HARM REDUCTION

Abstract

          Drug problem is one of the major problems affecting the global community continuously. The United Nations, as the center of not less than 193 member states around the world, for peace building, the stability, and the economic and social development, including the development of the cooperation to solve important problems, have recognized the importance of the drug problems. Therefore, the United Nations has played an important role in the strengthening of the cooperation to solve such issue by establishing the Narcotics Commission, the International Narcotics Control Board, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. However, as the drug problem is a social problem which severely affects the member states, and despite having three main legal instruments as the guidelines to control and to solve drug problems, which are the 1961 Single International Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Psychotropic Substances Convention, and the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Trafficking in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances, the drug problem persists and tends to become more intense and complex. The United Nations General Assembly recognized the importance and the urgency of the drug problems among the member States. Therefore, it held the United Nations General Assembly’s special session between 19-21 April 2016 (2016), known as UNGASS 2016, to review the problems and the measures preventing and solving the drug problems, and to improve such measures to be more appropriate and more effective than the previous legal enforcement in the member nations which have emphasized on the severe suppressive measures, and disregarded the other essential related aspects, such as health, human rights, the reform of the drug laws to be consistent with the international principle.