Flexibility of Treaty Provisions As Regards Harm Reduction Approaches

In 2002 the INCB asked the Legal Affairs Section (LAS) of the then UN International Drug Control Programme to explore the legality of a number of harm reduction measures vis-a-vis the UN drug control conventions. While the INCB has never made reference to it, the LAS produced this internal document detailing multiple arguments that justified "Needle or Syringe Exchange," "Substitution and Maintenance Treatment," and "Drug-injection rooms" under the terms of the conventions.