Deconstructing international drug prohibition

This special issue of the IJDP critically examines the history, operational structure, and geopolitical context of the international drug control system administered by the United Nations, and supported by treaties and conventions ascribed to by all the member states. The strict enforcement of these international laws represents the clearest manifestation of current drug policies*/ most recently set out in the Political Declaration, adopted in 1998 at the General Assembly’s special session on drugs (UNGASS) held in New York City. This worldwide regime was established nearly a century ago and since World War II has been institutionalised in a series of formidable UN agencies, supported by the authority and police powers of the Security Council and General Assembly. Drugs may seem an unlikely topic for such a grand institution and elaborate apparatus. While almost universal in human societies, drug use takes such vastly different forms, is so deeply embedded in diverse cultures (often for centuries), and is so changeable over time, that the success of any uniform approach would appear most unlikely. But there are few areas of international affairs where so many nations, who commonly disagree about much, so consistently agree on something. How can a uniform global policy exist that ‘just says no’? Why such harmony and such durability (so uncharacteristic of international affairs) in this most difficult of areas? The twentieth century history of drugs suggests that it is this harmony, rather than drug prohibition per se, that is the point. Before any global drug prohibition regime existed, humanity somehow managed to live with powerful and dangerous drugs as a part of normal life. Dealing with them (more or less well) and with change and diversity in drug use being the norm throughout human history, life went on and civilisation evolved to where it is today. Whatever you may think of our place in the universe, the species is certainly flourishing in biological terms*/6 billion strong, masters of the material universe, with dominion over all of Gods creatures*/save ourselves. But while the UN has administered the drug treaties and officially monitored global compliance and regulatory efforts for decades, until very recently (and even then, with only scant exceptions) one nation has completely dominated drug control policy. The US is the 500-pound gorilla of global drug policy and has largely determined the world’s rules about drug regulation for almost a century. And now, despite all the damage from millennia of drunkenness and generations of drug-induced madness, this policy has managed to produce the most desperate drug situation in human history. There are three parts to this relatively recent rise in the significance of drugs: drugs are today linked to every major social ill facing the world*/from AIDS to terrorism. Drugs have become a massive global commodity whose economic scale is on a par with petroleum. Drugs and their effects have achieved truly strategic status. Yet today we face this ever-expanding international catastrophe with pervasive official denial, widespread intellectual dishonesty, and corrupted professionalism. If we wish to change this regime, it is vital that we appreciate how we got to where we are today and what forces hold the situation in place, despite all the compelling reasons to change it. Two papers in this special issue make a signal contribution by linking the drug problems before us to the institutionalisation of drug prohibition and the role of the UN and the international treaties. These complementary works, by Fazey (2003) and Bewley-Taylor (2003) track both the formal structure and informal reality of these organisations of the UN. Both papers carefully consider the prospects for change in light of the nature of this regime and the true workings of the formal international apparatus that enforces it. Bewley-Taylor is a political scientist and specialist in American studies at the University of Wales Swansea. * Tel.: /1-718-920-4766; fax: /1-718-798-6378. E-mail address: emdrucker@earthlink.net (E. Drucker). International Journal of Drug Policy 14 (2003) 201 /202