El régimen de Bolsonaro mantiene su ofensiva contra las políticas de drogas y las investigaciones basadas en pruebas empíricas. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

From 2014 to 2017, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation conducted 16,000 interviews and assigned 50 researchers to develop the third national survey on drug use by the Brazillian population.

Given its scope, the study was expensive: R$7 million (US$1.75m), paid for by the government, which has now shelved the research, preventing Fiocruz from disclosing it.

Prohibition of its publication was met by surprise from the scientific community. For researchers and specialists in the field, the study has been shelved because it does not confirm the existence of a drug epidemic in the country, as Osmar Terra, the Minister of Citizenship, often proclaims exists.

Senad officially claims that the survey has not been released because Fiocruz failed to comply with the requirements of the public bid procedure. On the other hand. the minister se,s to confirm what experts suspect by attacking the institution and claiming that the survey does not corroborate what is seen "on the streets"

Brasil: un ministro discrepa de los resultados de un estudio sobre drogas, lo archiva y arremete contra los investigadores

El ministro entrante abogó por “un país libre de drogas” y prometió “limpiar las calles”. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Newly appointed Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said he was frustrated at how the justice system failed to deal with drug dealers.

Lamola said one of his priorities will be to make sure drug dealers and abusers are prosecuted to clean the streets.

Lamola, who was sworn in as the youngest member of President Cyril Ramaphosa's Cabinet on Thursday, said he wants a drug-free country.

“How do you ensure that people who have been arrested for drug use get prosecuted and [that] is done in a process that enables our justice system to clean the streets of South Africa. That is my key issue at the moment.”

Sudáfrica: el ministro de Justicia perseguirá a traficantes y usuarios

La llamada ‘guerra contra las drogas’ del Gobierno está alimentando el hacinamiento en las cárceles y no está abordando las causas de fondo. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Ask any Cambodian about the key issues facing their country and chances are that crime will be near the top of the list. But on nearly all counts, the country’s justice system is failing.

According to the National Police, 2,969 crimes were committed last year, up from 2,817 in 2017. The number stands in contrast to the nation’s bulging prison population, however.

In November, Interior Minister Sar Kheng revealed that there were 31,008 inmates in Cambodia’s 28 prisons, of which almost 72% were being held in pre-trial detention.

That means there are roughly 190 prisoners per every 100,000 people, a bigger proportion than in most other Southeast Asian nations, and higher as a percentage than even authoritarian China.

The prison population has ballooned in recent years after the government launched in 2017 an anti-drug crackdown, similar in tone but not atrocity to the one Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has championed. As a result, the number of inmates rose by 30% in 2017 alone, mostly for drug-related offenses.

La justicia injusta en Camboya

Los espacios y servicios dirigidos por la comunidad y adaptados al género siguen siendo increíblemente poco habituales. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Bree Cassell first injected heroin when she was 15 years old. Despite wanting to do so, she was so scared of the needle that it took two men to hold her thrashing body down, and a third to inject the drug into her vein.

Now 26, Cassell frequents a syringe exchange program in Wilmington, North Carolina, for sterile injection equipment, overdose prevention supplies, and friendly faces.

The small exchange—just a whitewashed room in an aging strip mall—doesn’t boast much. But the two women who run the exchange, Becca Lilly and Bernadette Calicchio, have done their best to make it welcoming and comfortable to people who seek refuge there.

Bright Christmas lights deck the walls and old tables are draped in cheerfully-patterned cloths. The exchange offers free clothing, food and toiletries. On one desk a collection of greeting cards is marked, “Write a card to someone you love. We’ll provide the stamp and mail it.”

In late April I visited the exchange for its inaugural Women’s Day, a Friday afternoon where only women could visit the program. The ladies had decked a long table with snacks and party favors, wrapped in pink crepe paper, to welcome their guests.

While we waited for people to show up, I sat down with Cassell and Lilly to learn about their experiences with drug use. Both were introduced to IV heroin, at 15 and 16 years old respectively, by male friends. Both have engaged in sex work to buy drugs at the request of male partners. Both have experienced the difficulty of finding affordable drug treatment programs for women.

Mujeres que usan drogas: los retos exigen una reducción de daños autodirigida

Se ha informado a seis de los diez órganos creados en virtud de los tratados de derechos humanos de que es probable que se anulen sus períodos de sesiones por motivos financieros. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

GENEVA (17 May 2019) — The ten United Nations human rights treaties are legally binding treaties, adopted by the UN General Assembly and ratified by States. Each Treaty establishes a treaty body (or Committee) comprising elected independent experts who seek to ensure that States parties fulfil their legal obligations under the Conventions. This system of independent scrutiny of the conduct of States by independent experts is a key element of the United Nations human rights system, supported by secretariats in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In April this year, the Chairpersons of all 10 treaty bodies* were informed that six of them are very likely to have sessions in 2019 cancelled for financial reasons – an unprecedented consequence of some UN member States delaying payments due to the organisation.

This means that reviews already scheduled with States, as well as consideration of complaints by individual victims of serious human rights violations - including torture, extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances – will not take place as scheduled. The cancellation of sessions will also have numerous other negative consequences, and will seriously undermine the system of protections which States themselves have put in place over decades.

The Chairpersons of the ten Committees are deeply concerned about the practical consequences of cancelling these sessions and have sent a letter to the UN Secretary General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, requesting that they, together with Member States, find ways of addressing this situation, as a matter of urgency.

El déficit presupuestario de la ONU socava gravemente el trabajo de los órganos de los tratados de derechos humanos

Una campaña de financiación colectiva para poner en marcha el proyecto está buscando patrocinios. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

A leading Dutch harm reduction organisation, Mainline, launched a crowdfunding campaign to open the first ever museum dedicated to drugs. Read our interview with Machteld Busz, the director of Mainline – and support their cause!

When and why did you decide to create the first museum dedicated to drugs and the people who use them?

Machteld Busz: About two years ago, and we started getting serious in developing the plan about one and a half years ago. Poppi: Drugs Museum Amsterdam is set up as a social enterprise. We want to educate the general public about drugs, drug dependency, drug policies, and drug culture. Secondly, we hope to make profits and return those to our foundation. And third we would love to employ people who use drugs at some point in the future. First things first however; we need to get some funds together to get us off to a flying start.

In the promotional leaflet you promise to “blow our minds” with psychedelic artwork and ancient artefacts. Can you talk a bit more about the preparation of the exhibition? How did you collect artefacts and who were the artists you worked with?

We started collecting drug-related art alongside our ‘normal’ harm reduction work. We rely heavily on friends from the field who share a passion and donated or lent art. Now that we have decided to start a museum we can start a more comprehensive and serious collection. We will start the museum ‘lean’, with a series of exhibitions, events, and art-shows. We want to gradually ‘fill’ the eventual museum. In doing so, we want to combine new technology such as virtual reality, or ‘immersive art’ in the form of a situation room, with science and more traditional art to engage people on a deeper level. That would be the ‘blow your mind’ part!

Poppi: Museo de las Drogas en Amsterdam – Entrevista con Machteld Busz

La campaña #ReframeTheBlame insta a que se analicen de manera crítica las políticas de drogas y se impulsen las reformas. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

It was almost dawn. My phone was ringing over and over, but it was the loud banging at the door that woke me up. It was my mother. She had come to tell me that my 19-year-old daughter was dead from a drug overdose.

It was hard to process those words in that moment. My initial despair and grief shifted to rage. I wanted the person who gave my daughter the drugs to pay. It didn’t matter if it was her boyfriend or friends—I wanted to hurt and punish that person.

I had these feelings despite knowing that that person who gave my daughter the heroin that was most likely contaminated with fentanyl—the synthetic opioid that is up to 100 times stronger than morphine—was not responsible for my daughter’s death.

As a person who uses drugs, I know that no one person is to blame. What is responsible for the hundreds of thousands of deaths from drug overdose is a broken drug policy, a system that prioritizes punishment over treatment, and a culture of prohibition that leads us to use drugs alone and in shame.

Indeed, while the nation continues to double down on tough approaches to deal with the overdose crisis, fentanyl will continue to poison the U.S. drug supply, and people will continue to die. More than 70,000 people died of drug overdose in 2017 in the United States—a record. And as law enforcement becomes more intense, the potency of prohibited substances increases.

These punitive approaches and the harm they cause are no more apparent than in drug-induced homicide laws, which make it a crime to give drugs that result in a death. While originally designed to target cartel dealers, they are overwhelmingly used to prosecute friends and loved ones of an individual who has lost their life due to an overdose.

Una mirada crítica sobre la guerra contra las drogas

La cooperación internacional del bloque regional debería buscar fortificar la gobernanza y modernizar las políticas de drogas. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

By Michel Kazatchkine and Mary Chinery-Hesse

Over the past three decades, European governments have been moving to protect people who use drugs from drug-related health harms.

Drug use has been recognised as a public health concern, and needle and syringe programmes, safe injection facilities, and drug checking, combined with a wide range of treatment options, have been set up throughout Europe.

Furthermore, ceasing to see people who use drugs as criminal offenders has led many countries in Europe towards de jure or de facto decriminalisation of drug use and possession for personal use.

In Portugal, consumers may be actively directed to these facilities by the police or social services.

These measures have contributed to easing the problems related to open drug markets and other public safety issues and contributed to decreasing the stigma and discrimination associated with drug use.

Una contradicción profunda en la política de drogas de la UE

Mientras los Estados Unidos perseveran en su inútil campaña de bombardeos contra los laboratorios, en Afganistán y los países vecinos florece el mercado de la metanfetamina. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Earlier this month US and Afghan forces bombed 68 drugs labs in South-western Afghanistan, claiming that they caused the Taliban losses of over $1 million per day. 

write that not only have the effects of these strikes been exaggerated, their promotion obscures a new reality on the ground: a dramatic growth in the methamphetamine industry in Afghanistan, fuelled by a ready supply of a home grown ephedra crop.

It’s an old saying that the definition of madness is to do the same thing again and again and expect a different result. Yet this is what the United States Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) and their counterpart the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) did on 6 May 2019 when they bombed 68 drugs labs in Southwestern Afghanistan. They even repeated the madness of grossly exaggerating the scale of financial losses these raids caused the Taliban, claiming losses of $1 million per day.

This latest raid on drugs labs in Afghanistan follows a year-long campaign that USFOR-A claimed destroyed 200 labs and denied $46 million to the Taliban in revenue. The campaign all but ceased in September 2018 after being subject to considerable criticism for its exaggerated estimates of the amount of drugs destroyed and the values denied to both drug traffickers and the Taliban. In striking inactive labs and misunderstanding the taxation system that operates in these areas, the campaign had a negligible effect on revenues and proved a poor use of resources.

Los nuevos ataques aéreos de los Estados Unidos eclipsan un cambio drástico en la industria de drogas de Afganistán: la proliferación de la metanfetamina de bajo costo

Es necesario conjugar el derecho al disfrute de la vida cultural de las comunidades migrantes y el derecho a utilizar sus plantas tradicionales con las obligaciones derivadas del control de drogas.

Hace varios años que la Fundación ICEERS, con el apoyo de organizaciones aliadas como Transnational Institute, ha asistido a la defensa de personas migrantes procesadas en España (y en otros países europeos) por la posesión e importación de hojas de coca destinadas al uso tradicional. Dichas personas provienen de países donde existe un marco legal para el uso de la hoja de coca, como Colombia, Bolivia, Perú y Argentina. Estos casos han tenido diferentes resultados, y las sentencias judiciales no han sido uniformes. Esto dificulta el ejercicio del derecho de estas comunidades a disfrutar de su propia cultura, lo cual plantea nuevos retos en relación al respeto de los derechos humanos en el marco del control de drogas. Retos que han de encontrar una respuesta política en el marco de la Agenda 2030 y de los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible, que se están perfilando como el nuevo marco de referencia de los organismos de control de drogas y del debate internacional en la materia.

Hace dos años celebramos el resultado positivo de un caso judicial relacionado con hoja de coca en Girona, España. Tras tres años de incertidumbre, el Ministerio Fiscal, durante el juicio, decidió retirar los cargos por los que se procesaba a un ciudadano colombiano residente en Cataluña por haber recibido por correo postal un paquete que contenía unos 2 kilogramos de hoja de coca pulverizada. Aunque la absolución del acusado, a quien se le imputaba la comisión de un delito contra la salud pública, fue una gran noticia para la persona procesada, sus familiares, amigos y para quienes abogamos por una reforma de las políticas de drogas, la resolución no dio lugar a una sentencia firme que pudiera ser utilizada como precedente en casos futuros.

El pasado mes de noviembre conocíamos la última decisión judicial sobre un caso relacionado con hoja de coca en España, cuya defensa estuvimos apoyando durante más de dos años. Un caso que conecta con la cuestión más amplia de los usos tradicionales de esta planta más allá de los contextos de donde es nativa, y cómo las comunidades andinas emigradas por todo el mundo se ven privadas de una práctica cultural que es tradicional y legítima en los lugares de los que provienen.

Usos tradicionales y personas migrantes

El presidente filipino Rodrigo Duterte ha salido como el gran ganador de las elecciones legislativas y municipales de medio término en Filipinas que se llevaron a cabo este lunes. Más de 18.000 puestos municipales, incluyendo la mitad de los escaños del Senado, estaban en juego, para los 61 millones de votantes.

Según las cifras publicadas por el PPCRV, un organismo católico acreditado por el gobierno para contar los votos, el partido opositor, una coalición llamada Otso Diretso, perdió por paliza: no ganara ninguno de los 12 asientos del senado. Tener una ultramayoría de aliados en el Senado, algo que el escrutinio temprano parce confirmar, le daría el respado legislativo a Duterte para llevar adelante sus propuestas extremas contra el crimen y su plan para reformar la constitución.

Duterte ha sido duramente criticado en occidente por su "guerra contra las drogas" que dejóun tendal de muertos en ejecuciones extrajudiciales y sus comentarios machitas. Generalmente polémico en sus discursos, el mandatario ha llamado la atención de ONGs defensoras de los derechos humanos por comentarios misóginos como cuando contó que había abusado a una empleada domestica, o que el aumento de violaciones en Davao se debía a la belleza de sus habitantes.

Filipinas: tras una amplia victoria electoral, Rodrigo Duterte buscará reformar la Constitución y reforzar su "mano dura"

La Constitución marca el inicio de un nuevo paradigma para la coca, lo que se concretó con la denuncia de Bolivia a la Convención Única de 1961 y su readhesión en 2013, bajo la reserva sobre el derecho al uso tradicional, ritual, cultural y medicinal de la planta en su estado natural. Esta reserva nos obliga a establecer mecanismos de control sobre el cultivo para prevenir la producción ilícita de estupefacientes extraíbles de la hoja. Así nace en 2017 la Ley General de Coca, para regular la cadena de producción solo en territorio local, lo que dificulta la apertura de mercados internacionales.

La Convención Única autoriza su exportación exclusiva con fines medicinales y científicos, y “para la preparación de un agente saporífero que no contenga ningún alcaloide” (principalmente para la Coca-Cola). “Desde 2000 Perú ha sido el único país que ha exportado hoja de coca para el mercado mundial”, según la Junta Internacional de Fiscalización de Estupefacientes (JIFE), con un volumen en 2016 de 136 toneladas. El artículo 12 de la Ley de Coca cita como prioridad nacional su exportación y para esto Bolivia tiene dos caminos: Primero, solicitar una revisión crítica a la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) para que con base en estudios se recomiende la reclasificación de la hoja de coca. La Lista I (de estupefacientes) justifica incluirla con dos argumentos: que es materia prima para la extracción de cocaína y su supuesta peligrosidad para la salud (error histórico que puede ser corregido desde evidencia científica). Segundo, negociar un acuerdo inter se (latín, entre sí) con países interesados en importar, esto permitiría modificar las reglas de la Convención entre partes.

Ambas rutas llevan a reflexionar sobre otras plantas con propiedades estimulantes comparables con la coca que también son materia prima de alcaloides fácilmente extraíbles, pero que no están en las listas de fiscalización internacional.

Noticias