Colombia’s President Ivan Duque has said security forces will resume the aerial fumigation of coca “within weeks”, with the defense minister adding that the banned substance glyphosate will probably be used.

Whether the plans announced by the president and Defense Minister Guillermo Botero are legal is disputable; the Constitutional Court suspended the practice of aerial fumigation using glyphosate until the government could convince the court otherwise.

So far, this has not happened, but Duque is under pressure from the US, whose President Donald Trump has threatened to decertify Colombia as a cooperative country in the US war on drugs.

Both the US government and the Duque administration have been reluctant to execute a crop substitution and rural development program that was agreed as part of a peace process with some 100,000 coca farmers and is widely considered more effective.

The president told the Guardian that he was considering tougher measures against coca cultivation, not to please any other countries, but it was his country’s “moral responsibility to act.”

Colombia to resume aerial fumigation of coca, says Duque. With glyphosate, defence minister adds

The Swiss government aims to make it easier for patients to get medical marijuana, proposing on Wednesday to allow prescriptions for cannabis to treat people suffering from cancer or other serious conditions.

The proposal, separate from a Swiss government push to allow some cities to experiment with recreational marijuana, would replace the current system, in which those seeking medical cannabis must apply for an exception from the Federal Health Office to get what is otherwise an illegal drug.

Marijuana is sometimes used to help cancer patients manage chronic pain, to help boost their appetites, and to reduce spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis.

“The proposal makes it possible for doctors to directly prescribe cannabis as part of their treatment,” the Swiss cabinet said in a statement.

“Growing and processing medical cannabis as well as its sale would then be possible under a system regulated” by Swissmedic, the country’s drug regulatory agency.

Switzerland aims to legalise medical marijuana

LONDON [27 JUNE 2019] – Harm Reduction International and almost 120 human rights organisations from around the world – including Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists – published open letters today calling on the United Nations’ major drug control bodies to intervene and help stop Sri Lanka’s move to resume executions after 43 years.

President Maithripala Sirisena signed the execution warrants this week for four people convicted of drug-related offences.

The letters – sent to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) – underscore that the death penalty for drug offences violates international human rights law. The signatories state that “Remaining silent as Sri Lanka puts an end to a 43-year de facto moratorium on executions would strike a blow to the INCB’s and UNODC’s commitments to human rights compliance as a core principle of international drug policy.”

Giada Girelli, human rights analyst at Harm Reduction International, said: “There is simply no evidence that the death penalty is an effective deterrent against the drug trade. President Sirisena’s move is a gross violation of human rights – UN bodies must urge authorities in Sri Lanka to reverse this and work to consign the death penalty to the history books.”

Harm Reduction International’s latest research shows that global executions for drug offences fell by almost 90% from 2015-18, in large part because of judicial reforms in Iran. Of the 35 countries that retain the death penalty for drug offences, only four carried out executions in 2018 (China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Singapore).

News

Colombia to resume aerial fumigation of coca, says Duque. With glyphosate, defence minister adds

Switzerland aims to legalise medical marijuana

Over 100 human rights groups urge UN to demand Sri Lanka halt executions of drug offenders