Position paper on drug policy reform Observatory on Organized Crime and Democratic Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean Considering the current situation, in which the debate on drug policy and its re­sults has grown stronger, and in preparation for the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly( UNGASS ) on the world drug problem to be held in April 2016, the members of the Observatory on Organized Crime and Democratic Governance, supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Latin America and the Caribbean, present their position on this issue: 1. The social, cultural, religious and medical uses of psychoactive substances are part of the history of humanity. These uses have evolved significantly over time. Today, the production, commercialization and use of plants and substances that are considered illegal should be understood as a complex phenomenon that implies issues related to health, society, culture and to economic, public security, political and geopolitical factors that affect users as well as their families, their communities, and society in general. 2. The Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the world drug problem, UNGASS 2016, must be considered a valuable opportunity to discuss existing policies and the shortcomings of the current international drug control regime. 3. Although the current treaty system lacks a review mechanism and the exist­ing conventions are hard to amend, this cannot be a sufficient argument against recognizing that the regime has failed and that reforms are long overdue. Moreover, the changes happening at country level are breaking the consensus that existed on this phenomenon and have brought about change in the global legal structure regarding drugs. 4. The prohibitionist policy in force for over a century, together with the“war on drugs” that has been waged globally for almost fifty years with a focus on the control of supply, have failed to reach their goals: they did not build a “drug-free world”, they did not reduce consumption, they did not improve public health or access to pharmaceutical drugs made from plants used for the production of illicit substances.