FAQ: What is the significance of the March 12-13, 2009 Commission on Narcotic Drugs Meeting in Vienna that will review polices set in 1998 by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs?

* The March 12-13 Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) meeting in Vienna is important to anyone interested in public health, drug policy, HIV/AIDS or the Obama administration’s ability to shift to evidence-based policies over dogma.

* During this meeting United Nations (UN) Member States will review the results of the1998 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) that set the framework for the last decade’s international drug policy. Delegates will then release a political declaration that will set the framework for the next decade — and, by implication, the course for the global response to the HIV epidemic.

* This meeting, and the subsequent declaration, presents an opportunity for the Obama administration to join with other nations to abandon the war on drugs and create a genuinely balanced and useful blueprint for UN international drug policy.

* Obama has publicly stated position that he, per the official White House site, “supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of [HIV] infection among drug users.” His views, which echo evidence-based research and the thinking of much of the international community, emphasize treating drug use as a public health issue rather than a crime.

* Yet the current US delegation to UN drug meetings consists of Bush-era State Department officials who do not reflect Obama’s position. They are huge proponents of the criminalization approach. Moreover, they are notoriously hostile towards syringe exchange. The delegation includes no members of the most impacted community: individuals who use drugs. If the Obama administration sends this delegation, they will continue to advocate policies that have had dramatic negative consequences on the lives of drug users, their families, and their communities but very little impact on reducing drug supply, consumption, or cultivation.

* Moreover, Beyond 2008, a consensual, progressive declaration created by over 300 representatives from civil society — under the auspices of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime — to provide input into the 1998 UNGASS review has been allotted a mere 10 minutes on the agenda for the CND meeting.

* In a letter co-sponsored with Physicians for Human Rights and co-signed by 60+ public health and human rights organizations, the Harm Reduction Coalition has asked the Obama administration to immediately appoint a more progressive US delegation to the 2009 UNGASS review process — one that reflects the President’s stance on syringe exchange and puts civil society at the table where it belongs. As of today’s date, January 27th, a mere six weeks from the 2009 UNGASS, we have had no response from the Obama administration.

Harm Reduction Coalition    January 2009