UN backs prohibitionist drug policies despite call for more 'humane solution'

Plan adopted at special session focuses on reform and cooperation between nations but maintains policies that criminalise non-medical or scientific drug use
The Guardian (UK)
Tuesday, April 19, 2016

The 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) has approved an agreement that leaves in place the prohibitionist policies banning narcotics use, despite growing international discontent with the "war on drugs" – and the concerns of the nations that called the meeting. "So far, the solutions [to control drugs and crime] implemented by the international community have been frankly insufficient," Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto told the meeting. Within the General Assembly, the rift between countries interested in drug policy reform and those with repressive drug control regimes was evident.

tags:
russia | 2016 UNGASS | guatemala | prohibition | violence | human rights | regulation | cannabis | UN drug control | US drug policy | harm reduction | mexico | colombia