Public health and international drug policy

Abstract

In September, 2015, the member states of the UN endorsed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, which aspire to human-rights-centred approaches to ensuring the health and wellbeing of all people. The SDGs embody both the UN Charter values of rights and justice for all and the responsibility of states to rely on the best scientific evidence as they seek to better humankind. In April, 2016, these same states will consider control of illicit drugs, an area of social policy that has been fraught with controversy and thought of as inconsistent with human rights norms, and in which scientific evidence and public health approaches have arguably had too limited a role.