European Union statement at the occasion of the Special segment on the preparations for the 2016 UNGASS, December 2014

12. As regards Workshop 1 on demand reduction and related issues “Drugs and Health”, we are convinced that this should be an opportunity to examine the range of equally important and mutually reinforcing drug demand measures, including targeted prevention, early detection and intervention, risk and harm reduction, treatment, rehabilitation, social reintegration and recovery. We believe that providing various options for treatment and social support for persons with drug use as well as risk and harm reduction measures, including prevention of overdoses and reduction of drug-related deaths, should be an essential element of drug policies at national, regional and international level. Therefore we would like to see the topic in Part 1 of the workshop reflecting the full range of drug demand reduction measures with the following broader name: “Drugs and health: drugs demand and blood-borne disease reduction interventions”. We would also like to express our appreciation on the inclusion of the subtopic on “Availability of controlled substances for medical purposes”.
  • Access to controlled medicines
  • Harm reduction

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A series of intersessional meetings took place starting in September 2014 and leading toward the UNGASS Special Segment in March 2015 at the 58th Session of the CND. The European Union has repeatedly promoted the importance of ensuring access to controlled medicines for medical and scientific purposes at these meetings.