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.

Thailand legislators overwhelmingly endorse medical cannabis legalisation

Antigua and Barbuda is set to legalise the regulated production and supply of cannabis for religious and medical purposes, following consultations with Rastafarian communities.

The Cannabis Bill 2018 has two main functions: regulating the production, prescribing, and supply of medical cannabis for patients; and permitting Rastafarians (and other religious groups) to possess, cultivate, and supply cannabis – at quantities exceeding existing thresholds - for religious purposes. The bill stops short of legalising cannabis for recreational purposes.

Following a legal amendment passed in March 2018, all adults can now legally possess less than 15 grams of cannabis, and cultivate a maximum of four plants, for personal use.

The new bill allows "an adherent of a religious body, including, but not limited to, the Rastafarian faith … [to] register with the Authority to" cultivate 

 four cannabis plants, and possess or transport 

 15 grams of cannabis, for religious purposes. It also allows such religious followers to “dispense cannabis solely for religious purposes as a sacrament in adherence to a religious practice of the religious body, at a sacramental dispensary”.

The bill is supported by Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who has publicly apologised for the brutal state discrimination against Rastafarian people found using cannabis. As 

 in February, Browne recalled personally witnessing police using excessive force against Rastafarian people for alleged cannabis offences:

Antigua and Barbuda set to pass inclusive cannabis regulation law

More than 100 drug offenders were arrested overnight during raids in nine provinces across the country, according to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB). Those apprehended were one narcotic producer, 26 drug traders, 18 drug possessors and 66 drug addicts who were taken to undergo the rehabilitation process.

More than 700 military, police and administrative officers took part in the raids, which were carried out in 32 districts of Chai Nat, Chon Buri, Chaiyaphum, Roi Et, Phrae, Uttaradit, Phetchaburi, Krabi and Trang, according to the ONCB's news briefing on Thursday on the anti-drug operation, code-named "1386".

Officers managed to seize 42,693 speed pills, or ya ba, 1,067.2 grammes of crystal meth, or ya ice, 2.6g of marijuana, 5.8kg of kratom leaves, 6.8 litres of kratom cocktail, two kratom plants, a marijuana plant and 1.2g of ketamine. They also recovered 18 firearms and 34 rounds of ammunition during the operation and confiscated 900,000 baht worth of valuables, according to officers.

Thailand: 100 arrested during drug raids

An Egyptian MP has proposed a draft law that would decriminalise the personal use of drugs, though the move has received a mixed response.

John Talaat, an independent MP and deputy governor of Cairo, has put forward draft legislation which would end the criminalisation of drug use, and offer people “treatment” instead. Talaat said this reform was necessarybecause “treatment is better” than “the cost that the state spends on [imprisonment]”. He also noted that many of those currently prosecuted for drug offences are young people, meaning that criminalisation is “wasting their future”.

Talaat suggested people found using drugs should receive “treatment ... for a period of time from 3 to 6 months, in order to address drug addiction” instead of incarceration, though he did not describe whether this would be mandatory.

Egypt MP proposes law to decriminalise all drug use

Today the Home Office released a review of its 2016 Psychoactive Substances Act (PSA) which introduced a blanket ban on the production, distribution, sale and supply of most psychoactive substances including former ‘legal highs’.

The review admits the PSA has failed to meet many of its goals - as predicted by experts:

While high street ‘Head Shop’ sales have stopped, the trade has just shifted to street dealers

The ‘cat and mouse’ game of new drugs coming onto the market as others are banned has continued

Use among children and the homeless have not fallen, and the review cannot say if overall drug use has fallen because even where adult use has reduced, people may have shifted to other banned substances instead

In prisons, use of synthetic cannabinoids (‘Spice’) in particular has increased while deaths directly attributable to NPS appear to have fallen in England and Wales, they have risen in Scotland

The review cannot tell if overall social and health harms have fallen because people may have just moved to other drugs - where deaths, for example from cocaine and MDMA use, have been rising sharply

Psychoactive substances act: UK government review admits extensive failure

Marijuana in Canada is now legal, and while the change is unlikely to have a significant impact on Latin America’s black market, it could trigger a shift towards more progressive international drug policies.

Recreational marijuana in Canada is now officially legal, and while the change is unlikely to have a significant impact on Latin America’s black market, it could trigger a shift towards more progressive international drug policies.

How Canada marijuana legalization impacts on Latin American drug policy?

The Greek health ministry is preparing a legislative amendment to permit the opening of drug consumption rooms in Athens, after a university’s claim that it’s overwhelmed by widespread public drug use.

The drug consumption rooms (DCRs) – if approved - will provide a hygienic environment and sterile equipment for people to consume drugs with under the supervision of trained medical staff, according to Greek newspaper, 

. Staff will keep a record of the service users, Health Minister Andreas Xanthos has said.

The ministry’s announcement, in late October, came after the Athens University of Economics and Business warned that it may have to close due to an overwhelming number of people using drugs in the campus area.

"In recent years, the [university has faced] difficult and complex problems due, among other things, to the degradation that has occurred in the wider area of its premises and the city centre of Athens […] due to the presence of drug addicts," a university spokesperson said.

“The problem [can be attributed to] insufficient policing, and it also concerns other policy areas such as health, education, social support structures, hygiene, the aesthetics of the city, and, in general, the application of the law,” the spokesperson added.

Greece health ministry plans drug consumption rooms

Non-medical prescription drug use has gained increasing attention due to the use of opioids in North America and recent concerns in rising stimulant use for neuroenhancement in Western states (Maier et al., 2018). Less attention, however, has been given to non-medical use of prescription stimulants and other drugs in Southern and Eastern regions where statistical data is also scarce. Recent debates also indicate the need to research polydrug use, i.e. use of prescription medications as substitutes or additions to the drugs of first choice. The UNODC World Drug Report 2018 addressed the issue of spreading psychotropic drug use among injecting users, highlighting quick replacement of illicit drugs in open drug scenes by prescription and other synthetic drugs. Policy questions are also especially topical due to the upcoming ministerial segment convened by the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March 2019. Thus, there remains a need for more research on user motives and polydrug use as well as policy responses regarding supply chains of prescription drugs.

Beyond prescription drugs: international perspectives on supply chains, polydrug use, and user motive

Last month, Mexico’s Supreme Court handed down two decisions that effectively overturned Mexico’s longstanding ban on the personal use of marijuana. The Court affirmed the power of the individual—rather than the state—to decide what to do with their own body. More importantly, it struck down a form of prohibition and brought the “war on drugs” in Mexico closer its end than ever before.

Both of us are plaintiffs in the two cases and, for the past decade, we have worked as drug policy reform advocates who have sought to decriminalize the use of cannabis in Mexico. The Supreme Court had already chipped away at the prohibition of cannabis on three previous occasions between 2015 and 2017. Coupled with its most recent decisions, Mexico’s Supreme Court has created a new precedent, one which lower courts must apply to their rulings.

As a result of these rulings, new criteria must be used by every judge across Mexico for cases concerning drug possession or use. This is no small thing; as recently as 2014, the Attorney General’s Office initiated almost 5,000 preliminary inquiries into “consumption”—and another 4,000 for “possession”—of marijuana, even though these activities are not punishable by law. This change may help reduce mass incarceration in Mexico.

Drug law reform comes to Mexico

Introduction to the Regional Harm Reduction Advocacy in Asia project:

India HIV/AIDS Alliance is principal recipient of the 

Global Fund Regional Harm Reduction Advocacy in Asia

 project (2017-2019) that involves 7 countries in Asia (India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines). The project aims to maximize impact of investments that help break the cycle of transmission among people who inject drugs in concentrated epidemics by addressing legal, policy and health system barriers that hinder necessary outreach and coverage of core services.

What is the Harm Reduction & Drug Policy Advocacy Fellowship Programme?

Harm Reduction & Drug Policy Advocacy Fellowship Programme

 (the Programme), managed by the International Drug Policy Consortium, aims to support the development of policy advocacy champions through mentoring and capacity building in the project countries (India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines). Three fellows will be selected from the project countries to participate in the Programme each year, selected against criteria demonstrating passion and commitment to policy advocacy, and potential for stimulating policy change.

The Programme this year will run from 1 January 2019 to 30 September 2019

. Fellows will each be matched with a mentor possessing a strong record of advocacy in harm reduction and/or drug policy in Asia.

Fellows are expected to stay in their pre-existing roles or employment, and to work towards completion of the workplan on a part-time basis only. They will receive a modest amount of financial support for delivering workplan outputs, eg. publication and meeting costs, as agreed with their mentor. Fellows may also have opportunities to participate in country and/or regional capacity-building and advocacy activities during the Programme.

Fellows will develop and implement their own 9-month workplan for harm reduction and drug policy advocacy together with a mentor, which could involve activities such as a policy analysis or research paper on a priority issue, organizing a policy dialogue and preparing a presentation for a policy dialogue.

Throughout the Programme year, and under a Memorandum of Understanding with their mentor, fellows will commit to:

develop and implement their workplan, in consultation with their mentor

initiate a monthly call (eg. via skype), for maximum one hour duration, with their mentor to discuss progress and seek feedback on implementation of their workplan, and

connect and communicate with other fellows and civil society colleagues on a regular basis, including as facilitated by IDPC and through participation in capacity-building activities as opportunities arise, to support regional knowledge and capacity transfer.

This Programme aims to support fellows who wish to boost their policy advocacy capacity to bring about change in a region with some of the most punitive policies against people who use drugs in the world.

Fellows are expected to stay in their pre-existing roles or employment, and to work towards completion of the workplan on a part-time basis only. They will receive a modest amount of financial support (USD5,000) for delivering workplan outputs, eg. publication and meeting costs.

IDPC will also work to ensure that fellows can meet their mentor in person at least once during the year, and have opportunities to network with other fellows and civil society advocates in the region, eg. through participation in capacity-building and advocacy activities implemented under the 

The Programme is limited to applicants working in one of the project countries: India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines. As Fellows in the 2018 Programme came from India, the Philippines and Indonesia, fellowship applicants from Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam will be prioritized in the 2019 Programme.

If you wish to apply for a fellowship in this year’s programme, please send the following to Ms. Areeluck Phankhian (aphankhian@idpc.net) by 

Statement of purpose for applying for this Fellowship

Outline of your proposed workplan, including objectives, rationale, expected outcomes, workplan activities and timeline with milestones, to be implemented throughout the duration of the Programme from 1 January 2019 to 30 September 2019.

Call for fellows: Asia regional harm reduction & drug policy advocacy fellowship 2019 programme

While Congress and the Trump administration were promoting greater use of the addiction medication buprenorphine to quell the opioid epidemic, a handful of states were licensing new methadone clinics in dozens of the nation’s hardest-hit communities.

The methadone treatment industry, which began in the late 1960s, grew more in the past four years than it has in the past two decades, said Mark Parrino, president of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, which represents methadone treatment providers.

Between 2014 and 2018, the methadone industry added 254 new clinics, according to data from the Drug Enforcement Administration. In the two decades before that, increases in the number of programs were only incremental, Parrino said. “We haven’t seen such a dramatic increase in the industry since the 1970s.”

Despite a national drumbeat for more science-based treatment for people addicted to prescription painkillers, heroin and other illicit opioids, the expansion of methadone clinics has mostly gone unheralded.

US: Some states add more methadone clinics to fight opioid epidemic

Have you ever wondered why are some drugs illegal and others are not? Because illegal drugs are more dangerous, you may think. But you are wrong! Watch the next episode of our Just Say Know series and learn why:

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