A series of protests which began on January 15 in various cities and neighborhoods across the country have largely focused on economic inequality and police repression. But recently, some of those protesting have revived an old demand of decriminalizing cannabis usage. One event appears to have pushed some to take up this demand again with renewed visibility in the streets and on social media: on January 21, 2021 a judge in El Kef handed out 30-year jail sentences to three young men for cannabis consumption in a public place.

Law 52 passed in 1992 criminalizes more than 130 narcotics from cocaine to cannabis with no apparent distinctions made between the substances.

According to a statement by Faouzi Dhaouadi, the State’s assistant prosecutor at El Kef’s Court of First Instance, the as-yet unnamed individuals who were sentenced had already been in pretrial detention for a year and half and received the maximum sentence under article 11 of Law 52 because they were in a sports stadium—a circumstance that allows a judge to add 20 years to the five for consumption and five for possession covered in other articles of the law. An appeal scheduled to take place on February 16 was postponed to March 9.

Demonstrators in front of the National Theater in downtown Tunis on February 6, 2021. Photo by Fadil Aliriza.

Meshkal spoke with several people who participated in recent protests in downtown Tunis who were calling for authorities to not enforce Law 52.

“People from poorer backgrounds are definitely more singled out through this law, because if you put them in jail, they will not ask for employment,” said 25-year old cannabis user Fatma (not her real name).

Fatma said she began using cannabis for therapeutic reasons about five years ago.

“I just use it to feel better and sleep better,” she said.

As of late 2015, a Human Rights Watch report found that about 5200 out of 7451 people in jail for drug-related offences were there for using or possessing cannabis. The same report noted that those 7451 people in jail for drug-related offenses represented 28 percent of the country’s total prison population, and of them 98 percent were men.

“My fear has certainly gotten bigger with the current situation… since they [the police] hunted down the person whose picture was taken while rolling a joint in a protest, then it definitely means that they are targeting those people,” Fatma said.

Meanwhile, Fatma believes that it’s hypocritical for police to arrest young men for cannabis usage because she thinks that there are police who also use cannabis.

After 30-year jail sentence for cannabis users, some demand decriminalization in Tunis

The survey, involving a quarter of a million people, was carried out last month by a parliamentary fact-finding mission, which showed that more than 80 percent of those polled agree that consumption and production should be allowed, governed by law.

“We now know that the legalisation of cannabis is no longer a taboo in France and that our fellow citizens are observing the ineffectiveness of the current legislation in the matter,” said LREM MP Caroline Janvier in a statement.

However, only 14 percent believe it should be decriminalised, while nearly five percent believe sanctions against it should be strengthened, but less than one percent believe that France should keep the legal framework the way it is now.

Most French people in favour of legalising cannabis, parliamentary survey finds

By The Editorial Board / Maggie MacPherson, Globe and Mail

Sophie Breen suffered through trauma and mental illness and pursued a degree in social work. She died at 27. Nick Crazy Bull was a musician and a gamer. He died at 19. Christopher Martin worked as a mine millwright. He died at 40.

Ms. Breen, Mr. Crazy Bull and Mr. Martin are three names on a list that is far too long and getting longer every day – the toll of Canada’s overdose epidemic. Overdoses have killed more than 20,000 Canadians since 2016. Last weekend, The Globe and Mail presented the stories of 100 people who were lost in 2020 to overdoses, because last year was Canada’s worst year yet.

Most governments in Canada have been too slow to respond to an epidemic that shows no signs of abating. There are no magic solutions and no single policy that can instantly reverse the tide, but health experts have long advocated for changes such as drug decriminalization and access to a safer supply of drugs as two important measures that could save lives.

The severity of the epidemic has led to a shift in recent months. Many political leaders previously rejected policies such as decriminalization and safer supply, but the ideas are now, to a growing extent, embraced. The debate is no longer stuck on whether an idea is worth trying. It is more and more about how best to do it.

Drug overdoses have killed more than 20,000 Canadians since 2016. It’s time to embrace bold prescriptions

Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say fatal drug overdoses nationwide have surged roughly 20% during the pandemic, killing more than 83,000 people in 2020.

While the CDC doesn't track overdose deaths by race, a growing body of research suggests Black Americans have suffered the heaviest toll. "It wasn't until we started looking at the level of race and ethnicity that we realized Black and brown communities are being disproportionately affected," said Dr. Utsha Khatri, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.

Khatri's team analyzed drug overdose data collected in Philadelphia during the pandemic. They found overdose deaths surged more than 50% among the city's Black residents. Among whites, by contrast, drug overdose fatalities remained flat and in some months even declined.

For whites and those who are financially well-off, substance use disorder is often treated as a chronic but survivable illness. That means long-term health care and life-saving medications. By contrast, people of color and poor Americans who experience addiction regularly face arrest and incarceration, while rarely gaining access to high-quality healthcare.

US: Drug overdose deaths surge among black Americans during pandemic

Today, the HIV Legal Network welcomes some of the amendments in Bill C-22, 

An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act

. Bill C-22 repeals mandatory minimum sentences for all drug offences, increases the availability of conditional sentences, and provides alternatives to criminal charges for people in possession of drugs for personal use. These are all positive.

 But the bill falls short by failing to simply repeal the criminal prohibition on personal drug possession,

even while it acknowledges that drug use is a health issue and that criminalization causes harm and contributes to stigma.

For more than two decades, the HIV Legal Network (formerly the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network) has called on federal policymakers to treat drug use as a health issue, not a law enforcement one. 

We have consistently called for the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences as harmful on fiscal, public health, and human rights grounds. 

Mandating minimum prison terms guarantees unfair and harsh sentences in the case of drug offences — disproportionately affecting Black and Indigenous communities, people living in poverty, and people who are dependent on drugs. As we argued in the cases of 

, mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences is also unconstitutional.

Canada: Bill C-22 introduces welcome drug policy amendments but falls short, advocates say

Currently, there is no central or local government funding earmarked for HIV prevention services for key populations including for people who inject drugs and no funding mechanism in place for non-governmental organisations in Romania.

As a consequence, ARAS - the main provider in this field since 2001 with an annual coverage of around 3,500 people who use drugs - publicly announced in early February the closure of its mobile unit service (as of 31 December 2020) due to the lack of funds.

Despite existing evidence on an HIV concentrated epidemic among for people who inject drugs (PWID) in Bucharest, Romania, since the end of the Global Fund Programmes on HIV in 2010, very little resources were allocated to sustain HIV prevention services for PWID and no formal mechanism was developed for subcontracting the harm reduction services performed by civil society organizations.

Additionally, the drop-in centre for vulnerable populations run by the same organisation has also significantly reduced its harm reduction activities for the same reason.

Romania: No funding for needle exchange

Morocco plans to allow the farming, export and domestic sale of cannabis for medical and industrial use, the government said on Thursday, a move it hopes will help impoverished farmers in the Rif mountains amid a growing legal global market for the drug.

Past attempts to legalise cannabis farming in Morocco have failed, but the co-ruling PJD party, the largest in parliament, dropped its opposition after the U.N. drug agency removed the plant from its list of most tightly controlled narcotic drugs.

The bill, which the cabinet is expected to approve next week, aims to improve farmers’ incomes, protect them from drug traffickers who now control the trade in cannabis and gain access to the booming legal international market for the drug.

Cannabis is mostly grown in the northern Rif mountains, which in recent years have seen protests over economic inequality.

Morocco set to legalise cannabis production for medical use

A citizens’ initiative in Finland aiming to decriminalise cannabis gathered the required 50,000 signatures at the end of 2019.

The initiative, if accepted by the Finnish parliament, would make adult use, possession, and small scale growing of cannabis (up to 4 plants) no longer a criminal offense. The campaign for the initiative was implemented by the Finnish Cannabis Association.

The same week that the government of Norway presented their plan to decriminalise all drugs, there was an expert hearing at the Finnish parliamentary law committee on 17th of February 2021. The public hearing was supposed be broadcast live, but failed due to an unexpected technical difficulty. Finnish Parliament later released a partial video recording of the hearing (done via Microsoft Teams), which did not include the first 30 minutes.

Gateway theory in Finland: From cannabis decriminalisation to legalising all drugs

In 1942, the American political scientist Quincy Wright published a lengthy book about how to organise the world beyond endless wars. A Study of War cemented Wright’s reputation as an influential liberal thinker of the early 20th century. But Wright would help bring about a new type of endless war in his time. He was one of the first major voices to call for what would later be known as the “war on drugs”. As early as 1924, Wright argued that the use of drugs “for purposes other than medicinal or scientific” is an “evil”. While working as an adviser to the state department, Wright advocated for the US to lead a global assault against drugs.

Almost a century later, the “war on drugs” may need a new leader. Amid the chaos surrounding last November’s US presidential contest, drug policy reform quietly took a quantum leap forward. Voters from across the political spectrum chose to legalise recreational cannabis, opening the door for places such as Arizona and New Jersey to recreate the lucrative cannabis industries already found in California, Colorado and other states.

Policies are also being introduced to try to bring an end to the system of mass incarceration, and to redress the racial and economic inequalities fuelled by the “war on drugs” that became an enduring touchstone of US federal policy after Richard Nixon declared drugs “public enemy number one” in 1971. But the most dramatic change came in Oregon, which legalised cannabis in 2014 and has now become the first US state to decriminalise all drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin.

Enlightened drug reforms are sweeping the US. Why is Britain so far behind?

The collectives – #STOP1921 and SMART on Drugs – want a review of the scope and effectiveness of the 1921 law, “which has not been done since 1998, when a parliamentary working group was set up,” they said. “This work (…) is unavoidable, as this law is so out of step with contemporary society”.

Several arguments in favour of an evolution of the law are put forward. Indeed, for citizens’ movements, the criminalisation and repression of drug use is harmful in terms of public health and crime. “The stronger the repression, the more violence increases,” they said.

Furthermore, “the total lack of quality control of products in circulation is responsible for a substantial part of their dangerousness.” #STOP1921 and SMART on Drugs also cite the police and judicial cost of repression, which in 2015 was close to €175 million.

‘Unhappy Birthday’: Belgian collectives ask review of 100-year-old drug law

How much does the general public actually know about psychoactive substances and how these are used in their own communities? To check it out for themselves, NoBox went to two known universities in the Philippines and asked young university students questions about drugs and the people involved with them.

NoBox Philippines is a non-profit organization committed to harm reduction, working towards changing national drug policy to one that is based on sound evidence and reflective of educated, rational, humane approaches. In the Philippines, drug use is a largely moralized issue, considered as something not only illegal but also evil and unconscionable. This way of thinking is reflected in our country’s drug policies and how society (mal)treats people involved with drugs. Because this popular perception has become normalized at a national level, it is not uncommon to find people largely misinformed around drugs and drug use.

Fortunately, there are a growing number of individuals becoming interested and eager to learn more about psychoactive drugs when given the chance. NoBox went to universities and asked students about specific drugs, how they work, what their effects are, and other questions related to psychoactive drug use and the people who use them.

Shifting narratives of drugs and drug use in the Philippines - KnowBox Series

On February 10 the deputies of the Russian parliament adopted, in the third and final reading, a bill to increase the sentence for “inciting use of drugs” on the Internet to 15 years. Earlier, the deputies adopted a bill on administrative fines of up to 1.5 million rubles ($20,000) for “drug propaganda” on the Internet. The moves follow an order made by President Vladimir Putin, who instructed lawmakers to take additional measures to counter drug trafficking in 2019.

The share of such convicts has continued to grow over the past decade. Moreover, the average sentence for drug-related crimes is also increasing. This creates a huge burden on the country’s budget, leads to overcrowding of places of detention, and deterioration of conditions in them. In addition, this leads to the withdrawal of a large number of able-bodied people from the country’s economy. Finally, and most importantly, people serving sentences for drug trafficking in prisons are most likely to not only not be “reformed and aware of their guilt,” but, on the contrary, are even more stigmatised and more likely to commit a crime later. This raises the question of the need to reform the system of criminal prosecution for crimes related to drug trafficking.

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