Pope Francis has called for the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to organise a workshop that will investigate the issue.
The study sessions have been scheduled for November and leading experts from all over the world are expected to be invited.
The academy will look into a history of drug use from a cultural and geopolitical point of view.
Different types of substances, the centres of production and distribution as well the consumer will be discussed and investigated.
There will be also be a special section devoted to the prevention of substance abuse related to children and young people.
The Vatican has released a special document for the event, which reads: "Our goal is to reach a consensus that investing in education, prevention, health care, addiction treatment and, in certain cases, alternatives to incarceration would do more to end the drug trade than relying primarily on the criminalization of the victims."
Speaking in 2015 at the UN General Assembly Pope Francis said the drugs trade is waging a new era of war on society.
He said: "Drug trafficking is, by its very nature, accompanied by trafficking in persons, money laundering, the arms trade, child exploitation and other forms of corruption," according to the Catholic Herald.
