The Role of International Law in the War on Illicit Drugs

The paper evaluates the role of international law in the so-called fight against illicit drugs. It assesses the harm caused by the non-medicinal use of such drugs, finding that this does indeed exist but recognising that the very rendering of drugs as illicit may also cause such harm. The key harms here are human rights violations and the undermining of personal autonomy. The work argues that an effective framework for the control of drugs should seek to mitigate the harm associated with drug use with minimal restrictions on autonomy. It submits that the international framework cannot be considered as effective in this regard, and that it is underpinned by Western notions of morality from the mid-20th Century rather than any objective assessment either of harm caused by drugs. It is shown that the framework does not envisage a clear role for States in managing the type of drug problems.