A former Mexican security minister has been arrested in the US, charged with taking bribes from a drugs cartel.

Genaro García Luna is accused of allowing the Sinaloa cartel of "El Chapo" Guzman to operate in Mexico in exchange for millions of dollars.

Prosecutors say Mr García Luna gave the cartel safe passage for drug shipments and access to sensitive information.

They say that on two occasions cartel members delivered up to $5m (£3.7m) in two briefcases to him in person.

Mr García Luna, 52, served as public security chief in the administration of President Felipe Calderon between 2006 and 2012.

His arrest in Texas is a major development in Mexican politics, the BBC's Mexico correspondent Will Grant reports.

Mr García Luna was not just an important figure in Mr Calderon's administration - he was Mexico's secretary of public security, the face of the country's federal police force, our correspondent adds.

Mr Calderon, with US backing, deployed troops against the cartels for the first time. Tens of thousands died in Mexico in drug-related violence during his "war on drugs".

Genaro García Luna: US arrests Mexico ex-minister on drugs charges

THE HAGUE- The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is looking at 2020 to finalize its preliminary examination on issues concerning the war on drugs in the Philippines, according to a report released Thursday.

“During 2020, the Office will aim to finalize the preliminary examination in order to enable the Prosecutor to reach a decision on whether to seek authorization to open an investigation into the situation in the Philippines,” the report read.

According to its annual report, the Prosecutor’s Office “advanced its assessment of whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed under Article 15 (3) of the Statute”.

Article 15 (3) of the Rome Statute states that “if the Prosecutor concludes there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, he or she shall submit to the Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation, together with any supporting material collected.”

On Feb. 8, 2018, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced the opening of a preliminary examination on the alleged crimes committed in President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war. This, after her office reviewed a number of communications and reports documenting alleged crimes including extrajudicial killings.

Prior to this, on Oct. 13, 2016, the prosecutor issued a statement “expressing concern about the reports of alleged extrajudicial killings of purported drug dealers and users in the Philippines.”

The prosecutor also recalled “that those who incite or engage in crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court are potentially liable to prosecution before the Court.”

Following the announcement of the preliminary examination, the Philippine government deposited on March 17, 2018 a written notification of withdrawal to the UN Secretary-General. The withdrawal took effect a year after, on March 17, 2019.

International Criminal Court aims to finalise preliminary exam on Philippines drug war in 2020

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Having halted the mandatory death sentence on drug-related convictions, the Malaysian government is asking other countries to do the same.

De facto Law Minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong said governments needed to review their laws that provide for the execution of drug traffickers to discern between the masterminds and those being used to deliver the illicit substances.

“There are far-reaching implications of this, and mainly, if you are a drug addict or abuser, you need medical treatment and not imprisonment,” Liew told reporters after attending the Malaysian Human Rights Commission’s commemoration of the International Human Rights Day at the Sheraton Hotel here.

He said drug lords should be punished accordingly, and consideration given to drug couriers.

“For drug mules who have gone in for just a few hundred ringgit to a country, with most of them duped and led to do all these things, I definitely do not think they deserved to be hanged.

“They deserved to be sentenced to imprisonment, not hanged,” Liew added.

He said there were many cases in which the drug courier was presumed to have full knowledge that the goods they were transporting were illegal substances punishable with death.

“They love to use this word, presumption. They are talking about importing drugs into their country without even producing a shred of evidence that you are importing or trafficking all these things.

Malaysia urges neighbours to review execution of drug couriers, says people who use drugs need hospitals, not prisons

Human rights are key to ending AIDS and have been at the heart of every struggle and every success we have had since the beginning of the epidemic.

Without us demanding our human rights and the tireless call to ensure that human rights remain central to the AIDS response, we would not have more than 24 million people on treatment today and four in five people living with HIV would not know their HIV status. Vulnerable and marginalized populations and people living with HIV would not have access to stigma-free health care or the ability to hold governments to account.

Yet the AIDS response is not over, and barriers to human rights remain. HIV is still an epidemic of inequality, stigma, discrimination and violence. Where people’s rights are breached, they are at higher risk of infection and are less likely to take an HIV test or to be on treatment.

Key populations now account for 54% of new infections globally―75% of new infections outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, in 2018, 6000 adolescent girls and young women became infected with HIV every week. Let me be clear, these communities are not being left behind―they are being pushed behind, by laws, policies and practices that are created, enacted and implemented.

UNAIDS Executive Director's message on the occasion of Human Rights Day

The Women and Harm Reduction International Network and TalkingDrugs position statement on women who use drugs and the violence of law enforcement is published on December 10th 2019, International Human Rights Day, also marking the conclusion of the UN 16 Days of Action to Eliminate Violence Against Women.

This statement serves as the beginning of a joint effort to recognise and address the specific needs and experiences of women who experience the violence of law enforcement in the context of punitive and prohibitionist drug policy. It acts as both a public expression of solidarity and as a call to action to find new, immediate ways to reduce the harm experienced by women who use drugs.

Because the war on drugs is fuelled by the criminal justice system, people of all genders experience the violence and harassment of law enforcement in relation to drug use in their everyday lives. Conversely, people with marginalised gender identities experience specific forms of gendered harm whether or not we use drugs or are directly impacted by drug laws. In effect, women and gender non-conforming (GNC+) people are at risk of gendered violence whether or not we use drugs, while the stigma and discrimination levelled at people who use drugs means that we are often turned away from or further harmed in supposed ‘places of safety’ when we do use drugs.

This violence includes, (but is not limited to) rape, sexual harassment and extortion, loss of child custody, imprisonment for mere personal possession, extra judicial killing, capital punishment and penalisation for drug use in pregnancy and parenthood. The intersection between gender and drug prohibition brings specific, overlapping forms of harm requiring specific and intersectional responses.

Position statement: Women who use drugs and the violence of law enforcement

Mexico's president has rejected any US intervention in his country, after President Donald Trump said US forces were willing to "go in and clear out" drug cartels.

"Co-operation, yes; intervention, no," Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in response to Mr Trump's comments.

The US president announced in a Tuesday interview he would legally designate Mexican drug gangs as terrorist groups.

Earlier this month nine US citizens were killed in an ambush in Mexico.

The victims - three women and six children who also had Mexican nationality - were killed while travelling through a remote area in the north of the country.

After the attack, the victims' Mormon community - the LeBarons - petitioned the White House to list the cartels as terror groups.

The legal move outlined by Mr Trump would enable a wider scope of action against them.

Speaking at a news conference in Mexico City on Wednesday, President López Obrador said Mexicans "had nothing to fear" and that the foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, would address the issue after the US Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.

On Twitter, Mr Ebrard said he was already in contact with US authorities and that his efforts would be focused on "defending [Mexico's] sovereignty and its own decisions".

Earlier, he said Mexico "would never accept" any violation of its sovereignty and that the government was committed to tackling transnational organised crime, adding: "Mutual respect is the basis for co-operation".

Mexico rejects US intervention after Trump outlines drug cartel plan

A Lang Son court sentenced 11 people to death Wednesday for trafficking 561 kg of heroin from Vietnam into China.

Another member of the gang was sentenced to life in prison, making this one of the harshest verdicts in recent years, the 

According to the indictment, the drug trafficking ring had transported the heroin from the northern mountainous province of Lang Son across the border into China between 2016 and 2018.

Vi Van The, 48, who was sentenced to death, was identified as the gang leader. The indictment said he had a close relationship with partners in China and had trafficked drugs many times into the neighboring country. He was arrested in July last year while attempting to flee to Laos.

11 sentenced to death in Vietnam for drug trafficking

The much-awaited NSW coroner’s report into music festival deaths was released today.

In the report, Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame recommends pill testing, a ban on sniffer dogs and a reduction in the number of strip searches, among other measures to prevent deaths.

These evidence-based strategies for harm reduction are to be applauded. But it remains to be seen if the NSW government will change its stance on drug use and harm reduction to implement the coroner’s recommendations.

The inquest examined the deaths of six young people who died during or just after attending music festivals in NSW between December 2017 and January 2019.

All died as a result of taking MDMA or ecstasy. Five of the six also had other drugs in their system.

It can be hard for the community to grapple with some of the underlying issues when drug use is illegal and drug users are stigmatised. It is difficult to properly explain the potential risks to young people if our only permissible message is “just say no”. While we continue to hide the true extent of drug use, it remains inherently more dangerous.

However, Grahame noted the NSW government had already put in place, since these deaths, a range of measures including more formalised emergency medical responses at festivals and clinical guidelines on how to manage drug incidents before the person reaches hospital.

She also noted festival organisers had implemented strategies that improved safety since these deaths.

When the NSW coroner looked at how to cut drug deaths at music festivals, the evidence won. But what happens next?

By Jamie Doward and Lily Gordon Brown, The Guardian

Up to 20,000 patients in the UK are to be given medical cannabis over a two-year period in an initiative that aims to create the largest body of evidence on the drug in Europe.

The move, to be unveiled on Thursday, is backed by one of the UK’s leading medical bodies and it is hoped it will persuade the NHS to prescribe the drug for a range of conditions.

Although medical cannabis was legalised in the UK a year ago, it remains unobtainable for many patients, according to campaigners.

“Medical cannabis is still out of reach for far too many,” said Professor David Nutt from the independent scientific body Drug Science, the organisation behind the launch of Project Twenty21, which will see 20,000 patients supplied with subsidised cannabis products by the end of 2021.

“Patients are left untreated, in significant debt from the cost of private prescriptions, or criminalised as they are forced to turn to the black market. They don’t deserve any of this, and the situation with prescribing desperately needs to change.”

The project – which will be launched at, and is backed by, the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) – aims to create the largest body of evidence on medical cannabis in Europe, to convince policymakers that the drug should be made as widely available, and affordable, as other approved prescription medications.

Medical cannabis trial will target 20,000 UK patients

The biting cold hits the people who come out of the Moscow subway this evening. It is a 45-minute ride from the city-centre to Marino, the most populated district of the Russian capital. There seems to be no end to the communist-era apartment buildings.

A minibus is parked not far from the subway station. It bears the acronym FAR, for the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice. A man hobbles towards it. There are several boxes of syringes, medicines and disinfectant. "Vanya!" says the social worker, Maxim. "What's up?" Vanya smiles. "Have you got any clean syringes?" he asks. Maxim starts packing some sanitary products in a bag.

FAR campaigns for the rights of drug addicts and sex workers in Russia. The bus comes to Marino every Tuesday. The rest of the time it goes to other parts of Moscow. Vanya is one of 5 million drug addicts in Russia. "I've been coming to the FAR bus for years. People here don't only do their work. They're interested in me and help me. I receive support if I need to go to the hospital or if I need a document."

His face darkens. "I can't say the same about the state. I have to watch out for those people." He was caught by a policeman once with just a small amount of drugs on him. That landed him four years in jail.

Drug addiction in Russia: Draconian laws instead of help

中国毒品、犯罪和拘留数据库项目是第一个专注于中国政府毒品政策和国家司法系统的开放数值型数据库。作为开放数据资源，该数据库供研究中国毒品政策、刑事司法、治安和拘留问题的研究人员、倡议人士、记者和相关组织使用。

该数据库使用了200多个公开数据来源，涵盖500多个子类别，涉及议题包括：非法药物使用、减少危害干预措施、刑事和行政犯罪、司法审判和治安等。

作为开放数据资源，该项目解决了中国问题研究者面临的共同困境：如何获取数据。相较以往，中国现在公开了更多关于毒品、犯罪和司法审判的数据。但这些官方数据往往分散在难以计数的信息来源中，碎片化且不稳定。例如，一些早年国家政府报告中包含的数据类别在近年报告中消失了， 有些数据仅出现在新闻报道或学术著作中。虽然这些数据是公开的，但从中收集、整理信息需要大量的时间和精力。通过集中梳理这些分散的数据，该数据库为解决这些问题。

未来将进行数据可视化，研究成果将在《非法经济与发展期刊》上发表。

该数据库由伦敦政治经济学院(LSE)国际药物政策研究中心研究助理兼多伦多大学政治科学博士生阿米尔·德克斯创建。

中国毒品、犯罪和拘留数据库

RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY OFFICER (MATERNITY COVER)

The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) is a global network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that aims to promote objective and open debate on the effectiveness, direction and content of drug policies at the national, regional and international levels. We have over 190 member organisations worldwide, and the IDPC secretariat is based in London and Bangkok.

IDPC is excited to announce that we are looking to appoint a Research and Advocacy Officer (fixed-term contract to cover maternity leave) to contribute to the smooth delivery of IDPC’s publications work plan and to support the network’s advocacy efforts. The selected candidate would join our small but dynamic and busy team in London.

The successful candidate will have proven expertise in undertaking policy analysis, experience in engaging in drug policy advocacy, and knowledge of operational structures of the UN and other multilateral structures. They will have excellent written and verbal communications skills in English as well as Spanish, French and/or Russian, and a commitment to work with a range of partners and networks. Although not essential, experience in research and advocacy work related to women and drug policy is welcome.

Applicants must demonstrate that they have the right to live and work in the UK.

The job description and person specification are available below.

If you wish to apply for this post, please complete the application form below and send it to Daisy Bowdery (dbowdery@idpc.net) no later than 17.00 (UK time) on Friday 10th January 2020.

Shortlisted candidates will need to be available for interviews on Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd January 2020 in London or via teleconference or Skype. The successful candidate would be expected to start in March 2020.

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