The CND is Dying – Time to put People who use drugs, evidences and Human Rights at the center of the response.

Bikas Gurung and Rajiv Kafle, ANPUD, März 2018

The 61st session of the Commission on Narcotics Drugs (CND) was held from March 12-16, 2018 in Vienna, Austria. It was a disappointment like any of the last sixty sessions. It has become an automated session that follows the same algorithm in which member states would come, present usual blah blah blah, praise for their stupid accomplishments on drugs seizures, field eradications and compulsory rehab programs rather than introduction to right-based programmes/policies and lives saved.

The world is far more progressive or regressive than the CND deliberations – but it is not what member states are allowed to see, hear and speak. It reminded us of Gandhi’s three monkeys – See no evil, Hear no evil and Speak no evil.

In 2009, the WHO, UNODC and UNAIDS technical guide recommended a comprehensive package of interventions for the prevention, treatment and care of HIV among people who inject drugs – widely known as comprehensive harm reduction package. In 2016, Harm Reduction International (HRI) reported that 90 countries implemented needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) to some degree and 80 had at least one opioid substitution programme (OST) in place.[1] Worldwide, at least 20 countries have allowed cannabis for medicinal purposes; some more of them have introduced decriminalization for possession of cannabis for personal use;[2] few have already introduced a regulated cannabis industry; and few have decriminalized all forms of drugs for personal use. The first thing anyone attending the CND would notice is that the CND does not resonate these facts – no mentioning of “harm reduction”, “medicinal cannabis” or “decriminalization”.

http://www.anpud.org/the-cnd-is-dying-people-who-use-drugs-evidence-and-human-rights/