Articles in this volume address coerced drug treatment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the INCB and ayahuasca, and the death penalty for drug in China.
Call for a UNODC consultant to support the development of a national strategy on drug dependence treatment in Viet Nam. Application deadline is 10 May 2012.
Welcome to the second edition of the IDPC Drug Policy Guide. The Guide brings together global evidence and examples of best practice to provide guidance on the review, design and implementation of national drug policies.
Twelve United Nations entities have issued a Joined statement calling for the closure of compulsory drug detention and rehabilitation centers. The existence of such centers—which have been operating in many countries for the last 20 years—raises human rights issues and threatens the...
This month, IDPC, the Washington Office on Latin America, the International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies and Harm Reduction International wrote to Peruvian government officials to express our condolences for the recent tragedy at “Cristo es Amor” rehabilitation center last ...
This paper reviews the development of early Soviet drug treatment approaches by focusing on the struggle for disciplinary power between leading social and mental hygienists and clinical psychiatrists as a defining moment for Soviet drug treatment speciality that became known as "narcology."
Driven by the rapid spread of HIV, Vietnam’s response to drug use has undergone significant transformation in the past decade. This paper analyses factors that prompted these changes and investigates their impact on the lives of people who use drugs.
A United Nations-appointed expert is urging Vietnam’s government to close down rehabilitation centers for drug users and sex workers following criticism of abuses by an international rights group, calling them “counterproductive.”
This report documents the experiences of people confined to 14 detention centers under the authority of the Ho Chi Minh City government. Refusing to work, or violating center rules, results in punishment that in some cases is torture.
Despite Thailand's official reclassification of drug users as "patients" deserving care and not "criminals," the Thai government has continued to rely heavily on punitive responses to drug use such as "boot camp"-style compulsory "treatment" centers.
This report examines conditions in the Somsanga Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, which has received a decade of international support from the United States, the United Nations, and other donors.
This TNI briefing paper sheds light on the methamphetamine market in Southeast Asia and China, including patterns of supply and use. It highlights the urgent need for donors and governments to introduce effective harm reduction measures aimed at ATS users.
Thailand's new Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is mobilising a crackdown on illegal drugs as a United Nations agency reveals a massive increase in the production and use of amphetamines across Asia.
An international human rights group urged Vietnam to shut down drug rehabilitation centers that it said subject inmates to abuse and forced labor. It also called Wednesday on international donors to check the programs they fund inside the centers for possible ties to human rights violations.
This paper addresses the issues of ethics and effectiveness in coerced treatment for drug users. It is based on the existing evidence on coerced treatment, as well as on considerations of the ethics of such treatment and research on quasi-compulsory treatment in Europe.
In mid-July, Cambodia’s Prime Minister approved a controversial new drug law that opens the door to rampant human rights violations. The legislation will force drug users into involuntary treatment for up to two years in facilities where previous detainees have reported being victims of...
This report, co-authored by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Harm Reduction International, Human Rights Watch, and the Open Society Foundations, documents some of the abuses perpetrated in the name of drug rehabilitation.
These briefings address serious human rights abuses that result from drug control efforts, including torture and ill treatment by police, mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, and denial of essential medicines and basic health services. The briefings are now available...
