UN health rapporteur: Drug war ignores rights, decriminalize narcotics use

By: Anita Snow, The Associated Press

 

The U.N. independent investigator promoting physical and mental health on Monday urged decriminalization of narcotics use, saying punishment and sanctions don't cure drug dependency.

 

Anand Grover, a well-known lawyer from India, also said the war on drugs has ignored drug users' human rights.

 

Grover is the U.N. Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on physical and mental health. He told the General Assembly committee dealing with rights issues that people who use drugs may not get the health care they need for fear of being arrested, or may be denied health care if they seek help.

 

Drug users also may be sent to compulsory treatment centres where they undergo forced labour, detention, military-type drills, physical exercises and other types of interventions whose effectiveness he said is not backed by scientific evidence, he said.

 

"People who use drugs and people who are dependent on drugs possess the same freedoms and entitlements guaranteed by international legal instruments," said Grover. "Both groups experience violations of their rights" under current international drug enforcement practices, he said.

 

He said decriminalization of drug use would not make it legal, but would eliminate prison terms and other sanctions that do not cure addiction.

 

"The current international system of drug control has focused on creating a drug-free world, almost exclusively through use of law enforcement policies and criminal sanctions," Grover wrote.

 

"Mounting evidence, however, suggests this approach has failed, primarily because it does not acknowledge the realities of drug use and dependence,' he said. "While drugs may have a pernicious effect on individual lives and society, this excessively punitive regime has not achieved its stated public health goals, and has resulted in countless human rights violations."

 

Grover said "nearly 90 to 100 per cent of people who use drugs returned to drug use after being subjected to forced treatment."

 

"The United Nations entities and member states should adopt a right-to-health approach to drug control," he argued.

 

As for legal drugs, he complained that people in many countries have limited access to essential medications, especially for emergency obstetric procedures and management of epilepsy.

 

"An alarming availability gap exists between the developed and developing world in relation to the supply of essential medicines," he said. "About 89 per cent of all legally controlled medicines, including morphine, is consumed by North America and Europe."