United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem
The scourge of the drug trade contributes to untold human rights violations, massive corruption and violence that perpetuate brokenness and suffering on a worldwide scale. In 2009, the United Nations put forth a multilateral response to the global drug problems. The Political Declaration and Plan of Action on International Cooperation Toward an Integrated and Balanced strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem identified two foundational solutions. There needs to be more development assistance to reduce supply and focus more attention on health to lower the demand. The Plan had broad support by Member States and engendered great hope for progress in this area.
The Plan suggested “framing collective responses against drugs less like a war and more like an effort to cure a social disease.” It encouraged a middle ground approach between criminalization and legalization. The Plan was laudable, but in its application, supply and use of some substances decreased, while supply and use of other substances increased. Now, seven years later, there is growing awareness that the implementation of the strategies related to the original plan, particularly in the United States, included widespread criminalization of addicts. And as a result of the drug trade and such failed strategies, many are still trapped in a life-time cycle of criminalization, greater drug dependency and violence linked to the drug trade.
