CND 2025: What future for the UN drug control system?

Last week saw the 68th UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) held in Vienna - the annual gathering of UN member states to supervise the global drug control system. Three key takeaways for Transform are discussed below: The passing of a historic Colombian resolution on review of the global drugs control system; the rising profile of the coca/cocaine regulation debate, and the challenges of a belligerent new US administration seemingly determined to disrupt global governance under the UN system

The CND is the central policy-making body of the United Nations drug control architecture - its various mechanisms and functions usefully explained in this primer video from IDPC. (or the official CND website is here). Transform has been participating in the CND for almost 20 years - in 2007 becoming the first NGO with a drug reform platform specifically focusing on regulation to be awarded UN ECOSOC special consultative status.

The CND has a number of components. Alongside other formal proceedings, including the ritual scheduling (prohibiting) of various emerging drugs within the drug treaty framework, a series of thematic resolutions, nominally offering guidance on different aspects of addressing the ‘world drug problem’, are proposed and negotiated - and form the substantive policy output of the event.

Alongside the formal proceedings, the CND hosts a crowded calendar of over 175 side events hosted by member states, UN agencies and NGOs. For civil society, the CND is a unique opportunity for advocacy, networking and knowledge exchange - with an extraordinarily diverse audience - ranging from progressive reform advocates to dogmatic defenders of the drug war, including for example member states with legal cannabis, and others still executing people for cannabis offences. It is a rare moment when such a wide spectrum of views move outside their bubbles and interact in the same space.