This post is also available in: itItaliano (Italian)

Tempo di lettura: 4 minuti
In 1961, the Member States of the United Nations set themselves a goal to eliminate illegal opium production by 1979 and that of cannabis and coca by 1989. In 1998, they proclaimed to be ready to achieve a world without drugs within 10 years. Meanwhile, the use of illicit substances has increased at twice the rate of the world population, and today production and trafficking of drugs are completely out of control. Sixty years of prohibitionist policies and the War on Drugs have caused more damages than those caused by the substances themselves in sanitary, social, criminal, environmental and economic terms. The webinar will address the historical background of the UN Conventions on narcotics and will look at the future of drug policy with experts and activists from around the world.
30 March from 6 to 8 pm CET

The 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs:
Sixty Years of an Epic Fail?

Webinar on Zoom platform + live streaming
Live streaming on FB and Youtube (ITA & ENG)

Sign in to the webinar:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gWk4F-VjT6mlJwf-kikGAw

Promoted by: A Buon Diritto, Antigone, Arci, CGIL, CILD, CNCA, Comunità di San Benedetto al Porto, Encod, Forum Droghe, ITANPUD, Itardd, l’Altro Diritto, la Società della Ragione, Legacoopsociali, Legalizziamo, Associazione Luca Coscioni, LILA, Meglio Legale, Science for Democracy.

Sixty years have passed since the adoption of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Despite the continued relaunch of the war on drugs the international drug control regime has been unable to reduce or contain the presence of psychoactive substances all over the world. The Single Convention, amended in 1972 and the other Conventions adopted in 1971 and 1988 have virtually had no effect on the world drug market creating widespread and systematic human right violations at the trans-national level.

After to Special Sessions of the UN General Assembly in 1998 and 2016 entirely dedicated do drugs, in 2019 Governments themselves, meeting at the United Nations in Vienna admitted that:

“Both the range of drugs and drugs markets are expanding and diversifying; the abuse, illicit cultivation and production and manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, as well as the illicit trafficking in those substances and in precursors, have reached record levels, illicit demand for and the domestic diversion of precursor chemicals are on the rise. 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, are observed all over. The value of confiscated proceeds of crime related to money-laundering arising from drug trafficking at the global level remains low; the availability of internationally controlled substances for medical and scientific purposes, including for the relief of pain and palliative care, remains low to non-existent in many parts of the world. Drug treatment and health services continue to fall short of meeting needs and deaths related to drug use have increased; the rate of transmission of HIV, the hepatitis C virus and other blood-borne diseases associated with drug use, including injecting drug use in some countries, remains high. The adverse health consequences of and risks associated with new psychoactive substances have reached alarming levels; synthetic opioids and the non-medical use of prescription drugs pose increasing risks to public health and safety, as well as scientific, legal and regulatory challenges, including with regard to the scheduling of substances. The criminal misuse of information and communications technologies for illicit drug-related activities is increasing; the geographical coverage and availability of reliable data on the various aspects of the world drug problem requires improvement”.

We have witnessed decades of a war on people, even bigger than the one on substances, a violent war that has caused tragedy, such as recently in the Philippines. This epic fail is also the very cause of health, social, environmental and economic problems all over the world due to the implementation of repressive drug policies derived from the UN Conventions.

The cradle of the war on drugs is opening up, if not leading the way, to the legal regulation of some substances, the consensus at the UN is no longer there, and the vote on cannabis on 2 December 2020 is a testimony to that.

it is therefore necessary to further motivate and mobilize civil society to urge governments around the world to face the facts and the evidence and demand new drug policies that put human rights and people first.

Webinar on Zoom platform + live streaming on FB and Youtube
Simultaneous interpretation English – Italian
Register for the event: https://www.fuoriluogo.it/epicfail

PROGRAMME

Chairman: Marco Perduca, Science for Democracy

6 pm CET – International Conventions and the global drug control system
– Grazia Zuffa
Chair of la Società della Ragione
– Martin Jelsma
Programme Director Drugs & Democracy Transnational Institute – TNI

6:30 pm CET – The impact of global drug policies
Looking back at the past 5 years of UNGASS implementation: What have we achieved
Marie Nougier Head of Research and Communications International Drug Policy Consortium – IDPC
Science, research, access to drugs
Prof. Francisco Thoumi former Member of the International Narcotics Control Board
Drug Policies and Human Rights
Rebecca Schleifer
, JD, MPH, international human rights consultant
Drug policies and Law Enforcement
Neil Woods Board Member at Law Enforcement Action Partnership – LEAP

Questions and answers

07:10 pm CET – Reforms and struggles for alternative global policies: the agenda of civil society
– Ann Fordham
Executive Director International Drug Policy Consortium – IDPC
Kassandra Frederique* Executive Director Drug Policy Alliance – DPA
Michael Kravitz & Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli FAAAT
Steve Rolles Senior Policy Analyst Transform

7:40 pm CET
Debate

8 pm CET
Conclusions
– Susanna Ronconi,
Chair of the scientific Committee of Forum Droghe

*To be confirmed

Sign in to the webinar:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gWk4F-VjT6mlJwf-kikGAw

Promoted by: A Buon Diritto, Antigone, Arci, CGIL, CILD, CNCA, Comunità di San Benedetto al Porto, Encod, Forum Droghe, ITANPUD, Itardd, l’Altro Diritto, la Società della Ragione, Legacoopsociali, Legalizziamo, Associazione Luca Coscioni, LILA, Meglio Legale, Science for Democracy.