By Taliyah Winn

Representative Jude Beekman of Libya moved to consider topic two of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the public health dimension of the world drug problem, with overwhelming support after speeches began to reach a standstill in formal procedure on the second day of committee. 

“Our time might be used better if we perhaps switch topics as we are waiting for some papers to get through edits,” said Representative Beekman. They later motioned to switch out of the topic of women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health.

The topic caused new discussion of religious beliefs regarding drug use and abstinence and the opportunity for harm reduction, a form of treatment which puts human life above all else, on an international level. Representatives from Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan voiced support for zero tolerance drug policies, while acknowledging the complex nature of addiction.

Differences between philosophical approaches are evident, in both preventative and reactive measures. In preventative measures, some countries, like the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia, wish to address the criminal aspects of the world drug problem, while others like Mozambique focus on it socially as a public health issue. Despite these differences, Member States acknowledged the need to collaborate to address the ever-evolving world of synthetic drug production, opiates and overdoses.

In reactive measures, the intrinsic contrast between zero tolerance policies and harm reduction policies may result in different approaches to working papers on this topic and may lead to troubles in the merging process on this topic.

During the evening session on the topic of the world drug problem, at least three working papers from topic one became available to the body, giving the WHA a timely start to address these complex issues collaboratively.

In the last hour of the session, Representative Beekman congratulated the body on its work and encouraged the body to merge papers on topic two.“I implore the general body to consider merging some of these papers because we are doing fantastic work,” Representative Beekman said, arguing that they saw more similarities in this topic than the previous one. At the end of the second day, nearly seven working papers were drafted by the World Health Assembly.