On June 2, 2011, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a panel that included former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, three former Latin American presidents and Richard Branson, released a report in New York declaring that “the global war on drugs has failed.” It urged governments to stop criminalizing drug users and to experiment with legal regulation, especially of cannabis. The Obama White House rejected it the same day.
What Happened
The report, titled War on Drugs, opened with the line that would be quoted for years: “The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.” Its 19 members, according to Associated Press coverage, included:
- Former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil (the chair), César Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico
- Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General
- George Shultz, U.S. secretary of state under Reagan, and Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman
- Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, then in office
- Writers Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes, and Virgin founder Richard Branson
The report’s main recommendations were to end the criminalization of people who use drugs but harm no one else, to test legal models that could undercut organized crime, with cannabis named as a candidate, to expand treatment and harm reduction, and to judge drug policy by evidence on health and crime. As evidence of failure, it cited UN estimates that from 1998 to 2008 global opiate use rose 34.5%, cocaine use 27% and cannabis use 8.5%, despite decades of enforcement.
Gaviria said the panel hoped the United States would “at least start to think there are alternatives.”
The Drug Czar’s Response
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), led by director Gil Kerlikowske, issued a statement on June 2, 2011 calling the report misguided. “Legalization remains a non-starter in the Obama Administration,” it said, as quoted by JURIST. ONDCP spokesman Rafael Lemaitre added, “Making drugs more available, as this report suggests, will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe,” and argued that “drug addiction is a disease that can be successfully prevented and treated.” The office pointed to U.S. drug use being lower than 30 years earlier and to a 46% drop in current cocaine use among young adults over five years.
Kerlikowske followed with a June 2011 op-ed in The Hill titled “Drug policies must be rooted in science.” His position fit the administration’s line: describe federal drug control as balanced between enforcement and treatment, while keeping prohibition intact. More on his tenure and the office is in our explainer on what the drug czar does.
Why It Mattered
The commission was not an activist group. Its members had run governments that fought the drug war, including Colombia and Mexico in the 1990s, and two were senior Republicans from the Reagan and Nixon years. Shultz and Volcker made the case directly to American readers in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. That pedigree made the report hard to dismiss as fringe, and it arrived 40 years after Richard Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one” in June 1971.
What Happened Next
The commission kept publishing. Its 2014 report, Taking Control, called for legally regulating psychoactive substances; later reports covered decriminalization (2016), public perceptions of drug users (2017), the responsible regulation of drugs (2018) and how drugs are classified (2019). Former Swiss president Ruth Dreifuss and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark later chaired it.
Policy moved faster than the drug czar predicted. Seventeen months after the report, Colorado and Washington voters legalized adult-use marijuana in November 2012. Uruguay became the first country to legalize cannabis nationally in 2013, and Canada followed in 2018. In the United States, the Obama Justice Department’s 2013 Cole memo let state markets operate, even as ONDCP continued to oppose legalization in principle.
Where It Stands in 2026
Cannabis remains illegal under federal law for adult use, though since April 2026 marijuana sold under a state medical license sits in Schedule III. Our federal marijuana law guide covers the details and the pending rescheduling fight, the cannabis laws hub covers each state, and where weed is legal worldwide tracks the countries that took the commission’s advice. For the full arc from 1971 to now, see our war on drugs history.
Global Commission on Drug Policy 2011 Report FAQ
What did the Global Commission on Drug Policy say in 2011?
Its June 2, 2011 report declared the global war on drugs a failure and recommended decriminalizing drug use, expanding treatment and experimenting with legal regulation, especially of cannabis.
Who was on the Global Commission on Drug Policy?
Members included Kofi Annan, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, César Gaviria, Ernesto Zedillo, George Shultz, Paul Volcker, George Papandreou, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes and Richard Branson.
How did the Obama administration respond?
The drug czar’s office rejected it the same day, calling it misguided and saying legalization “remains a non-starter in the Obama Administration.”
Is the Global Commission on Drug Policy a UN body?
No. It is an independent panel based in Geneva, though several members held senior UN posts and it presents its work at the UN.
Originally reported by The Weed Street Journal; rewritten and updated in October 2026 with what happened next.
