"PRISON DOES NOT REFORM"
Obasanjo's commission has only an advisory role and it is up to national governments, often reluctant to scrap longstanding drug regulations, to decide whether to accept its proposals.
Obasanjo served twice as Nigeria's head of state: once as a military ruler in the 1970s and then again as a democratically-elected president from 1999-2007. Drug enforcement was strict during both his stints in office.
But he cited his own encounters with drug offenders during a stint in Nigerian prison in the 1990s under the dictatorship of Sani Abacha as he urged governments to find alternatives to incarceration.
"Prison does not reform. If anything it hardens," he said.
Obasanjo named Senegal and Ghana as two countries that are moving to expand treatment options. Senegal has since 2014 opened centres to treat addicts, while Ghana is considering a proposal to exempt first-time offenders from prison terms.
But criminal syndicates, human traffickers and jihadist groups are profiting from the drug trade, he said. In some cases, politicians in Nigeria and elsewhere are using the proceeds to finance political careers, he added.
"(I) fear that they may be creeping into our fledgling democracy and political life," Obasanjo said.
