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The Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP) is a panel of world leaders and intellectuals, with a Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland. In June 2011, the commission said: "The global
war on drugs The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.Cockburn and St. Clair, 1 ...
has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world." The emphasis in drug policy on harsh law enforcement over four decades has not accomplished its goal of banishing drugs and has in fact spawned wide, dramatic eruptions of violence, the report continued. By way of alternative, the GCDP report "advocates decriminalizing drug use by those who do no harm to others." The commission was formed to "bring to the international level an informed, science-based discussion about humane and effective ways to reduce the harm caused by drugs to people and societies. t builton the experience of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy""Commission" page
GCDP webpage. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
and extended to West Africa in 2013–14 via an initiative of GCPD board member and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the
West Africa Commission on Drugs The West Africa Commission on Drugs was launched by the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2014. Olusegun Obasanjo chaired the commission. Obasanjo urged strengthening law enforcement and refocussing efforts on "high-level criminals rather than the easy – ...
. At year-end 2017, GCDP board member George Shultz and economist and former secretary of finance in Mexico
Pedro Aspe Pedro Carlos Aspe Armella (born on in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican economist. He served as secretary of finance (1988 – 1994) in the cabinet of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, where he successfully renegotiated foreign debt, gave auton ...
reaffirmed the message of the commission in a New York Times op-ed. The Commission has been successively chaired by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the former President of Brazil, Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland, and
Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...
, former Prime Minister of New Zealand. The Secretariat handles the daily operations of the Commission under the leadership of its director, Khalid Tinasti.


Membership

Members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy: * Louise Arbour, former High Commissioner for Human Rights, Canada *
Pavel Bém Pavel Bém (born 18 July 1963) is a Czech physician and politician. Between 28 November 2002 and 30 November 2010 he served as the Mayor of the Capital City of Prague, and re-elected in 2006. On 19 November 2006 he was elected Deputy Leader o ...
(Czech Republic) former Mayor of
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
, member of the Parliament, Czech Republic * Richard Branson (United Kingdom), entrepreneur, advocate for social causes, founder of the Virgin Group, co-founder of The Elders * Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil), former
President of Brazil The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...
(former chair) * Maria Cattaui (Switzerland), former Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce *
Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...
, former
Prime Minister of New Zealand The prime minister of New Zealand ( mi, Te pirimia o Aotearoa) is the head of government of New Zealand. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, took office on 26 October 2017. The prime minister (inf ...
and Administrator of the
United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
(UNDP) *
Nick Clegg Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicep ...
(United Kingdom), former
Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
* Ruth Dreifuss (Switzerland), former
President of Switzerland The president of the Swiss Confederation, also known as the president of the Confederation or colloquially as the president of Switzerland, is the head of Switzerland's seven-member Federal Council, the country's executive branch. Elected by t ...
and Minister of Home Affairs (chair in 2016"World Leaders Call for End to Criminalizing Drug Consumption"
''The Costa Rica Star'', November 28, 2016. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
) * Mohamed ElBaradei (Egypt 'in exile'), former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1997–2009 and
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...
laureate * Geoff Gallop (Australia), former Premier of Western Australia * César Gaviria (Colombia), former President of Colombia * Anand Grover (India), former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health * Michel Kazatchkine (France), UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and former executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria * Aleksander Kwaśniewski (Poland), former President of Poland * Ricardo Lagos (Chile), former
President of Chile The president of Chile ( es, Presidente de Chile), officially known as the President of the Republic of Chile ( es, Presidente de la República de Chile), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Chile. The president is re ...
* Kgalema Motlanthe (South Africa), former President of South Africa *
Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo, , ( ; yo, Olúṣẹ́gun Ọbásanjọ́ ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian political and military leader who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its presid ...
(Nigeria), former President of Nigeria * George Papandreou (Greece), former Prime Minister of Greece *
José Ramos-Horta José Manuel Ramos-Horta (; born 26 December 1949) is an East Timorese politician currently serving as president of East Timor since May 2022. He previously served as president from 20 May 2007 to 20 May 2012. Previously he was Ministry of Fore ...
, former Prime Minister and President of Timor-Leste * Jorge Sampaio (Portugal), former President of Portugal * Juan Manuel Santos (Colombia), former President of Colombia * Michel Sidibé (Mali), former UNAIDS Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, and former Minister of Health and Social Affairs of
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...
* Javier Solana (Spain), former European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy *
Cassam Uteem Cassam Uteem, GCSK (born in Port Louis on 22 March 1941) is a Mauritian political figure who served as the second president of Mauritius from 30 June 1992 to 15 February 2002. He is the longest served president of Mauritius, having served for ...
(Mauritius), former
President of Mauritius The president of the Republic of Mauritius (french: président de la République de Maurice) is the head of state of the Republic of Mauritius. Mauritius is a parliamentary republic, and the president functions as a ceremonial figurehead, ...
*
Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
(Peru), writer and public intellectual, Nobel Prize laureate * Ernesto Zedillo (Mexico), former
President of Mexico The president of Mexico ( es, link=no, Presidente de México), officially the president of the United Mexican States ( es, link=no, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the ...


Former members

* Kofi Annan (Ghana), former Chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation and Secretary-General of the United Nations (deceased 2018; board member In Memorium) * Marion Caspers-Merk (Germany), former State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Health (Germany) * Carlos Fuentes (Mexico), writer and public intellectual (deceased May 15, 2012; board member In Memorium) * Asma Jahangir (Pakistan), human rights activist, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Executions (deceased 2018; board member In Memorium) * George Shultz (United States), former United States Secretary of State (deceased 2021; former honorary chair; board member In Memorium) * Thorvald Stoltenberg (Norway), former
Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...
and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (deceased 2018; board member In Memorium) * Paul Volcker (United States), former Chairman of the Federal Reserve and of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board (deceased 2019; board member In Memorium) *
John C. Whitehead John Cunningham Whitehead (April 2, 1922 – February 7, 2015) was an American banker and civil servant, a board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation (WTC Memorial Foundation), and, until his resignation in May 2006, chairman of ...
(United States), banker and civil servant, chair of the
World Trade Center Memorial The National September 11 Memorial & Museum (also known as the 9/11 Memorial & Museum) is a memorial and museum in New York City commemorating the September 11 attacks of 2001, which killed 2,977 people, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombi ...
(deceased 2015; board member In Memorium)


Reactions to th
2011 report
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Immediate

Gabor Maté, a Hungarian-Canadian physician who specializes in study and treatment of addiction, was interviewed on '' Democracy Now!'' about the report. Former U.S. President
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
wrote an op-ed in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' explicitly endorsing the recommendations of the commission, saying they were in line with the policies of his administration; and saying it was the policies of the succeeding
Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
administration which had moved U.S. policy so far toward punitive alternatives. Carter's piece elicited several published responses, including one from an analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy who drew attention to the current
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
Office of National Drug Control Policy's immediate rejection of GCDP's recommendations and defense of the "balanced drug control efforts" of the U.S. federal government; and others which agreed and disagreed with Carter's views. Brian Lehrer had
Ethan Nadelmann Ethan A. Nadelmann (born March 13, 1957) is the founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York City-based non-profit organization working to end the War on Drugs. He is a supporter of the legalization of marijuana in America. Early life Nadelma ...
, founder and director of the
Drug Policy Alliance The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is a New York City–based nonprofit organization that seeks to advance policies that “reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition, and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over their minds and ...
, on Lehrer's radio show to detail the GCDP report and how that might impact U.S. anti-drug policies. Sir Ronald Sanders, a consultant and former Caribbean diplomat, wrote in favor of the recommendations and endorsement of President Carter's expressed views.


Extended

Peter Hakim prominently cited the GCDP report in an October, 2011, "rethinking fU.S. drug policy". The Beckley Foundation's Global Initiative for Drug Policy Reform antedated the release of the GCDP report but integrated the GCPD into its November, 2011, British
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...
meetings. Professor Robin Room (
University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...
) was preparing a "Rewriting the UN Drug Conventions Report" based on amendments to the UN drug control conventions of
1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...
,
1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses ( February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events J ...
and 1988 for the Initiative; and Professor Stephen Pudney (
Institute for Social and Economic Research An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...
) was preparing "the first-ever ''Cost-benefit Analysis'' of the control of
cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...
through regulation and taxation in the UK" for it. Amanda Feilding of the Foundation and other peers led the effort and attracted some criticism for it.


Background papers

::as of 2011-11-25
"Demand reduction and harm reduction"
by Dr
Alex Wodak Alexander David Wodak, AM is a physician and the former director of the Alcohol and Drug Service, at St Vincent's Hospital, in Sydney, Australia. Wodak is a notable advocate of drug reform laws. Wodak helped establish the National Drug and Al ...
AM
"Drug policy, criminal justice and mass imprisonment"
by Bryan Stevenson
"Assessing supply-side policy and practice: Eradication and alternative development
by
David Mansfield David Mansfield (born September 13, 1956) is an American musician and composer. Mansfield was raised in Leonia, New Jersey. His father, Newton Mansfield was a first violinist in the New York Philharmonic. David played guitar, pedal steel guita ...

"The development of international drug control: Lessons learned and strategic challenges for the future"
by Martin Jelsma
"Drug policy: Lessons learned and options for the future"
by Mike Trace
"The drug trade: The politicization of criminals and the criminalization of politicians"
by
Moisés Naím Moisés Naím (born July 5, 1952) is a Venezuelan journalist and writer. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 2013, the British magazine ''Prospect'' listed Naím as one of the world's leading thinke ...



2014 Report - Taking Control: Pathways to Drug Policies That Work

On September 9, 2014, the Commission issued its new report, ''Taking Control: Pathways to Drug Policies that Work''. "The report reflects the evolution in the thinking of the Commissioners, who reiterate their demands for decriminalization, alternatives to incarceration, and greater emphasis on public health approaches and now also call for permitting the legal regulation of psychoactive substances. The Commission is the most distinguished group of high-level leaders to ever call for such far-reaching changes."


Disappointment with UNGASS 2016

In April 2016, the GCDP reacted to the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of pres ...
Special Session (UNGASS) drug conference, saying the commission was "profoundly disappointed with the adopted outcome document". The Wall Street ''Journal'' lumped the attendees' positions "somewhat" in two camps: "Some European and South American countries as well as the U.S. favored softer approaches. Eastern countries such as China and Russia and most Muslim nations like Iran, Indonesia and Pakistan remained staunchly opposed." Mexican President
Enrique Peña Nieto Enrique Peña Nieto (; born 20 July 1966), commonly referred to by his initials EPN, is a Mexican politician who served as the 64th president of Mexico from 1 December 2012 to 30 November 2018. A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party ...
said “We must move beyond prohibition to effective prevention” and that Mexico was considering legalizing
medical marijuana Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restriction ...
and limited decriminalization of the drug. GCDP member Branson was quoted as saying the conference outcome was "out of step with world sentiment and doubles down on status quo”.



2016 Report - Advancing Drug Policy Reform: A New Approach to Decriminalization

In November 2016 GCDP released the report, ''Advancing Drug Policy Reform: a new approach to decriminalization''. Commission Chair Dreifuss said about the report:
After years of denouncing the dramatic effects of prohibition and the criminalization of people that do no harm but use drugs on the society as a whole, it is time to highlight the benefits of well-designed and well-implemented people-centered drug policies. These innovative policies cannot exist as long as we do not discuss, honestly, the major policy error made in the past, which is the criminalization of personal consumption or possession of illicit psychoactive substances in national laws.



Position Paper - The Opioid Crisis in North America

On 2 October 2017, the Global Commission published a position paper on the opioid crisis in North America. This opioid-driven public health crisis has reached alarming proportions, contributing in 2016 to an estimated 64,000 deaths from drug overdoses in the US, and some 2,500 in Canada. The members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, several of whom faced similar crises while occupying the highest levels of government in their own countries, share in this position paper their views and recommendations on how to mitigate this epidemic.



2017 Report - The World Drug Perception Problem: Countering Prejudices About People Who Use Drugs

While previous reports by the Global Commission on Drug Policy showed how the potential harms of drugs for people and communities are exacerbated by repressive drug control policies at local, national and international levels, the Global Commission's 2017 report, "The World Drug Perception Problem - Countering Prejudices About People Who Use Drugs" focuses on how current perceptions of drugs and people who use them feed into and off prohibitionist policies. Indeed, drug policy reforms have been difficult to design, legislate or implement because current policies and responses are often based on perceptions and passionate beliefs, and what should be factual discussions leading to effective policies are frequently treated as moral debates. The present report aims to analyze the most common perceptions and fears, contrast them with available evidence on drugs and the people who use them, and provides recommendations on changes that must be enacted to support reforms toward more effective drug policies.



Position Paper - Drug Policy and The Sustainable Development Agenda

The Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030 are meant to be a transformational agenda to eradicate poverty, achieve gender equity or save the planet through their implementation. This implementation, based on coherent public policies, is still lacking at the national, regional and international levels. This is most visible in drug policy, where voices from health, human rights and science call for reform, while most countries continue to privilege ideology through law-enforcement and militarization. The members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy draw from their experience at the highest policy and political levels to provide an analysis of how - beyond powerful words and slogans - sustainable development is impeded by drug control while providing a single, groundbreaking recommendation to address this situation.



2018 Report - Regulation: The Responsible Control of Drugs

The Global Commission on Drug Policy released its 2018 report on the responsible control of drugs in
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
. The report examined in detail how governments can take control of currently illegal drug markets through responsible regulation, thereby weakening criminal organizations that now profit from the illegal markets. The new report provided a roadmap for transitioning from illegal to legally regulated drug markets. It offered answers regarding the organizational capacity of state institutions to regulate and control a legal market of potentially dangerous products. It highlighted the challenges facing impoverished populations that constitute the “working class” of the illegal drug markets. It offered possible ways forward to deal with the risks inherent to the resilience of organized crime. Finally, this report called for a reform of the prohibition-based international drug control system, which is compromising a universal and holistic approach to the “drug problem”."Regulation: The Responsible Control of Drugs"
''globalcommissionondrugs.org'', 2018.



Position Paper - Drug Policy and Deprivation of Liberty

This paper shows how the deprivation of liberty for non-violent drug crimes is a wrong and ineffective response, notably because it does not take into account the social and psychological root causes of drug consumption, nor does it consider the economic and social marginalization of low-level actors in the trade. Furthermore, people who are incarcerated are vulnerable, exposed to risks, particularly health risks, for which they are not well-equipped and do not receive adequate care. In this report, members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy analyze the last thirty years of over incarceration in closed settings, from prisons to migrant administrative detention and from mandatory treatment to private rehabilitation centers. The paper highlights the responsibility of the State towards people who are incarcerated, and demonstrates how their health and well-being are at risk.



2019 Report - Classification of Psychoactive Substances: When Science Was Left Behind

In Classification of Drugs: when science was left behind, the Global Commission on Drug Policy explains how the biased historical classification of psychoactive substances has contributed to the "world drug problem". It is the first-ever comprehensive report providing a political reading of the current evaluation and classification, or "scheduling" of drugs according to their harms. Psychoactive substances should be classified with regard to their potential for dependence and other harms. This is not the case today, where some substances are legally available because they are considered beneficial (medicines) or culturally important (alcohol), while others are seen as destructive, and are strictly prohibited. The classification of drugs is at the core of the international drug control system. As such, governments must ensure that such a classification is pragmatic and based on science and evidence, makes clear the benefits and harms of drugs, and allows for responsible legal regulatory models to control drugs.


References


External links

*
"Zero Tolerance" - Commission member Caspers-Merk on drug policy
{{authority control Drug policy organizations