A lot has changed since 1998, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the text of the outcome document being recommended for adoption at the UNGASS. Agreed at last month’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) meeting in Vienna and unlikely to be renegotiated this week, the outcome document has been criticized for falling short of an honest reflection of the current drug policy environment.

Despite the mountains of evidence that conventional drug policies have failed to meet their goals of reducing the demand and supply of illegal drugs – and have in fact worsened the situation by exasperating violence and creating barriers to health care for people with additions, among other consequences – the outcome document blindly applauds that “tangible progress has been achieved” without an indication of what progress is being referred to. The preamble “reaffirms” and “underlines” the three drug control conventions, and the text even includes a commitment to the goal of “a society free of drug abuse,” resembling the 1998 declaration to pursue a “drug-free world.” The document also omits any mention of the new approaches to drug policy – including cannabis legalization and regulation – that are increasingly being taken around the world.

Primarily because the text is negotiated by consensus and states have to settle on the lowest common denominator, the outcome document is not substantively different from what was agreed almost 20 years ago. The reality outside the UN walls remains that a growing number of states are beginning to question prohibition and some are unilaterally moving ahead with domestic reforms to better protect public health and safety. The outcome document is a far cry from an accurate portrayal of the global drug policy climate.

