In the context of psychoactive drugs, the aggregate of polices designed to affect the supply and/or the demand for illicit drugs, locally or nationally, including education, treatment, control, and other programs and polices.
In the context of WHO' s Action Programme on Essential Drugs, "national drug policy" refers to a national pharmaceutical policy concerning the marketing, availability, and therapeutic use of medicines. WHO recommends that every country should have such a policy, formulated in the context of a national health policy. The WHO List of Essential Drugs is an effort to assist developing countries to develop a pharmaceutical policy attuned to allocating scarce funds for pharmaceuticals on the basis of health needs, rather than market considerations.
