Today, we stand together from Amsterdam to Nairobi to Buenos Aires to New York to Bangkok and raise our collective voices that will not be silenced to loudly clamour for an end to repression and punishment as instruments of drug control.
If you know any civil society organisation active in the field of drugs in these countries, please let the VNGOC know as soon as possible, but no later than 16 July 2019.
The issue of the medical use of cannabis is one in which the Board has failed to match the progress it has made in certain other areas, such as the death penalty. Its position on the therapeutic applications of cannabis remains as it was at the close of the UNGASS decade; indeed, if anything, it is now worse.
The INCB has asked the VNGOC for suggestions of suitable civil society organisations to meet during their upcoming mission to Austria in mid June 2019. Apply before 5th June!
The 2019 Ministerial Segment laid bare some of the frictions at the heart of the international consensus on drug policy, also highlighting pending tasks.
Mr de Joncheere is a Dutch citizen and has expertise in pharmacy and health sciences. He was previously Director of the Department of Essential Medicines and Health Products at the World Health Organization.
As part of its recently concluded 125th Session in May 2019, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) invited civil society to a special ‘hearing’ on the topic of young people and drugs – which will be the thematic focus for the Board’s 2019 Annual Report.
The legal regulation of cannabis for medical and research purposes is a step in the right direction, but the continued criminalisation of people who use cannabis and the restrictive understanding of medical uses might hinder access and create new challenges.
The INCB's participation at CND showed how far the Board has come in terms of supporting human rights norms in the pursuit of drug control obligations, but the Board's outdated inflexibility on cannabis is regrettable.
