The EU adopts its most progressive drug action plan ever

If there is a sign that the European Union is getting through difficult times, it's the limited attention its new public policy initiatives receive. While the adoption of previous EU drug strategies and action plans has been well covered by the media, now, two years after the great migration crisis and one year after the Brexit vote, almost nobody noticed the adoption of the new EU Action Plan on Drugs. There was no press conference or press release. It seems drug policy is not a priority for decision makers these days – there are other topics occupying public attention. It's a shame, because this is the most progressive drug policy document the EU has ever adopted. It is most needed, at a time when European drug markets have been undergoing cataclysmic changes, with the emergence of new drugs and new risks which require new responses and interventions. 

The three-year Action Plan translates the goals of the seven-year EU Drug Strategy (2013-20) into concrete actions with clear responsibilities and performance indicators. This is the second action plan relating to the current drug strategy, the previous one (2013-16) having been evaluated by external evaluators, RAND and EY in 2016. The evaluation report, which also included civil society views, highlighted some very significant shortcomings of EU drug policies. It pointed out that among the five pillars of the EU drug strategy, demand and harm reduction significantly lags behind in terms of progress made in the period of the previous Action Plan. According to the evaluation, “there is room for improvement in implementation and access to risk and harm reduction measures across various Member States and... stakeholders from civil society expressed concerns about the extent and quality of these measures.“ Interviewed by the evaluators, these civil society representatives reported scaling down and closure of harm reduction programs, increasing rates of hepatitis C and HIV infections and high rates of overdose deaths among injecting drug users in some member states. Harm reduction should be expanded beyond injecting drug users, including drug checking and other safer nightlife initiatives. The report also emphasised that discussion about new cannabis policies, within and outside of the European Union, is missing at the European level.

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