This paper was created by young professionals and activists working in the fields of harm reduction, drug treatment, public health, social policy and human rights in various European countries: United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Romania. We are all members of Youth Organisations for Drug Action, a network that connects and supports young people who are working to reform drug policies in Europe, towards a model based on the principles of scientific evidence, human rights and cost-effectiveness. All contributors have both some educational background and work experience in areas related to the topic of this paper.

In this paper we aim to discuss the current situation regarding drug use in Europe among young people (aged 15-30, with variation in definition across countries) and the availability of services aimed at young drug users or potential users. We will also compare approaches adopted in examined countries to show which has proven to be to be most effective at reducing overall drug prevalence among young people as well as related risky behaviours and harms. Regional differences in drug culture, historical context and developing trends will also be taken into account.

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

Drugs, harms and youth: The state of drug use and harm reduction amongst youth in European countries

The initiative of the Ombudsman for Drug Dependent People was established in 2009 by The Polish Drug Policy Network and the Association of Patients in Substitution Treatment JUMP'93. The impetus to start with the Ombudsman's activity was an urgent need to ensure that drug addicts and users would receive decent legal aid and information on issues which were vitally important for them. There was also a need to improve the situation of drug treatment in Poland.

This is the second edition of the report written by Agnieszka Sieniawska and Jacek Charmast of the office of the Ombudsman for Drug Dependent People. Specific criminal cases discussed in the first report clearly demonstrated the gap between the objectives of the Act on Counteracting Drug Addiction, and the practice of its enforcement. Analysis of the cases included in this report shows that despite the announced changes, law enforcement continues to produce criminals prosecuting recreational users and addicted people instead of effectively eliminate drug dealers.

It is difficult to resist the temptation to abuse laws that criminalize the possession of minor amounts of drugs. This law makes it easy, simple, almost effortless to obtain excellent statistical results.This applies to police, prosecutors and the judiciary. The report clearly shows that despite the announced changes, the courts still deal with the cases of possession of small amounts of marijuana. People get labels of criminals, obtain criminal records, the prison become overcrowded.

Poland's drug law 

With the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem approaching in 2016, there was hopeful expectation that the mid-term review of the 2009 Political Declaration and Plan of Action on drugs would help to set the scene for a transparent, inclusive and wide ranging debate. It was hoped that the UNGASS would take into account the new realities confronting drug control systems – which are evolving at the political level and on the ground.

The CND must ensure transparent, inclusive and comprehensive dialogue so that strategies, policies, and programmes are adapted to address new realities and challenges.

IDPC Advocacy Note - Can the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs develop policies that meet the challenges of drug control in the 21st century?

The cannabis plant has been used for spiritual, medicinal and recreational purposes since the early days of civilization. In this report the Transnational Institute and the Global Drug Policy Observatory describe in detail the history of international control and how cannabis was included in the current UN drug control system.

Cannabis was condemned by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as a psychoactive drug with “particularly dangerous properties” and hardly any therapeutic value. Ever since, an increasing number of countries have shown discomfort with the treaty regime’s strictures through soft defections, stretching its legal flexibility to sometimes questionable limits.

Today’s political reality of regulated cannabis markets in Uruguay, Washington and Colorado operating at odds with the UN conventions puts the discussion about options for reform of the global drug control regime on the table. Now that the cracks in the Vienna consensus have reached the point of treaty breach, this discussion is no longer a reformist fantasy. Easy options, however, do not exist; they all entail procedural complications and political obstacles. A coordinated initiative by a group of like-minded countries agreeing to assess possible routes and deciding on a road map for the future seems the most likely scenario for moving forward.

There are good reasons to question the treaty-imposed prohibition model for cannabis control. Not only is the original inclusion of cannabis within the current framework the result of dubious procedures, but the understanding of the drug itself, the dynamics of illicit markets, and the unintended consequences of repressive drug control strategies has increased enormously. The prohibitive model has failed to have any sustained impact in reducing the market, while imposing heavy burdens upon criminal justice systems; producing profoundly negative social and public health impacts; and creating criminal markets supporting organised crime, violence and corruption.

After long accommodating various forms of deviance from its prohibitive ethos, like turning a blind eye to illicit cannabis markets, decriminalisation of possession for personal use, coffeeshops, cannabis social clubs and generous medical marijuana schemes, the regime has now reached a moment of truth. The current policy trend towards legal regulation of the cannabis market as a more promising model for protecting people’s health and safety has changed the drug policy landscape and the terms of the debate. The question facing the international community today is no longer whether or not there is a need to reassess and modernize the UN drug control system, but rather when and how to do it.

The rise and decline of cannabis prohibition

By taking cues from users’ self-regulation strategies, it is possible to design innovative operational models for drug services as well as drug policies, strengthening Harm Reduction as an alternative approach to the disease model.

A significant body of research on cocaine users recruited outside captive populations – that is, studies based on samples of users who have not been enrolled through drug addiction services – has been carried out in many European countries and outside Europe. These studies show a variety of patterns and trajectories of use other than “addictive” use.

This paper illustrates the aim of encouraging users’ informal controls while reducing the harm caused by punitive laws and policies.

Cocaine: towards a self-regulation model

Portugal enacted one of the most extensive drug law reforms in the world when it decriminalized low-level possession and use of all illicit drugs more than a decade ago. Results of the Portuguese experience demonstrate that drug decriminalization – alongside a serious investment in treatment and harm reduction services – can significantly improve public safety and health.

Drug decriminalization in portugal: A health-centered approach

Personal sovereignty informs both the LGBT liberation and drug policy reform movements. Police surveillance and repression, along with stigma and moral panic, have been used to great effect against both LGBT individuals and people who use drugs.

We need drug policies that move away from the criminal justice system, and address drug overdose, dependence, and use through a health-oriented framework.

 LGBT communities and drug policy reform

The current system for classifying illegal (and most legal) drugs is flawed, outdated and unscientific. Marijuana should be reclassified in order to facilitate research, ensure patient access, and permit its legal regulation. Established by the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) of 1970, this system erroneously places marijuana in the most restrictive class, Schedule I, reserved for drugs with a "high potential for abuse”, "no currently accepted medical use" and a “lack of accepted safety."

Marijuana reclassification: Removing marijuana from the controlled substances Act

On October 21-23, 2013, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) hosted in Denver, Colorado, the workshop “Launching Legal Marijuana: Regulatory Challenges and Options.

The overall goal of this workshop was to create a forum to learn from the unfolding experiences in the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington in implementing the legislation recently passed to regulate marijuana, as well as to debate ideas, lessons learned and best practices on this issue. The workshop was attended by delegations from Brazil, Mexico, Canada, the United States, and Uruguay involved in the regulation processes in their respective countries.

What follows is a summary of the meetings and discussions during those days. This document aims at providing an overview of the perpsectives shared during the meeting, as well as pointing out the questions and challenges identified by the participants regarding regulation of the marijuana market. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the individual views included in this document do not necessarily represent the general opinion of the meeting’s participants.

Launching legal marijuana: Regulatory challenges and options

This expert analysis critically assesses the political implications of the inclusion of the issue of illicit drugs in Colombia’s peace negotiations. It considers the ways in which the parties have approached the drug problem and lays out some of the critical questions regarding drug policy options. It also discusses what these negotiations tell us about the parameters within which drug policy reform may be realistically pursued in Colombia, which could also affect regional and
international approaches to the issue. Drug policy reform has already prompted some searching questions in Latin America and an increasingly heated global debate.

In the course of ongoing negotiations between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia the parties agreed to include the question of illicit drugs as the negotiations’ fourth agenda item, which is likely to test the process’s capacity to achieve far-reaching change. More than any other country (perhaps with the exception of Mexico), Colombia has shown that drug control policy needs urgent rethinking, as does the way in which the policy is applied. Will the peace negotiations mark a turning point in Colombia’s drug policy? And through the negotiations, will Colombia lead the way towards a more visionary international drug policy?

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

Illicit drugs and peace negotiations in Colombia: Challenges for the government and the FARC

Map of all states with broadened naloxone access laws and links to the text of the various laws.Unintentional drug overdose is now considered to be a leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Administering naloxone hydrochloride (“naloxone”) can reverse an opioid overdose and prevent these unintentional deaths. To explore these laws use the query box below. This page has been updated through February 2014.

Please click here to have access to the map and the explanations.

Map of State laws regulating naloxone

Many U.S. cities are taking steps to reduce the role of criminalization in their local drug policies. Seattle, Washington has been at the forefront of this effort, pioneering a novel pre-booking diversion program for minor drug law violations known as Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD). Santa Fe, New Mexico and several other cities have begun exploring this promising new strategy to improve public safety and health.

Publications