On a morning Zoom call, a group of Canadian mothers give their full attention to a young man from the Drug User Liberation Front. At 26, Jeremy Kalicum is the age some of their kids would be if they had not died of accidental overdoses.

Kalicum’s tone is urgent as he walks the moms through a PowerPoint presentation explaining why the Liberation Front, known as DULF, wants to protest on International Overdose Awareness Day and hand out illicit drugs. These wouldn’t be the kind that killed their sons and daughters, he assures them; they’d be “safe supply” drugs that have been tested to ensure they’re not laced with lethal fentanyl. “Anyone who wants to find drugs can find drugs,” says Kalicum, reasoning that the best way to save lives is to make sure users are given the safest possible drugs. “The drugs that they’re finding are of unknown quality and unknown potency.”

Then, after 15 minutes of slides and stats, Kalicum and DULF co founder Eris Nyx makes their pitch: they want these mothers, from a group called Moms Stop the Harm, to join them and other activists in their distribution mission, an admittedly risky protest that could land them in jail.

“I’m not a criminal, and obviously, Moms Stop the Harm aren’t criminals,” Kalicum says. “We’re just sick of it. We’re sick of our friends dying.”

Everyone on the call can relate. Each has lost someone to the opioid crisis, which has soared in North America during the pandemic, especially in Canada. In the U.S., deaths rose nearly 30 percent in 2020 to a record 93,000. In Canada, deaths soared 89% over the previous year.

Behind the numbers lies a cruel irony that every parent listening to Kalicum understands, and that drives the “safe supply” movement: Opioids were perfectly legal when their children were becoming addicted to them, promoted by pharmaceutical giants and doled out by physicians who enabled the crisis by accepting drug companies’ claims they were safe.

When the reality became clear, and prescriptions became hard to come by, it was too late. Untold thousands of pain-addled patients had become hooked on what opioids provided, as had many young people who’d begun experimenting with the pills recreationally. They found relief on the streets in the form of heroin, then began dying from illicit drugs either laced with fentanyl or entirely replaced with the compound, which is 50 times more potent than heroin.

That is the arc of the Opioid Crisis: From patient to criminal to, more and more often, early death.

The “safe supply” movement seeks to counter this deadly progression by ensuring the integrity of the dosages that users have been conditioned to crave while providing care that keeps them alive and could wean them off drugs. “It’s not who we are to stand passively by,” says Kalicum. “We’re gonna do something, and we’re willing to take on personal risks to do that. But we can look at ourselves in the mirror and know that we’re doing what’s right.”

Canada: The 'safe supply' movement aims to curb drug deaths linked to the opioid crisis

Adults in Luxembourg will be permitted to grow up to four cannabis plants in their homes or gardens under laws that will make it the first country in Europe to legalise production and consumption of the drug.

Under the legislation, people aged 18 and over will be able to legally grow up to four cannabis plants per household for personal use.

Trade in seeds will also be permitted without any limit on the quantity or levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive constituent.

The government said it would be possible to buy seeds in shops, to import them or buy them online.

There is also the intention to allow for the domestic production of seeds for commercial purposes but plans for both a national production chain and state-regulated distribution have been delayed by the Covid pandemic.

For home-growers, the place of cultivation of their four plants will be limited to the usual place of residence, indoors or outdoors, on a balcony, terrace or garden.

A legal prohibition of the consumption and transport of cannabis or cannabis products in public will be maintained and trade in cannabis or cannabis products other than seeds, whether free of charge or in return for payment, remains prohibited.

Under a softening of the law, however, the consumption and transport of a quantity of up to 3 grams will no longer be considered a criminal offence, but classified as misdemeanour.

Fines would be reduced to as little as €25 for possession of under 3 grams, down from €251 to €2,500 today. “Above three grams, nothing changes, you will be considered a dealer,” Tanson said. “Nothing changes for car drivers either: there is still zero tolerance.”

A system of state-regulated production and distribution is planned to ensure product quality with revenues from sales to be invested “primarily in prevention, education and healthcare in the broad field of addiction,” government sources said.

The general framework of the overhaul of the law had been agreed two years ago in a coalition agreement between the Liberals, the Social Democrats and the Greens.

Luxembourg will join Canada, Uruguay and 11 US states in flouting a UN convention on the control of narcotic drugs, which commits signatories to limit “exclusively for medical and scientific purposes the production, manufacture, export, import distribution, trade, employment and possession of drugs” including cannabis.

Uruguay became the world’s first country to create a legal national marijuana marketplace when it legalised the drug in 2013, and Canada followed suit in 2018.

In the Netherlands, possibly the European country most associated with a relaxed attitude toward the use of cannabis, its recreational use, possession and trade is technically illegal. It has a ‘tolerance policy’, or 

, under which recreational use is largely accepted within bounds.

Cannabis remains illegal to possess, grow, distribute, sell or grow in the UK. Those caught with the drug face a maximum of five years in prison, an unlimited fine or both. Several police forces have said they will no longer target recreational users and those with less than an ounce (28 grams) can be given a warning or on-the-spot fine.

 Luxembourg first in Europe to legalise growing and using cannabis

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Wednesday, October 20, reminded the Duterte government not to ignore the thousands of victims killed under the violent war on drugs, as the Department of Justice (DOJ) released information about cases it is investigating.

The DOJ on Wednesday made public a matrix featuring information on 50 cases of deaths in police anti-drug operations, which showed findings of abuses and lapses in protocol, among others.

These investigated cases, however, are but a small part of the total number of deaths under President Rodrigo Duterte's violent war on drugs. Official government data shows there were 6,191 deaths in police anti-drug operations alone as of September 31.

This count does not include victims of vigilante-style killings, which human rights group estimate to reach 27,000 to 30,000.

The release of the matrix is the latest in a long-running, back-and-forth between local and international human right groups - including United Nations rights chief Michelle Bachelet – and the government.

CHR said it hoped that the matrix would be helpful to stakeholders, especially victims' families, as they grapple with ways to seek justice for their loved ones.

The commission also hoped that it would "encourage witnesses to come out" and help investigations, which mostly arrive at dead ends due to uncooperative police officers, lack of documents, and climate of fear.

There is still no assurance, however, if the DOJ and the PNP would finally open their case folders and the full reports to the CHR. The government has stonewalled on this data even though CHR is mandated by the 1987 Philippine Constitution to investigate state abuses.

Bachelet's office previously released a scathing report in 2020 which said that Duterte's war on drugs was carried out without due process and that the local system wasn’t enough to exact accountability over the killings.

The International Criminal Court's pre-trial chamber recently green-lit an investigation into Duterte's violent campaign. The chamber said that killings "took place in pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy."

Philippines: CHR to DOJ - Don't forget thousands of drug war deaths waiting for justice

EuroNPUD is inviting artists to take part in the Poetry and Art Competition 2021.

The competition is centred on the 1920s poem Cocaine Lil and Morphine Sue and consists of two parts.

Cocaine Lil, Morphine Sue, Dopey Slim, and the Poppy Faced Kid are some of the drug using characters in the classic poem about the cocaine scene in the 1920s. Artists are asked to re-imagine any character from the poem as they might appear in a 2020s drug scene.

Poets should reimagine the Cocaine Lil and Morphine Sue poem about drug scenes in Europe in the 2020s describing modern drugs and characters from our drug scenes.

All entries should be sent to euronpud.competition@gmail.com by 24th October 2021 (midnight).

More information on the competition is available here.

Poetry and art competition

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill to permanently end the sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder, a policy that has led to the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans.

In a bipartisan vote of 361-66, the House approved the EQUAL Act, short for Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law.

The bill will now head to the Senate, where criminal justice advocates believe it has a chance of passing. The Justice Department also previously endorsed the bill.

The disparities between crack and powder cocaine date back to war-on-drugs policies in the 1980s.

In 1986, Congress passed a law to establish mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking offenses, which treated crack and cocaine powder offenses using a 100 to 1 ratio. Under that formula, a person convicted for selling 5 grams of crack cocaine was treated the same as someone who sold 500 grams of powder cocaine.

The 100 to 1 ratio was later reduced in 2010 under the Fair Sentencing Act, down to 18 to 1.

In 2018 during President Donald Trump's administration, Congress passed the First Step Act, which sought to help more lower-level crack cocaine offenders take advantage of the less stringent ratio and apply retroactively for sentence reductions. Earlier this year, however, the Supreme Court ruled that low-level crack cocaine offenders could not retroactively apply to have their sentences reduced. read more U.S. Sentencing Commission data has showed that 87.5 percent of the people serving federal prison time for drug trafficking offenses primarily involving crack cocaine were Black. An investigation by Ashbury Park Press and USA Today found that Black users and dealers were arrested more frequently and handed stricter prison sentences than whites accused of drug crimes.

If the EQUAL Act becomes law, it would permanently and entirely eliminating the crack-cocaine disparity, and it would retroactively apply to those who were previously sentenced, allowing people to take advantage of the new law.

U.S. House passes bill to end disparities in crack cocaine sentences

Women are disproportionately affected by the prison industrial complex and repressive drug laws. Gender inequality, poverty, marginalization and weak governance/criminal justice systems compound this situation.

This video aims to bolster collective power to advocate for prison/drug policy reform and women-centered harm reduction services from a feminist and intersectional perspective.

It features formerly incarcerated women who will promote inspiring and forward-looking options for reform, support for women still incarcerated, and mobilization.

It also introduces key data and other information as well as materials on the Bangkok Rules.

Inside out from women's prisons: Resisting punitive drug policies

International Drug Policy Consortium Statement - Pre-review of Kratom, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine at the 44th WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence, 11 – 15 October 2021

This written submission is by the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC): a global network of more than 190 NGOs that promotes drug policies grounded in the principles of health, human rights, development, and civil society engagement. As the ECDD is planning to conduct pre-reviews on Kratom and its active ingredients mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, we offer some insights and recommendations on the impacts of criminalisation that have resulted from national policies.

Despite the UNODC categorising kratom as a new psychoactive substance (NPS), it has been used for centuries as a traditional medicine in Southeast Asia, particularly amongst rural communities in Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar. Kratom is often consumed by chewing the fresh leaves and boiling fresh or dried leaves to drink as a decoction or herbal tea. Consumption of kratom is culturally accepted in ways similar to drinking coffee and tea. It is commonly consumed amongst agricultural workers to relieve the physical pains of hard labour.

In Thailand, the kratom plant was classified as illegal in 1943. However, it was not until 2004 that the laws became widely enforced in practice, due partly to the practice of mixing kratom with beverages containing caffeine and codeine-based medications that emerged in 2003 but also to the war on drugs launched by then-Prime Minister Thaksin. By 2019, the government reported that kratom cases constituted one sixth (47,809 of 304,784) of all drug-related court cases during the January to October 2019 period.

In August 2021, after almost two decades of advocacy for ending the criminalisation of kratom to allow its use for medical, research, personal and traditional purposes, legal reforms in Thailand to decriminalise the use and cultivation of the kratom plant came into effect. Over 12,000 people convicted for kratom-related offences were granted an amnesty. Elsewhere in Asia, including in Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore, the use, possession and supply of kratom remains punishable; the UNODC reported in 2011 that 14,556 people (accounting for 8% of all drug-related arrests) were arrested for kratom in the region in 2010.

It is crucial to acknowledge that there are harms and benefits associated with drug policy. How a substance or plant is scheduled can have profound outcomes for consumers. A punitive legal framework that criminalises kratom use has caused enormous harm. We call on the ECDD to consider the profound impacts of legal and policy choices that may be triggered by international scheduling and to take the lessons from past national controls duly into account before taking any further steps towards bringing kratom under international control.

IDPC statement at the occasion of the 44th meeting of the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence

Oral Statement by the International Drug Policy Consortium and Harm Reduction International

This statement is delivered on behalf of the International Drug Policy Consortium and Harm Reduction International.

We welcome the High Commissioner’s oral update on the Philippines, as well as her Office’s efforts to advance the human rights situation in the country.

In spite of this work, the human rights situation in the Philippines continues to deteriorate. In 2021, the number of documented extrajudicial killings associated with the war on drugs continued to increase, still with the vocal support of President Duterte. The Inter-Agency Review Panel that was meant to review these killings has not led to a single legal action against law enforcement. Systematic violations of the rights to liberty, health, and privacy of people who use drugs remain widespread.

To ensure that the UN Joint Programme on the Philippines is a credible and legitimate effort to address this situation, we urge the High Commissioner to adopt the following measures:

First, guarantee the meaningful and safe involvement of civil society and communities, including people who use drugs, in the design, implementation and evaluation of the Programme.

Second, ensure that the alignment of drug policies with international human rights standards remains a key focus of the Programme, including through direct involvement of OHCHR and NGOs with relevant technical expertise.

Ultimately, it remains the responsibility of the Human Rights Council to closely monitor the performance of the Joint Programme and, if it does not achieve its intended impact, to seek alternative measures to ensure accountability for the human rights violations associated with the war on drugs, and to secure redress and relief for its survivors.

Statement on the human rights situation in the Philippines - Human Rights Council 48th Session

Under proposed cannabis legalisation, non-profit associations can grow cannabis to distribute among their members, Equality Minister Owen Bonnici said.

The minister also said that people would be allowed to grow up to four cannabis plants at one residence.

Bonnici made the announcement on Wednesday morning during a press conference. He insisted that the reforms were not to "incentivise cannabis culture or cannabis consumption" but to reduce the harm of drug rings.

"We want to reduce the suffering, humiliation and deprivation of other rights that many cannabis users have experienced when they have been subjected to arrest and judicial proceedings on possession of small amounts," Bonnici said.

The regulation of cannabis clubs plugs a gap in the original proposal floated by the government earlier this year.

Cannabis legalisation in Malta will allow regulated associations and home growing of plants

By Ann Fordham (IDPC) and Somchai Homlaor (Cross Cultural Foundation) / Bangkok Post

The footage that went viral early last month showing local policemen at Muang Nakhon Sawan police station torturing Jirapong Thanaphiphat to death by covering his head with multiple layers of plastic bags was deeply shocking.

Not that police abuse is unheard of in the country, but perhaps because such atrocities are consistently denied and covered up. However, in this case there was nowhere to hide as the video was shared widely on social media and through news reports.

The viral nature of the post removed all possibility of denying that police are capable of acting outside their authority to not only commit extreme violence and murder, but also cover it up afterwards.

Jirapong was being held for a suspected drug offence and when he died, police instructed the hospital to report his cause of death as a drug overdose. However, the autopsy report released by the hospital verified that the cause of death was suffocation.

It is highly likely that the police assumed their attempted cover-up would work because the stigma related to drugs is so deeply entrenched in society that the deaths of people associated with the narcotics trade often go unquestioned. It brings to mind the death of Chaiyaphum Pasae, who after being arrested for an alleged drug offence was shot by military officers in a notorious incident in Chiang Mai province in 2017.

Thailand: Drugs policy enables police abuse

People caught with Class A drugs in Scotland could be given a police warning instead of facing prosecution.

Officers can already issue a formal warning for possession of lower category drugs.

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain told MSPs this would now include Class A drugs in a bid to address the underlying causes of Scotland's drugs death crisis.

The Conservatives said the move amounts to "de facto decriminalisation" of deadly substances.

Ms Bain insisted this was not the case, adding that there is "no one size fits all" response to drug addiction and that every case should be judged individually.

She stressed that the scheme would not extend to drug dealing and that officers would still have the ability to report certain cases to prosecutors.

Scotland: Warnings instead of prosecution for Class A drug users

The Providence Crosstown Clinic in Vancouver is pioneering a new step in harm reduction by enabling some of its patients to take home medical-grade heroin.

The program is the first of its kind in North America.

Dr. Scott MacDonald, the physician lead at the Providence Crosstown Clinic, said the change came about partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the patients at the clinic that had COVID-19 were forced to isolate at home or in a hotel. Staff at the clinic, supported by the health authority, were able to deliver diacetylmorphine syringes (medical-grade heroin) to the patients so they could successfully isolate for 10 to 14 days.

"Having done that and done that successfully without any problems, we were able to show and demonstrate the strict requirement of the medication to only be [administered] at the clinic was not necessary," MacDonald told guest host Bal Brach on CBC's On The Coast.

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