The UN convention prohibiting drugs must be overturned—according to the UN

JAMAICA, Uruguay, Colorado, Washington—more and more places are rebelling against the UN conventions that established the criminalisation of narcotics half a century ago. But the latest organisation to weigh in against the UN’s line is rather surprising. It is a branch of the UN itself.

A report just published by the World Health Organisation, an agency of the United Nations, makes a discreet but clear call to decriminalise drugs. And not just cannabis—the report goes as far as recommending the decriminalisation of injecting drugs, which implies the harder sort.

The call comes in a new report on how to prevent, diagnose and treat HIV among “key populations”, including drug users. Have a look at page 91 (page 113 of the PDF). Under “Good practice recommendations concerning decriminalization”, the WHO recommends that for people who use or inject drugs:

- Countries should work toward developing policies and laws that decriminalize injection and other use of drugs and, thereby, reduce incarceration. - Countries should work toward developing policies and laws that decriminalize the use of clean needles and syringes (and that permit NSPs [needle and syringe programmes]) and that legalize OST [opioid substitution therapy] for people who are opioid-dependent. - Countries should ban compulsory treatment for people who use and/or inject drugs.

This is all rather different from the line taken by the UN’s 1988 convention (see page 3, or page 12 of the PDF), which states that:

Subject to its constitutional principles and the basic concepts of its legal system, each Party shall adopt such measures as may be necessary to establish as a criminal offence under its domestic law, when committed intentionally, the possession, purchase or cultivation of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances for personal consumption.

So there you have it: the UN’s long-standing policy of criminalising drug use should be overturned—according to the UN. Clear enough?

Dig deeper:

The difference between legalising and decriminalising drugs (June 2014)