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Video report of the UN drug debate
On the way to UNGASS 2016
Drugreporter HCLUWednesday, April 8, 2015
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This March, our video advocacy team attended the 58th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the largest drug policy gathering in the world, to find out how governments and NGOs feel about the prospects of drug policy reform. We produced a series of short thematic videos, to give you an overview of the current state of political debate on the burning issues of international drug control. -
"There must be no new thinking and no new ideas"
UN Debates on Drugs
Ann FordhamWednesday, April 1, 2015
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"There must be no new thinking and no new ideas." This statement is not necessarily one that you might expect from an intergovernmental forum on a hot topic of international policy - except perhaps when that policy is about drugs. This statement sadly, but also neatly, encapsulates the sense of frustration that I can often feel at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) - the annual meeting of the UN on all matters related to drug control, which took place last month in Vienna. -
Another UN agency savages the drug war
The UNDP argues that “new approaches are both urgent and necessary”
George MurkinMarch 17, 2015
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The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN agency charged with developing strategies to reduce global poverty, has strongly criticised current international drug policy, highlighting the disastrous costs it is producing – particularly for the world’s poor. In the agency’s formal submission to the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs (PDF), launched at the annual UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs which began last week in Vienna, the UNDP argues: -
The ketamine controversy, continued
UN legal opinion adds confusion while China changes its scheduling proposal
Martin JelsmaFriday, March 6, 2015
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The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna will decide next week between two opposite proposals by China and the WHO about international control of ketamine, an essential anaesthetic in human and veterinary medicine. China originally proposed bringing ketamine under the 1971 Convention’s most severe control regime of Schedule I, which would dramatically affect its availability for surgery in poor rural settings and emergency situations. The WHO Expert Committee reviewed all the evidence and advised against any international control of ketamine, arguing it would trigger a public health disaster. -
Reguleer wiet, en niet alleen de achterdeur
Een zorgvuldige nieuwe wetgeving zou eigen teelt, cannabis clubs en coffeeshops met gereguleerde achterdeur mogelijk moeten maken
Tom BlickmanWoensdag, 25 februari 2015
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De advocaten Spong, Smeets en Vis houden een pleidooi voor het reguleren van de achterdeur van de coffeeshops in een opiniestuk in het NRC. Zij zetten zich af tegen de criminologen Fijnaut en De Ruyver die bepleiten dat cannabis social clubs het alternatief zijn voor de coffeeshop. De advocaten noemen de cannabis club "een doodlopende weg". Met het reguleren van de achterdeur is niets mis, maar waarom zou het daartoe beperkt moeten blijven? Waarom zouden coffeeshops het monopolie op de verkoop van wiet moeten hebben? -
The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on drugs in 2016
In the war on drugs, as was the case with the HIV epidemic, the poorest and most vulnerable around the world are paying the greatest price
Kasia Malinowska-SempruchTuesday, February 17, 2015
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In April 2016, representatives of the world’s nations will gather to evaluate drug policy in a United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS). While prohibitionist policies are still the norm, a rising tide of voices are demanding evidence based responses that respect human rights, promote public health, and reduce crime. Voices for reform reached the UN General Assembly in 2012 when the presidents of Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala, fatigued by the drug war, requested that the UN hold a session to evaluate the impact of international drug policies. -
CND decision to schedule ketamine would undermine WHO treaty mandate
The UN Commission considers to bring ketamine under the control of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances contrary to WHO recommendations
Martin JelsmaMonday, February 16, 2015
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The 58th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in March 2015 has been asked to consider a Chinese proposal to place ketamine – an essential medicine used for anaesthesia – in Schedule I of the 1971 Convention (E/CN.7/2015/7 and E/CN.7/2015/81). Ketamine is the only available anaesthetic for essential surgery in most rural areas of developing countries, home to more than 2 billion of the world’s people. Scheduling ketamine under any of the 1971 treaty schedules will reduce its availability and further deepen the already acute crisis of global surgery. -
The road to the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs in 2016
Special Sessions of the General Assembly are called to review and debate a specific issue – in this case the “world drugs problem”
Steve Rolles (Transform)Wednesday, January 28, 2015
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UN forums in recent years have witnessed more and more governments expressing their frustrations with the failing global war on drugs. This failure goes way beyond just the goals of drug control systems to reduce illicit drug production and use. The key driver of calls for change has been the catastrophic negative impacts of the war on drugs on public health, human rights, development and security. -
Putting numbers to faces: a new map of substance misuse, homelessness and offending in England
Mental health, access to housing and effective offender rehabilitation must all figure in our response to complex needs
Sam ThomasMonday, January 19, 2015
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Statistics can be a limited and limiting way to understand social issues. When we focus on how many people are affected by a problem, or how much the government spends on tackling it, we start to see numbers instead of people. The opposite is also true, though: without statistical evidence, it’s hard to understand the scale of a problem. -
Does your politician have a drug policy problem?
Tell your politicians you won’t sit by while they continue to harm themselves and others
Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC)
Wednesday, January 7, 2014
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"Your politician is showing all the symptoms of 'Drug Policy Abuse,'" reads the CDPC website. "They refuse to engage in an open and honest discussion of drug use, and instead rehash outdated, fear-based policies, dismissing research that supports new and innovative approaches." The site goes on to gravely implore readers, "It’s time you had 'the talk.'"
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