Next year's United Nation's General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem is, by UN standards, set to be controversial. But it is unlikely to be the game changer in global drug policy that some are seeking. The one simple truism of the drug policy debate is that there are no simple solutions, nor much consensus. Solutions become even more difficult to find if you're focused on the wrong goals. The current global drug policy goals – the elimination of the use and trade of illicit narcotics – outlined in the UN's Political Declaration and drug control conventions don't address the ground truth of the global drug problem.