La regolamentazione giuridica delle droghe è più efficace e giusta del proibizionismo. Ma davvero può risolvere tutti i problemi? No, se non c’è giustizia sociale.

“Fermate la guerra alle droghe e legalizzatele!”. Sempre più persone si identificano con questo messaggio. Io sono un forte sostenitore della necessità di una riforma delle politiche sugli stupefacenti. Ritengo infatti che sia immorale punire qualcuno perché fa uso di droghe. Sono convinto che un mercato legale e regolamentato, a seconda di ogni specifico tipo di droga e dei rischi correlati, abbia molti più benefici per l’umanità che non il mercato nero.

Non mi piace il proibizionismo perché offre una soluzione ipersemplicistica ad un problema complesso. Eppure, io ritengo che il presupposto per cui la legalizzazione delle droghe risolverebbe ogni problema sia allo stesso modo ipersemplicistico. Non mi fraintendete, molti problemi che incontriamo in questo campo sono direttamente collegati alla guerra alle droghe, per esempio l’affollamento delle carceri, le infezioni, l’overdose e il crimine organizzato. Il mercato nero delle droghe è come una bestia nutrita ed ingrassata dagli sforzi che si fanno per reprimerlo. La legalizzazione delle droghe, al contrario, farebbe morire di fame quella bestia.

Mantenere up-to-date con gli sviluppi politici droga iscrivendoti al IDPC mensile Alert.

La legalizzazione delle droghe può risolvere tutti i problemi?

The legal regulation of drugs is more effective and just than prohibition. But does it really fix most problems? Not without social justice.

"Stop the Drug War and Legalise Drugs!" - More and more people identify with this message. I am a strong supporter of drug policy reform myself. I believe that it is immoral to punish someone for using drugs. I am convinced that a regulated legal market, adjusted to specific types of drugs and risky behaviours, is much more beneficial for humankind than a global black market.

I don't like prohibition because it proposes an over-simplistic solution to a complex problem. However, I feel that arguments based on the assumption that legalising drugs will fix most problems are just as over-simplistic. Don't get me wrong, several problems we experience in this field are directly connected to the war on drugs, including over-incarceration, infections, overdoses, and organised crime. The black market of drugs is like a beast which is fed and fattened by efforts to repress it. Legally regulating drugs, on the other hand, would starve the beast.

But simply legalising drugs will not kill all the beasts.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Can legalising drugs fix all problems?

In 2014, the debilitating effects of punitive drug laws across West Africa triggered an urgent need for reforms grounded on human rights and public health. This call for reform was timely as the precarious situation threatened good governance, peace and stability, economic growth and public health in West Africa, a region that is still emerging from decades of violent conflict and economic instability.

The West Africa Commission on Drugs (WACD), in its 2014 report titled, 

Not Just in Transit: Drugs, the State and Society in West Africa

, openly called for the decriminalisation of drug use and possession for personal use. The report provided evidence to show that criminalisation of drug use worsens health and social problems, puts undue pressure on the criminal justice system and fosters corruption.

The 2016 United Nations General Assemblies Session (UNGASS) provided an opportunity for various stakeholders to evaluate and adjust their current drug policies to ensure that it responds to national and regional realities. Before the UNGASS, the West Africa Drug Policy Network (WADPN) supported by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) and Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) organised national and regional multi-sectoral forums to facilitate a candid discourse on drug policy in West Africa.

West Africa reform agenda looks to decriminalise drug use

China and the United States rarely agree. Whereas the U.S. has threatened to bomb North Korea, China considers the hermit kingdom a troublesome but worthwhile ally. The U.S. has tried to outmaneuverChinese warships in the East and South China Seas to thwart the expansionist ambitions of East Asia’s largest country; China has launched countless cyberattacks on the U.S., which has long armed Taiwan, the Chinese province turned sovereign state. When the U.S. criticized China for abusing human rights, China rebranded the War on Terror as a way to extinguish activism and secessionism among Muslims in Xinjiang. Tibetans, who inhabit another province with a secessionist history, have many friends in the United States. It may surprise many observers of the Sino–American relations to read, then, that China and the U.S. have a mutual interests in pursuing the War on Drugs, a controversial American enterprise.

“The competition between the U.S. and China doesn’t mean there can’t be cooperation on combating opiates and opioids,” noted Jeffrey Higgins, a former supervisory special agent in the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

“China has a growing drug problem, despite its draconian drug laws. This gives China a compelling interest in collaborating with any country to combat drugs.”

China-US cooperation and the new opium war

The Upper House has approved a bill to amend the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law of 1993 that would effectively decriminalise drug use in Burma.

According to the legislation as amended, drug users would no longer be punished with often-lengthy jail sentences and would be required to perform community service instead. The Ministry of Home Affairs has said it will tackle issues of narcotics use and addiction in accordance with whatever terms the amended law ultimately stipulates, should it see passage through both houses of Parliament.

“It has been approved [by the Upper House] that offences under the law have been changed to community service. The amended law is the most suitable one, since MPs and experts have contributed to the comprehensiveness of it,” said Major-General Aung Soe, the deputy minister for Home Affairs. “In the implementation of every law, there may be both strengths and weaknesses. We [the Ministry of Home Affairs] will undertake enforcement measures as stipulated by the law.”

Upper House moves to decriminalise some drug offences in Myanmar

Malaysia is set to repeal legislation that imposes a mandatory death penalty for people who sell drugs, despite most of its neighbouring countries implementing increasingly brutal drug policies.

On August 8, Minister Azalina Othman Said tweeted to corroborate a story in the press: Malaysia’s cabinet had "agreed to amend the colonial-era Dangerous Drugs Act of 1952 to give courts a choice in sentencing". Under current legislation, anyone found guilty of trafficking drugs faces a mandatory death penalty; the planned reform would give judges discretion in sentencing. While the proposed amendment has support from the cabinet, it must first be tabled in the parliament, which is expected to pass it in October, The Australian reports.

As TalkingDrugs reported in 2016, Malaysia seems to have placed a “secret moratorium” on the execution of people for drug offences for several years. Despite executing 229 people for drug offences between 1983 and 2013, Malaysia is not believed to have executed anyone for such an offence since then. Numerous people have, however, been 

to death for drug trafficking, but the executions have not taken place.

Malaysia’s planned drug reform highlights divide in SE Asia's drug war approach

On Friday 14th July, the Government published its new Drug Strategy: ‘2017 Drug Strategy’. The previous drug strategy, published in 2010, was heavily criticised for its almost exclusive focus on abstinence, and total de-prioritisation of harm reduction initiatives.

This briefing, endorsed by eight of the UK’s leading harm reduction and drug treatment organisations, looks at whether the focus on harm reduction has improved under the new strategy, and discusses challenges in the funding environment which will have a disproportionate impact on harm reduction services.

Still no harm reduction? A critical review of the UK government’s new drug strategy

One of the main targets in the war on drugs could well become a drug to treat the scars of war. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), better known as the illegal drug ecstasy, a "breakthrough therapy" for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a status that may lead to faster approval.

The agency has also approved the design for two phase III studies of MDMA for PTSD that would be funded by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a nonprofit in Santa Cruz, California. MAPS announced the "breakthrough therapy" designation, made by FDA on 16 August, on its website today; if the group can find the money for the trials, which together could cost an estimated $25 million, they may start next spring and finish by 2021.

That an illegal dancefloor drug could become a promising pharmaceutical is another indication that the efforts of a dedicated group of researchers interested in the medicinal properties of mind-altering drugs is paying dividends. Stringent drug laws have stymied research on these compounds for decades. "This is not a big scientific step," says David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London. "It’s been obvious for 40 years that these drugs are medicines. But it’s a huge step in acceptance."

All clear for the decisive trial of ecstasy in PTSD patients

This was the stark message written across dozens of protest signs held aloft by drug users and their allies at the opening ceremony of Harm Reduction International’s 25th Conference in Montreal in May. The target for the message was Canadian Minister of Heath, Dr Jane Philpott, who was a keynote speaker at our event. With almost 2,500 recorded deaths in Canada in 2016 linked to overdose - afigure thought to be conservative given existing gaps in data - the protesters called on the Minister to declare a national public health emergency that would enable swift action to save lives. Indeed the Canadian overdose crisis is escalating in intensity, with estimates that the province of British Columbia alone might see 1,400 overdose deaths in 2017. Nationwide, overdose deaths have jumped 327% since 2008. With the memories and pain of lost friends and loved ones so close to the surface, the outpouring of grief, anger and demand for action at our conference opening was understandable, and set the tone for the following three days.

The overdose crisis is not solely a Canadian phenomenon. In the United States, the rate of fatal drug overdose has increased by 137% since 2000, with more people now dying from drug overdoses than from road traffic accidents or - shockingly - firearms incidents. Here in the UK the alarm bells are also sounding. Deaths involving heroin and morphine increased by 109% in the England and Wales between 2012 and 2016. Last year, there were 3,744 drug-related deaths in the UK, the highest since records began in 1993.

International Overdose Awareness Day reminds us that silence still equals death

The following video provides a quick overview of the 2017 S

A Drug Policy Week: Human Rights, Health & Reducing Harm

, an international drug policy forum held on 31 July - 4 August in Cape Town.

Jamie Bridge (IDPC) gave a presentation on "International Drug Policy: The Next Steps and Why Africa Needs to Engage".

To access all videoed presentations, please click here.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

SA Drug Policy Week 2017

Amnesty International has condemned what it described as an alarming number of police killings of suspected drug dealers in Indonesia.

The rights group said on Wednesday that police had killed at least 60 suspects this year, compared to 18 in all of 2016.

The group warned that Indonesian authorities could be looking to emulate the "war on drugs" in the Philippines, in which thousands have been killed.

"This shocking escalation in unlawful killings by the police sounds serious alarms bells," said Usman Hamid, Amnesty's Indonesia director.

Amnesty sounds alarm as Indonesia slays drug suspects

The crisis over the US addiction to painkillers - opioids - is a national emergency, says President Donald Trump.

"It's an emergency, it's a national emergency. We are going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis," he said.

The number of deaths from the drugs - prescribed to a third of Americans in 2015 - has quadrupled in 20 years.

Declaring a national emergency means the issue can get prioritised funding and resources from Washington.

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