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The World Drug Report 2007
IDPC Briefing Paper Nr. 6, August 2007
This IDPC Briefing reviews the data in the latest report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime on the state of the global market, criticises the claims made in the report that international action is successfully controlling the market, and questions the political objectivity of the UNODC as we approach the review of the global objectives set in 1998.
Wishful thinking clouds independent assessment in UN World Drug Report
TNI Press Release, June 26, 2007
UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa claims that there is a clear correlation between UN-led drug control efforts and a perceived 'recession' in the drug economy. The World Drug Report, however, fails to document the existence of a recession. Other market studies also fail to detect any significant impact of drug control efforts.
Report of the 2007 Commission on Narcotic Drugs
International Drug Policy Consortium Briefing Nr. 5, March 2007
This briefing paper summarises the proceedings and outcomes of the 2007 CND. It includes discussion of a wide range of issues - from technical debates on the rescheduling of dronabinol, to the plans for the global review of the 1998 UNGASS objectives - and comments on the performance of the UN agencies in this field, and of the workings of the CND itself.
International drug control: 100 years of success? TNI comments on the UNODC World Drug Report 2006
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 18, June 2006
In its 2006 World Drug Report, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) struggles to construct success stories to convince the world that the global drug control regime has been an effective instrument. An escape-route used in this year's World Drug Report is to fabricate comparisons with higher opium production levels a century ago and with higher prevalence figures for tobacco. The report suffers from the tension between the UNODC policy makers who want a strict control regime for cannabis and the expert who start to doubt the efectiveness of such a strict control regime. If anything, the 2006 World Drug Report shows that a genuine evaluation process is needed more than ever and that the UNODC cannot be relied upon to perform that task in a transparent, objective and balanced way, without the help of independent experts.
See also: UNODC World Drug Report 2006 full of scientific insults
TNI Press Release, June 26, 2006
The UNGASS Evaluation Process Evaluated
IDPC Briefing Paper Nr. 1, May 2006
'At the 49th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), held in Vienna in March 2006, a draft resolution was tabled by the European Union (EU) to guide the process of evaluation of the implementation of political declaration and action plans of the 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) in 2008. This briefing describes the fortunes of the resolution and its proposals to strengthen the upcoming UNGASS evaluation process. It explores how the resolution’s aims for more objective and transparent assessment were ultimately watered down. This was a result not only of opposition from states wary of transparency, objectivity and a possible re-evaluation of some current UN policies, but also the EU’s own approach to operating at the CND. The authors identify several possible openings for future progress in this area and recommend that; Member States should acknowledge the value of an objective and transparent assessment of the current drug control mechanisms and should ask for an evaluation of the UNGASS evaluation process; the EU should review how it operates at the CND and should invest money to support the realization of the core sections of its resolution.
This UN Drug Control section contains the following sections:
- In UN and Harm Reduction you will find relevant information on the controversy between zero-tolerance prohibitionists and harm reduction pragmatists.
- In UNGASS Mid-term Review 2003 you will find relevant information on the April meeting and the preparations for it.
- In UN Drug Conventions Reform you will find more on the framework of the UN Drug Conventions and the possibilities to change them.
- In UNDCP Reform you will find information on the UN Drug Control Programme, the agency playing a key role.
- In Background: Breaking the Impasse you will find more on the current trends in international drug control. In particular on the impasse between two opposing tendencies: the one that tends towards tolerance and pragmatism and the other that is aiming at reinvigorating a zero-tolerance mentality.
- In Background: UNGASS 1998 you will find more on the outcomes of the 1998 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem
that will be reviewed in April 2003.
- In Background: Alternative Development you will find more on Alternative Development programmes, aimed at encouraging peasants to switch from growing illicit drugs-related crops. Alternative Development is a key component of the UN drug control strategy and one of themes on the agenda for the April 2003 review.
TNI on UN Drug Control
- Martin Jelsma The UN Drug Control Debate: Current Dilemmas and Prospects for 2008 Budapest, 24 October 2005
- TNI Press Release International Day for Humane Drug Policies 26 June 2005
The United Nations has declared 26 June the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking. This year the UN slogan for this day is about healthy choices: "Value yourself... make healthy choices". Unfortunately, when drug control policies are concerned often quite unhealthy choices are made in the international arena, and more just and humane policies are undervalued constantly.
- The United Nations and Harm Reduction - Revisited. An Unauthorised Report on the Outcomes of the 48th CND Session TNI Drug Policy Briefing 13, April 2005
In this briefing the Transnational Institute (TNI) analyses the proceedings and results of the CND meeting in Vienna, 7-11 March 2005, outlines several options for follow-up and recommends next steps to take.
- The United Nations and Harm Reduction TNI Drug Policy Briefing 12, March 2005
- Martin Jelsma and Pien Metaal Cracks in the Vienna Consensus. The UN Drug Control Debate Drug War Monitor, Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), January 2004
- Measuring Progress: Global Supply of Illicit Drugs Progress Report by the Transnational Institute as a contribution to the Mid-term (2003) Review of UNGASS, April 2003
The Executive Director of the UNODC, Mr Antonio Maria Costa, released a progress report, "Encouraging progress towards still distant goals", as a Contribution to the Mid-term (2003) Review of UNGASS. The report examines whether the international community is on track to reduce illicit drug production, trafficking and abuse. TNI reviewed the UN report.
- Coca, Cocaine and the International Conventions TNI Drug Policy Briefing 5, April 2003
It is no understatement to claim that there are few plants subject to such tensions as the coca leaf, either in legal and political circuits, or in the medical and anthropological academic world. Before, during and after its inclusion in the number 1 list of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the controversy on whether the coca leaf is or is not to be considered a narcotic drug, worthy of control by the international institutions and mechanisms, reached apparent irreconcilable positions.
- Martin Jelsma Drugs in the UN System. The Unwritten History of the 1998 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs Special issue on the UNGASS Mid-term Review of the International Journal of Drug Policy, Vol. 14, No. 2, April 2003
- Change of Course. An Agenda for Vienna Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 6, March 2003
In the middle of April this year, the mid-term review of the goals and targets set by the 1998 United Nations special General Assembly on drugs is to take place in Vienna. This briefing sets out the history to the original call for a UN special session on drugs and explains why no genuine evaluation has been permitted to date. It also offers a constructive agenda for the Vienna mid-term review in the hope that this can contribute to a more rational, pragmatic and humane approach to the global drugs phenomenon.
- The Erratic Crusade of the INCB TNI Drug Policy Briefing 4, February 2003
In the Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2002 that was released on February 26, the president of the Board, Dr. Philip O. Emafo from Nigeria, launches a strong attack against groups that advocate legalisation or decriminalisation of drug offences, as well as groups "that favour a crusade" focusing only on harm reduction. Mr. Emafo's attack reflects how out of touch the president of the INCB is with current developments in international drug control. If anyone is involved in a "crusade' with "missionary zeal', it is Mr. Emafo himself, trying to turn back accepted best practices in countering the adverse effects of problematic drug use. Mr. Emafo gives a completely distorted picture of the political acceptance of the harm reduction concept.
- Martin Jelsma Diverging Trends in International Drug Policy Making. The Polarisation Between Dogmatic and Pragmatic Approaches presented at the 2nd European Conference on Drug Trafficking and Law Enforcement, Paris, 26 September 2002
- Breaking the Impasse. Polarisation & Paralysis in UN Drug Control Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 5, July 2002
The past decade has seen an increasing polarisation between divergent trends in global drug policies. There has been an escalation in the US-driven War on Drugs, which has created a drug gulag domestically and increased militarised forced eradication abroad. In Europe and elsewhere, a more flexible and pragmatic approach has gained ground in domestic drug policy-making. But they are reaching the legal limits within the framework of the current UN Drug Conventions. The polarisation between the two main trends has resulted in a policy paralysis at the UN level.
- Martin Jelsma Revising and Integrating Drug Policies at National and International Level. How Can Reform Be Achieved? presented at the Wilton Park Conference on Drug Policies and their Impact, 27 March 2002
- Alternative Development and Eradication. A Failed Balance Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 4, March 2002
Alternative Development programmes, aimed at encouraging peasants to switch from growing illicit drugs-related crops, are a good idea. The record of success, however, is a sorry one. Decades of efforts to reduce global drug supply using a mix of developmental and repressive means have failed. This paper elucidates the analysis TNI contributed to a high-level international policy conference to evaluate 25 years of Alternative Development, convened by the German government and the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) in January 2002.
- New Possibilities for Change in International Drug Control TNI Drug Policy Briefing 1, December 2001
The executive director of the Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), Pino Arlacchi, will resign mid-2002. Mr. Arlacchi's position became untenable when the UN inspector general's office issued two very critical reports investigating allegations of mismanagement, nepotism and possible fraud. While press coverage focused on the scandals within ODCCP, little attention was given to the negative legacy of Mr. Arlacchi on the direction of international drug control policy itself.
- Tom Blickman International Drug Control and the War on Drugs TNI Briefing, December 2000
- Martin Jelsma Fungus Versus Coca. UNDCP and the Biological War on Drugs in Colombia TNI Briefing, February 2000
- Martin Jelsma UNGASS: A Lost Opportunity TNI Briefing, July 1998
- Tom Blickman with Ken Bluestone Lessons to Learn
The World Today, June 1998
- Tom Blickman Caught in the Crossfire. Developing Countries, the UNDCP, and the War on Drugs TNI/CIIR, June 1998
- Tom Blickman Full Scope on the War on Drugs
TNI Briefing, May 1998
- Martin Jelsma Background on the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drug Control TNI Briefing, March 1998
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