write to you from New York City, to which I traveled 2,000 miles to join five other FOR global leaders at the first-ever United Nations Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS). This UN summit has deep personal meaning for me because my family bears the scars of the terrible misconception that policing and the stigmatization of addiction can cure a societal illness.

In 2009, the United Nations put forth a multilateral response to the global drug problem. The scourge of the drug trade contributes to untold human rights violations, massive corruption, and violence that perpetuate brokenness and suffering on a worldwide scale. The U.N. plan suggested that the solution must include “(a) more development assistance to reduce supply and (b) more attention