United Nations poised to call for decriminalisation of drugs, says Richard Branson

A spokeswoman for Sir Richard said he had been told the move was to be launched on Sunday at the global Harm Reduction Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Campaigners have long believed that the UNODC is key to changing government drug policies ahead of a meeting on “The World Drug problem” at the UN General Assembly next April.

Branson said, ‘Together with countless other tireless advocates, I’ve for years argued that we should treat drug use as a health issue, not as a crime.

The self-made mogul argued in a statement that governments have wasted billions chasing the “illusion” of a drug-free world, while failing to take control of the global trade from criminal organizations.

Sir Richard said he was hearing that at least one government was putting an inordinate amount of pressure on the UNODC.

“Treating drug use for non-medical purposes and possession for personal consumption as criminal offences has contributed to public health problems and induced negative consequences for safety, security, and human rights”, the document states.

In 2001, Portuguese legislators enacted a comprehensive form of decriminalization of low-level possession and consumption of all illicit drugs and reclassified these activities as administrative violations.

“Richard has released the announcement ahead of the UNODC due to concern that the UNODC would do a volte-face at the last possible moment”, she said. After more than a decade, Portugal has experienced no major increases in drug use, while seeing reduced rates of problematic and adolescent drug use, fewer people arrested and incarcerated for drugs, reduced incidence of HIV/AIDS, reduced opiate-related deaths, and a significant increase in the number of people receiving drug treatment.

“UNODC emphatically denies reports that there has been pressure on UNODC to withdraw the document”.

He added: “Overall, UNODC remains committed to the balanced approach that, in particular, promotes alternatives to incarceration in line with worldwide human rights standards”.

“It remains under review and UNODC regrets that, on this occasion, there has been an unfortunate misunderstanding about the nature and intent of this briefing paper”.

The UNODC has been under pressure for a few time to make a clear statement with regard to decriminalisation of drug possession and use. “But, it is not possible to withdraw what is not yet ready”.

See below for the document’s full text and an intelligent discussion of drug policy by author and journalist Johann Hari. “It reflects both growing support for decriminalization in Europe and Latin America as well as the insistence of United Nations health, development and human rights agencies that drug control policies adhere to global conventions in those areas as well”. It’s not exactly an analogous situation, as drugs are objectively more unsafe than sex, but then again, they’d be much less risky if they were fully decriminalized and regulated.