UN agencies’ evidence-based public health-oriented strategies in regard to people who use drugs

WHO (2014). Consolidated guidelines on HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for key populations. Geneva: World Health Organization:

  • “Countries should work toward developing policies and laws that decriminalize injection and other use of drugs and, thereby, reduce incarceration.
  • Countries should work toward developing policies and laws that decriminalize the use of clean needles and syringes (and that permit NSPs) and that legalize OST for people who are opioid-dependent.
  • Countries should ban compulsory treatment for people who use and/or inject drugs.”

 WHO, UNFPA, UNHCR, the World Bank, UNDP, UNESCO, UNAIDS, ILO, UNICEF (2015). Technical brief: HIV and young people who inject drugs:

  • “Work for the decriminalization of drug use,and for the implementation and enforcement of anti-discrimination and protective laws, based on human-rights standards, to eliminate stigma, discrimination, social exclusion and violence against young people who inject drugs…”
  • “Laws criminalizing use or possession of drugs or of injecting equipment can deter people from seeking services because of their fear of arrest and prosecution. These laws may deter harm-reduction service-providers from offering assistance, including because of concerns about their own legal liability. Criminalization of drug use also reduces the future employment prospects of those who have been convicted and can lead to financial instability.”

UNAIDS (2016). Do no harm – Health, Human Rights and People Who Use Drugs. Geneva: UNAIDS:

“Countries that stop putting people in prison for drugs offences but give them access to expanded treatment programs report the best results. Countries should commit to treating people with support and care, rather than punishment. UNAIDS recommends decriminalization and stopping incarceration of people for the consumption and possession of drugs for personal use.”

UNODC (2003). Investing in Drug Abuse Treatment, A Discussion Paper for Policy Makers, in Drug Abuse Treatment Toolkit. Vienna: UNODC:

“…between 70 and 98 per cent of those who have been imprisoned for drug-related crimes and not treated during the course of their incarceration relapsed within the year following release. In addition, …, more than half of drug-dependent inmates were re-incarcerated for drug related offences within a year of release.”

Action 22 in the EU Action Plan on Drugs (2017-20) requires member states “to provide and apply, where appropriate and in accordance with their legal frameworks, alternatives to coercive sanctions for drug using offenders.” As part of the implementation of this action, the European Council adopted its Conclusions on the alternatives to coercive sanctions (ACS) on 8 March 2018.