A new deal on drugs is as vital as a climate change accord

A forthcoming UN summit is the opportunity for a radical approach to curbing the drugs trade
OpEd by Nick Clegg and Bohuslav Sobotka
The Guardian (UK)
Sunday, January 31, 2016

Standing on the podium at the United Nations in New York in June 1998, Kofi Annan declared: "It is time for all nations to say 'yes' to the challenge of working towards a drug-free world!" The leaders assembled at that meeting agreed: illegal drugs were to be eradicated from the face of the planet. They even set a deadline: 10 years to rid the globe of this scourge. A drug-free world by 2008. Annan now strikes a very different tone than he did 18 years ago. Witnessing the effects of drug markets and misguided policies on his own region of West Africa, he recently observed: "Drugs may have destroyed many people, but wrong governmental policies have destroyed many more. Let us not repeat this mistake."