In the vast areas of Colombia’s countryside where evidence of government is scarce, you can see the bright green bushes once again growing up to the roadside. They’re usually knee-high, indicating that they were planted recently. They’re in the same parts of the country as before: farmers don’t seem to be cutting down new forest and growing in new areas. Usually, it is one of several cash crops on a farmer’s land: at least some of the legal crops are more profitable, he or she will tell you, but with prices fixed by armed groups or organized crime, coca offers the steadiest income.

Colombia is in the midst of a coca boom, perhaps its largest ever. The numbers show an explosion in plantings of the bush that produces leaves indigenous people in Peru and Bolivia (and a few in Colombia) have used for centuries, and drug traffickers today use to make cocaine. Using methods that it does not discuss, the U.S. government estimated 159,000 hectares of coca planted in Colombia in 2015 (a hectare is about two and a half acres). When it releases its 2016 estimate—reportedly on March 14—the U.S. number could reach or exceed 180,000 hectares for the first time ever. (The United Nations releases its own estimates, in cooperation with Colombia’s National Police, usually in June. Using a methodology that its reports endeavor to explain, the UN found 96,000 hectares in 2015. Though the U.S. and UN estimates diverge widely, they tend to follow similar trendlines—and both are increasing.)

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Confronting Colombia’s coca boom requires patience and a commitment to the Peace Accords

The Sustainable Development Goals commit the international community to end HIV and combat hepatitis C (HCV) by 2030. The target is unambiguous – if any population continues to be affected after 2030, it will not have been hit. And so goes the mantra: “leave no one behind” in the global HIV and HCV response. But the 2016 

 report by Harm Reduction International (HRI) shows that one population particularly vulnerable to HIV and HCV – prisoners – continues to be wilfully left behind.

At the root of the problem is the widespread prohibitionist approach to drug control, which favours criminalisation and punishment over health and welfare. This has resulted in the mass incarceration of people who use and inject drugs with one in every five prisoners worldwide held on drug-related charges, most for personal use and possession. UNAIDS estimates that up to 90% of people who inject drugs will be incarcerated at some stage in their lives. Unsurprisingly, injecting drug use continues to be documented in prisons in every region of the world and prevalence of HIV and HCV remains significantly higher inside than outside of prisons across the globe.

The global state of harm reduction in prisons: Inadequate, unreliable and unlawful

Filme-documento de protesto da população em situação de rua e de movimentos sociais contra a nova política de drogas e o Programa Redenção desenhados pelo prefeito João Dória para a cidade de São Paulo.

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Redenção

A short documentary piece covering the closure of Bracos Abertos and the controversial development of Program Redenção by São Paulo mayor João Dória.

Video: Braços Abertos closure in São Paulo

The 25th Harm Reduction International Conference will be held in Montreal on 14-17 May, 2017. The Drugreporter Film Sessions will provide an opportunity for participants to watch and discuss thought-provoking films about harm reduction and drug policies produced by film makers and activists from all over the world.

We are now accepting submissions to the film sessions for screening. The deadline for applications is the 20th of April!

- No entry fee for applications
- Entry forms must be filled in in English
- Film must be subtitled in English
- Production dates should be between 1st of January 2016 and 20th of March 2017
- A separate application must be made for each film
- Films that have already been presented at earlier events and published online ARE eligible

Nine films will be selected for screening at the conference by the Rights Reporter Foundation and Harm Reduction International, based on the following criteria:

- the film’s message shall promote the philosophy and practice of harm reduction
- the film shall exhibit sensitivity to the human rights of people who use drugs
- quality of the movie
- creativity of the production

Drugreporter Film Sessions at the Harm Reduction International conference: Call for submissions

The findings of the study, conducted by a student at Writtle University College, have been published in the International Journal of Drug Policy.

Study author Simon Jones reveals that, out of the over 180,000 registered farmers growing traditional crops in Jamaica, only 25 applications for ganja cultivation have been made. High licensing fees and other financial and infrastructural burdens have been cited as the main impediments to farmers.

Jamaica appears to have drawn their new regulations from schemes implemented in North America with little localisation for a developing country. Therefore, small farmers will likely continue to grow and sell illegally, potentially warping the medical market and undermining its successful implementation.

The implementation of medical ganja in Jamaica

Video: Belgian Police Chief pleads for drug legalisation

A group of former premiers, police commissioners and legal advocates have luanched a push for decriminalisation as part of a widespread reform of drug laws.

The former Labor premier of NSW, Bob Carr, and the former Liberal Victoria premier, Jeff Kennett, launched the Australia 21 report on Monday, which calls for an end to criminalisation of drug users.

The report, entitled “Can Australia respond to drugs more effectively and safely?”, makes 13 recommendations around minimising drug-related harm and the burden on the criminal justice system.

Former premiers and Australian police chiefs call for drug decriminalisation

The European Commission (EC) has proposed a new counter-narcotic plan for the European Union, which includes several seemingly progressive changes.

Among the new proposals is the examining of drug trafficking’s relationship with human trafficking, the implementation of evidence-based harm reduction measures, and the consideration of human rights when funding foreign regimes’ counter-narcotic activity.

The proposed EU Action Plan on Drugs 2017-2020 was published on March 15, and – if accepted for implementation – will provide the basis of the second half of an eight-year multinational endeavour, the EU Drugs Strategy for 2013-2030 (“the Strategy”).

Progressive changes in newly-proposed European Union Action Plan on Drugs

By scheduling two fentanyl precursors and a fentanyl analogue, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) is sending a clear message that it can help protect people's health and respond to the urgent needs of states, the Chair of 60th Session of the CND, Ambassador Bente Angell-Hansen said today.

"This was a crucial decision by the Commission, and it is proof that the CND can respond quickly when a crisis involving people's lives has to be addressed," said Ms. Angell-Hansen.

Based on research in UNODC's recently released Global Smart Report, fentanyl and its analogues have contributed to more than 5,000 overdose deaths in North America since 2013. Deaths have also been recorded in European Union Member States, including Finland, Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom; and in Australia, Algeria and Morocco.

Commission on Narcotic Drugs takes decisive step to help prevent deadly fentanyl overdoses

While all eyes were on the US administration’s latest attempt to block people from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States, many may have missed Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ alarming remarks on the US “war on drugs.”

In a speech before law enforcement leaders Wednesday, Sessions clearly articulated his prohibitionist views on personal drug use, stating that marijuana is only “slightly less awful” than heroin and that “using drugs will destroy your life.” While briefly mentioning the importance of treatment and prevention programs, Sessions made clear that he plans to significantly ramp up federal enforcement of drug laws, and that he opposes the experiments that many states have started with legalization and regulation of marijuana.

We know from experience that this approach and has done little to reduce problematic drug use, which has remained high for decades. Instead, it has done tremendous harm, resulting in massive numbers of people being locked up or deported for low-level offenses in the US.

A return to the failed ‘War on Drugs’ in the US?

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to continue his “war on drugs” in spite of growing calls for an investigation into his role in it.

On March 6, the Philippine government lifted its suspension on police anti-drug operations. The suspension had been imposed in January following revelations that anti-drug police had kidnapped and killed a South Korean businessman.

Philippine National Police Director-General Ronald dela Rosa has christened this new phase of the drug war Project Double Barrel Alpha, Reloaded, and has said it will be “less bloody, if not bloodless” than that of the previous eight months.

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