L’impact négligé des politiques antidrogues

Réflexions sur ses conséquences en matière de santé publique

Abstract

As the international drug policy is being discussed ahead of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on drugs to be held in April 2016, the review of the last 20 years of repressive policies shows that they did not achieve their objective of eliminating or significantly reducing drugs in the world. Drug production is not decreasing and is spreading to new regions of the world; drug consumption has stabilized in high-income countries and is increasing in low and middle-income countries, while criminal organizations that control the black market are as prosperous as ever. This article focuses on the impact of drug enforcement on public health, the most important collateral damage of drug repression, which generates other harms for human rights, human dignity and poverty eradication. The focus is on the prioritization of public health approaches in drug policy, to end infectious and blood-borne diseases, to ensure access to essential controlled medicine, but also to shift current drug policies and contain their consequences on affected populations in particular, as well as on the general population.