The Myanmar government is receiving support from the UN to develop a new national drug policy, as the rates of opium cultivation continues to rise in the country.

Myanmar’s drug policy is currently governed by the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law (1993). Under this legislation, people who use drugs face three years imprisonment if they fail to register their narcotic use. It is mandatory for all people who are registered as using drugs to attend so-called “drug rehabilitation” centres. These facilities are run by private non-governmental organisations, implementing unregulated treatment methods.

The government is also in the process of implementing a large-scale 20-year poppy eradication programme, which was launched in 1999.

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

UN supporting Myanmar drug reform as opium cultivation increases

The number of kits issued in Scotland's pioneering programme to cut drug-related deaths (DRD) has risen by 10%, official statistics have revealed.

Since 2010 users of heroin and similar drugs can be given naloxone kits to reverse the effects of a potentially fatal opioid overdose.

The Scottish government-funded programme was introduced in an attempt to cut the number of drug deaths.

There are now calls for a similar scheme to be introduced in England.

Naloxone is a prescription-only drug in the UK but in Scotland it is legal for trained carers, hostel managers, drug users, and addicts' friends and family to carry in case of an emergency.

The figures, issued by the Scottish government's Information Services Division (ISD), show in the year 2015-16, a total of 8,146 take-home naloxone (THN) kits were issued, a 10% increase on the previous 12 months.

Rise in anti-overdose naloxone kits to cut drug deaths in Scotland

 Just like in West African countries, Canadian citizens have been discussing the legalization of marijuana for quite some time. And similar to countries like Ghana, with strict and repressive drug policies, Canada has been experiencing tension between authorities and pro-marijuana users. However, the new Canadian new liberal government, led by Justin Trudeau, has just announced the launching of a marijuana legalization task force and with it, the beginning of the legalization process. Hopefully, by the spring of 2017 marijuana will be legalized in the country for recreational use. There’s still a long way to go and until then possessing, producing and selling marijuana are illegal, just as it is in other West African countries with rigorous regulations. On the other hand, what can we expect from the whole process? What are its goals? There are still a lot of unanswered questions for Canadians, questions that all countries looking to legalize marijuana will face. 

 from OMQ Law, a criminal law firm based in Toronto, gives us a neat comparison of legal regulations in countries which has, at least partially, legalized marijuana for recreational use. The cases of Portugal, Netherlands, and five US states provide examples of different legal frameworks that may be feasible, not just for Canada, but for all West African countries.

What Can West African Countries Learn from the USA, Portugal, and Netherlands about Marijuana Legalization?

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) won its legal challenge to the New York City Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy more than three years ago. But suddenly the phones in our offices are ringing off the hook again. Reporters from the 

 are asking us to explain why stop-and-frisk as a national policy solution would be a terrible idea.

The answer: It would be a terrible idea for the same reasons it was a terrible idea all along, reasons that led CCR to sue the NYPD to end it. Stop-and-frisk, a police practice of temporarily detaining or searching a person, violates the U.S. Constitution if police stop people based on their race or without a “reasonable suspicion” that they’ve committed a crime.

In New York City, the police did both, in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The scope of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program—hundreds of thousands of people were stopped every year—put entire communities under siege. It created tensions between the police and the neighborhoods they patrol. And yes, it was ineffective in its stated goal of reducing crime.

At the height of stop-and-frisk, in 2011, there were 685,000 stops, 106,669 major felonies, and 515 murders in New York City. By 2015, stops fell 97 percent to 23,000. At the same time, major felonies came down to 105,453. And murders dropped to 356.

The Case against Stop-and-Frisk

Ghana is one of the most affected countries in the sub-region by issues of drug use, trafficking and drug production, with the youth being the most affected by this phenomenon. According to the 2014 statistics from the Ghana Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) about 70% of youth engage in drug use. Unfortunately, the criminal justice approach drives these youths away from their family, community, needed support which eventually leads them to social exclusion. This situation attracted the attention of some students from the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana who came together as Students for Drug Policy Reform (SDPR) who are concerned about the impact of drugs and drug policies on youth, individuals, families, communities and the nation as a whole. The main objective of these students-led movement is to bring young people together and create a safe civic space for students of all political and ideological stripes to have honest conversations about drugs and drug policies in Ghana.


Students actively engaged in drug policy reform campaigns in Ghana

A bill that seeks to, among other things, decriminalise drug addiction and use is currently before Parliament for consideration and approval.

The Narcotic Control Commission Bill, 2015, which went through the Second Reading in Parliament yesterday, has proposed the decriminalisation of drug use and addiction.

As a result, drug use and addiction would no longer be a punishable offence when the House passes the bill into law.

The Deputy Minister of the Interior, James Agalga, who moved the motion for the Second Reading of the bill, said that instead, drug addiction would be treated as a health issue, and added that offenders would be taken to correctional facilities for assistance.

Drug use and addiction to be decriminalised in Ghana

The first medical cannabis club in Chile, Botánica Orgánica Cannabis Internacional (BOCI), opened in the northern city of Arica in early September.

BOCI provides access to premium quality cannabis for people who are prescribed cannabis-based medicines but unable to self-cultivate. Such patients may be unable to do so because of lack of knowledge about the cultivation process, limited access to growing space, or simply the debilitating nature of their illness. The club currently has around 20 members.

The creation of BOCI is the latest step in Chile’s journey away from strict prohibition of cannabis. The country, once renowned for its conservatism, is now leading the way on medicinal cannabis in Latin America.

Chile opens first medical cannabis club

“Unidentified Filipino male. Unidentified Filipino male. Unidentified Filipino female. Unidentified Filipino male…” It takes a long time to read 1,900 names, long enough to feel every inch of the concrete wall against my back. We had gathered outside the midtown Philippine Consulate to “die in”— dozens of activist bodies laid out under a large picture window through which a video of sandy white beaches and tropical flowers played on a loop. The protest of newly elected Philippine President Duterte’s extrajudicial killing spree, directed at suspected drug users and dealers, received international press attention and unleashed a torrent of invectives on the social media accounts of organizers. This was further evidence, if any was needed, that the so-called war on drugs has always been a war on drug users: individuals systematically robbed of their freedom and dignity—even their names.

According to a new meta-analysis conducted by Kate Dolan, PhD (University of New South Wales), and colleagues on the burden of HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) among prisoners, there are 10.2 million incarcerated people worldwide, including 2.2 million in the US. An estimated 15.1% of prisoners worldwide have HCV and 4.8% have chronic Hepatitis B virus (HBV), which are higher prevalence rates than those for HIV (3.8%) and active TB (2.8%). In addition, 30 million prisoners transition between the community and prison each year. Research indicates that infection risk increases following release from prison, both for the formerly incarcerated and their sex and drug-using partners. Thus, to achieve the World Health Organization’s (WHO) goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health concern by 2030, civil society has a duty to intervene where criminalization and incarceration conflict with sound public health policy.

Decriminalisation is a public health strategy

Twenty eight-year-old Divya Devi placed her hands on her bloated belly, closed her eyes, and leaned her head back against a wall. A black hairband held her thinning hair together. She breathed heavily through her mouth and looked exhausted. Devi was one of the many patients biding their time in the packed waiting room of the palliative care center inside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi on that September morning. Those who could, sat. The others lay down. Almost all of them were terminally ill with cancer. Devi had breast cancer that had spread into her liver.

Devi’s husband, Tarun Kathuria, was standing in a corner. A few days before this visit, Devi’s oncologist told Kathuria that Devi might live just for a week or two and referred her to the palliative care center. That morning, the couple left their two-year-old daughter, Riddhima, with neighbours in Dwarka in west Delhi before coming to the centre.

Like Devi, most patients are referred for palliative care when all treatments fail and the patient is terminally ill. “That’s a wrong approach,” said Sachidanand Jee Bharati, assistant professor of palliative medicine at AIIMS.

Too little, too late: Why palliative care is vastly inadequate in India

Yes, it’s true – in February 2016, Macedonia legalised medicinal cannabis. The law covers the production of cannabis by legal entities which then supply it to companies producing cannabis-based medicines in Macedonia. It was a surprise to everyone, considering the intolerance exhibited by our right-wing government towards illicit substances and marginalised communities. Still, the act confirmed the suspicion that literally anything can be expected from a government such as ours, regarding drug policies. As an example, just a few years ago, at the time of Bolivia’s request to the UN for the legalisation of coca leaves, Macedonia was one of four countries which withdrew objections to the proposal.

It should be said from the outset, that the law is far from ideal. Its adoption lacked transparency, and it was drafted without input from civil society. The law was never presented during the two debates organised around the issue, and representatives from civil organisations working in this field were not invited to contribute. The draft law began moving through the parliamentary system immediately after being issued, thereby preventing any proper analysis or discussion. Nevertheless, Healthy Options Project Skopje – HOPS – carried out such an analysis, and we present our key remarks and recommendations below.

Legalisation of medicinal cannabis in Macedonia

A U.N. committee raised several concerns on the state of human rights in the Philippines over the Arroyo, Aquino and Duterte administrations during a periodic review of the country held September 28 to 29 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The 18-member U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights probed the Philippine delegation on issues, such as poverty, education, labor, human trafficking, homelessness and gender equality.

Apart from looking at current issues, the committee also studied a 2014 consolidated report submitted by the Philippines. The country was last reviewed in 2008.

U.N. committee probes state of human rights in Philippines

Brazil has a prison problem. Recent crises have brought renewed attention to mass incarceration, overcrowding, and the lawlessness and inhumanity of Brazil’s jails – issues that are often ignored, but hardly new.

Two separate prison riots on October 15 led to the deaths at least 18 inmates. The next day, in an apparently unrelated incident, some three dozen inmates escaped from a São Paulo prison after a riot caused a fire there.

This is shocking but not unprecedented in Brazil. In May 2006, up to 200 died during mass prison uprisings and related violence, both inside and outside of prisons.

News