It will be looked at as the time the consensus was broken.
Hannah Hetzer: This is the first UNGASS that has happened in almost two decades and it’s a vastly different world to the one in 1998 when the slogan was ‘a drug-free world, we can do it’, and you had countries rallying behind that, president Clinton addressing the general assembly with his position of tough on crime, where dissent wasn’t really acknowledged. Now, 2016 is a different world. The idea of a drug-free world is still pushed by some countries but it’s no longer widely accepted throughout the UN system. And you do have this break where more countries have done something nationally and are willing to speak out about it. It is a different time, we can be more hopeful. There are more NGO actors, and I think this UNGASS will at least pave the way for future gatherings, for 2019. It will be looked at as the time the consensus was broken.
