In June 1998, heads of 150 member states met at the UN General Assembly Special Session on Illicit Drugs (UNGASS) and adopted a Political Declaration and Action Plan aimed at achieving "significant and measurable results" in reducing the supply of and demand for illicit drugs by 2008.  Importantly, the General Assembly called on NGOs and governments to work together to achieve this goal—a clear acknowledgment that NGOs are key partners in raising awareness around illicit drugs and in facilitating prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration.

As Vice-Chair of the Vienna NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs (VNGOC), CCSA’s Chief Executive Officer Michel Perron proposed the creation of Beyond 2008, an international NGO forum that would bring together all ideological perspectives under one umbrella for the purpose of collecting and mining global NGO knowledge as the CND prepared its review of UNGASS. Reinforcing the overall objective of Beyond 2008, the CND, at its annual meeting in March 2006, formally endorsed a Canadian resolution, drafted by CCSA, calling for greater involvement of NGOs by member states on matters dealing with international drug policy.

With Mr. Perron as Chair of the Beyond 2008 Steering Committee, CCSA took the lead on organizing a global NGO consultation process in 2007–2008—a process that eventually grew to involve 13 cities in all nine regions of the world in gathering input from hundreds of members of civil society representing millions of citizens. NGOs reacted with overwhelming support and enthusiasm for what they saw as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be heard. This positive feeling was reinforced when Beyond 2008 got underway in Vienna on July 7, 2008, and 300 NGO delegates participated in three days of negotiation and concession ultimately leading to the adoption by consensus of a Global Declaration and Three Resolutions.

All efforts are now focused on ensuring that the collective conclusions and recommendations flowing out of Beyond 2008 find their way into the work of the CND and, most importantly, into a new Political Declaration and Action Plan that is expected at the conclusion the CND's High-Level Segment (HLS) in March 2009.