In less than two weeks a rare United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on global drug policy takes place in New York. Among the issues to be debated and discussed many resonate in Southeast Asia, including the impact of drug production, trafficking and use on vulnerable countries, communities and people. Importantly, preparatory negotiations over the past year have created space for countries and policy leaders to reflect on the traditional "war on drugs" approach, but also prominently featured a debate on the need for justice reform and improved access to health services.

A major challenge for governments here in Southeast Asia is high, and rising, prison populations resulting from sentences for drug-related offences including for minor drug possession and use. Disproportionate sentences for relatively low level drug crime are not only a burden on justice systems and state budgets in the region, but have also proven to be detrimental to human rights -- most correctional facilities in the region simply do not provide a safe and healthy environment for people in custody.

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Will the global drug policy evolution hit SE Asia?

The U.S.-led war on drugs and U.S.-shaped international drug policies are being scrutinized and debated this month by governments from around the globe as the world’s countries prepare to gather in mid-April for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session, or UNGASS, to review the world’s drug control regime. It is the first such meeting in 18 years.

The good news is that there are signs that American leaders are beginning to question the wisdom of a four decade-old war on drugs that has caused more harm than good. Increasingly, elected officials and the public are condemning laws that marginalize, criminalize and incarcerate millions of U.S. citizens for using drugs - laws that have helped make the U.S. the world’s leading jailer and have caused particular harm to persons and communities of color.

The bad news is that the U.S. continues to prioritize the use of police, prosecutors and judges to deal with persons who possess and use illicit drugs. Nowhere is this more evident than the persistent push by local and national politicians to implement or expand so-called drug courts, and their encouragement of other countries to do the same. Today, roughly 3,000 such courts operate around the country.

Legal experts urge UN to reject drug courts

Current drug policies which focus on prohibition over public health reinforce the vicious cycle of poverty and ill health by increasing the risk of health harms, and limiting access to medical care for people who use drugs. They also impact on entire communities by overly restricting access to essential medicines. In short, drug policy impacts heavily on health.

Although a number of countries take a public health approach to drug policy, many do not. The so called ‘war on drugs,’ which prioritizes the prohibition of illicit drug use, possession, cultivation, production and trafficking, has dominated since the mid-twentieth century. This is despite serious implications for public health.

The health of people who use drugs are the most obviously impacted by this zero-tolerance approach to drug policy, which restricts their access to medical care and support services for issues directly related to drug use and more generally. The criminalization of people who use drugs, and social stigma which results from this, acts as a barrier that often prevents people who use drugs from accessing health care for fear of legal punishment. Conversely it also results in people who use drugs sometimes being denied access to healthcare because of their status; in particular pregnant women who use drugs.

World Health Day highlights the need to talk about drug policy

China's top court on Thursday released a new judicial interpretation on rules for drug-related convictions and sentencing, stepping up punishments.

The document, issued by the Supreme People's Court (SPC), adopted stricter rules for ketamine by lowering the threshold for criminalization of the drug by half.

Ketamine abuse in China is quite serious, said Fang Wenjun, a senior justice of the SPC. The number of ketamine users continues to grow, and it ranks third among substances, after methamphetamine and heroin, in terms of involvement in drug-related violations.

Production and sale of the drug has also been on the rise in recent years, and harsher rules are needed to deal with it, Fang said.

An increase in users and violations has resulted in a number of cases of self-mutilation, violence and driving under the influence, according to the SPC judge.

The new document also added 12 new types of illegal drugs to be subject to criminal penalties and lowered the threshold for conviction of illegal use for 33 precursor chemicals.

China top court releases tougher rules against Ketamine abuse

A Press Release from the Liberia Chapter of the West Africa Drug Policy Network (WADP)

The Liberia Chapter of the West Africa Drug Policy Network (WADPN) is saddened by the action of the government of Liberia to raid ghettos without considering the consequences of the action. The Network describes the action as a warlike approach to the drug problem in Liberia despite global calls on governments to change the old approach to the world’s drug problem.

The Network does not believe that government adequately counted the cost of the action, realizing the resettlement of ghetto occupants, violent action of state security in carrying out raids, rehabilitation of the thousands of drug users, risk in absorbing ghetto residents within communities as well as the political intolerance in solving a problem that some members of the Sirleaf led government has directly or indirectly created. We are of the ardent belief that government has made a useful but time-wise wrong choice in as much as following considerations did not precede the action.

Resettlement of ghetto occupants: On Wednesday, March 16, the government through the Ministry of Health invited partners including civil society actors to an emergency meeting aimed at finding possible resettlement space for occupants of ghettos. The Ministry officials said government has made a decision to raid ghettos and there was a need for civil society organizations and or development partners to provide space for resettlement of ghetto dwellers. Realizing the implications of the decision, civil society organizations advised that the action was not timely in as much as government did not put any resettlement mechanism in place. Additionally, government felt short over the years to empower or create enabling environment for empowerment of local institutions in the area of addressing drug use and dependent disorders. Government representatives at the meeting hammered the opinion of government that the decision was made and there was nothing to change it.

Violent Action of State Security in Carrying out Raid: State security actors perceive raid as an official order from government to exercise brutal and uncivil action against citizens (no matter what caliber of citizens). As far as the drug problem in Liberia is concerned, raid is an old mitigation approach, which has created more unresolved issues. Some of the issues range from forceful seizure of money and non-drug items that had never been accounted for. Failure of the part of state security to account for proceeds of raids is a semblance of drug related corruption. More besides, there are startling reports indicating security agents aiding drug traffickers, thereby ignoring their arrest. This is due to corruption issues related to drug money. Raid is an expensive security operation, which is part of the “war against drugs” – an approach to the world drug problem that has dismally failed to solve the problem. At no time has ghetto raid in Liberia led to arrest of international traffickers or people within their syndicates due to connections with people in government especially state security. Long term drug problem and the old failed approach of raiding ghettos continue to create indelible scars and burden on the government and people of Liberia, with raid creating more problems than the country can solve.

Rehabilitation of Thousands of Drug Users Living in Ghettos: There is no rehabilitation program for people suffering from controlled drug and substance disorders. We missed out as a nation and people when the United Nations afforded us the opportunity of disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and resettlement of former fighters – a process on which millions of donor fund was spent. We are all aware that controlled drugs and substances were part of the ‘arms and ammunitions used to fight our civil wars’. It is not strange to any of us in Liberia that young people were conscripted into fighting forces and drugged to fight wars. We negated addressing the drug habit of former fighters during the DDRR program; a choice that haunts us today with rising youth debut in drug use culminating from peer pressure, organic solidarity and differential association.

Risk of Absorbing Ghetto Dwellers in Communities: Discarding ghettos without temporary shelter or congenial residence for occupants is a direct communication for them to return to the communities. There are several risk factors association with this return some of which can be listed as follows:

Other young people who secretly admire them will have easy access to associate with them (differential association) thereby introducing new group of youths into their habit.

Some ghetto dwellers returning in the communities have relatives who they will live with. In as much as their habit remain with them, some of their relatives will ultimately share their pains, habit, joy or whatsoever (organic solidarity). This leads to deeper family problems in the communities.

Our communities are already porous in the sense that drugged soup is served at most parties in the communities. The ghetto returnees will now add new flavor (example bone dust of long time dead people, etc.).

Liberia’s drug problem has long term political, social and economic intricacies and does not therefore deserve quick-fixed solution. Preliminary findings from current baseline survey being conducted by a member agency of the Network (Foundation Against Illicit Drugs and Child Abuse) suggests that 69% of people living in the ghettos are between the ages 25 – 39 years. A cross section of this population were actually conscripted and drugged to fight wars sponsored and led by some members of the current government.

Government insiders have intimated to us that President Sirleaf promised the West Africa Commission on Drugs (WACD) delegation visiting Liberia in late February that she would have taken action in response to the drug issue in the country prior to the end of her term of office. Our sources maintained that this pledge of the president was in response to the issue of creating policy framework aimed at supporting harm reduction, human rights and public health in dealing with drugs. We are not sure if the raid is part of the President’s promised intervention; as this approach is a complete contradiction of the West Africa common position towards the United Nations General Assembly (UNGASS) Special Session on the World Drug Problem taking place from April 18 – 22, 2016 in New York.

In view of the intricacies of the situation, we are of the opinion that the following recommendations will be useful in amicably addressing the problem:

Government should target drug related corruption within the security apparatus. This will encourage equal treatment of people with drug related crime. Clamp down on drug related corruption involving security topnotch and other officials of government will reduce drug flow within communities.

Raiding ghettos without resettlement and rehabilitation plan is a lip service to addressing the drug problem in Liberia. Ghetto raid has a history of one ghetto being replaced with at least five new ghettos. Occupants of raided ghettos seek settlement in new communities and forge new alliances. But should there be a government or institutionalized facilities for keeping and controlling the activities of drug users, incidence of new ghettos and rising youth debut into drug use could be minimized. Senegal is an example of countries in West Africa with this kind of model; and it is call harm reduction program. The government should consider identification of a suitable place to relocate these Ghetto occupants with a rehabilitation plan that will include the treatment centers, recreational and skill training programs for at least 3-5 years.

There is no contact details of people dislodged from the ghettos. Tracing them within communities in case of any eventuality becomes very difficult. There is a need to conduct mapping of ghettos in the country. Additionally, communities did not receive any form of advice from government as a way of reuniting ghetto dwellers with their families, friends and relatives. In the absence of such community awareness threats, anger, reprisal, rejection and violence can be hardly avoided.

Raiding ghettos without counting the cost: A bellicose approach to drug problem in Liberia

The Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA) and The Regional Arab Network Agianst Aids (RANAA) conducted a meeting for the MENA Civil Sociaty Organizations (CSO's) Position Statement on HIV/AIDS with the support of UNAIDS MENA to claim a unified position for Middle East and North Africa for HIV and harm reduction.

The meeting took place in Beirut, on 1 April 2016 in Padova Hotel and was attended by representatives of national/regional network including CSO's, Key Populations (KPs) and People Living with HIV (PLHIV).
This meeting came in the context of the preparation for the participation of civil society organizations whom will be heard by the United Nations hearing session on April 6 2016 and the high-level meeting on HIV, which will be held in New York in June 2016, during which will be concluded to issue a universal declaration for the coming years about the virus.

MENA Position Statement on HIV/AIDS to the UN General Assembly special session HLM on AIDS

Seattle could become the first city in the U.S. with a site providing medical supervision for people using illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine.

Seattle could become the first city in the U.S. with a public site where users can inject and smoke hard drugs under medical supervision.

One local group plans to open a bare-bones safe-consumption site on a shoestring budget as soon as possible, while another group has launched an awareness campaign to build support among politicians and communities.

Proponents say one or more sites could reduce overdose deaths, HIV and hepatitis C transmissions and the number of used needles that litter sidewalks and alleys.

They say the sites would keep drug users alive long enough to seek treatment and give people on the margins of society means to access help.

The proponents point to Insite, a 13-year-old safe-injection site in Vancouver, B.C., where no overdose deaths have occurred. Founder Liz Evans spoke about the site to the Seattle City Council’s public-health committee last month.

Heroin, cocaine users in Seattle may get country’s first safe-use site

Museum of Drug Policy Pop Up Cultural Hub coinciding with UNGASS

245 Park Avenue (corner of Park & E 47th St.)

April 19-21, 2016; Open 10:00 am to 10:00 pm

Evening programming at 6:00pm with refreshments.

Melissa HarrisPerry, Russell Simmons, Matthew Heineman, Javier Sicilia, Hank Willis Thomas, Dr.Carl Hart, Glenn Martin, Baz Dreisinger, DJ Beverly Bond, Jasiri X and more.

FREE EVENT: April 19-21 in #NYC. The Museum of Drug Policy - 70+ art installations, talks, film & more. 

? Visit The Museum of Drug Policy - a cultural hub elevating the voices of #drugpolicy reform

The Pop­up Cultural Hub will take place on April19, 20, 21 April 5, 2016 (New York, N.Y.).

The Museum of Drug Policy is a pop­up cultural hub that includes an immersive art experience and special live programming looking at the impact of current drug policies on populations around the world. The Museum will occupy space on Park Avenue for three days this month, during the United Nations General Assembly’s Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem. Through art, conversations and experiential events, the Museum will showcase that the moment is now for drug policy reform and that damage caused by the war on drugs is evident across the world. The Museum will uplift the voices of people most impacted by the global drug policy: people who use drugs, crop growers, people who are incarcerated, people who have saved lives or lost loved ones to drug overdose, people on death row for drug offenses, doctors who can’t prescribe adequate pain relief to their patients, and other voices of the international drug policy reform movement.

The Museum of Drug Policy will feature 70+ works from artists around the world, with interactive art installations, keynote addresses, panels, and community discussions that take attendees on a journey exploring the real impact and human cost of drug policy in communities around the world. Highlights include a special, live version of “Nerdland Forever: Live WithMelissa Harris­Perry” that will include some very special guests. “Beats, Rhymes and Reform” will elevate the stories of people most impacted by the war on drugs through a night of spoken word poetry, featuring world­renowned poets and a special appearance by hip­hop mogul Russell Simmons and Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered in 2011 by Mexican drug cartels. Academy Award­nominated director Matthew Heineman will do a Q&A with audience members after screening his new feature­length documentary, Cartel Land.The film sheds light on the Mexican drug war, with a focus on vigilante groups on both sides of the border to combat the cartels.

Museum of drug policy at the UNGASS‏

There are no signs of any slowdown in the continuous stream of legal highs with more than 100 new psychoactive substances reported in 2015, according to a report by Europol and the EU’s drug agency.

The official strategic analysis on the state of the EU drugs market says the number of legal highs being monitored has reached 560 – more than twice the number of the more traditional drugs banned under the international drug control treaties.

The European police and drug experts say as the “low risk, high profit” trade in legal highs has grown so have the harms involved including acute, sometimes fatal, poisonings. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has issued 34 urgent public health alerts over the past two years.

No slowdown in legal highs flooding Europe, say drug watchdogs

In the rolling hills of South Africa’s Pondoland, 

 – marijuana, known locally as “dagga” – has been grown for as long as people can remember, in part because they have few other options to earn an income.

Consider the arid village of Mkumbi, where about 100 families live in grass-thatched huts with neither electricity nor access to clean water. With little to live on, villagers here grow marijuana, one of few crops that somehow manages to flourish in this dry environment. They are subsistence farmers trying to feed their families. The crop, which is collected by middlemen, is destined for South Africa’s urban markets.

As in most of the world, marijuana is illegal in South Africa. For years, police have taken aggressive measures in communities across Pondoland to dissuade them from cultivating the crop. Mkumbi residents describe how police break down the doors of their homes, make arrests, and beat them. In the last decade, the South Africa Police Service has taken to indiscriminate spraying of the cannabis fields from helicopters using glyphosate – the same substance that Colombia recently banned after a World Health Organization (WHO) report linked it to cancer in humans.

Farmers the losers in South Africa’s war on marijuana

Just after midnight on March 22 in Vienna, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) adopted the Outcome Document to be presented to UN member states who will attend the General Assembly on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS) scheduled for April 19-21 in New York City.

This article summarises the main points of the Outcome Document and the CND session relating to controlled medicines.

The document contains a set of well worded recommendations to assist countries in improving access to controlled essential medicines for “the relief of pain and suffering.”

Since the CND works by consensus rather than by vote, member states with different points of view about an issue have to work together to draft language that suits the interests of all.

A lot of discussion took place over the language in the controlled medicines section of the outcome document, according to member state colleagues who were in the room and reported back (only member states can attend the “informal” sessions where language is crafted and agreed upon).

Highlighting lack of access to controlled medicines in the preparations for UNGASS 2016

By Vanda Felbab-Brown and Bradley S. Porter

In a new Brookings Cafeteria podcast (audio below), Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown discusses the upcoming Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS 2016), to take place April 19 to 21.

U.N. member states will convene to reassess global drug policies. Some countries, particularly within Latin America and Western Europe, see the existing policies as ineffective and counterproductive. Others, particularly in East Asia and the Middle East (as well as Russia), staunchly support them. As a result of changing domestic policies, including state-level marijuana legalization, the United States is no longer interested in playing the role of the world's toughest drug cop.

For the past 30 years, global drug policy has focused primarily on criminalizing drug trafficking, disrupting drug markets and supply, seizing drug shipments, and imprisoning users. During this period, Latin America has experienced staggering levels of drug-related criminal violence, while counterdrug policies have often proved politically destabilizing. Facing eradication of their crops without alternative livelihoods in place, coca, marijuana, and poppy farmers have often felt alienated from their governments.

In East Asia, there is as much drug trafficking and production as in Latin America—but violent criminality is very low. Coupled with very different historical memories, there is thus not the same impetus for drug policy reform. Several Middle Eastern countries find themselves contending with drug addiction. But as drug trafficking there is becoming increasingly intermeshed with terrorism, the Middle East, too, is disinterested in reform.

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