Refocusing metrics: can the sustainable development goals help break the ‘metrics trap’ and modernise international drug control policy?

This article aims to examine the extent to which the dominant metrics currently used to measure the success of the UN based global drug prohibition regime are in many ways inadequate and consequently contribute to systemic inertia. Within this context, it seeks to explore the potential of explicitly linking drug policy to the recently launched Sustainable Development Agenda and the associated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to initiate a change in approach. Design/methodology/approach Framing the topic in terms of International Relations (IR) and regime analysis, prominent examples of where current metrics are imprecise (the relationship between production and seizures), misconceived (drug use) and missing (a range of drug and drug policy related harms) are explored. Attention is then given to an examination of international development as a model for measuring drug control outcomes, including a discussion of the SDGs in general and the intersection between drug policy interventions and several Goals in particular. Findings While aware of the complexity of the issue area, the article finds that there are considerable shortcomings in the way international drug policy outcomes are currently assessed. Although methodological problems are likely to persist, linking drug policy with the SDGs and their associated metrics offers the potential to help to shift the focus of international policy in a manner that would benefit not only UN system-wide coherence on the issue, but a...

Source: Drugs and Alcohol Today - April 28, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: research