By Open Society Initiative for West Africa

Waves of dialogue in West Africa on drug policy reform with the ultimate goal of decriminalizing drug use and possession for personal use have been making headway. Progress is slowly but surely on its way, and different actors are employing various tools and strategies to reach this goal. Senegal is home to 

le Centre de Prise en charge Intégrée des Addictions de Dakar 

(CEPIAD), the only government-run harm reduction facility in West Africa. CEPIAD does remarkable work by providing psychosocial support, needle exchange programs (NSP) and opioid substitution programs (OST) for drug users struggling with addiction, but despite its presence, Senegalese stakeholders working on drug related issues have yet to 

 any advances in legislative reform. While high level dialogue on reform is necessary, it needs to be complimented with community-level dialogue. After all, you can only begin to build a movement of reform by building community support for the lives of those in communities affected by the issues you are trying to change. In this case, building a movement for reform is not possible if we do not make a concerted effort to make the lived experience of drug users the central focus. In August 2016, OSIWA disseminated a short documentary film on the harm reduction experience in Senegal and CEPIAD. This year, film screenings targeted high policy level officials and both regional and international civil society actors. However, there was a shift in approach following the realization that the film could also be used as a participatory tool to reframe the discourse and expand dialogue in communities around locally contentious themes such as drugs and drug use.

Building community support for drug users using mobile cinemas

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations.

The 27th UPR Working Group met 8 May 2017. One of the countries under review was the Philippines. Human rights advocates highlighted ongoing widespread gross human rights abuses against people in situations of vulnerability, including people who use drugs and women.

In response to these human rights violations reported during the UPR process, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has made a series of recommendations, including the following:

Lift all of the pre-conditions in relation to the planned visit by the Speical Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to investigate the alleged extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers

Urgently stop all extrajudicial killings and any incitement to commit such killings; and bring the Government's methods of combating the use of illegal drugs in line with international standardsUrgently stop all extrajudicial killings and any inictement to commit such killings

Additionally, the OHCHR has recommended the Philippines launch independent investigations into drug related homicides connected to the Government's anti-drug campaign. We trust these reccomendations by the OHCHR will lead to an immediate stop of the Government's violent practices carried out under the aegis of the 

OHCHR urges Philippines to address human rights violations

Countries in Latin America should consider legalizing drugs to ease the human cost linked to the deadly trade, a United Nations chief has said. Alicia Bárcena, who heads the Santiago, Chile-based Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, said that countries in the region needed to look at drastic measures to tackle the trade, which kills tens of thousands of people each year. “It’s time to seriously consider legalizing drugs,” she told a Latin America forum in Paris, Reuters reported on Tuesday. “I’m going to be very provocative. Who would drug legalization be good for? Latin America and the Caribbean, for God’s sake. Because the illegality is what’s killing people,” said Bárcena, who is from Mexico.

Latin America must make drugs legal to stop killings, says United Nations chief 

Since the arrival of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, it's become especially dangerous for B.C. residents who struggle with a drug addiction to enter a Canadian prison.

That's because when they are released, they often still crave opioids, and since their drug supply was cut off or minimized when they began their prison term, they are returned to the streets with a lower tolerance and therefore at a greater risk of fatal overdose.

According to an April 2018 B.C. Coroners Service report, of people who died of an illicit-drug overdose in B.C. between January 2016 and July 2017, 66 percent were under B.C. Corrections supervision or had spent time in a provincial prison during their lifetime.

"The increase in mortality among released prisoners who formerly used opiate drugs is attributed to loss of tolerance and erroneous judgment of dose on return to opiate use," the report reads.

Human rights complaint alleges lack of harm-reduction programs puts Canadian inmates at risk of overdose

By Stewart Paterson and Stephen Naysmith

Plans for a 'fix room' where addicts in Glasgow would be able to inject illegal drugs under medical supervision are to be thwarted by the Home Office, it has been confirmed. While the UK Government's own advisors concede safe drug injecting facilities can be effective in protecting both drug users and the public, ministers insist they will not change the law to enable the setting up of drug consumption rooms (DCRs). However ministers are happy for Glasgow to go ahead with plans for a number of addicts with persistent drug problems to be given heroin on prescription.

UK Government accepts drugs fix rooms will work - but won't allow Glasgow to open one

The HSE is planning a harm reduction information campaign in response to a significant increase in use of crack-cocaine in Dublin city centre.

Drug service workers on both sides of the Liffey have noticed an increase in availability and use of the drug since last summer.

“Crack-cocaine isn’t new – it would come and go as a drug trend but this is more sustained use,” said Tony Duffin of the Ana Liffey Drug Project.

A smokeable form of cocaine made by chemically altering cocaine powder to form crystals or rocks, crack-cocaine produces a short but intense high with effects much stronger than the powdered version of the drug.

Duffin said the rise in availability of cocaine in the capital had led to an increase in the amount of crack being manufactured.

Crack-cocaine use surging in Dublin city centre

Sir Peter Gluckman's report found New Zealand that has been in the grips of a moral meth panic - and there's no health risk whatsoever from meth residue. There was not one single case on the planet of anyone, ever, having become sick from third-hand exposure to meth residues. Sir Peter had advice for people considering getting a property meth tested - don't even bother. But for years, meth contamination was considered to be a serious risk to health.

Meth myth: How the eviction hysteria unfolded in New Zealand

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 have been shown to be the most prevalent and problematic users of marijuana. And now with laws for recreational marijuana sales emerging in multiple states, there is a need to understand how the potential for harm can be minimized among young adults who choose to use the drug.

My colleagues and I at RAND and other research institutions have developed a Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale for Marijuana that helps identify some practices young adults can use to help limit their use of marijuana and avoid negative consequences.

Marijuana laws have changed substantially in the United States over the past 22 years. Since 1996, 29 states and the District of Columbia have implemented medical marijuana laws. In the past five years, nine states and D.C. have established laws to legalize the sale and/or possession of recreational marijuana. As a result of legalization, dispensaries that sell marijuana have proliferated in legal states, granting legal access to those age 21 and older regardless of medical conditions.

Avoid using marijuana before work or school.

Keep track of your costs to get an accurate picture of how much you spend on marijuana.

Avoid situations that you anticipate being pressured to use marijuana.

Avoid using marijuana to cope with emotions such as sadness or depression.

Use a little and then wait to see how you feel before using more.

Strategies to help young adults limit negative consequences of marijuana use

OTTAWA—A Senate committee passed 40 amendments Monday to the federal government’s cannabis legalization bill, including one that would allow provinces and territories to ban homegrown marijuana. But the social affairs committee refused to accept a Conservative amendment that would have prohibited home cultivation outright. And it defeated another that would have indefinitely delayed implementation of the legislation until the government reports to both houses of Parliament on the measures it’s taking to deal with the concerns of Indigenous communities.

The vast majority of the amendments approved were largely technical in nature and would have little affect on the substance of Bill C-45. Indeed, 29 of them were proposed by the sponsor of the bill in the Senate, independent Sen. Tony Dean, which suggests they have the blessing of the government.

The committee’s amended version of the bill will now go back to the Senate as a whole, where senators will decide whether to accept or reject the amendments or propose additional changes. The various factions in the Senate have agreed to hold a final vote on the bill by June 7, which would allow the Trudeau government to deliver on its promise to have the legal recreational cannabis regime up and running by late summer.

Senate committee supports amending cannabis bill to let provinces ban homegrown pot

Our new film features the story of Netti, her son Sam, and their experience with services for pregnant women who use drugs in Berlin.

Netti had a difficult life. Living as a sex worker who used drugs in Berlin she was exposed to many risks, including financial exploitation from pimps and dealers and stigmatisation from society. She met the father of her child at a detox centre. When she got pregnant, she started her journey in the social and healthcare system of Berlin, which is perceived as pretty good from a global perspective. Still, she had to face several unexpected challenges and barriers.

Netti’s Story: A Pregnant Woman’s Journey in the Healthcare System in Berlin

Bangladesh's security forces have killed more than 30 alleged drug dealers in gun battles over the past week with right activists warning a campaign of extrajudicial killings may be under way.

The suspects were killed across the country under similar circumstances since the nationwide crackdown on the narcotics trade was launched in early May, Al Jazeera discovered from police reports.

In most cases, local police and members of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force acted on tip-offs, raided houses where alleged drug traffickers operated, and after coming under fire engaged in deadly "shootouts".

Some relatives of the deceased, however, say their family members were picked up by police and later shot dead.

Criticising the deaths, Bangladeshi human rights activist Sultana Kamal said at a press conference on Monday that arrests should be made and suspects tried before a court, but that is not happening.

"People do not want to witness such killings. It is a violation of law to use the firearms, bought by the people's money, in extrajudicial killings. What is the country's judicial system for, if the law enforcers themselves try to serve justice?" said Kamal.

Bangladesh: Extrajudicial killing fears in drug crackdown

The Fortieth meeting of the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, 

The meeting will be dedicated to carrying out long-overdue pre-reviews of cannabis and cannabis related substances.

IDPC has submitted the statement below for the consideration of the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence.

Thank you for the opportunity to address the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence.

I am making this statement on behalf of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) – a global network of more than 170 NGOs coming together to promote drug policies based on evidence, public health, human rights, human security, development and civil society participation.

IDPC welcomes the long-overdue pre-review of cannabis by the ECDD. Historically, cannabis was last reviewed in 1935 under the League of Nations-administered system of the interwar period. The 1935 review was strongly biased by racial and cultural stereotypes and prejudices, and was scientifically questionable. In the more than 80 years since that ‘review’, the science and the standards for conducting a rigorous critical review have evolved significantly. In this context, IDPC re-iterates the important role of the ECDD, which should remain free from political interference.

Decisions as to whether and how to schedule substances in the UN drug control system are not a matter of arcane abstraction. Such decisions impact directly upon national policy and criminal laws – and therefore on people’s lives, on public health, and on human rights. These stakes require that such decisions be based on the best available science and evidence.

It is crucial to acknowledge that, alongside the harms (and sometimes benefits) associated with cannabis use, there are also many harms and benefits associated with drug policy. The harms of a drug – to users and to the wider society – do not exist in isolation. The choice of drug policy, which may be significantly determined by the scheduling of a drug, can itself profoundly impact on the harms to the user and to the wider community. This is a concept that the WHO describes very clearly in its work on alcohol, and nicotine – but has been less prominent in its work on drugs controlled under the 1961 and 1971 conventions, which has tended to focus more narrowly on physical health harms.

Illustrating this distinction between drug use and drug policy harm, cannabis has long been the most widely used illegal drug in the world, and cannabis is also one of the substances most targeted by drug law enforcement efforts. In the United States, for instance, of the 8.2 million cannabis arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simple cannabis possession. A punitive legal framework that criminalises people who use cannabis has caused enormous harm and suffering, which cannot be ignored. Cannabis supplied via an unregulated illegal market is also intrinsically riskier – being of unknown potency, having an unknown ratio of THC to CBD, and also having no quality control in terms of adulterants, pesticides, or fungal contamination.

In recognition of the harms being generated, or exacerbated, by the punitive approach to cannabis, policies around the world are currently undergoing rapid changes. This has included an accelerating growth in reforms to provide lawful access to cannabis for medical purposes. Today, 17 countries – or 41 jurisdictions if US states are counted individually – have adopted some form of medical cannabis access, reflecting increasing evidence of the benefits of cannabis-based medicines to treat a range of illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, or mitigating the side effects of chemotherapy.

A number of countries have also removed criminal sanctions for cannabis use or possession for personal use. These decisions have acknowledged that the evidence for a deterrent effect from criminalisation was weak, but the evidence of harm from mass criminalisation on the health and well-being of users was significant. It is worth noting that ending the criminalisation of all people who use drugs is advocated across the UN system, including the WHO.

Furthermore, since 2012, subnational and national jurisdictions have begun to legally regulate cannabis markets for non-medical or recreational use. So far, these have been established in nine US states, as well as in Uruguay, and soon in Canada.

Currently, cannabis is placed in Schedule I (highly addictive and liable to abuse) and Schedule IV (that is, certain substances included in Schedule I that are rarely used in medical practice) of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Confusingly, its main psychoactive compound, delta-9-THC or dronabinol, is also placed in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention, and several of its isomers even in Schedule I. This level of classification impedes scientific research on the active components of the plant because of the administrative difficulties scientists must go through to access these components for their research – hence severely limiting the amount of scientific literature on cannabis.

The assigning of cannabis to Schedules I and IV of the 1961 Single Convention was not based on a WHO scientific assessment, and its inclusion in schedule IV is inappropriate at the present time, given the widespread medical use of the substance and its derivatives. The imprecisions in the definitions of cannabis-related substances placed under international control, and the classification of its flowering tops, resin and extracts as “narcotic drugs” but its active compounds as “psychotropic substances”, represent inconsistencies that both the ECDD and the INCB have pointed out before. We hope this 40th ECDD meeting, apart from discussing the critical review and pre-review reports, will also take time to reflect on the anomalies in the history of international cannabis control, and will recommend improvements with regards to the current definitions and division over the 1961 and 1971 conventions.

The ECDD has a key opportunity to start addressing the confusion around cannabis, by conducting an objective review of the plant and its derivatives – far from political and ideological interference. It is also IDPC’s hope that, by conducting such a review, the ECDD will help to dismantle some of the myths associated with cannabis by collating all available scientific evidence on the effects – both positive and negative – of the plant and its derivatives. Crucially, we hope that the Committee will not ignore the profound impact of the legal and policy environment on cannabis-related harms and benefits to both users and the wider community – and will apply the same scientific rigor to considering policy impacts, as it does to pharmacological health risks.

To conclude, IDPC is pleased that the ECDD is moving forward in its review, and we hope that the process will move forward promptly towards recommendations for redefinitions and rescheduling based on scientific evidence. IDPC is pleased to be able to participate in this historic session, and will continue to follow the issue closely as the review proceeds.

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