Drug addiction is examined as a negative social phenomenon and the problems of counteracting drug addiction. It has been determined that people have been using drugs since ancient times; however, they were used for medical, religious, cultural, and recreational purposes. This phenomenon has changed with the development of society, science, and medicine, and today it has become a significant issue of drug dependency.
The article is devoted to analyzing the need to update the paradigm of legal regulation of drug use in the context of emerging global challenges and new generation human rights. The international framework for combating drug trafficking, in particular the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the United Nations Convention against Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, has been analyzed. It is pointed out that today many scholars and representatives of international NGOs deny a harsh criminal-repressive approach.