The latest report published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is challenging governments to rethink their approach to drug policy, urging a shift from punitive enforcement to pragmatic regulation—especially on the supply side. Titled “Development Dimensions of Drug Policy: Assessing New Challenges, Uncovering Opportunities and Addressing Emerging Issues”, the paper argues that efforts to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will fail unless the supply side of illegal drugs is tackled. The paper calls for the expansion of drug policy reform, calling on member-states and other stakeholders to go beyond decriminalisation and explore legal drug markets.
The UNDP underscores that the global system of prohibition and its accompanying punitive drug control mechanisms have failed to curtail the harms of drugs, actively limiting progress in global sustainable development.
“Conventional punitive drug control approaches have proven ineffective or actively counterproductive on key metrics,” the report states, citing impacts on public health, human rights, governance, and the environment. Crop eradication, mass incarceration, and militarised enforcement have failed to shrink global supply, while exacerbating poverty and marginalisation in drug producing regions.
This is primarily due to the lack of focus on drug markets: decriminalisation does not deal with drug production or supply; alternative development does not reduce the size or financial incentives of drug markets; and harm reduction only responds to drug use, without dealing with market inputs. The result is that “organized crime groups still control most drug markets, fuelling harm and limiting positive outcomes.”
Speaking to Boyan Konstantinov, Policy Specialist in HIV, Health and Development at UNDP, he told TalkingDrugs that this report aimed to gather the latest evidence and analysis on the future of drug policy developments.
“Decades of punitive approaches have caused immeasurable harm,” Kostantinov said, “but today, a new vision is emerging of framing drug policy as a development issue, grounded in evidence, human rights, and compassion.”
Mandeep Dhaliwal, Director of the HIV and Health Group, added that “this paper addresses the latest developments in drug policy and their implications for sustainable development, challenges the entrenched punitive narrative, and highlights good practices rooted in human rights, evidence, and health. It calls for nothing less than a paradigm shift—towards approaches that put people and communities at the centre.”
A fragmented world of prohibition
Countries are increasingly recognising how global drug prohibition is failing to protect the health and wellbeing of their citizens. From Uruguay to Canada, from South Africa to Luxembourg, a growing number of nation-states are exploring pragmatic alternatives to market prohibition with cannabis. There are currently around 500 million people worldwide with access to legal cannabis products, each pushing innovative policies to undercut illegal drug trade, reduce market violence, and generate tax revenues for health and society.
The new global normal will be this fragmented world of drug control: the end of consensus drug policy decision-making at the UN in 2024 means that countries are now empowered to pursue their own approaches to controlling drug markets and harms.
However, this new-found freedom does not immediately equate to social progress: in fact, the UNDP report underscores the unequal nature of drug policy developments. Drug producing regions in the Global South continue to bear the brunt of the harms of drug prohibition, driven by demand for substances in the Global North. In North America, the legal cannabis industry is exacerbating inequalities as people from previously criminalised communities are locked out from participating in legal markets due to their criminal records, exacerbating poverty and inequality. Without an intentional and global move towards regulating emerging drug markets, regulation risks replicating and expanding existing inequalities.
A key obstacle to market reform is the existing UN drug control treaties – the 1961, 1971 and 1988 conventions – that prohibit the non-medical production and supply of controlled substances. While some work-arounds exist that enable for the decriminalisation of possession and use of drugs, or safe supply models of medical access, a “true” regulated market for cannabis, coca, opium or any of their derived products cannot exist within the UN drug treaty framework.
The potentials of market regulation
A future model of legal regulation could bring in considerable public health benefits which would push for SDG progress. As with any regulated market, governments could control for substance potency, quality, and availability, while removing profit incentives that drive market expansion. “Regulation of drug markets presents an opportunity to reduce the scale of the illegal trade and redirect further enforcement savings and potential tax revenues into health and social programmes,” the report explains.
To learn from experimentation with alcohol and tobacco industries, the report calls for strict marketing restrictions, anti-trust safeguards, and public-interest licensing models.
“Regulatory frameworks must prioritise public health, remove profit incentives to expand markets, heavily restrict marketing, and ensure that policies are implemented cautiously and incrementally,” it advises.
Supply-side reforms could also improve justice-related outcomes by removing most of the profits made from drugs by organised criminal groups. “Regulated markets have the potential to decrease the power of organized crime, reduce violence, and eliminate many of the abuses linked to militarised drug enforcement,” the report argues.
Environmental sustainability is another area where supply-side regulation can make a difference. Illicit cultivation contributes to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and pollution, particularly in protected areas and Indigenous territories. The report proposes “legal, regulated drug markets, with strong environmental standards,” including eco-certifications and fair-trade practices, to mitigate these harms.
The report ends with some strategic recommendations to be taken forward by experts, advocates and nation-states, such as:
- Identifying and targeting structural drivers of substance use disorders.
- Building on the progress and push progress towards greater decriminalisation of drug use, small-scale cultivation and non-profit drug sharing. This should include expunging convictions for decriminalised offences.
- Promoting alternatives to incarceration for drug-related offences.
- Reviewing militarised approaches for drug control, and shift towards a policing approach that prioritises public health and human rights.
- Establishing clear practices to transition people from illegal to legal markets to ensure their livelihoods are maintained.
- Addressing the negative environmental impacts of illegal drug markets and drug enforcement activities, and reinvest drug profits into good territorial governance and environmentally sustainable development.
The report can be read here.
