Transnational social movement theory and the waning war on drugs: Case studies from UNGASS 2016 (2018)

Background: The United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs 1988 ("1988 Convention") expresses a strong normative preference for criminalising drug possession. Historically, the United Nations offices responsible for overseeing the treaties have held that decriminalisation of drug possession is contrary to the treaties. Leading up to and during UNGASS 2016, however, rather than emphasise criminalisation, the high-ranking officials from the drug control offices emphasised the treaties' allowance of alternatives to punishment for drug possession offences.
Methods: This paper applies transnational social movement theory to analyse the political opportunity structure for drug law reform at the UN. Data was collected from documents created by important United Nations agencies in the lead up to UNGASS 2016. By analysing the statements of prominent UN officials within a social movement theory framework, we can assess whether those responsible for administering global drug policy are offering concession to drug law reform social movement and whether a political opportunity structure is opening up for drug law reformers to pursue further reforms.
Results: from the United Nations documents demonstrated significant reference to local drug law reforms and the benefits of non-punitive treatment of drug users. However, given the strong normative preference and mandatory language ("shall") in the 1988 Convention, policy leaders at the UN can only offer very moderate concessions to drug law reformers - primarily the advocacy of alternatives to incarceration. Such policies still suffer many problems caused by using the criminal justice system to funnel people into treatment. Indeed, many other offices at the UN explicitly drew attention to the problem of pre-trial punishment in their contributions to UNGASS 2016. Conclusion: A schism is developing at the UN as other UN offices are pointing out that advocating for alternatives to punishment is inadequate due to the many problems of "pre-trial punishment". Social movement theory suggests that this schism represents an opening of the political opportunity structure as advocates for drug law reform can now more forcefully criticise, and even breach, the treaties and will have high-level support at the UN.