Addressing and Countering the World Drug Problem Through a Comprehensive, Integrated and Balanced Approach

Calls upon Member States to promote bilateral, regional and international cooperation with and technical assistance to the States most affected by illicit crop cultivation and the illicit production, manufacture, transit, trafficking, distribution and abuse of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, including synthetic drugs, in developing and implementing comprehensive and integrated policies, including through intelligence-sharing and cross-border cooperation, and by reinforcing national programmes aimed at education, prevention, early intervention, treatment, care, rehabilitation and social reintegration;

Calls upon Member States to engage in effective cooperation and practical action, including North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation, in cooperation with the international development community and other key stakeholders, aimed at addressing and countering the world drug problem on the basis of the principle of common and shared responsibility;

Also calls upon Member States to strengthen regional, subregional and international cooperation in criminal matters, as appropriate, including judicial cooperation in the areas of, inter alia, extradition, mutual legal assistance and transfer of proceedings, in accordance with the three international drug control conventions and other international legal instruments and national legislation, and to strive to provide appropriate resources to national competent authorities, including through the provision of targeted technical assistance to requesting countries;

Encourages Member States to promote the prevention and treatment of drug use disorders, using scientific evidence-based practices, and takes note of the second updated edition of the International Standards on Drug Use Prevention and the International Standards for the Treatment of Drug Use Disorders, developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in collaboration with the World Health Organization, that reflect respect for human rights and dignity, including the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and well-being, including mental health and psychosocial support services, promoting non-stigmatizing attitudes in the development and implementation of scientific evidence-based policies;

Encourages Member States to develop quality assurance mechanisms for drug prevention, treatment, including for comorbidities, sustained recovery and related support services that reduce the adverse health and social consequences of drug abuse with a view to ensuring continuous improvement, through, inter alia, effective supervision of drug treatment and rehabilitation facilities by competent domestic authorities, including to prevent any possible acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in accordance with national legislation and applicable international law;

Also encourages Member States to promote the inclusion in national drug policies, in accordance with national legislation and as appropriate, of elements for the prevention and treatment of drug overdose, in particular opioid overdose, including the use of opioid receptor antagonists, such as naloxone, to reduce drug-related mortality;

Urges Member States to increase the availability, coverage and quality of scientific evidence-based prevention measures and tools, especially life skills programmes with demonstrated effectiveness, that target relevant age and risk groups in multiple settings, including in educational institutions, in both the public and private sectors, reaching youth in school as well as out of school, among others, including by providing children and youth with information on drug abuse and its harmful effects and consequences as well as through drug use prevention programmes and public awareness-raising campaigns, including by using the Internet, social media and other online platforms, to develop and implement prevention curricula and early intervention programmes for use in the education system at all levels, as well as in vocational training, including in the workplace, and to enhance the capacity of teachers and other relevant professionals, as well as that of parents and guardians, to provide or recommend counselling, prevention and health-care services, and opportunities to choose healthy lifestyles, and to promote safe and drug-free environments;

Invites Member States to consider enhancing cooperation among public health, education and law enforcement authorities when developing and implementing evidence-based drug use prevention initiatives;

Urges Member States to reduce the adverse health and social consequences of the world drug problem through a comprehensive approach, including by utilizing existing United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime technical assistance tools, and ensuring that evidence-based treatment is available;

Urges Member States and other donors to continue to provide bilateral and other funding for the global drug problem response, including in particular the HIV/AIDS response, including to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, and to strive to ensure that such funding contributes to addressing the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic among people who inject drugs, and HIV/AIDS in prison settings, in the spirit of the pledge made in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind;

Encourages Member States to consider alternative, non-custodial measures for persons accused of minor, non-violent drug-related offences, to promote, consistent with the three international drug control conventions and domestic law, and in accordance with national, constitutional, legal and administrative systems, alternative or additional measures with regard to conviction or punishment in cases of an appropriate nature, and to ensure that law enforcement drug control efforts are consistent with States’ human rights obligations;

Calls upon Member States to promote and implement effective criminal justice responses to drug-related crimes to bring perpetrators to justice that ensure legal guarantees and due process safeguards pertaining to criminal justice proceedings, including practical measures to uphold the prohibition of arbitrary arrest and detention and of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to eliminate impunity, in accordance with relevant and applicable international law and taking into account United Nations standards and norms on crime prevention and criminal justice, and ensure timely access to legal aid and the right to a fair trial;

Encourages Member States to promote proportionate national sentencing policies, practices and guidelines for drug-related offences, whereby the severity of penalties is proportionate to the gravity of offences and both mitigating and aggravating factors are taken into account, including the circumstances enumerated in article 3 of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 and other relevant and applicable international law, and in accordance with national legislation;

Urges Member States to take further steps to prevent the use and diversion of synthetic drugs for non-medical purposes, including through measures and initiatives addressing the training of relevant health-care professionals and, where appropriate, education and raising public awareness and engaging with the private sector on, inter alia, issues related to marketing;

Calls upon Member States to enhance national, regional, subregional, interregional and international capacity, and utilize existing and relevant regional and, as appropriate, subregional and international networks for the exchange of operational information to respond to the serious challenges posed by the increasing links between drug trafficking, corruption and other forms of organized crime, including trafficking in persons, trafficking in firearms, cybercrime and money-laundering, and, in some cases, terrorism, including money-laundering in connection with the financing of terrorism, by using an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, such as through promoting and supporting reliable data collection, research and, as appropriate, intelligence- and analysis-sharing to ensure effective policymaking and interventions, by using, inter alia, existing United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime technical assistance tools;

Also calls upon Member States to adopt and strengthen coordinated border management strategies, if needed, to prevent, monitor and counter the illicit production, manufacture and trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, including when associated with other forms of transnational organized crime, such as trafficking in firearms, illicit financial flows, smuggling of goods and of bulk cash, and money-laundering, and also calls upon Member States to provide technical assistance, upon request, including where appropriate the provision of equipment and technology, along with necessary training and maintenance support, to increase the capacity of border and law enforcement agencies, in particular for developing countries;

Calls upon Member States to strengthen national and international action to address the emerging challenge of new psychoactive substances, including their adverse health consequences, and the evolving threat of amphetamine-type stimulants, including methamphetamine, underscores the importance of enhancing information-sharing and early warning networks, developing appropriate national legislative, prevention and treatment models and supporting scientific evidence-based review and scheduling of the most prevalent, persistent and harmful substances, and notes the importance of preventing the diversion and misuse of pharmaceuticals containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and precursors, while ensuring their availability for legitimate purposes;

Encourages Member States to ensure that measures to prevent the illicit cultivation of and to eradicate plants containing narcotic and psychotropic substances respect fundamental human rights, take due account of traditional licit uses, where there is historical evidence of such use, and of the protection of the environment, in accordance with the three international drug control conventions, and also take into account, as appropriate and in accordance with domestic law, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

Also encourages Member States to improve the assessment of the impact of demand and supply reduction strategies, including the impact of alternative development programmes and preventive alternative development programmes, as appropriate, with a view to increasing the effectiveness of such programmes, including through the use of relevant human development indicators, criteria related to environmental sustainability and other measurements in line with the Sustainable Development Goals;

Further encourages Member States to examine and address, within the efforts of alternative development, the harmful impact of the illicit cultivation of crops used for the production of narcotic drugs on the environment, which leads to illegal deforestation, the pollution of soil and water, and negative consequences on food safety, and to seize the opportunities offered by alternative development with regard to the conservation and sustainable use of the environment and the protection of biodiversity;

Urges relevant international financial institutions, United Nations entities, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, as appropriate, to consider increasing their support, including through long-term and flexible funding, for the implementation of comprehensive and balanced development-oriented drug control programmes and viable economic alternatives for the promotion of inclusive economic growth and support for initiatives that contribute to poverty eradication, inter alia, alternative development, including, as appropriate, preventive alternative development programmes, based on identified needs and national priorities, for areas and populations affected by or vulnerable to the illicit cultivation of drug crops, and encourages Member States to develop measures for rural development, improving infrastructure and social inclusion and protection and addressing the consequences of illicit crop cultivation and the manufacture and production of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances on the environment, with the incorporation and participation of local communities;

Calls upon Member States to ensure the participation of local communities, including farmers, women, minorities and Indigenous Peoples, in the design and implementation of alternative development programmes and to secure alternative livelihoods, preferably before removing existing livelihoods earned from the cultivation of illicit crops;

Also calls upon Member States to mainstream a gender perspective into and ensure the full, equal, meaningful and effective participation of women in all stages of the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of drug policies and programmes, including drug prevention, treatment, sustained recovery, reintegration and related support services, to develop and disseminate gender-sensitive and age-appropriate measures that take into account the specific needs and circumstances faced by women and girls with regard to the world drug problem and, as States parties, implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,²⁵ and bearing in mind the importance of targeted interventions that are based on the collection and analysis of data, including age- and gender-related data, in meeting the specific needs of drug-affected populations and communities;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to support Member States, upon request, in mainstreaming a gender perspective into their policies and programmes related to the world drug problem, and invites the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and other relevant United Nations entities, within their mandates, to cooperate with the Office in this regard;

Encourages the consideration of the specific needs and possible multiple vulnerabilities of women drug offenders when imprisoned, in line with the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules);

Calls upon Member States to adapt their drug policies and to consider, when developing comprehensive policies to address and counter the world drug problem, measures, programmes and actions that respond the specific needs of members of society in situations of vulnerability;

Invites relevant national authorities to consider, in accordance with their domestic law and the three international drug control conventions, including in national prevention, treatment, care, recovery, rehabilitation and community-based social reintegration measures and programmes, in the context of comprehensive and balanced drug demand reduction efforts, effective evidence-based measures aimed at minimizing the adverse public health and social consequences of drug abuse, including appropriate medication-assisted therapy programmes, injecting equipment programmes as well as antiretroviral therapy and other relevant interventions that prevent the transmission of HIV, viral hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases associated with drug use, and to consider ensuring access to such interventions, including in treatment and outreach services, prisons and other custodial settings, and promoting in that regard the use, as appropriate, of the technical guide for countries to set targets for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care for injecting drug users, issued by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS;

Encourages Member States to identify and take advantage of opportunities to conduct collaborative research and continuously share the latest scientific research, taking into account the contributions of the national, regional and international scientific community, including academia, on the most effective demand and supply reduction strategies, and to develop improved best practices on interventions to reduce demand for drugs, in accordance with the three international drug control conventions and drug policy commitments;

Invites Member States to promote and improve the systematic collection of information and gathering of evidence as well as the sharing, at the national and international levels, of reliable and comparable data on drug use and epidemiology, including scientific data on any risks or damage to health and societal consequences that are caused by abusing drugs, including in vaporized form, and on social, economic and other risk factors, as well as the links between drug policies and human rights, to promote, as appropriate, through the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the World Health Assembly, the use of internationally recognized standards, such as the International Standards on Drug Use Prevention, and the exchange of best practices, and to formulate effective drug use prevention strategies and programmes in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Health Organization and other relevant United Nations entities;

Also invites Member States to provide the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime with information on best practices and programmes recently implemented, consistent with the three international drug control conventions, in order to assess recent developments and current and future challenges;

Invites Member States to consider the need to review the set of national drug policy metrics and tools for the collection and analysis of accurate, reliable, disaggregated, comprehensive and comparable data to measure the effectiveness of programmes to address all relevant aspects of the world drug problem, including, as appropriate, as related to the 2030 Agenda;

Encourages Member States to promote data collection, research and the sharing of information, as well as the exchange of best practices on preventing and countering drug-related crime and on drug supply reduction measures and practices, in order to enhance the effectiveness of criminal justice responses, within the framework of applicable law;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue providing assistance to Member States, upon request, with regard to data collection, research and, as appropriate, intelligence- and analysis-sharing to disclose the extent of the links between illicit drug trafficking and firearms trafficking, and to continue its already existing research on these links, subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources;

Calls upon Member States to intensify efforts to prevent and counter the illicit cultivation, production and manufacture of and trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, as well as drug-related crime and violence, through, inter alia, more effective drug-related crime prevention and law enforcement measures consistent with national legislation and international law, including applicable human rights obligations, as well as by addressing links with other forms of organized crime, including firearms trafficking, money-laundering, corruption and other criminal activities, mindful of their social and economic causes and consequences;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Narcotics Control Board to continue to strengthen cooperation with the World Health Organization and other competent United Nations entities, within their respective mandates, as part of a comprehensive, integrated and balanced approach to strengthening health and social welfare measures in addressing the world drug problem, including through effective prevention, early intervention, treatment, care, recovery, rehabilitation and social reintegration, in cooperation, as appropriate, with civil society and the scientific community, and to keep the Commission on Narcotic Drugs appropriately updated;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in close cooperation with Member States and pertinent United Nations entities, intergovernmental and regional organizations and the scientific community and civil society, to continue to support Member States, upon request, in strengthening their capacity to develop their reporting mechanisms, including through technical assistance, by identifying gaps in the current drug statistics and by exploring possibilities to strengthen existing data-collection and analysis tools at the national level; and to provide technical assistance to Governments so as to facilitate the implementation of and enable them to fully meet their obligations under the conventions and give adequate follow-up to subsequent resolutions of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly;

Encourages all relevant United Nations entities, in close cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, to support Member States in developing and implementing balanced, comprehensive, integrated, multidisciplinary, evidence-based, development-oriented and sustainable responses to the world drug problem, while respecting human rights, within the framework of the three international drug control conventions;

Calls upon all Member States to actively participate in the discussions of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs concerning the preparations for the 2024 midterm review of the progress in implementing all international drug policy commitments, which should include inputs by the General Assembly concerning the follow-up to the 2019 Ministerial Declaration on Strengthening Our Actions at the National, Regional and International Levels to Accelerate the Implementation of Our Joint Commitments to Address and Counter the World Drug Problem;