The UN Chief Executives Board Unanimously Endorses Decriminalization

Transform Drug Policy Foundation:

The Chief Executives Board of the UN, representing 31 UN agencies, has adopted a common position on drug policy that endorses decriminalisation of possession and use. This comes just days before a key meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, which will review, the UN’s 10-year Global Drug Strategy, and plan for the next one.

People are always going to use drugs. Criminalizing possession and use does nothing to help users or the wider society, but it does cause a lot of unnecessary harm. This is good news coming out of the UN, but we’ll have to see if this advice is heeded.