The aim of this global stakeholder analysis is to examine the recent changes in international drug policy and the implications of these changes for shifting alignments and coalitions of stakeholders.
This document assumes a core adherence to fundamental principles of public health and human rights as outlined in official UN, EU and member-state positions, and those advocated by leading civil society organisations in the field of human rights, public health and drugs. Further, it draws on the public health baseline assessments on drug policy and access to controlled medicines in two Lancet Commissions’ reports. In so doing it argues the centrality and indivisibility of sustainable development, public health, human rights and harm-reduction-oriented drug policies in all local national, regional and international contexts. It also expands the scope of the traditional definition of ‘harm reduction’ to incorporate a recognition of the application to the supply side of the lessons and successes of harm-reduction principles on the demand side.