Peru's government says it will present to the opposition-dominated legislature a plan to legalize the medical use of marijuana "for the treatment of serious and terminal illnesses."

President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's administration said Wednesday the plan was developed after police raided a house in a Lima neighborhood where a group of parents grew marijuana to make oil for treating their children suffering from epilepsy and other diseases.

Officials say that trafficking and use of marijuana for other purposes would remain a crime under the proposal.

Aida Farfan belongs to the parent group that was raising marijuana and said it has more than 80 members whose sick children benefited from the medicinal properties of marijuana. She says the group petitioned lawmakers for years trying to get those uses legalized.

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Peru's government proposes to legalise medicinal cannabis

Cambodia’s newly launched war on drugs is in full swing, with nearly 3,000 people arrested in the campaign’s first month of crime-busting. Authorities claim they have confiscated over 9kg of illegal drugs in busts on dealers and users, with more than half the haul being crystal methamphetamine, one of the country’s most prevalent and abused narcotics.

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government announced the campaign in December shortly after a state visit by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has made global waves through his violent execution of an anti-drugs drive that has seen more than 7,000 deaths.

Cambodian officials have said their campaign was launched in response to a nearly 30% rise in the number of documented drug addicts last year, according to official data.

In Duterte’s footsteps, Hun Sen launches a drug war

On Feb. 6 Behavioral Health System Baltimore and Baltimore City Police announced the launch of a new collaboration program called L.E.A.D that aims to help low-level drug offenders.

L.E.A.D. (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) is a pre-booking diversion program according to a press release. Baltimore police officers can refer individuals suspected of low-level drug or prostitution crimes to case managers, who will help them access an array of services including drug treatment, mental health services, and housing aid.

Individuals facing arrest can choose not to participate in L.E.A.D., and will go through the normal criminal justice process.

Baltimore, USA: New police programme aims to keep low-level offenders out of jail

In January 1981, the Junkiebond was formed as an advocacy and activist drug user group based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. As early as 1981, Junkiebond started an underground needle and syringe programme (NSP) with the aim of protecting people who inject drugs from hepatitis B. They took an activist approach campaigning for effective services for drug users, challenging discrimination and defending human rights.

The Junkiesbond closed in the late 1980s, but its influence remains strong with groups like Respect in the UK and Chemical Reaction in Edinburgh Scotland embracing the grassroots approach. These groups again operate primarily through peer networks, are often well integrated and engaged with drug supply (dealing) networks, and run a whole array of mutual aid functions. These can include advocacy with drug treatment providers, peer education, secondary or peer-led needle and syringe programmes, legal advocacy and consumer advocacy with local drug suppliers.

A brief history of drug user self-organisations

The body of Thokazani Hadebe lay on the pavement on the corner of Milne and Point Road, Durban, for the better part of a day before it was removed -- a chilling reminder of the dangers of injecting drugs.

According to a friend, Hadebe had come out of prison the day before and that same night he purchased a R75 unit of stone (heroin), mixed it with 20ml of water, and injected it. This was after taking mandrax and drinking alcohol. Hadebe passed out and it was only much later that someone realised he wasn't just sleeping.

His death is just one of many among injecting drug users in Durban who have died over the past year from either overdosing or drug-related afflictions and diseases. Hadebe's death points to the great need for the harm reduction services.

South Africa: Don't treat drug users as criminals, say health workers

“We can’t kill our way out of the drug problem.”

So says Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros, who this week declared President Rodrigo Duterte’s abusive “war on drugs” a failure. Hontiveros is instead calling for a public health solution to the bloodshed that has killed at least 7,022 people since July 1, 2016.

Hontiveros is seeking legislative support for a draft law that will create “an integrated and comprehensive public health approach” to addressing illegal drug use. The move comes too late for the 2,555 suspected drug users and dealers killed by police, as well as the 3,603 killings by “unidentified gunmen” since last July. But if Hontiveros can marshal the backing needed to enact her draft law, it might propel a rethinking by the authorities and the public of Duterte’s bloody “drug war.”

Philippine lawmaker declares abusive ‘Drug War’ a failure

In August of 2016, Aarón Valencia and his family fled to the United States amid the violence of Mexico’s drug war. Gangs had threatened to force two of his children into organized crime in his home state of Michoacán, and seeking refuge in the United States seemed his only option.

Today, Aarón, a former member of a vigilante militia disarmed by the Mexican government, and his family are being held at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, waiting for their asylum claim to be processed. They are among the millions of victims of the drug war that rages in Mexico to this day.

Over the past decade, several U.S. states have moved to legalize or decriminalize marijuana, a shift that has improved the lives of countless Americans. But while legalization is an important component of righting the wrongs of the drug war, it is not the only component—especially for the hundreds of thousands of Mexican families who have already been victimized by a century of prohibitionist policies.

As U.S. states decriminalise cannabis, Mexico’s drug war rages on

Minister for Health Simon Harris and Minister of State for Communities and the National Drugs Strategy, Catherine Byrne today (Tuesday) welcomed the Government’s decision to approve the publication of the Misuse of Drugs (Supervised Injecting Facilities) Bill 2017.

The Bill, which was approved by Cabinet at its meeting this morning, will allow the Minister for Health to issue a licence, with conditions, to operate a supervised injecting facility. This is a controlled environment where drug users may self-administer, by injection, drugs they have brought with them. Such facilities will provide access to clean, sterile injecting equipment and have trained staff on hand to provide emergency care in the event of an overdose, as well as advice on treatment and rehabilitation. They will also help alleviate the problems associated with injecting on the street, including drug-related litter.

Minister Harris said that he is, “delighted to be bringing forward this important legislation that adopts a health-led approach to drugs-use by those in our society who have been marginalised as a result of their addictions.”

Ireland’s first supervised injecting facility to provide safe harbour and medical help for chronic drug users

Illegal drugs are a matter of national security, but the war against them cannot be won by armed forces and law enforcement agencies alone. Throwing more soldiers and police at the drug users is not just a waste of money but also can actually make the problem worse. Locking up nonviolent offenders and drug users almost always backfires, instead strengthening organized crime.

That is the message I would like to send to the world and, especially, to President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. Trust me, I learned the hard way.

We Colombians know a thing or two about fighting drugs. Our country has long been one of the world’s primary suppliers of cocaine. With support from North American and Western European governments, we have poured billions of dollars into a relentless campaign to eradicate drugs and destroy cartels. I was personally involved in taking down the planet’s most notorious drug trafficker, Pablo Escobar, in 1993. While we managed to make Colombia a bit safer, it came at a tremendous price.

President Duterte is repeating my mistakes

The government’s blanket ban on novel psychoactive substances, formerly legal highs, has succeeded in shutting down high street trade in the substances but has led to products such as Spice being added to the regular menu of illicit street dealers, according to an authoritative report.

The survey of the street drug market in Britain by DrugWise, an online drug information service, also says unprecedented purity levels in heroin, cocaine, crack and ecstasy, driven by competition among drug gangs, is fuelling a recent rise in drug-related deaths.

Thumbnail: Flickr CC Lance Cpl. Damany S. Coleman

Ban on former legal highs has driven trade underground – study

Harm Reduction International is currently accepting tenders from capable, local partners with the capacity and enthusiasm to co-host the next Harm Reduction International Conference, to be held in May/June of 2019.

The Harm Reduction International Conference began in 1990, and was held in Liverpool, England. The city was one of the first to open needle and syringe programmes, and attracted hundreds of visitors each year who wanted to learn about the 'Mersey Harm Reduction Model'. The success of this first conference led to its establishment as an annual event held in major cities around the world. The conference helped spread the principles behind harm reduction, share knowledge and experience and build networks of harm reduction practitioners and activists to broaden the response to HIV related to unsafe injecting practices, HCV, bacterial infections and overdose. The conference also became the primary international meeting and networking point for drug user activists and organisations. Over the past two decades, the conference has been staged in Europe, Eurasia, North and South America, Asia and Australasia, with the most recent conference being held in Montreal, Canada.

Call for tenders: Harm Reduction International Conference 2019

Children as young as 12 have been reported to be doing drug runs in London. Targeting the most vulnerable young people in society – usually looked-after children or those already known to social services – organised crime gangs are using grooming tactics to coerce, manipulate and force young children into criminality to pay off unwanted debts.

Through my ongoing research with Youth Offending Teams, who work with young people in trouble with the law, I’ve found that young people are initially given cannabis, alcohol and cigarettes as a reward for helping with gangs’ dirty work. This can encourage addiction and once addicted, gang members tally up the cost of the drugs, allowing young people to quickly accumulate large debts. Vulnerable young people are becoming trapped in a situation where committing crime is one of very few ways that they can pay off their debt to the gang.

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