UN summit torn over pursuit of 'war on drugs'

A landmark UN summit in Vienna opens today to review the 10-year-old global "war on drugs" policy amid tensions between the US and European governments over what many see as a flawed approach.

"It's been a failure and it's been a licence for impunity," said Genevieve Horwood, an adviser to the UK drugs charity Release. "It has been a failure in the sense that the world drug problem has increased and in the sense that new consequences and problems have arisen as a result of the enforcement-heavy and supply reduction-heavy decade," she added.

UN members are to sign a drug strategy declaration during the two-day summit. But a key point of contention is whether the document will include "harm reduction" strategies, such as providing drug-users with needle-exchange programs and treatment. Along with Australia, New Zealand and some Latin American countries, most EU nations support this being included, but have found themselves lined up against the United States and Russia.

However, there are hopes that the US position will soften now that Barack Obama is President; one of his first acts in office was to support the removal of a ban on federal funding for needle-exchange programmes. An EU spokesman said yesterday: "My understanding is they're pretty close to a consensus."

Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, which is hosting the conference, has defended the UN record, and said that "from a historical perspective, the first century of drug control shows a positive balance sheet".

In a paper prepared for the summit, Mr Costa said "international controls" had been an "undeniable success", but admitted it had also had a "dramatic unintended consequence: a criminal market of staggering proportions".

He added: "The crime and corruption associated with the drug trade are providing strong evidence to a vocal minority of pro-drug lobbyists to argue that the cure is worse than the disease, and that drug legalisation is the solution."

Ms Horwood is not confident that the meeting will result in a shift in the UN's drug policy. "I think they will rubber-stamp another 10 years of failure," she said. "Ideally I'd like them to commit to reviewing the goals of the international drug policy, to have a real review of not only its implementation but its goal, and find a more humane, rights-based, health-based drug policy to move forward with."