South Africa’s highest court has decriminalised the private possession and cultivation of cannabis for personal use.

The Constitutional Court ruled that prohibiting such activities within an individual's home is a violation of the right to privacy. The Court acknowledged the lack of evidence that criminalisation reduces cannabis use, and accepted data from medical studies demonstrating that alcohol is more dangerous than cannabis, according to local publication 

Public cannabis use, and private or public use by minors, remain illegal.

The Court chose not to define a threshold quantity for possessing or cultivating cannabis for “personal use”, with Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo stating that this is a decision that should be made by Parliament. Until then, Zondo said, individual police officers must make decisions on a case-by-case basis; if the quantity discovered exceeds the officer’s perception of “personal”, the person in possession can be arrested. This potentially creates a loophole through which people may continue to face arrest for cannabis possession despite the ruling.

The Court ruled that existing legislation prohibiting the personal possession, use, and cultivation of cannabis is invalid, effective immediately. The Court issued the government with 24 months to “correct the defect” legislatively, 

South Africa decriminalises personal cannabis use and cultivation

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir has indicated that the government should review the case of a man who had been sentenced to death for having medicinal cannabis oil.

Dr Mahathir said: " I think we should review that," when asked about the case of Muhammad Lukman, a 29-year-old father of one who was sentenced to death for possessing, processing and distributing medical marijuana (cannabis oil).

He was arrested in 2015 for the possession of 3.1 litres of cannabis oil, 279 grams of compressed cannabis and 1.4kg of substance containing tetrahydrocan nabininol (THC). Muhammad Lukman was given the death sentence by the Shah Alam High Court on Aug 30.

Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar said she will be writing an appeal to the Attorney-General seeking a pardon for Muhammad Lukman.

Dr Mahathir : We should review Lukman death penalty for medical marijuana in Malaysia

The presence of sniffer dogs at music festivals is almost completely ineffective at persuading revellers to abstain from drugs and could place them at greater risk of harm, according to new research that comes after the death of two people at a Sydney dance music festival.

While the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, faces criticism for again ruling out pill testing, instead vowing to ban the Defqon.1 festival, the paper by researchers Jodie Grigg, Monica Barratt and Simon Lenton brings the effectiveness of the government’s hardline stance into question.

In an anonymous survey of nearly 2,000 festival-goers, the researchers found “almost all … surveyed did not report being deterred from drug usage by the expected presence of drug dogs”.

“Of those who expected dogs to be present at their last festival (647 people), only 4% reported that this threat led them to decide not to take drugs,” the researchers said.

Instead, those surveyed were more likely to better conceal their stash (48%), ask someone else to carry their drugs (15%), or buy substances inside the festival (11%).

Defqon.1 deaths: Sniffer dogs don't deter revellers from drug use, researchers find

Researchers are calling on an end to discriminatory health and illicit drugs policies, based on overwhelming evidence that new hepatitis C therapies are effective at curing the virus in people who inject drugs.

The Kirby Institute research, being presented tomorrow at the 7th International Symposium on Hepatitis Care in Substance Users in Cascais, Portugal and published in 

The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology

, provides the strongest evidence-base to date to support the removal of restrictions to accessing hepatitis C therapy based on recent drug use.

Globally, more than one in three people who have injected drugs in the past year are living with hepatitis C. New therapies for hepatitis C can cure the virus in more than 95% of people, however in many countries the treatment is inaccessible to people who inject drugs, due to restrictions on treatment reimbursement related to an individual's recent drug use. In addition, many clinicians are hesitant to prescribe hepatitis C therapy to people who use or inject drugs, as there are concerns about adherence and the chance of reinfection.

"The results of our research show that the response to hepatitis C therapy among people who inject drugs was very favourable. Across almost 40 studies worldwide, involving more than 3,500 people with recent or ongoing drug use, hepatitis C was cured in almost 9 out of 10 people," said Dr Behzad Hajarizadeh, from the Viral Hepatitis Clinical Research Program at the Kirby Institute, and lead author on the study. "We conducted a systematic review, which means we examined all the available evidence from studies conducted globally on this topic. It means we can be very confident about these results."

Overwhelming evidence shows hepatitis C treatment effective for people who inject drugs

There was a time when we expected that the end of aggressive American interventionism would open the gates to drug policy reform. We are now at the dawning of a new multipolar world order, but it is not only the spirit of reform that has been released from the bottle

I remember when I was invited to a meeting organised by the US government in Budapest in 2004, just a few months after I got a job at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union to lead its drug policy program. The world was different then. A few years after 9/11, at the height of the war on terror and the war on drugs, the Bush administration behaved like the policeman of the world. Its actions were led by an arrogant neoconservative ideology, and a strong belief that American policies must be exported to other parts of the world, including Hungary. The meeting was a weird PR event, promoting the abstinence-based, zero-tolerance, US-style approach to drug policy that was dominating the global arena, including the UN drug forums and agencies. It was an eye-opening experience for me.

I came to believe that the greatest obstacle to drug policy reform was the USA’s dominance in drug policies, including the three UN drug control treaties (1961, 71, 88), forged by American narco-diplomacy. What we needed was more freedom for member states to move away from rigid compliance with these treaties, allowing governments to experiment with new policies and stopping the US from forcing its policies on other countries. People had to take back control from supranational bureaucrats and technocrats to pursue their own drug policies, protecting national sovereignty from international pressure.

Fourteen years later, I am wondering what could have changed more: America or the world around it. The war on drugs, although far from over, has lost its appeal to the American people. More and more US states are deciding to legalise marijuana, a move unimaginable back in 2004. The US is no longer the world’s policeman, on the contrary, it seems to be submerging itself in isolationism. The American hegemony is waning, its strong leadership in international processes, including the UN, is of the past. Multilateralism is decaying and international treaties and mechanisms are losing ground. Many emerging new powers are challenging the old system and the world is becoming a multipolar place, with growing emphasis on national sovereignty

Drug policy reform in the post-American world order

More than 11 Canadians are dying every day on average because of opioids, according to new data from the federal government.

“The crisis is not abating,” Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said in an interview on Tuesday.

Canada is the world’s second highest per-capita consumer of opioids, after the United States, which has led to widespread misuse, dependence and addiction.

The report released on Tuesday from a special federal advisory committee shows that 1,036 people died from causes related to using opioids, mainly overdoses, from January to March. That brings the total number to more than 8,000 since the start of 2016. Most of the deaths were ruled to be unintentional.

The powerful painkiller fentanyl was involved in more than 70 per cent of the deaths, the report said. The rate of death is up 5 per cent from the same time period last year, and 44 per cent compared with the same time in 2016.

Prescription and illicit fentanyl were linked to 73 per cent of the deaths from January to March, an increase of 16 per cent from the same period last year and double the rate in 2016.

‘The crisis is not abating’: Opioids killing more than 11 Canadians daily

Filmed in fall 2017, the video itself is a powerful advocacy tool for Montenegro, and even though the length of the video is just 13 minutes, we managed to send a strong message – that Harm reduction in Montenegro works, and that it should be funded.

Juventas as an NGO started its work in 1996, and managed to be at the centre of events related to specific categories of people in Montenegro and their rights. Since 2004, we started our work with PWID and SW, and during the “golden years” of getting the Global Fund to fund our services, we have done really well. Obstacles were there, for sure, everywhere we went, but we managed to somehow work despite them, and we still do.

We showed the desire and effort to keep the program running after the departure of the Global Fund, when we were no longer eligible for funding as Montenegro had become a middle-income country. At that time, we were faced with reality – without funding, we were forced to close almost all existing services within our Drop-in Centres apart from the needle and syringe exchange within the Drop-in centre for persons who inject drugs. Fortunately, after a number of difficult months, our efforts paid off, and all our services started working again. The support of the Global fund matched with domestic funding for the next three years is conditionally provided.

In the documentary, we speak about our daily work, how we run our Drop-in centres and outreach work, what problems we are facing even after all these years of work, and what are the good sides of trying to make a change by doing harm reduction programs. Our clients had the opportunity to explain how services are meeting their needs, especially when related to peer workers’ support. In addition, the documentary also included an overview of our cooperation with governmental institutions, which has proven to be a constant effort aimed at improving the quality of cooperation that our clients will eventually benefit from.

Harm reduction in Montenegro

Thousands of public housing tenants in New Zealand will receive millions of dollars in compensation and an apology from the government for being wrongly evicted after incorrect meth testing of their homes. Under the previous government, Housing New Zealand (HNZ) ended more than 800 tenancies on the basis that the houses could be contaminated because methamphetamine had been cooked or smoked on the premises. Evicted tenants were advised to leave all their possessions behind, and were often barred from accessing state housing again, meaning they had to foot the bill for new homes, bonds, furniture, clothing and household goods. Some evicted tenants became homeless as a result of their evictions.

“There is currently no evidence that methamphetamine levels typically resulting from third-hand exposure to smoking residues on household surfaces can elicit an adverse health effect,” Gluckman concluded. “This means that, because the risk of encountering methamphetamine on residential surfaces at levels that might cause harm is extremely low, testing is not warranted in most cases.” said chief science adviser Sir Peter Gluckmen

Tenants who were evicted from their homes – regardless of whether they had smoked methamphetamine or not – would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, HNZ said. The tenant holder would receive up to NZ$3,000 (£1,500) in compensation, which would include costs associated with moving, securing new accommodation and buying new furniture and household goods.

Ross Bell from the New Zealand Drug Foundation said the compensation was too little given the devastation wrought, and said the housing minister, Phil Twyford, had indicated to him more money would be made available soon.

“The country got caught up in this widespread hysteria regarding meth contamination that drove all of the decision making. When experts tried to inject some science and rational thinking, they were ignored,” said Bell, who added that state housing stock that was urgently needed during the housing crisis was also unavailable due to ill-founded contamination fears.

“A lot of people just left their house with all the stuff in in because they were so fearful that everything was contaminated. The scale of this is just huge.”

 New Zealand to pay out millions after thousands wrongly evicted for drug use

At Melbourne’s first-ever safe-injecting room, people who come here to use heroin sometimes accidentally drop their stash into the large bin that sits against the wall.

When that happens, staff will help the person – strung out and now a little stressed – fish their drugs out of the rubbish. On their way out, they might have a blood test, their first dental check-up in years, or just a hot cup of Milo.

“We enable people to inject in the centre because that’s what they do,” the medical director, Nico Clark, tells Guardian Australia during a recent visit to the North Richmond Community Health Centre. “The majority are dependent on their substances. The purpose is not to be a place that facilitates injection per se, the purpose is to keep people alive.”

There have been 8,000 visits and 140 people had been treated for potentially life-threatening overdoses, according to recent figures. “This was [set up] to save lives, every indication is this facility is saving lives,” the mental health minister, Martin Foley, said as he revealed the statistics late last month.

But the centre’s location on Lennox Street, about 350 metres from the Vietnamese eateries of Victoria Street, and next door to Richmond West primary school, remains a point of contention. The Coalition opposition announced in April it would scrap the trial if it wins the election.

'It's saving lives': Community rallies to support Melbourne's drug-injecting room

The peak body for Australian doctors has called for clinical trials on pill testing after two people died of suspected overdoses at a Sydney music festival.

A 21-year-old Victorian woman and a 23-year-old Sydney man died and three more revellers were taken to hospital in a critical condition after the Defqon.1 music festival at Penrith on Saturday.

Australian Medical Association president Tony Bartone says law enforcement can't be the sole strategy when it comes to dealing with illicit drugs.

Pill testing allows people to anonymously submit samples for on-the-spot forensic analysis to determine their composition.

A trial at a major Australian music festival in 2016 found two in three people wouldn't consume a pill if a test showed it contained methamphetamine.

"It's an opportunity to try and inform ... about the dangerous consequences and try to get an opportunity to give them education and access to rehabilitation in terms of trying to reduce their drug dependency," Dr Bartone told Sky News on Monday.

Australian doctors body calls for pill testing trial

The Trump administration will open a week of high-level meetings at the United Nations General Assembly in New York with a drug policy event featuring President Donald Trump. Invites to the event are being doled out only to those countries that have signed on to a controversial, nonnegotiable action plan, according to documents obtained by The Intercept — among them the countries with the world’s most draconian drug laws.

The U.S.-sponsored event, called the “Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem,” is scheduled to take place next Monday, September 24, a day before Trump will speak before the General Assembly. The U.S. Mission to the U.N. hasn’t yet released many details about the event, but The Intercept obtained a copy of the finalized text — the “Call to Action” — that was sent to member states ahead of the meeting.

“It’s not an official document, it doesn’t go through any of the official channels, it’s not negotiated, and it is linked to the event that’s being put on by Trump that will include the secretary general,” said Hannah Hetzer, the senior international policy manager at the Drug Policy Alliance. “It seems to be a way to get countries to fall in line behind Trump and his administration. I think countries that sign this and then show up to this photo op should be very careful — they don’t really know what they are signing up to.”

The letter says that the U.S. is already “collaborating” with more than two dozen countries, including at least three — China, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore — that executed drug offenders last year, as well as other staunch proponents of tough drug laws, such as Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Also among those also listed as collaborators are countries with less draconian drug laws, like the United Kingdom, India, and Costa Rica. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, who was Portugal’s prime minister when the country decriminalized the use of all drugs in 2001, is expected to speak on Monday.

Trump administration plans U.N. meeting to ramp up the International Drug War

Levels of illegal drug use have risen by 1.9% between 2010/11 and 2014/15. The findings are included in Drug Use in Ireland and Northern Ireland, a study published today, and arise from data collected in the fourth Drug Prevalence Survey.

The results indicate that cannabis continues to be the most commonly used illegal drug and that the use of new psychoactive substances has dropped significantly.

Catherine Byrne, Minister for Health Promotion and the National Drugs Strategy, welcomed the publication of the findings.

She said some of the issues raised in the report are addressed by plans laid out in Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery – the government’s strategy on tackling substance abuse from 2017-2025.

“The strategy commits to developing targeted, appropriate and effective services for young people at risk of substance misuse, focused on socially and economically disadvantaged communities,” Byrne said. "I am aware that services on the ground are concerned about the rapid increase in numbers of young people taking benzodiazepines in combination with other substances."

Most respondents (74.5%) agree that people should be permitted to take cannabis for medical reason but disagree with the recreational use of the class B controlled substance.