this advocacy note, IDPC lays out the main challenges and opportunities offered by the midterm review and provides recommendations for the global drug control regime to rise to the challenge of becoming fit for purpose.