"Drug policies that focus almost exclusively on the use of the criminal justice system need to be broadened. They need to be broadened by embracing a public health approach," said World Health Organisation director Margaret Chan, drawing applause. The three-day special session was requested by Colombia, Mexico and Guatemala, which have felt the brunt of the war on drugs with an explosion of crime and violence.
Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto said the fight against drugs must be seen from a "human rights perspective" and warned that harsh penalties for drug use "create a vicious cycle of marginalization and crime." Saying that his country had paid a "high price" for failed global drug policies, he also backed calls for decriminalising marijuana use for medical and scientific purposes.
Delegates from the European Union, Switzerland, Brazil, Costa Rica and Uruguay, among others, called for abolishing capital punishment for convicted drug felons, a practice widely used by China, Iran and Indonesia. The document adopted at the session makes no reference to the death penalty but calls on government to "promote proportionate national sentencing policies... whereby the severity of penalties is proportionate to the gravity of offences." Pakistan said it was gravely concerned by the trend toward legalising the use of marijuana and other drugs. Uruguay became the first county to fully legalise marijuana in 2013 and Canada is among countries looking at a similar measure.
"This would give a fillip to drug demand, thus igniting the supply chain having direct fallouts on our region," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan warned. "We have dreamed of a drug-free society rather than a drug-tolerant society," he said. China's Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun agreed: "Any form of legalisation of narcotics should be resolutely opposed."