The WHO calls for decriminalisation

The Economist (UK)
Thursday, July 17, 2014

whoJamaica, Uruguay, Colorado, Washington—more and more places are rebelling against the UN conventions that established the criminalisation of narcotics half a century ago. But the latest organisation to weigh in against the UN’s line is rather surprising. It is a branch of the UN itself. The report, Consolidated guidelines on HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for key populations, published by the World Health Organisation, an agency of the United Nations, makes a discreet but clear call to decriminalise drugs. And not just cannabis—the report goes as far as recommending the decriminalisation of injecting drugs, which implies the harder sort.