Thread by @SteveTransform

The @UNODC #WorldDrugReport2022 is out today.

unodc.org/unodc/en/data-…

As usual it contains a wealth of useful data.

The real story is often what it *doesn't* contain, & political interest in editorial & special sections

So I'm diving in - will post thoughts as I go
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@UNODC Oh dear

It gets off to a spectacularly bad start with the preface.

In fact even the first four words.

This is old-school drug war rhetoric - perhaps the first time new @UNODC director @GhadaFathiWaly has had a chance to do some threat-based prohibitionist flexing.
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The preface, & entire booklet makes prominent calls for prevention (27mentions) & treatment (67 mentions).

But, amazingly given UNODCs very specific harm reduction mandate, the words 'harm reduction' do not appear ONCE in the entire part1 71p. summary booklet.
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The preface also includes some ignorant SAM-esq talking points attempting to undermine cannabis legalisation, albeit somewhat meekly (knowing the horse has bolted etc.)

They do the same as with drugs & drug mkts more generally; only acknowledging harms, & ignoring benefits
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Here's the summary section on cannabis legalisation.

Analysis is skewed to -ve takes (Govt/SAM talking points), ignoring +ves beyond fall in arrests

Very N.American perspective, wrongly suggesting US commercial models are only option (less commercial models ignored)
but..
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....there is a welcome, if incongruous, acknowledgement hiding in there (like the call for better controls on cannabis mkting in WDR2021) that...

- IF THEY DO LEGALISE ANYWAY -

...Govts should learn from alc/tobac/pharma, & prioritise public health over commercial interests
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There's an interesting looking section on the environment i think ill come back to in the main report...
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Here's the bit where they try to pretend theres some evidence for crop eradication, while simultaneously making it pretty clear that it has never worked anywhere, and is usually counterproductive.

You can almost feel the embarrassment of the ppl who had to write this
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On the negatives there's a miserable chronicle of global policy failure - detailing rocketing markets for cocaine, methamphetamine, synthetics generally, and fentanyl specifically
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"one in every 18 people worldwide used a drug in 2020, 26% more than a decade earlier"

Good honesty about how prevalence of use continues to rise globally, from an org whose mission to create a 'drug free world'.

The 300million drug users may find this a bit unrealistic
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there's an unusually prominent contextualisation of illegal drug use/death data with the even-worse data for alcohol/tobacco.

Maybe they trying to suggest legalisation would be apocalyptic, but actually succeed in highlighting the absurd inconsistency UN/global drug policy
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then a bit explaining how drug mkts (created by the global prohibition regime they oversee) are undermining global peace, security & rule of law.

for which they recommend - more of the same, plus some cosmetic process guff.

Not even a sniff of discussion on regulation
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So from the part1 summary document - the WDR looks very like previous years with an extra sprinkling of drug war; loads of v.useful & well presented data, but lots of key metrics, notably on human rights, criminalisation, enforcemnt costs etc. - conspicuously absent.
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& again, that disconcerting narrative, where they brutally expose the failure of the global regime to curtain either supply or demand, & then just call for more of the same policy that brought us here. & all the time ignoring most of the REALLY bad stuff.
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The WDR has engaged with some of these wider issues previously, such as special sections on human rights

But they've failed to establish teh much needed & requested drug policy & human rights monitoring and reporting system - that should be a chapter in *every* WDR
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There was also a - not brilliant but not completely terrible - WDR discussion on regulation.

Its an issue they know they should be taking about but, within a prohibitionist framework & answerable to a hardcore of drug warrior member states, its incredibly difficult.
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the allusion (a wise, if brief one) to the need for legalising member states to learn from alc/tobac/pharma and make sure policy design prioritises public health over commercial interests is a small chink of light - that these vital issues aren't completely invisible
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But with approaching half a billion people living in legal cannabis jurisdictions - its already too little too late. @UNODC shld be working with @WHO & other agencies to produce best practice guidelines for MS exploring regulation (like WHO already does for alc/tobac/pharma)
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@UNODC @WHO But, unable to cross that dogmatic line in the sand - UNODC is condemned to keep putting out WDRs that tell only half the story (& even that's bad news) while twisting around the internal contradictions of trying to reduce problems largely created by their own drug war
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So I think Ill end here befor I ramble on forever. Ill try & return to dive into the detail of the thematic chapters.

I'm especially interested to see the one off environmental analysis in book5 - given work that we have been doing on this question with @HealthPoverty et all
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