UNGASS event - Getting better results: Aligning drug policy objectives within the wider UN system

For more than 50 years, the international drug control system has focused on achieving its own internal objectives of reducing the supply of, and demand for, banned drugs. Progress has largely been measured according to the amount of drug crops eradicated, drugs seized in transit, or the numbers of users arrested and punished. In recent years, however, most governments and UN agencies have realised that these process measures do not give a clear indication of whether drug control measures are leading to positive outcomes in terms of better health, improved security, or strengthened development and human rights. As a result, many governments have adjusted the objectives in their domestic drug strategies to better focus on the achievement of these outcomes. The same modernisation is also now needed at the multilateral level.

This side event will first provide an overview of how drug policy contributes to the wider goals of the UN system. This will be followed by specific examples of how governments and the international community are working to broaden drug control objectives in order to demonstrate the impact of drug policy interventions on the health and well being of human kind.

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