Last month's United Nation's General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem left most people scratching their heads trying work out what was actually achieved. Firebrand political leaders and civil society drug reformers alike were angry that, in the end, UNGASS was a wasted opportunity: there was no revolution in global drug policy. For them the implications are clear, for the time being the 'war on drugs' will continue unabated.
But the news isn't all bad. UNGASS 2016 was still a landmark moment in global drug policy reform: it was just more evolutionary than revolutionary, but no less important. Because of UNGASS there is now a wider acceptance that the current punitive approaches to drug use aren't working as intended, there has been a change in language around drug users, and there is an increased UN acceptance of drug treaty 'flexibility'.
https://www.aspi.org.au/publications/opinion/ungass-2016-evolution-rather-than-revolution-in-the-war-on-drugs
I-BRIDGE's blog (Link Campus University's Research Centre on Global Affairs) - editor, Marco Emanuele - Critical thinking, complexity, international relations (Twitter, @Glob_Eye - Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/marco.emanuele.50)
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