When the United Nations held its first General Assembly session on drug policy June 8-10, the voice of reform was there. By the time delegates left the meeting, they were aware that people around the world were not happy with the drug policies promoted by the United Nations and the United States.

Two days before the session, the Lindesmith Center, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Beth Israel Medical Center, and the Montefiore Medical Center sponsored the "First International Conference on Heroin Maintenance" to present the results of the Swiss heroin maintenance experiments, examine the trials planned for the Netherlands, and discuss the situation in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Germany. The speakers included Dr. Thomas Zeltner, director of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Gabriele Bammer, the lead researcher for the proposed (but vetoed) heroin trials in Australia, and Wim Van den Brink, who is directing the Dutch maintenance experiments that began in July. Dr. David Lewis of Brown University told the audience how U.S. heroin trials had been openly discussed in the 1970s and that New York City once considered such a trial before being quashed by the federal government.

After the conference, U.S. and Canadian city health officials met to discuss the possibility of trials in North America. Baltimore's Health Commissioner, Dr. Peter Beilenson, said he is exploring the possibility of setting up an experiment. "It would be carefully controlled by health care providers under a research protocol," he told the Baltimore Sun. Beilenson, who is also at Johns Hopkins University, said the heroin trial would not use city money or clinics.

By the time President Clinton opened the U.N. General Assembly Special Session Monday morning, reformers were already being heard. The Lindesmith Center (212/548-0695, www.lindesmith.org) published an open letter to the U.N. secretary general in that day's New York Times under the headline, "We believe the global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself." The 500 signatories included former U.N. secretary general Javier Perez de Cuéllar, Nobel Peace Laureate and former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, Walter Cronkite, and George Soros.

On television, Kevin Zeese of Common Sense for Drug Policy (704/354- 5694, www.drugsense.org) ran ads on cable news channels, including CNN. Over stock video of Clinton speaking at the United Nations, a Clintonesque voice-over announced that the drug war was not working.

Later on Monday, Lindesmith Director Ethan Nadelmann held a press conference across from the U.N. building. Speakers included: Joseph McNamara, Hoover Institution research fellow; Dr. Alex Wodak, director of Alcohol and Drug Services at St. Vincent's Hospital in Australia; Coletta Youngers, senior research associate with the Washington Office on Latin America; and Zeese.

Many drug policy reform organizations from around the world sent representatives to the U.N. session and also hosted meetings at a forum for nongovernmental organizations (NG05). Whitney Taylor represented the Drug Policy Foundation on the NGO panel about women and drug policy (see DPF@Work, p. 5). Other groups such as the Marijuana Policy Project, the Harm Reduction Coalition, and the National Alliance of Methadone Advocates also held panel discussions for the visiting delegates and the media.

As a finale on June 8, the National Coalition to Save Lives Now (212/213- 6376, www. safeworks. org/savel ivesnow). organized a march through New York City to protest Clinton's refusal to lift the federal funding ban on syringe exchange programs. Flanked by a massive police presence, the march ended across the street from the United Nations, where protesters chanted: "Lift the ban now!"