Soros takes UN to task on drugs

George Soros, one of the world's richest men, has funded a new lobby group which will push for more treatment programmes for drug users instead of punishing them with long prison sentences.

The Hungarian-born financier has been advised by Mike Trace, the Government's former deputy drugs tsar. One result of their collaboration is the lobby group Forward Thinking on Drugs.

The group recently conducted research which concluded that drug use has stabilised in countries that have piloted measures such as needle exchanges, drug consumption rooms, heroin on prescription and public health programmes aimed at improving the health of addicts.

Its publication coincides with a UN review of its 10-year strategy to make a significant reduction in both the supply and demand of drugs by 2008. Anti-drug abuse campaigners have dismissed the UN's policy, which favours punishment over rehabilitation, as a failure.

Disagreements between the authorities are also becoming more apparent. In February this year, the UN drugs committee – the International Narcotic Control Board – attacked the British Government's proposal to downgrade cannabis in a report which said it had pushed through the policy "intimidated by a vocal minority that wants to legalise illicit drug use".

As many as 108 MEPs have now signed a petition calling for the UN to abandon its existing drugs convention.