Recent trends in drug policy reform and UNGASS 2016

Undoubtedly, the most prominent development we can see in global drug policy today is that more and more players, including countries, are admitting the need to move away from law-enforcement-dominated approaches in drug policy towards approaches that are based on public health instead.

Most notably, in recent years in Latin America there has been an intensifying debate about the failure of prohibition, and most recently even sitting presidents started loudly criticizing the ‘war on drugs’, saying that the Conventions should be more flexible to allow for experimentation with innovative approaches, especially where drug production and trafficking have caused a prolonged political and humanitarian crisis.

But what are these conventions that have bound the hands of politicians of decision-makers so much in Latin America and elsewhere?

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