Colombia’s Constitutional Court gave the the government three years to adopt measures to end an ongoing humanitarian crisis in prisons, many of which are overcrowded.

The ultimatum is targeted at six prisons known to have the worst conditions. These include Tramacua in Valledupar, the Modelo in Bogota, Bellavista in Medellin, San Isidro in Popayan, and the prisons in Cucuta and Barrancabermeja. Within these institutions, prisoners cannot expect provision of even basic services such as adequate healthcare, food and clean water. Limited access to showers result in prisoners either unable to sufficiently clean themselves or cleaning themselves with buckets of dirty water, spawning a multitude of health risks. Additionally, the Constitutional Court highlighted how many prisoners are not afforded a cell, much less a bed, pillow or sheets.

These are problems that result from a prison system that is operating at nearly 150% capacity, with nearly 40,000 more prisoners than the system is able to accommodate.

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

Colombia's constitutional court gives government ultimatum to solve prison crisis

Around the world, attempts at controlling the use and sale of drugs through criminal sanctions have resulted in extreme levels of incarceration for drug-related offences, serious overcrowding in prisons, deterioration of prison conditions, increased violence inside and outside prison, and depleted resources available for rehabilitation, education or treatment. In Latin America, for example, nearly a third of all detainees are in prison for drug-related offences. However, is the tide turning?

In this last of our expert guest blogs for our anniversary year, Luciana Pol, Senior Fellow on Security and Human Rights at Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) in Argentina welcomes initiatives in several Latin American countries to start to recalibrate the criminal justice response to drugs and welcomes the inclusion of human rights perspectives into next year’s Special Session of the UN General Assembly on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS) in April 2016.

The so-called “War on Drugs” waged over the last four decades has had a tremendous impact on security operations and judicial and prison systems in Latin America – to the point where nearly one-third of all detainees are incarcerated for non-violent drug-related crimes. The emphasis on drug control through criminal sanctions and police and military action to combat drug trafficking has ravaged many communities, some of which experience levels of violence equivalent to a civil war with tens of thousands of lives lost in recent years. But the ever-increasing involvement of security forces and armed forces has not achieved the goal of these policies, which is to reduce the supply of prohibited substances. The criminal organisations that dominate these illegal markets continue to operate, and they easily replace members who are killed or imprisoned.

Human rights organisations in Latin America have identified many serious impacts on people’s rights stemming from the “War on Drugs”. The fact that so many people are being incarcerated for non-violent drug-related crimes further overpopulates prisons in the region. This situation often leads to a number of related problems: the degradation of detention conditions, increased violence inside penitentiaries, even more limited access to education and proper medical attention, and so on.

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

Failed drug policies in Latin America: The impact on prisons and human rights

The plan, which will go to city council Tuesday, specifically ignores the legality of marijuana and instead tries to deal with the astronomical growth of unlicensed dispensaries over the last few years.

Vancouver is about to become the first city in Canada where the business of selling marijuana will be regulated and permitted.

Although the drug is illegal in Canada and technically only available to people by a mail order, prescription system set up by the federal government, the city will permit the operation of dispensaries under a proposed framework that selects which businesses can open and imposes rigid operating conditions.

The proposed regulatory framework, which will take months to implement and still needs council approval, reflects a permissive view by the Vision Vancouver majority that supports access to marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Under Mayor Gregor Robertson’s administration, the city has held off enforcement as the number of unlicensed, unregulated and illegal pot dispensaries skyrocketed during the past two years.

The plan will go to city council Tuesday and specifically ignores the question of legalizing the sale and use of marijuana.

Vancouver to become first Canadian city to regulate marijuana shops

A new movie by Dhojo Wahengbam on the severe rights violations committed against people who use drugs in Manipur.

Dhojo Wahengbam, a filmmaker and drug-user activist from Manipur, was one of fifteen people who took part in the HCLU - INPUD Video Advocacy Training in Budapest last autumn. The excellent movie he has now produced was exactly why we held the training. We believe that there is no better way of raising awareness of the rights violations committed against people who use drugs, than by using the words of drug users themselves. In the movie, drug users talk honestly and bravely about how police round them up in street raids, and publicise their personal data in newspapers, how they extort all the money they have, how they beat them up or shoot them, and how local clubs and the mob carry out reprisals against them and their houses.

Fight HIV, not drug users! 

The United Nations General Assembly will hold a Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs on April 19th -21st, 2016 (UNGASS 2016). This is the most significant opportunity to hold a global and in-depth discussion on drugs in almost 20 years. The beneficial role civil society can play in the preparation for this meeting has been widely acknowledged by the United Nations.

With the support of the United Nations, the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs (VNGOC) and the New York NGO Committee on Drugs (NYNGOC) joined forces to launch the Civil Society Task Force (CSTF) for the UNGASS 2016. The CSTF is designed to secure civil society engagement and coordination in order to effectively include NGO voices in the UNGASS. The VNGOC and the NYNGOC have overseen the composition of the CSTF, aiming for an overall balance in terms of both geography and approaches to drug policies and interventions.

, which is designed to provide an initial assessment on the civil society work in the field of drugs, as well as to measure the awareness and level of knowledge and interest in participating actively at the UNGASS 2016 initiative at the regional and global levels. The results will provide an overview of

the work of NGOs active in the drug field

key priorities and concerns to be addressed

Your experience is essential in the UNGASS preparatory process. Please complete the survey, which will take no longer than 30 minutes of your time but provide invaluable information for us to bring to global policy makers at the United Nations for the UNGASS preparation and beyond. Your responses will be confidential and any identifying information is solely for the CSTF’s record keeping.

Click here to access the survey, now available in English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Persian.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact info@vngoc.org.

UNGASS 2016: Global civil society survey

Indonesia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the final appeals of two prisoners from France and Ghana currently on death row for drug smuggling. In an email interview,Gloria Lai, a senior policy officer at the International Drug Policy Consortium, discussed Indonesia’s zero-tolerance approach to drugs.

WPR: What factors are pushing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to continue Indonesia’s strict anti-drug policies?

: When Indonesia passed new drug laws in 2009, introducing measures to divert people who use drugs away from prison and toward drug treatment programs, the government showed signs of shifting toward a health-based approach to drug use. However, it continued to impose severely disproportionate penalties for other drug-related activities, culminating last December with Jokowi’s announcement that people on death row for drug offences will be executed. He referred to a state of emergency on drugs in Indonesia, which he claimed were causing around 50 deaths each day. But such statistics have been seriously challenged, calling into question the extent and nature of drug-related problems in Indonesia. As is often the case with such approaches to drug issues around the world, commentators have suggested that Jokowi is insisting on the executions as a political strategy to appear uncompromisingly tough on Indonesia’s security and sovereignty to domestic audiences.

Indonesia’s Jokowi vows strict policy, death penalty for drug crimes

Panel discussion, held on 21st April 2015 focused on “Identifying Common Ground on Public Health for the special session of the United Nations General Assembly on the world drug problem 2016 (UNGASS 2016)”. It was organised by United Nations University (UNU).

Webcast: Identifying common ground on public health for UNGASS 2016

The Global Drug Policy and Latin America and Caribbean Programs at Open Society Foundations are proud to invite applications to the 2015 Latin American Advocacy Fellowship Program on Drug Policy Reform. Fellows will be hosted in drug policy organizations in London (Release) or Amsterdam (Transnational Institute). This program supports those working in sectors related to drug policy in order to improve their advocacy skills and to enhance their capacity in working with the media on drug policy. The fellowship seeks to add to a core group of existing high- profile drug policy activists in the Latin American and Caribbean regions, including people not necessarily working full-time on drug-related issues.

The objectives of the fellowship are for the participants to:

increase their knowledge of global drug policy reform issues with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean;

increase their understanding of the international drug control system and conflicts with other United Nations priorities;

have a greater awareness of the drug policy reform landscape and key figures within that movement;

establish links with those working in drug policy;

build and develop their communications skills, including for media interviews, press releases, press databases, public speaking;

have an understanding of the tools for debate, so that they can confidently challenge anti-reform positions;

improve their confidence as drug policy advocates both through participation in the program and through ongoing support from the host organization.

Fellows will attend a two-week program with one of the two drug policy organizations: Release in London, UK or Transnational Institute (TNI) in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Latin American and Caribbean advocacy fellowship programme on drug policy reform

The rapid increase in new psychoactive substance use is a major challenge to both policy makers and service providers all over the European Union. The European Commission is preparing a new EU-wide regulation of these drugs in order to facilitate rapid policy response and harmonize national laws.

The CSF has decided to give an input to this ongoing discussions by producing a position paper to be presented at the December anticipated joint meeting of the Civil Society Forum on Drugs and the Horizontal Working Party on Drugs (HDG).

We ask you to complete a questionnaire by April 30, 2015

. Your responses are vital for us to prepare an adequate presentation for the EU member states.

This questionnaire was prepared in consultation with the thematic task force formed from the members of the Civil Society Forum.

Civil Society Forum survey on new psychoactive substances

We are pleased to share with harm reduction community an educational film about a harm reduction project. What is a harm reduction project? How to start a harm reduction project? What services should a project provide? Answers to these questions you can find in our 17 minute film.

Educational film on harm reduction project

At the occasion of the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Gloria Lai, IDPC Senior Policy Officer, made a statement on the negative consequences of disproportionately harsh drug laws, and their specific impact on incarceration rates and prison overcrowding. Gloria offered a series of recommendations to promote proportionality of sentencing for drug offences. Please read the full statement below.

To watch the Crime Congress online, please click here.

IDPC promotes drug policy reform at UN Crime Congress

A new bill in Ecuador seeks to change the public-policy paradigm on drug use in the country. On Wednesday, April 9, legislators held a historic first debate of the Organic Law on Comprehensive Drug Prevention in the National Assembly.

The project, promoted by the ruling party PAIS Alliance, was introduced to the chamber by Carlos Velasco, head of the Commission of the Right to Health.

The bill aims for “comprehensive drug prevention, by establishing a legal and institutional framework to address drug use, and the regulation of the substances that are subject to control.”

It stipulates over 100 substances that would be “controlled,” including alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, illegal drugs, and other industrial substances such as solvents which are also used as drugs.

In perhaps the most landmark provisions, however, the 26-article document proposes the creation of a Technical Secretariat of Drugs, under the control of the president, to “regulate and control the activities related to the import, export, cultivation, production, marketing, distribution, transportation, and use,” of the aforementioned substances.

Those interested in handling or using the substances provided by the bill would have to register with the agency, although domestic cultivation or manufacture would only be allowed for purposes of “research, experimentation, or training.”

The penalties for non-compliance with the provisions of the document vary between fines or forfeiture of the substances. However, the bill as it stands would be a major change to the existing Law of Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which punishes both cultivation and sale with between 12 and 16 years in prison.

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