RT Article T1 The elusive search for rights-centred public health approaches to drug policy: a comment JF Journal of illicit economies and development A1 Csete, Joanne LA English YR 2020 UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1866309528 AB While it is common for United Nations member states in international meetings to espouse ‘public health approaches’ to drug policy, actual policies appear not to have caught up with this rhetoric. There is a lingering over-emphasis in narcotic drug policies on policing and incarceration at the expense of urgently needed investment in health and social services for people who use drugs. These policies have lethal consequences in the transmission of potentially fatal infections and preventable overdose deaths, and they impede progress in social and economic development. The experience of a number of countries, mostly in the European Union, highlights that bringing public health evidence into the center of drug policy decision-making can have broad social, economic and public health benefits DO 10.31389/jied.60