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."