The January issue of the “International Journal of Drug Policy” will feature an editorial by the former president of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso about the potential impact of legal regulation and the impact of the current drug control system on children and their rights.

The editorial article by Mr Cardosa follows the  March 2011 report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy which made a series of recommendations for reforming drug policies around the world including a call for governments to begin experimenting with legal regulation models of drug control rather than prohibitionist approaches. However, rather than simply calling for experiments with legal regulation, Cardosa believes that addressing the dangers facing children and young people through drug prohibition is a vital way to raise the awareness of the need for widescale reform.

Cardosa explains that... “If we believe that the best interests of the child should be a primary consideration in all policies that affect them, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, then children have the right to be placed front and centre in drug policy discussions”, ... “I am convinced that the recommendations of the Global Commission will have significant benefits for children and young people,” he writes, “I would not support such policies if I did not believe that current approaches have singularly failed in this respect.”

“To protect children from drugs it is to my mind now beyond debate that drug laws need to be reformed. From what we already know, the ongoing and future identified harms of current drug policies to our children must be considered not as unintended, but a result of negligence, recklessness or simple disregard,” concludes Cardoso. As Cardosa explains, highlighting how the current drug control regimes put in place under the auspices of the UNODC drastically fail to protect children and young people from excessive drug related harms and as such, this must serve as one of the strongest arguments for such reform.