Policy and Law Reform

Civil society, parliamentarians, regional organisations and UN entities are using the Guidelines to inform and support work to promote law and policy reform at the national level.

Highlights of this activity include:

• an initiative by the Scottish Government aimed at reducing drug-related deaths through the establishment of a national mission to prioritise public health and human rights-based approaches using the Guidelines as a framework;
• the HIV Legal Network and the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation citing the Guidelines in an appeal to the Canadian Congress for legislation to decriminalise personal drug use;
• in Colombia NGOs utilised the Guidelines in their arguments to prohibit aerial spraying of pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals to eradicate illicit drugs crops based on risk to health, environmental harm and eradication efforts depriving people of the right to an adequate standard of living. This culminated in 2019 with the landmark decision by the Colombian Constitutional Court which held that fumigation couldn’t be used until strict requirements were met to protect life, health and the environment of people who would be affected by fumigation;
• In 2019 and 2020 the Colombian Constitutional Court cited the Guidelines in decisions regarding substance use, in particular referencing State obligations to ensure evidence-based policymaking to guarantee the right to health of people who use drugs;
• In Argentina, parliamentarians used the Guidelines to support a bill to reform Argentina’s drug law within a human rights framework.