Por Dejusticia – Centro de Estudios de derecho Justicia y Sociedad, FESCOL Friedrich-EbertStiftung en Colombia, TNI - Transnational Institute, Elementa - Consultoría en Derechos, ATS – Corporación Acción Técnica Social, OCCDI Global - Observatorio de cultivos y cultivadores declarados ilícitos, Humanas Colombia – Centro Regional de Justicia Derechos Humanos y Justicia de Género, Gpaz / Corporación Sisma Mujer, Temblores ONG – Organización de Derechos Humanos, CPAT – Centro de Pensamiento y Acción para la Transición.

El grupo “Acciones para el Cambio hacia una política de Drogas más efectiva” se creó en el primer trimestre del año 2018, con el ánimo de brindar una visión crítica y propositiva frente a la política de drogas, y que pudiera dar insumos al nuevo gobierno de Colombia y a los parlamentarios que iniciaban su periodo. Desde esta alianza que está conformada por organizaciones de la sociedad civil en Colombia, a saber, Dejusticia, Fescol, TNI, Elementa, ATS, OCCDI Global, Corporación Humanas, Gpaz/Sisma Mujer, Temblores Ong y CPAT,1 hoy queremos aportar algunas reflexiones a la “Política Integral para la Prevención y Atención del Consumo de Sustancias Psicoactivas” que el Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social publicó para su discusión el pasado 22 de noviembre. Esperamos los comentarios sean tenidos en cuenta y las preguntas respondidas en la versión final.

Recomendaciones y preguntas	para la construcción de la política pública de	consumo de drogas en Colombia 2018

Nada que empiezan los proyectos productivos para la sustitución de cultivos ilícitos, a pesar de que en muchas regiones están por cumplirse dos años del programa definido en el Acuerdo de Paz. Hay un riesgo alto de que el país esté dejando pasar esta oportunidad de llevar legalidad y desarrollo al campo.

A principios de noviembre, 53 exrecolectores de coca se reunieron con Alfonso Gasca, presidente de la Junta de Acción Comunal de El Bosque, en San José del Fragua, Caquetá, para hablar sobre el Programa Nacional de Sustitución de Cultivos Ilícitos (PNIS).

“Estamos aguantando hambre, no tenemos quién nos dé trabajo”, le dijeron. Se acogieron al proceso de sustitución voluntaria y se supone que debían recibir un pago mensual de un millón de pesos durante un año por realizar labores comunitarias. Pero, hasta ahora, la plata del programa para contratarlos no ha entrado. Llevan seis meses sin conseguir trabajo y ahora están pensando en “hacer lo que una vez hicieron los cultivadores: descumbrar y sembrar coca”.

Buscaron a Gasca porque es uno de los líderes campesinos que han estado pendientes del proceso de sustitución voluntaria de cultivos ilícitos en el municipio, pero el mensaje es para el gobierno: el PNIS, uno de los puntos principales de la Reforma Rural Integral que se pactó en el Acuerdo de Paz de La Habana, no anda en muchas regiones y, en otras, lo hace muy lento.

De acuerdo con lo acordado entre el gobierno y la población cocalera, a los cultivadores que erradicaran voluntariamente sus cultivos ilícitos se les entregaría un Plan de Atención Inmediato con ciertas ayudas en su tránsito hacia la legalidad. Consiste en un pago bimensual de dos millones de pesos durante el primer año, un desembolso de 1.800.000 para una huerta casera de seguridad alimentaria, otro de nueve millones para un proyecto productivo de corto plazo de autosostenimiento y, finalmente, uno de diez millones para un proyecto de largo plazo del que, se supone, vivirán el resto de su vida. Además, a los recolectores se les daría un millón de pesos mensuales durante el primer año por ayudar en trabajos comunitarios.

Pero según el Observatorio de Cultivos y Cultivadores Declarados Ilícitos (OCDI), solo 14 por ciento de los raspachines está recibiendo una mensualidad y aún no se ha empezado a desarrollar ningún proyecto productivo. Además, de los 87.431 beneficiarios verificados por la Oficina de las Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito (UNODC), solo 33 por ciento tiene asistencia técnica. “Hay unos retrasos considerables. Las familias arrancaron la coca en los primeros dos meses y, en muchos casos, solo han recibido el pago de ese tiempo. Ninguna tiene claro en este momento una alternativa económica en reemplazo de la que tenían”, cuenta Pedro Arenas, director del Observatorio.

Los enredos del Programa Nacional de Sustitución de Cultivos Ilícitos

La decisión arroja luz sobre la necesidad de mejor administrar estos espacios de oferta. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Major dark web drug suppliers have started to voluntarily ban the synthetic opioid fentanyl because it is too dangerous, the National Crime Agency has said.

They are “delisting” the high-strength painkiller, effectively classifying it alongside mass-casualty firearms and explosives as commodities that are considered too high-risk to trade. Fentanyl can be up to 100 times stronger than heroin and can easily cause accidental overdoses, particularly when mixed with heroin.

Vince O’Brien, one of the NCA’s leads on drugs, told the 

that dark web marketplace operators appeared to have made a commercial decision, because selling a drug that could lead to fatalities was more likely to prompt attention from police.

It is the first known instance of these types of operators moving to effectively ban a drug.

O’Brien said: “If they’ve got people selling very high-risk commodities then it’s going to increase the risk to them. There are marketplaces that will not accept listings for weapons and explosives – those are the ones that will not accept listings for fentanyl. Clearly, law enforcement would prioritise the supply of weapons, explosives and fentanyl over, for example, class C drugs – and that might well be why they do this.

“There are also drug users on the dark web who say on forums that they don’t think it’s right that people are selling fentanyl because it is dangerous and kills a lot of people.”

Traficantes de la "dark web" prohíben voluntariamente el letal fentanilo

Las personas cultivadoras de pequeña escala probablemente serán excluidas del naciente mercado de cannabis médico. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Lesotho is aiming to make money from the booming medicinal marijuana industry, but the BBC's Vumani Mkhize says the southern African nation already has an unheralded illicit trade in the drug for recreational use.

Green dust swirls around Mampho Thulo as she uses her hands to scoop dried marijuana leaves from a massive heap on the floor of her home into a big linen bag.

She has been cultivating the prized crop in her scenic village of Mapoteng for as long as she can remember.

Seventy kilometres (43 miles) north-east of the capital, Maseru, her land lies in a lush valley surrounded by the mountains that the country is well known for.

It is in this breath-taking scenery that people have been illicitly growing marijuana for recreational use for decades.

Marihuana, montañas y dinero: Lesoto se beneficia

El proyecto de ley crea un mercado regulatorio para el uso médico del cannabis y el kratom. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Thailand’s parliament has almost unanimously accepted the first reading of a bill to legalise medical cannabis, but there is growing fear that foreign companies will monopolise any new marijuana industry.

On 23 November, 145 members of the National Legislative Assembly supported the bill's first reading, with one member abstaining, and none opposing. The bill intends to amend the country’s Narcotics Act, legalising cannabis as a treatment for patients. It would also legalise the medical use of kratom, a plant indigenous to Thailand which is used by some people – but not officially recognised – as a treatment for opioid withdrawal symptoms.

, many licensed groups and individuals who would be entitled to possess cannabis include government ministries, local administrative bodies, the Red Cross, the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation, and certain medical professionals. However, people who have been convicted of drug offences under current Thai law will not be permitted to have cannabis in their possession.

Several international companies have applied for Thai patents for their medical cannabis products, raising concern that - if the bill is eventually passed into law - foreign pharmaceutical companies will dominate the Thai cannabis market.

El Parlamento tailandés apoya en masa la legalización del cannabis con fines médicos

A pesar de ser más vulnerables al VIH y la violencia, las estadísticas y servicios nacionales las ignoran. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Despite India having the largest number of heroin users in Asia according to the UN, the number of women that make up these figures is unknown. The lack of a gender breakdown, along with India’s prevailing gender stereotypes, allows for a presumption that smoking or injecting chitta, brown sugar, or number four, is largely a male pursuit.

Women who use drugs are more likely to experience violence than those who do not - two to three times more likely. HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs is 6.3% according to HIV sentinel surveillance data of National AIDS Control organisation 2016-2017, compared to the overall national rate of 0.2% for adults, and the risk of HIV increases further for women when both drug use and violence are present. In the country assessed to be the most dangerous place to be a woman, and where 63 million women and girls are ‘missing’, drug use is compounding the normative risks.

Benefits of a harm reduction approach (versus unrealistically trying to stamp out drugs) are globally recognised, including by the Government of India which does invest in services and centres. However, while these aren’t deliberately male-only sites, women struggle to get through the door.

“If she can get away from the house without being questioned or accompanied, and she can get across to the building without neighbours seeing, and she can pass through the crowd of guys in the doorway, she then has to sit in an intimidating male environment until she is seen,” says Pemu Bhutia, Senior Technical Officer at Alliance India.

El abuso sistemático de las mujeres que usan opiáceos en India

Los ataques contra la comunidad y la sociedad civil ejemplifican la posición reaccionaria de Rusia en contra de enfoques de salud. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

“It used to be that you’d be walking on your way to score, and if you’d see a policeman, you’d give them three 

 [about 10 cents], and they’d tell you to wrap your business up quickly because undercovers were about to bust the spot,” says Sasha, a 40-something heroin user from Crimea (formerly Ukraine).

In 2014, as the Ukraine crisis erupted, “little green men” started popping up across the Crimea—a Black Sea peninsula the size of Maryland dangling off the south of Ukraine. A “referendum” was held in which 95.5 percent of the population 

backed joining the territory up with Russia. In the political surprise of the century, Vladimir Putin later admitted that the mysterious strangers in green uniform were Russian troops.

Crimea’s history—and tensions reignited this week with the Russian capture of three Ukrainian naval vessels—is complicated. For all the international outrage, the 2014 change in power was 

bloodless. But for one group of people, it was life-or-death.

Once Crimea went under Russian control, the territory’s “registered drug addicts” found themselves cut off from their methadone supplies, which they’d previously got courtesy of Kiev. They were in for a nasty surprise when the new leadership bannedtheir medication, in line with the rest of Russia.

“They gave it a few days, but then the feds and the Cossacks got together and came down on the dealing spots. They broke arms, legs, everything.”

Rather than risk withdrawal, many went back to using heroin, subject to dodgy doses and harsh enforcement. Within a year, over a hundred of them had died.

Las personas defensoras de la reducción de daños en Rusia están bajo ataque una vez más

La red busca abogar por los derechos de las comunidades indígenas en debates internacionales sobre drogas. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

An international indigenous network for drug law reform was launched yesterday at the international indigenous conference, Healing Our Spirit Worldwide – The Eighth Gathering, in Sydney, Australia.

The International Indigenous Drug Policy Network has been established by the Aboriginal Drug & Alcohol Council (SA), the New Zealand Drug Foundation and the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation of Canada to ensure the world’s indigenous peoples have a voice on international issues associated with alcohol and drugs.

“As the global push to end the war on drugs and treat substance abuse as a health issue gains momentum, it’s never been more important that indigenous communities are at the forefront of the discussion on drug law reform,” said the NZ Drug Foundation’s Māori Advocacy Advisor, Jack McDonald.

“Māori we know that punishing rather than supporting people with substance abuse issues is causing excessive harm in our communities – our people make up 43% of convictions and 58% of imprisonments due to drug related offences.

“The disproportionate impact of current punitive drug laws and enforcement is influenced by the institutional racism that all indigenous communities consistently face,” said Mr McDonald.

“The UN General Assembly held a Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs in April 2016 in New York, but the outcomes document is largely silent on the challenges facing indigenous communities,” said Aboriginal Drug & Alcohol Council (SA) Director Scott Wilson.

“As we look towards the UN’s next drug policy summit in 2019, we will be approaching other indigenous organisations and First Nations to consolidate a representative international indigenous group and lobby to reduce harms to indigenous communities from substance abuse and discriminatory drug laws,” Mr Wilson said.

Red Internacional Indígena sobre Políticas de Drogas lanzada en Nueva Zelanda

La guerra contra las drogas ha tenido efectos catastróficos en la salud pública y los derechos humanos, particularmente para poblaciones en situaciones de vulnerabilidad. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

A panel of high-level drug policy experts on November 19th at IPI took up the question of how much progress had been made on 10-year goals enunciated in 2009, and they concluded that the results were very disappointing. The panel was addressing the subject, “The Future of Drug Policies, and the Lessons Learned,” at a policy forum co-sponsored by IPI, IDPC, and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).

“It is difficult to credibly claim any progress, given the reality of a robust and growing illicit drug market coupled with an unprecedented rise in both drug-related harms as well as the devastating policy harms,“ said Ann Fordham, Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC). “We cannot keep doing the same thing and expecting different results, that is the definition of insanity.”

She said it was “time that the international community moves away from these damaging and unrealistic drug free goals and considers adopting more meaningful goals and targets in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and international human rights commitments. In formulating social and public policies, it’s fundamental to consider the impact on the lives of people and communities on public health and on human rights, both at the core of the values of the United Nations.”

Grupo de expertos ofrece un análisis consternante de las políticas de drogas internacionales

Noruega explica su paso por la presidencia del Consejo de Europa y sus esfuerzos para poner los derechos humanos en el centro de las cuestiones de políticas de drogas. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Norway has put human rights and civil society on the agenda during its Presidency of the Council of Europe's cooperation on drug policies.

Norway has held Presidency in the Council of Europe’s cooperation on drug policies - the Pompidou Group - for the past four years. The Ministerial conference in Stavanger, 27-28 November, marked the end of the Norwegian Presidency.

- We have used this Presidency to emphasise the importance of human rights as a basis for drug policies in all countries. Drug problems have had different impacts on different countries, and drug policies will therefore vary, however, human rights are unalterable, stated the Minister of Health and Care Services, Bent Høie.

During the Norwegian Presidency, the Pompidou Group prepared an expert report, describing how a country may proceed in ensuring that human rights are safeguarded in drug policies.

Norway has also put civil society on the agenda, emphasising the importance of involving civil society and individuals who use drugs in the development of policies. The Pompidou Group has prepared a policy paper on the cooperation between authorities and civil society in drug cases.

- In Norway, it is a given that user organisations and other representatives of civil society should be heard before a new policy is adopted. They also have a key role in the drug policy debate. This is not the case for all countries. I believe it is essential for Norway and the Council of Europe, which is based on the values of human rights, democracy and rule of law, to emphasise the importance of listening to those to whom this applies, says Høie.

Challenges associated with new psychoactive drugs and different methods of regulating cannabis are other topics that have been discussed during the Norwegian Presidency.

The Stavanger conference adopted the “Stavanger Declaration”, as well as a new work programme for the Pompidou Group. The work with human rights and inclusion of civil society will continue. The development of knowledge and exchange of experiences on challenges associated with new synthetic drugs is also important. This mandate must be revised, and the phrase “to combat drugs”, which has been part of the Pompidou Group’s name since its commencement in 1971, will be removed.

- I am very pleased that we have now agreed to remove the phrase “to combat drugs” from the Pompidou Group’s title. This phrase represents an outdated view of drug polices and of individuals with drug abuse problems, says Høie.

It was also decided that Portugal will take over the Presidency for the next four years.

Hacia una política de drogas más humana

A cinco días del cierre de la Sala de Consumo Seguro para drogas inyectables en Mexicali, la asociación civil que encabeza el proyecto solicitó públicamente al Ayuntamiento la reapertura del lugar.

Este centro comunitario, ubicado sobre la calle Azueta, en el Centro Histórico, atendía en una fase de prueba a mujeres con adicción a alguna droga inyectable, ofreciendo un espacio seguro y controlado para ello, en lo que se determina por especialistas como reducción de daños.

En un posicionamiento firmado por 37 asociaciones civiles y 66 especialistas, Verter asegura que su trabajo se enfoca en “servicios que responden a las complejas necesidades de salud de una población estigmatizada y marginalizada a las que el Estado, por diferentes razones, no da respuesta”.

La sala de consumo fue cerrada el pasado viernes por la tarde por personal del Ayuntamiento, específicamente por la Dirección de Administración Urbana, por no presentar un permiso de construcción respecto a las modificaciones que se le han hecho al local, no por alguna ilegalidad o delito.

“En el centro comunitario clausurado no se comercializan drogas y tampoco se promueve su uso, solo se brinda un espacio done las mujeres pueden usar las drogas que necesitan de manera segura y controlada, rodeadas de personal amigable y capacitado en diversos temas de salud”, señala el posicionamiento.

Y añade: “El Estado no brinda ninguna alternativa de atención en salud a las mujeres que no están en condiciones de dejar de inyectarse drogas, lo que aumenta no solo su vulnerabilidad social y la de sus hijos, sino que afecta sus condiciones de salud”.

Piden reapertura de sala de consumo seguro de drogas en Mexicali, México

Funcionarios gubernamentales de África Oriental aprendieron de los enfoques locales para la reducción de daños, en especial los servicios de terapia con agonistas opioides. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

In June, the Chinese government hosted a delegation of East African government officials and HIV and drug treatment workers to share their experience of innovative harm reduction techniques being implemented in Yunnan province. The African delegates observed and learned about local approaches to needle and syringe exchange, community-based drug treatment, and take-home methadone treatment.

The take-home methadone programme was initiated by AIDS Care China (ACC, the Alliance Linking Organisation in China), which has advocated effectively to gain government support to scale up this model and for implementing other innovative harm reduction interventions.

Tina Luo, Executive Director of ACC, described her organisation’s approach to advocacy in China, and how it differs from the approach of its counterparts in other countries: “What AIDS Care China does is very innovative. Our approach is to lead from behind, not with protests or direct action, but rather work with the government.”

ACC partners with communities and government to develop and pilot innovative methods that are responsive to both the programmatic needs and political imperatives at play in China. They then use the results from the pilots to gain buy-in from municipal, provincial, and national officials. Once the higher echelons of the government are convinced of the interventions’ effectiveness, they are scaled up, funding is allocated, and policies are changed. The good practices are then promoted within China and abroad to consolidate support throughout the government and in communities.

Noticias

Recomendaciones y preguntas para la construcción de la política pública de consumo de drogas en Colombia 2018