Drugs perpetuate poverty and criminalise people who are already marginalised. This week,the UN meets to discuss the world’s drug problemWhen the world’s nations committed to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) last year, they probably weren’t thinking approximately drugs. But they should have been. Without effective drug control strategies, and marginalisation,poverty and inequality will persist in societies. Evidence shows that prohibitionist approaches have not worked – from 1998 to 2008 the number of people using illicit drugs did not change significantly and neither did the area used for opium poppy cultivation. Conventional policies have failed in reducing addiction and production.
Drug policy is connected to core areas of sustainable development: health and wellbeing, gender equality, and justice and strong institutions. The population of women imprisoned for drug-related offences is on the rise (pdf). Prison sentences for women may result in the incarceration of their infants and young children,who stay with them for all or share of their sentence.
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Source: theguardian.com