Drug policy reform used to be a topic avoided by most politicians. Now, however, there is a growing global consensus that the so-called "war on drugs" has failed. It has been ineffective in reducing drug use and it has reaped a devastating and counter-productive impact on both human security and public health. Drug policy reform has now become the challenge policymakers can no longer hide from.

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It's time Asia joined the global debate on drug policy

The Prevention Hub is a global, online meeting place for those interested in drug prevention including parents, students, researchers, policy makers and trainers that will provide opportunities for professional development, training and support. The Prevention Hub will host a ‘Who is Who?’ database and interactive map of individuals, groups and organisations in the global prevention community, plus a variety of resources and materials relating to research, policy and best practice. The ultimate aims of the service are to make drug prevention visible and enable effective initiatives to be delivered on a global scale.

Prevention Hub launch: The first online global drug prevention service

What do people want their country’s drug policies to accomplish?

To answer this question, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition reached out to people around the country including service providers, people who use drugs, and their family members.

The responses were startling. Story after story confirmed that many people desired policy that would minimize the harms of drug use—and that Canada’s own drug strategies were thwarting that goal.

With the support of the Open Society Foundations, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition collected these views to create 

Getting to Tomorrow: A Report on Canadian Drug Policy

, the first comprehensive report by a civil society organization on the failures of Canada’s approach to drug policy. Its recommendations include:

Replace the current national anti-drug strategy with one focused on health and human rights.

Decriminalize all drugs for personal use.

Create a regulatory system for adult cannabis use.

Increase efforts to eliminate stigma and discrimination against people who use drugs.

Scale up comprehensive health and social services, including housing and treatment services that engage people with drug problems.

Enhance educational programs about drug use and promote life-saving interventions including safer consumption services, opioid substitution therapies, heroin assisted treatment and critical harm reduction services.

Collect and monitor data on drug use and its effects in Canada.

The failures of the existing system are all the more disappointing because Canada used to be a leader in progressive drug policy. In the recent past, harm reduction was a key pillar of the national drug strategy. The former federal government supported innovative approaches like supervised injection sites, heroin assisted treatment, and the expansion of needle exchange programs as well as a focus on prevention through social development rather than “Just Say No”–style programs that have been shown not to work.

Click here to read here the full article.

Canadian drug policy takes a step backward

Many members of the expert Civil Society Forum on Drugs (inlcuding the outgoing chair, Eberhard Schatz) expressed their concern about the Action Plan on Drugs (2013-16), failure to adequately cover, and give clear indicators in regard to, harm reduction inteventions. Harm reduction objectives are subordinated to treatment and recovery objectives. This is a step back from the political commitment of the previous Action Plan, which had more specific objectives and indicators to ensure that harm reduction programs are scaled up. For instance, the previous Action Plan had specific objectives to scale up opiate substitution treatment in prisons – this is missing from the current plan.

The Civil Society Forum on Drugs is an expert group of the European Commission. It serves as a platform for dialogue between the EC and civil society. In 2013, 40 NGOs (including our own Drug Policy Program) were selected to be members of the Forum for a two-year period. A rich diversity of groups are represented at the Forum, covering most regions, professional fields and ideological approaches. Some NGOs focus on harm reduction, others on primary prevention. There are representatives of drug user communities and those who self-identify as recovered addicts. There are members who support drug prohibition, while others speak out for drug regulation. This diversity gives the Forum an advantage, because it enables it to express the complexity of the drug phenomenon.

Civil society expresses concerns over EU Action Plan on Drugs

In order to expand coverage of harm reduction by reaching hidden people who inject drugs (PWID) (out of any intervention inclusive of MMT or NSP service), an innovative approach, the Peer Driven Intervention (PDI) is adopted and applied since June 2013 in Chenghua district, one of three sites of CAHR project in China (two in Chengdu city and one in Yunnan) where the pilot project is run by #4 hospital in partnership with AIDS Care China.

PDI concept and methodology are of a “chain-referral” outreach model to educate PWID in the community along with provision of safe injection products and other relevant services to prevent HIV and related diseases spread. PDI approach in Chenghua aims to reach 1000 PWID minimum in communities who are out of MMT in the next 6 months.

Peer Driven Intervention delivers first results in China

To provide technical support to HAARP Cambodia Program to enable the Country Support Unit (CSU) to effectively and efficiently manage and implement the program in Cambodia. In doing so, contribute to the achievement of high quality development outcomes for AusAID.

The annual remuneration package is 80,000 USD commensurate with skills and experience.

AusAID’s HIV/AIDS Asia Regional Program (HAARP) in Cambodia recruits harm reduction specialist

Earlier this year I visited the San Patrignano drug rehabilitation centre in northern Italy. I am pleased to meet Mrs. Letizia Moratti again,who is the President of San Patrignano, who kindly introduced and showed all the facilities and allowed me to meet the people.

There, more than 1,200 young women and men from 28 countries are learning how to free themselves from the curse of addiction so they can enjoy dignified, productive lives.

Today, in Vienna, at a special meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the United Nations launched the World Drug Report 2013. The Report is the foundation for understanding and responding to this transnational challenge.

It shows heroin and cocaine use declining in some areas, but other threats emerging, such as new psychoactive substances and prescription drug abuse. It highlights how, in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras between 2004 and 2011, the homicide rate was more than double the rate seen in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. And it shows how, in Guinea-Bissau, corruption and organised crime networks are undermining development, the rule of law and the democratic process. This is a critical, transnational problem that demands a global response.

They must include robust law enforcement, and use all the tools of the conventions on drugs, corruption, transnational organized crime and terrorism. But the rule of law is only part of the equation. We also need prevention and treatment approaches rooted in science, public health and human rights.

Ban Ki-Moon remarks on the International Day against Drug Abuse and illicit Trafficking

New psychoactive substances (NPS) have changed the nature of the global drugs market. Substances that are not under international control, but mimic the effects of controlled substances, are now widely available.

G8 member states, the UN and the EU are committed to work together in developing a better understanding of NPS, and are committed to reducing the production, manufacture, distribution and demand for NPS.

New psychoactive substances in the UK: G8 statement on collection and sharing of data

On the occasion of June 26, 2013; the "International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking" and the "International Day in Support of Victims of Torture", the Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA) commends the countries of the region that have moved towards the adoption and implementation of harm reduction strategies.

Drug use: A public health and human rights problem

Drug trafficking in the so-called Golden Triangle region of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand is an evolving threat. A China-led anti-drug campaign in the three countries has helped stem the surging drug activity, with more than 1,000 arrests and 3 tonnes of drugs seized since April. But for Thailand, the war against narcotics appears to be far from won.

Thailand war on drugs failure

Last week, the Deputy PM Chalerm Yoobumrung visited the Northeast of Thailand, where he pressured provincial officers to make their province a “white province” (drug-free province) within 90 days. The Deputy PM has called on all officers to urgently address their weaknesses in drug control, in terms of suppressing the supply of drugs and reducing the numbers of people who use drugs. The Deputy PM also stated that he is preparing to propose amendments to the Narcotics Act to change the period of execution for drug-related offences after the Supreme Court hands down its verdict imposing the death penalty from within 60 days to 7 days. Last year, he had proposed to shorten the period within which execution would take place to 15 days.

This is a summary of a news article in The DPM entitled “Chalerm tightens drug suppression in Korat (Nakorn Ratchasima) province”, published on 11 June 2013. (in Thai only)

Thailand to shorten time to execute drug dealers

The following advertisement, paraphrased for brevity, is currently running in the US state of Colorado, and in slightly edited form across the entire United States: "Needed urgently, 64 tonnes of marijuana, FOB payment $84.48 million, completely legal, opportunity to build business 50-fold."

The question is whether Thailand should answer the advert, and further, should Thailand sue the United States at the World Trade Organisation when Washington gets all huffy that another country's farmers.

Comparisons with the serious drug trade are difficult, because criminals have a lot more expenses (and stress) than government-licensed drug traffickers. But in 1988, the "Super Star gang" from Bangkok was caught while trying to smuggle 72 tonnes of marijuana into the United States, which supposedly would gross the gang $280 million _ "supposedly" being an important word.


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