The UNDP joins the call for a development-centred approach to drug policy.
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Dear John,
I write to you today with some exciting news, recently the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) released a report that delves into the intertwined nature of drug policy and development.
The report highlights the opportunities that drug policy reform could bring, whilst paying close attention to potential risks and how we can avoid them.
Read the report 'Development Dimensions of Drug Policy: Assessing New Challenges, Uncovering Opportunities, and Addressing Emerging Issues' [[link removed]]
As you may know, for over a decade, we have been outspoken about the immense harm prohibition causes to people across the world. Dominant drug policy fuels cycles of poverty, poor health, environmental degradation and deforestation, corruption, and violence. All of this is felt particularly by women and marginalised communities. At the same time, criminal organisations profit from controlling a vast global shadow economy. That is why we campaign and work to build a new legal drugs trade with global justice at its heart. [[link removed]]
Drug policy is fundamentally a development issue, and emerging legal regulation must consider the damage the so-called ‘war on drugs’ has inflicted, the neglected rights and welfare of communities who work in drug production, and the impact the illicit drug trade has had on our planet. Crucially, policy reforms must involve communities impacted by the so-called war on drugs, and experts and policymakers from the development sector, or we risk missing key opportunities and reproducing harms.
While public health-led reforms are now happening globally, they fall short of addressing the systemic harms of illicit drug markets and the disproportionate negative impact of prohibition on marginalised communities.
Earlier this year, we released our briefing series ‘The Legal Regulation of Drugs: The Potential to Deliver Global Justice’ [[link removed]], which maps out how legal regulation could advance multiple facets of the development agenda. The papers outline opportunities for the development sector within drug policy reform, as well as risks if these issues are not given due attention.
That is why the UNDP’s report is so encouraging. The UNDP is now echoing these concerns and affirming the potential for the legal regulation of drugs to deliver sustainable development. Openly declaring that “conventional punitive drug control approaches have proven ineffective or actively counterproductive”, and that it is time for a development-centred approach to drug policy, one that proactively engages stakeholders and has the potential to leave no one behind.
Read the report 'Development Dimensions of Drug Policy: Assessing New Challenges, Uncovering Opportunities, and Addressing Emerging Issues' [[link removed]]
For a more accessible entry point to this discussion, we invite you to watch our recent webinar, where UNDP Policy Specialist Boyan Konstantinov joined our expert panel to discuss the report ahead of its release.
Watch our recent webinar 'The Legal Regulation of Drugs: A Call to the Development Sector' [[link removed]]
These are exciting times for the movement to deliver global justice through drug regulation, and this is only the beginning.
In solidarity,
Ella Ronan
Communications Assistant
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