MOVING FROM
PROHIBITION
TO REGULATION
The Global Commission on Drug Policy advocates for a human rights based approach to drug policy.
WHO WE ARE
The Global Commission’s high-level political membership spearheads the overall
vision of moving from drug prohibition to legal regulation.
Louise Arbour
Former High Commissioner for Human Rights, Canada
Pavel Bém
Former Mayor of Prague, Czech Republic
Richard Branson
Entrepreneur, founder of the Virgin Group, United Kingdom
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Former President of Brazil
(Honorary Chair )
Maria Livanos Cattaui
Former Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce, Switzerland
Helen Clark
Former Prime Minister of New Zealand ( Chair )
Nicholas Clegg
Former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Ruth Dreifuss
Former President of Switzerland
Mohamed ElBaradei
Director General Emeritus of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Egypt
Geoff Gallop
Former Premier of Western Australia
Diego García-Sayán
Former Minister of Justice and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru
César Gaviria
Former President of Colombia
Anand Grover
Former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, India
Adeeba Kamarulzaman
Chief Executive Officer, Monash University Malaysia, and Pro Vice-Chancellor and President (Malaysia), Monash University Australia
Michel Kazatchkine
Former Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Former President of Poland
Ricardo Lagos
Former President of Chile
Kgalema Motlanthe
Former President of South Africa
Olusegun Obasanjo
Former President of Nigeria
George Papandreou
Former Prime Minister of Greece
Michèle Pierre-Louis
Former Prime Minister of Haiti
José Ramos-Horta
Reelected President of Timor-Leste
Juan Manuel Santos
Former President of Colombia
Michel Sidibé
Former UNAIDS Executive Director and UN Under-Secretary General, Mali
Javier Solana
Former European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Spain
Cassam Uteem
Former President of Mauritius
Ernesto Zedillo
Former President of Mexico
Highlights
April 20, 2026
Published on 20 March 2026 – Virgin blog – by Holly Branson. We talk a lot about bravery in leadership. It’s a word that’s often used to describe bold decisions, big risks, and fearlessness. But true bravery, I’ve learned, is [...]
March 31, 2026
Published on 31 March 2026 – Virgin blog – by Holly Branson. What does it take to be a brave leader in today’s world? A world where societal norms (kindness, charity, community, respect, and justice) are being eroded? How do [...]
April 30, 2026
BY HELEN CLARK & JUAN-MANUEL SANTOS Ten years ago, the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) was widely heralded as a turning point - a moment when the international community began to question the decades-long orthodoxy of the so-called [...]
April 29, 2026
BY RICHARD BRANSON Published on Virgin.com on 29 April 2026 Last week, YouGov released new polling on British attitudes on cannabis and wider drug policy. As a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, I feel compelled to reflect [...]
October 17, 2025
BY RICHARD BRANSON Published on Virgin.com on 17 October 2025 The latest figures on drug fatalities registered in England in Wales in 2023, released today by the Office for National Statistics, underscore the deepening crisis facing the UK. Continuing [...]
September 12, 2025
Published in The Guardian on 12 September 2025 To defeat the cartels, governments should decriminalise personal use and create legal drug markets, says Richard Branson. And Richard Kilroy decries US military action against suspected drug-runners Your editorial on the so-called war on drugs (Donald [...]