New report on the global drug policy
The Global Commission on Drug Policy has issued a new report: “ADVANCING DRUG POLICY REFORM: A NEW APPROACH TO DECRIMINALIZATION”
This report highlights the damage caused through the criminalization of people who use drugs and explores the alternatives to this approach. It welcomes the moves made towards more rational and humane policies in many countries around the world and shows the necessity to go further in reforming national and international drug control regimes. The Global Commission on Drug Policy is calling not only on governments and the United Nations, but also on the public, to change their perception of drug users and rid themselves of their prejudices. People who use drugs have to be recognized as equal and responsible members of society, in their full rights and dignity.
Recent trends in HIV prevalence in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region underscore the harm caused by governments in pursuing punitive drug laws. While the incidence of HIV infection dropped by 35 percent globally from 2000 to 2014, new infections increased by 30 percent in the EECA in the same period, driven largely by injecting drug use.
As long as drugs are considered as evil, and thereby criminalized, they will remain in criminal hands. It is time for States to assume their full responsibility and to remove drugs from the hands of organized crime. It is time to take control.
The full report is available here and here you can also listen to the press conference on the report.
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