The international drug control regime was established more than a century ago, yet rarely has the issue received as much attention as it has since the 2010s. With the legalisation of cannabis in the Americas, the opioid-driven overdose crisis in the United States, the peace agreement in Colombia, the brutal “war on drugs” of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, and the adoption of a new political declaration at a UN special session, drug policy has often taken a front seat in national and international policy debates.
Despite the intense debates, the outcomes are meagre: problematic and recreational consumption continues to rise (with 23% increase in consumption in a decade, trafficking and gang violence worsen, and production of both natural and synthetic drugs is booming. Moreover, the current poly-crisis in the aftermath of a global pandemic, combining Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, economic frictions and climate change, make drug policy a low-priority area for policymakers and the public at large.
