Youth and Drugs: Rethinking the Rules

Global drug policy is at a crossroads. Across regions, approaches are increasingly diverging – from efforts to advance decriminalization and health-cantered responses to the continued reliance on punitive enforcement measures. These developments reflect wider political shifts around the world, including growing tensions between public health, security, and human rights approaches.

At the same time, the scale of drug use and related harms remains significant. An estimated 316 million people use drugs globally, while access to treatment and harm reduction services continues to fall far short of need. In many contexts, punitive approaches persist, contributing to mass incarceration, public health challenges, human rights concerns, and widening inequalities.

These dynamics have profound implications for the rule of law. Drug policy increasingly raises wider questions about democracy, public health, policing, inequality, and the role of the state.

Young people are particularly affected – both directly through criminalization and enforcement practices, and indirectly through the broader social and economic impacts on families, communities, and access to essential services. Yet their specific needs and rights remain insufficiently reflected in policy responses.
Held at the University of Geneva, this event will bring together perspectives from law, human rights, academia, and drug policy.

Open to students, academia, and the wider public, the discussion will examine how changing global dynamics are reshaping drug policy – and what fairer, more effective, and more realistic responses could look like in practice.