Drugs' legalisation is no solution: UN official

Uruguay adopted a law that allows the selling and smoking of marijuana

Legalisation is not the solution for the world drug problem, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) head said Monday in response to the law adopted in Uruguay, allowing the selling and smoking of marijuana.

About 1,500 high-level representatives are expected in Vienna Thursday for a review of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2019 Action Plan on drugs, Xinhua reported.

Ahead of the meeting, in response to Uruguay's move in legalising the growing, selling, and smoking of the drug in late 2013, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said he did not believe legalisation to be a solution.

He added he believes marijuana is a gateway drug, as "no one starts a drug addiction with heroin".

The Action Plan includes the goal of reducing global drug production and consumption by 2019, and to strengthen the social and health support conditions in the fight against narcotics.

Fedotov said the two-day conference involving representatives from UN member states as well as civil society would represent a milestone ahead of a planned UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) in 2016, where further solutions to the global drug problem are expected to be found.