The workshop will provide a brief update of some recent international drug policy changes, but the main focus will be to discuss five health related challenges that will be debated at the United Nations in late 2023 and early 2024.
The challenges that will be discussed are:
1: “Drug treatment and health services continue to fall short of meeting needs and deaths related to drug use have increased”
2: “The rate of transmission of HIV, the hepatitis C virus and other blood-borne diseases associated with drug use, including injecting drug use in some countries, remains high”
3: “The adverse health consequences of and risks associated with new psychoactive substances have reached alarming levels”
4: “Synthetic opioids and the non-medical use of prescription drugs pose increasing risks to public health and safety as well as scientific, legal and regulatory challenges, including with regard to the scheduling of substances”
5: “The availability of internationally controlled substances for medical and scientific purposes, including for the relief of pain and palliative care, remains low to non-existent in many parts of the world”
