World Federation Against Drugs

The World Federation Against Drugs is dedicated to identifying and promoting effective and affordable laws, policies and programs consistent with modern culture and values that limit illegal drug use and illegal drug trafficking. These initiatives build on a century of international efforts to limit the use of illegal drugs. This effort is incorporated into the three major treaties that are accepted by virtually every country in the world which are managed by the United Nations (UN). All three are rooted in the commitment to make effective medicines available for legitimate medical treatment, including the use of drugs of abuse, only in closed systems that limit the use of these drugs to medical patients for the treatment of specific diseases. The treaties require coordinated international efforts that reject the use of these drugs outside of tightly controlled medical practice. These treaties and the efforts made around the world have succeeded in significantly limiting the use of illegal drugs compared to the use of alcohol and tobacco, two legal drugs. These international efforts have registered significant success even during the modern drug epidemic. For example, in the United States the use of any illegal drug in the prior 30 days by people over the age of 12 has decreased by 40% since the peak in 1979.
The last half of the 20th Century saw the emergence of the modern drug abuse epidemic characterized by exposure of entire populations to a wide variety of drugs of abuse used by potent routes of administration, especially smoking, shooting and snorting. The epidemic, new in world history, has become global. It is fueled by an increasingly powerful and diverse international drug production and marketing industry that is not only ruthless but is also efficient, resourceful and violent. Drug cartels are linked to terrorism around the world. They thrive on and create political instability in all parts of the world. A major challenge of the 21st Century is to find more effective ways to reduce illegal drug use and the illegal drug trafficking that fuels the epidemic. The challenge is great because the drugs of abuse effectively hijack the human brain’s reward centers subverting the essential values and behaviors that are necessary for the survival of individuals, families, communities and nations. All humans are vulnerable to this biological threat but the most vulnerable groups are youth and the disadvantaged.
At the heart of the World Federation Against Drugs approach is the commitment to a balance of efforts in law enforcement and efforts in prevention and treatment. These efforts are inspired and improved by a dedication to research into the nature and consequences of illegal drug use and into the efforts to reduce illegal drug use.
World Federation Against Drugs is committed to keeping these drugs illegal seeing this as an important and largely successful public health and public safety effort. Instead of rejecting the role of the criminal justice system, World Federation Against Drugs works to find better ways for the criminal justice system to work with the treatment and prevention system to do a better job of reducing illegal drug use than either can achieve alone.
World Federation Against Drugs believes far more effective means must be developed and widely used to reduce the demand for drugs; that is, to reduce the use of drugs. This is an essential requirement for reducing the drug trafficking, which is fed by the money paid by eager illegal drug users. World Federation Against Drugs believes that law enforcement is necessary to curb drug trafficking at all levels from local communities to the national and international levels.

Implementation of EU drugs Strategy Action Plan

2

1.25

No lobbyists with EP accreditations

None declared

Ms Linda Nilsson (General Secretary)

Mr Per Johansson (Secratary of the Board)

III - Non-governmental organisations

Non-governmental organisations, platforms and networks and similar