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SDGs will not be achieved without drug policy reform

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 386; Issue: 9999 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0140-6736(15)00198-1

1474-547X

Khalid Tinasti, Pavel Bém, Anand Grover, Michel D. Kazatchkine, Ruth Dreifuss,

Child Nutrition and Water Access

Global health policy will enter a new era later this month as world leaders adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).1United Nations. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/7891Transforming%20Our%20World.pdfGoogle Scholar We believe that the SDGs should include a set of specific commitments to respond to the drugs issue and provide a frame for the basis of next year's United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem. Not only should the UNGASS 2016 outcome be in line with elements of sustainable development such as justice, dignity, and people-centred policies, but drug policies at the national level should be reviewed to meet the terms of sustainable development. To achieve poverty eradication, ensure healthy lives or environmental protection, drug control policies can no longer be based solely on law enforcement, which has proven prejudicial to any improvements in other arenas with their “unintended consequences”.2United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. World Drug Report 2008. Section 2.5 Achievements and unintended consequences of the international drug control system, pp 212–18.https://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2008/WDR2008_100years_drug_control_achievements.pdfGoogle Scholar The SDG target on illicit drug abuse is rightly placed under the Health goal (Goal 3), which, we would argue, should trigger reforms prioritising health and human rights-based approaches to drug policies. For many years, drug control has in effect been a war against people and at the same time this war has maintained a focus on fear of the substances being used. But the past 20 years have proven that more harm comes from those drug policies that exclude, condemn, and reject people, rather than from policies primarily aiming at treatment and social integration of drug users. Drug policy reform will be needed if countries are to achieve the SDG targets by 2030. The following questions will have to be addressed by the international community. Can sustainable agriculture (Goal 2) be achieved and land degradation (Goal 15) reversed when in some areas authorities use carcinogen products to eradicate drug cultivation? How do countries achieve universal health coverage (Goal 3, target 3.8) when its quality and equity elements are denied to people who use drugs? How is it possible to achieve gender equality (Goal 5) when women pay the heaviest toll for small drug offences all over the world? How do we promote decent work for all (Goal 8) while drug users are not given the means to stabilise their use and to engage in a regular professional life? How will we make cities and human settlements inclusive and safe (Goal 11) when drug users are congregated in defined spaces and suffer daily humiliation? How do we promote peaceful and inclusive societies (Goal 16) when a whole part of it is rejected even without doing any harm to others? How are we to strengthen global partnerships (Goal 17) when they focus primarily on supply reduction measures in the drugs field, leading to incarceration, and the use of death penalty in many cases? The commitment taken by the UN to ensure that all future policies should operate within the sustainable development framework3United NationsSynthesis report of the Secretary-General on the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, the road to dignity by 2030: ending poverty, transforming all lives and protecting the planet.http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/700&Lang=EGoogle Scholar is crucial. Leaving no one behind also means leaving no drug user behind. We declare no competing interests.