The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights calls for radical reform of drug policy, taking into account decriminalization and regulation
A UN human rights report released in September calls for a shift from punitive measures to address the global drugs problem to the use of policies grounded in human rights and public health, arguing that disproportionate use of criminal penalties is causing harm.
November brought some hope with the release of former Philippine senator Leila de Lima (February 2018 protest photo). The report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights urges States to expand effective drug policies, adding that the decriminalization of drug ownership for non-public use is contemplated. . . ” If designed and implemented effectively, decriminalization can be a difficult tool to ensure that the rights of other people who use drugs are protected,” he said. But the report also suggests contemplating “the takeover of illegal drug markets through culpable regulation, in order to eliminate the proceeds of illegal trafficking, crime and violence. . . [through] the development of a regulatory formula for legal access to all leaded substances. “
“The laws, policies and practices put in place to combat drug use will not have to end up exacerbating human suffering. The drug problem remains a serious concern, but treating other people who use drugs as criminals is not the solution,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Rights Volker. Turkish. ” States move away from the existing dominant emphasis on prohibition, repression and punishment, and instead adopt laws, policies and practices that are rooted in human rights and aimed at reducing risks. “
There has also been an increase in the use of the death penalty for drug-related convictions around the world, contrary to the norms and criteria of foreign human rights laws. The recorded number of other people executed for drug-related offences more than doubled. between 2022 and 2021, which accounted for 37% of all executions recorded globally, according to the report.
“The existing overemphasis on coercion and the fight against drugs is fuelling an increase in human rights violations, despite mounting evidence that decades of criminalisation and the so-called war on drugs have failed to protect people’s well-being or deter drug-related crime. ” said Türk. said.
The report shows that a number of developing countries in all regions are adopting policies and practices that decriminalize drug use and address drug use as a public health and human rights issue, and apply evidence-based, gender-responsive and harm-alleviating approaches. The High Commissioner urged States to take advantage of this positive trend.
Opium production in Afghanistan plummets after Taliban ban, opium production in Myanmar more than makes up the difference
Opium poppies. There were many fewer of them in Afghanistan this year. (UNODC)For more than 20 years, Afghanistan has been the undisputed leader in global opium production. Not anymore. After regaining power in 2021, the Taliban announced a ban on opium production last year, and during the course of this year, it became clear that the ban was working — sort of.
In April, the BBC crisscrossed the country, consulting with farmers, government ministers and experts, and satellite research to report: “It turns out that Taliban leaders have been more successful than anyone else in suppressing crops. Poppy cultivation has slowed the expansion of the poppy. “in the main opium-producing provinces, and one expert says annual cultivation may be only 80 percent lower than last year. Less successful wheat crops have supplanted poppies in fields, and many farmers say they are suffering financially. “
In October, a satellite analysis of the Afghan opium crop by the geographic information services company Alcis estimated that opium cultivation has declined by 85 percent since the Taliban re-took power and decreed a ban on it.
Poppy cultivation accounted for about a portion of one million acres in 2022, but this year it has fallen to less than 75,000 acres, prompting experts to describe prohibition “as the largest successful anti-drug effort in human history. “Helmand has noticed a whopping 99% relief in his crop, while Farah has noticed 95% relief and Nimroz has noticed 91% relief.
In November, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that poppy cultivation had fallen to just 26,700 acres this year, down from more than 500,000 acres in 2022, resulting in a 95% drop in production and restricted to 333 tons.
While the ban has eliminated opium poppy cultivation, it has serious consequences for the population, as opium production provides a livelihood for millions of Afghans and two-thirds of the population is already in need of humanitarian assistance.
“In the coming months, Afghanistan will desperately need large investments in sustainable livelihoods to provide Afghan farmers with opportunities outside of opium,” said Ghada Waly, Executive Director of UNODC. “This represents a genuine opportunity to achieve long-term goals. ” long-term effects of the illicit opium market and the harm it causes, both locally and globally.
And in December, the UNODC made it official: Afghanistan is no longer the world’s largest opium manufacturer, the company reported. Myanmar has produced about 1,080 tons of opium this year, up 36 percent from 790 tons last year. That’s more than twice the amount of opium produced in Afghanistan.
Singapore Goes on a Wave of Drug Executions
The authoritarian city-state at the tip of the Malay Peninsula has one of the strictest drug laws in the world and has been one of the world’s leading drug killers. He halted all executions during the coronavirus pandemic but resumed them in 2022, sending another 11 people to the gallows, all for drug-related offenses.
This year has maintained this scenario. In April, Singapore executed Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, for trafficking 2. 2 pounds of marijuana, despite foreign protests. Under Singapore law, trafficking more than 1. 1 pounds of marijuana can result in a death sentence. Three weeks later, an anonymous 37-year-old Malaysian was executed for trafficking around 3. 3 pounds of marijuana.
In July, the government hanged a 56-year-old man, Mohammed Aziz Hussain, after he was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking less than two ounces of heroin, and then hanged a woman, Saridewi Djamani, 45, for trafficking just over two ounces. One ounce of heroin in 2018. Es the first woman executed in the country in 20 years. And in August, Mohamed Shalleh Abdul Latiff, 39, was hanged in Changi for trafficking two ounces of heroin. This brings to 16 the total number of drug-related offenders killed in the state since the end of the pandemic moratorium.
Amnesty International called on the government to halt executions: “It is unacceptable that the Singapore government continues to cruelly carry out further executions in the name of drug control,” Chiara Sangiorgio, Amnesty International’s expert on the death penalty, said in a statement. “There is no evidence that the death penalty has an exclusive deterrent effect or that it has any effect on drug use and availability. While countries around the world are abolishing the death penalty and reforming their drug policies, the Singapore government is doing neither. “
Both the UNODC and the INCB — two UN bodies in charge of developing and monitoring drug policies — have condemned the use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses and have urged governments to move towards abolition. Singapore is one of only four countries, alongside China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, where executions for drug-related offenses were confirmed in 2022.
Philippines Confronts Legacy of Duterte’s Dirty War on Drugs
It’s been a year and a half since Rodrigo Duterte, the architect of a drug war that killed tens of thousands of people, resigned, but his bloody legacy lives on. His successor, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has facilitated Duterte’s war on drugs, but the killings continue, albeit at a slower pace.
As Human Rights Watch reported in January, “Marcos, in public statements and meetings with foreign leaders, has said he will continue the war on drugs policy he inherited from his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, but will focus more on rehabilitating drug users. To date, killings of suspected drug dealers and users have continued, and mandatory reforms to existing drug rehabilitation programmes have not been implemented. Human rights teams and drug policy reform advocates have criticized existing systems as coercive and punitive and said they stigmatize drug users. “
Things had not moved forward in June, when Human Rights Watch reported that “police and their agents continued their killings as part of the war on drugs, although at a slower pace than that of the Duterte administration. ” And according to data collected through DahasPH, this rate of decline was achieved before Duterte left office.
Duterte may be gone, but he is not forgotten, especially by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which began a probe of his drug war in 2018 but suspended that query in November 2021 at the request of the Philippines after the government there said it was conducting its own review. In January, the ICC reopened its investigation, with the ICC noting that it was “not satisfied that the Philippines is undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the Court’s investigations. The various domestic initiatives and proceedings, assessed collectively, do not amount to tangible, concrete and progressive investigative steps in a way that would sufficiently mirror the Court’s investigation.”
ICC investigations may or may not lead to prosecutions. If during the investigation the prosecutor discovers sufficient evidence to prosecute, he or she will have to identify a suspect and request an arrest warrant or summons to appear in court. In the end, a panel of coroners makes a decision on whether a case deserves to go to court.
Meanwhile, 2023 has been a smart year for former senator Leila de Lima, who has been jailed since 2017 on bogus drug-related rates after criticizing Duterte’s war on drugs. In May, she was acquitted of one of those bogus fees. In it, Duterte accuses him of accepting bribes from drug gangs in prisons after his Senate investigation into his fight against drugs. This is the second case she was acquitted of. A third charge remains unresolved, critics of the crusade against her have criticized. He asked her to leave. In December, she was released on bail after being detained for nearly seven years after a ruling ruled that the evidence against her was not strong.
Amnesty International called on Marcos’ leadership to ensure De Lima’s safety. “The government will now have to ensure its safety and cover as it continues to be targeted for defamation and threats,” it said in a statement.
Colombia Moves Away From Drug Orthodoxy
Leftist President Gustavo Petro pledged in mid-2022 to replace his country’s prohibitionist drug policy, and this year he has taken steps on several fronts to that end.
He began the year by announcing that his government would scale back efforts to forcibly eradicate coca. A new national policy will reduce forced eradication efforts by 60% as the government experiments with alternative approaches to the problem of coca development. Police said they were unable to meet their 2022 target due to lockdowns imposed through developing communities that prevented eradicators from accessing.
Then in February, Petro’s National Anti-Narcotics Council, charged with implementing and benchmarking the country’s drug policy over the next decade, said it was contemplating legalizing small plots of coca. This measure would target crops between 6 and 25 acres and would seek to reduce persecution. of peasant manufacturers who combine illicit crops with their food crops. Police said they were unable to meet their 2022 target due to blockades imposed across maker communities preventing eradicators from accessing them.
Petro’s government also took its reformist bent to the United Nations, joining Bolivia in calling for the removal of coca from the list of prohibited narcotics. Both countries asked the U. N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to remove the coca leaf from its list of prohibited ingredients and recognize the plant’s classic uses in Andean culture. And Vice President Francia Márquez used a speech at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to call for the decriminalization of the coca leaf in the country’s indigenous territories.
Petro’s government has also made its voice heard globally outside the United Nations. In September, in collaboration with Mexico, the 19 countries participating in the Latin American and Caribbean Conference on Drugs called for a rethinking of the war on drugs. “What I propose is to have a different, unified voice that defends our society, our long term and our history and stops repeating a failed discourse,” Petro said. He argued that it was a mistake to see drugs “as a challenge of the military and not as a fitness challenge in society. “
Meanwhile, Petro’s government has been engaged in peace talks with the leftist rebels of the ELN, who are involved in the drug trade but who seek a “temporary, nationwide cease-fire” and an agreement that includes “an alternative anti-drug policy that is no longer based on repression and war.” The ELN has a presence in some 200 Colombian townships, mostly in areas of widespread coca cultivation and cocaine production. In August, the government signed a six-month truce agreement with the rebels.
More than 450,000 Colombians are estimated to have died in the multifaceted confrontation that has been going on since the 1960s, largely financed through cocaine trafficking. The ceasefire is about to end to end attacks between guerrillas and Colombian security forces and may barely be over. It will end in January if progress is made in peace talks.
Petro supports marijuana legalization and backed a bill to do so in the congress, but his supporters saw legalization rejected on a final Senate vote in June. Supporters tried again in the fall, only to see legalization sunk again in the Senate in December.
Also in December, Petro took executive action to advance drug reform, issuing an executive order to reinstate drug decriminalization. His order applies to a maximum of 30 grams of marijuana and five grams of cocaine. In doing so, Petro overturned an earlier decree by his predecessor, right-wing Iván Duque, that forced police to prosecute others for possession and possession of small amounts of drugs, though Duque’s decision contradicted a 1994 Constitutional Court ruling that was not easy. decriminalization.
Scottish Authorities Approve United Kingdom’s First Safe Injection Site
In October, the Glasgow government approved the creation of the UK’s first injection site. The Glasgow Joint Integration Board, made up of representatives from the National Health Service and council officials, issued final approval days after Scotland’s most sensible judicial officer said users would not be prosecuted. for ownership of drugs while on the premises and the Home Office in London said it would not interfere.
The creation of an injection site has been debated for years to meet the wishes of another 400 to 500 people who inject drugs in the city centre, but progress has only been able to be made after obtaining those key approvals.
The scheduled date for the opening of what will be a three-year pilot program is set for the summer.
The injection site will be set up on Hunter Street, on the east end of the city, next to a clinic where pharmaceutical heroin has recently been prescribed to 23 long-term drug users. Users will be able to inject drugs in the centre of Glaspassw, but not smoke them. Allowing the use of illegal ingredients would be contrary to Scotland’s smoke-free laws.
Scotland has the highest capita drug overdose death rate in Europe and has seen more than a thousand people die from overdoses every year since 2020.
Marijuana reform in Thailand
In June 2022, the Thai government removed marijuana from the country’s narcotics list, allowing others to grow as much weed as they needed and releasing more than 3,000 marijuana-related prisoners. But the law only legalized marijuana extracts with less than 0. 2% THC, meaning that while other people can grow all the plants they need, eating what they produce will still be technically illegal, as it is lately for sales.
But that did not stop the use and sale of full-potency marijuana. What began as a flowering of edibles and tinctures shops in mid-2022 had by the beginning of this year morphed into a full-blown recreational marijuana scene, with thousands of dispensaries of dubious legality and the government impotently warning a tide of marijuana tourists they were not welcome.
But in September, a new government led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin took power, promising to remove the reins and restrict legalization to medical marijuana only. “The law will have to be rewritten,” Srettha said. This needs to be rectified. We can do this only for medical use. “
Srettha’s Pheu Thai party has embarked on a radical crusade against drugs and pledged to oppose decriminalisation, but his party is part of a ruling coalition of 11 parties and some of its members have other ideas. industry, but it is not the same as classifying the plant as medicine.
Thailand was the first Asian country to release this herb, but now it turns out that the pendulum is swinging in the other direction. Maybe 2024 will be the year everything is fixed.
Luxembourg legalizes the cultivation and possession of marijuana at home
In June, lawmakers passed a bill allowing Luxembourgers to grow up to four plants and possess and consume the drug at home. It came into force in July, making Luxembourg the second country in the European Union to own this plant, after Malta.
The new law also decriminalizes the possession of up to three grams outside the home. People caught with less than three grams will face a fine of around $160, down from the current onerous $2725. They will face no criminal proceedings and the offense will not be added to their criminal records. Possession of more than three grams can result in higher fines and even possible jail time.
The bill was supported by the government, the left-wing Dei Link party and the Pirate Party, but opposed by the Christian Democrats. MPs from the right-wing populist ADR party were divided over the measure.
In 2018, the government first pledged to create a legal marijuana market with state-supervised cultivation and sale of marijuana, but faced internal legal hurdles and pressure from other European Union countries and resorted to the law on cultivation and home ownership. The government still has a full legalization bill in the works and sees this law as the first step towards full legalization.
Dutch Legal Marijuana Supply Pilot Program Begins
A pilot effort to supply the country’s famous coffeeshops with legally received marijuana began in December, with two government-licensed manufacturers able to source from coffeeshops in Breda and Tilburg. Coffeeshops will sell marijuana produced legally and on the black market, and two more legal suppliers will begin looking for coffee shops in either city in February 2024.
This is part of the Dutch government’s “experiment with a legalized production and sales chain” and aims to solve the long-standing “backdoor problem,” in which the ownership and sale of marijuana is tolerated but there is no legal supply, leaving coffeeshops dependent on the black market and enrichment from criminal organizations.
This preparatory phase is expected to be completed in six months and the Coffeeshops will begin the transition phase at the end of the first quarter of next year. During this phase, interested Coffeeshops will sell products grown legally or on the black market. Six weeks Once the transition phase has begun, the pilot phase will begin. Participating coffeeshops will now only sell hashish from regulated crops.
Germany Is Weeks Away From Legalizing Marijuana
Marijuana legalization hit yet another bump down what has been a very bumpy path with the announcement in December that a final vote on legalization in the Bundestag had been called off after leaders from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) had last-second jitters. The delay means no vote on legalization is likely to occur until next year.
German lawmakers spent the entire year seeking a final vote, but that was not the case. After reaching an initial agreement earlier in the year, the bill was delayed in October, when debate was postponed due to the standoff in Israel and Palestine. and belatedly in November, when his supporters were looking for improvements.
And they did it. An update is that possession of more marijuana than the legal amount will not automatically be treated as a criminal offense, and possession of 25 to 30 grams will be considered an administrative violation. Similarly, the limit for home possession of marijuana is doubled from 25 to 50 grams, and ownership of up to 60 grams is dealt with administratively.
Lawmakers also agreed to legalize marijuana in stages, with possession and home cultivation legal for adults beginning in April. Social clubs that could distribute marijuana to members could now start to open in July.
Once the legalization bill is approved by the Bundestag, lawmakers will work to create a formula for legal and regulated sales. This will be pending a concurrent vote in the Bundesrat, a separate body representing the Länder.
Then came the SPD’s discontent. SPD lawmakers did not elaborate on their concerns, but the hearing in the Bundestag provided an indication, with some suggesting that legalization would “send the message” to other young people and lead to more underage drinking. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach rejected this claim, saying: “The truth is that the coverage of young people and young people is done through schooling and that the sale to young people and young people is still prohibited,” Lauterbach said. “It’s the only change we’ve made in this area: tightening. “
Still, the bill is delayed, and Germany legalized marijuana in 2023.
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