The ‘Drugs Omnibus Resolution’ at the UN – a charter for persecution

In a parallel universe a few hundred political appointees gather at a prestigious venue to decide on how to arrest and incarcerate law abiding citizens by declaring the consumption of certain plants as illegal. yet this is precisely what occurred on Thursday 21st November 2024, at the Third Committee, Seventy-ninth Session, of the UN General Assembly with the adoption of draft resolution A/C.3/79/L.6/Rev.1). The process resembles an institutional Don Quixote engaging tilting at the windmills of an imaginary enemy. At this meeting, the so-called ‘the global community’, shepherded into agreement by the sticks of sanction and carrots of development assistance by the major powers, agrees on a set of measures to:

“address and counter the world drug problem” (page7)

The remainder of the document contains so many qualification that naif readers are lost to what has been agreed at all. The devil, and we can smell the sulphur all over these publications, lies in the detail of phrasing and vocabulary.

When member states are encouraged to “to promote prevention, as part of a comprehensive and balanced strategy for drug demand reduction” this translates into programmes for ‘just say no’ or ‘talk to frank’ or ‘healthy lifestyle’ campaigns. The text also mentions programme beneficiaries who will be recipients of funds for such activities, such as United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Narcotics Control Board, and the World Health Organisation. Hard as it has been to wring concession to health, environment and other cuddly issues, with corresponding funding allocations, the crux of the resolution is on combating drug abuse and drug trafficking through enforcement. That is the use of state violence against people who have on them or are somehow related or connected to someone who has on them one of a list of plants and plant derived  substances and their analogues.

it goes into detail in how the states signing up to this resolution are required to intrude  into the lives of their citizens and override their rights over their bodies and their property by calling  on member states to:

“promote the use of new technologies and means to counter illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and their precursor chemicals, including through the darknet and the surface web and social networks, as well as to prevent the use of electronic payment systems and virtual assets, including those provided by virtual asset service providers” (p 12, para 27)

and to:

“prevent the illicit cultivation of and to eradicate plants containing narcotic and psychotropic substances”

It further demands in the application of proportionate penalties including incarceration and cooperation between and among states. The full details of this cheery document can be found on

https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/ltd/n24/344/48/pdf/n2434448.pd