International Responses to Drug Abuse among Young People: Assessing the Integration of Human Rights Obligations, Allison Smith Estelle (2000)

Harvard School of Public Health, 2000

Introduction:

Drug use and abuse among young people is increasing worldwide. Young people are starting to take drugs at younger ages and report use of a wide variety of drugs including heroin, cocaine and amphetamines. It is estimated that the entire illicit drug industry is worth US$500 billion per year, dwarfing the US$62 billion spent on development assistance per year.1 The health impacts of drug abuse are evident: dependency, addiction, overdose and sometimes death. The goal of this paper is to highlight the intersection of health and human rights with respect to drug abuse among young people. The paper argues two points. The first is that the failure of governments to respect, protect and fulfill human rights leads to less effective prevention of drug abuse as well as to less effective treatment of drug abusers. The second point, which comprises the bulk of this paper, is that the international community, and international drug control bodies in particular, because of their focus on drug supply reduction, are in large part responsible for States’ human rights violations against young people who use and abuse drugs, as well those who are vulnerable to drug abuse.

The paper is divided into four sections. The first will discuss why drug abuse is a human rights issue. The second will provide readers with some definitions that are central to this topic. The paper will then explore international responses to drug prevention and abuse among young people and suggest how governmental responses are shaped by international responses. The last section will provide the reader with recommendations for how the international response to drug abuse could be more effective in terms of the integration of human rights principles and obligations.

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