Video

Summary/Abstract

This March, The European Drug Policy Initiative 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.

Content

Internationally, drug policy is at a crossroads: the debate is shifting from a paradigm based on criminalizing drug users, to a more public-health-oriented approach. But is this only a change in rhetoric, or a sign of real political reform? There are high expectations from civil society about the UN General Assembly on Drugs, a high-level meeting of governments that aims to discuss the world drug problem in New York next year. The last UNGASS was held in 1998 under the slogan: “A drug-free world: we can do it!”

 After almost 20 years, many governments feel frustrated at of the evident failure and measurable unintended consequences of this utopian strategy. But can we expect governments to discuss the alternatives to current drug policies next year?Another sign of change was the stronger-than-ever presence of civil society at the UN headquarters: NGOs from all over the world came to share their experiences with government delegates, about how to deal with drug problems in the most effective ways. Our video provides a powerful photo exhibition, and a campaign in support of harm reduction.

One of the most controversial issues debated at the CND, was the death penalty for drug offences. There are at least 32 countries which still prescribe capital punishment for drug offences, and several Asian countries still execute drug offenders every year. Although European countries condemn the death penalty, and call for its abolition, they also contribute to the execution of people. 

The European Drug Policy Initiative (EDPI) is a project of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) in cooperation with professionals and NGOs from six European countries: Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Serbia.