Chinese officials have called for an intensification of counter-narcotic efforts, after months of strengthening the country’s international drug control ties with neighbouring nations.

Guo Shengkun, Minister of Public Security and head of the National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC), said on March 23 that an intensified crackdown would reduce drug use. In order to do this, he said, counter-narcotic policy should target people who produce and traffic drugs, and "[control] drug user groups", state broadcaster CCTV reports.

In October 2016, President Xi Jinping met with Rodrigo Duterte, the President of the Philippines who is responsible for the mass slaughter of people allegedly involved with drugs. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that Jinping's government would "[support] the new Philippine government's efforts in drug control", among other security issues.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

China vows to intensify drug war

Tell me a bit about the Rights Reporter Foundation and its involvement in harm reduction in Hungary.

The Rights Reporter Foundation (RRF) is a relatively new organization. I founded it two years ago with István Gábor Takács, with whom I have been working in the field of harm reduction and drug policy reform for more than ten years. Before starting it, we both worked for the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU). RRF is a human-rights organization that aims to improve evidence-based policymaking by educating the public and giving vulnerable people a voice. We also train other NGOs and activists to work with the media, and to produce and use videos for advocacy.

Péter Sárosi on the struggle to fund harm reduction in Hungary

New HIV infections among people who inject drugs have increased by a staggering one third, from 114,000 in 2011 to 152,000 in 2015. Supporting people with harm reduction services such as methadone programmes and providing clean injecting equipment helps keep individuals safer and curbs new infections.

While many governments are reluctant to support harm reduction approaches (as was evident in the disappointing outcome of UNGASS 2016), events like the recent Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) present important opportunities for civil society to influence governments to put international agreements around drug policy into practice.

On 12-17 March, I represented AIDS Care China at the 60th session of the CND in Vienna, where drug control agencies from all over the world meet to discuss drug policy. At a side event organised by the Alliance in partnership with Aidsfonds, International Drug Policy Consortium and Harm Reduction International, I presented AIDS Care China’s experiences of working with local governments in Yunnan and Hubei provinces to pilot and promote community-based drug treatment and harm reduction service models.

How civil society can influence national drug policy

Community based treatment capacities in Cambodia received a significant boost today, through a coordinated training package that aims to strengthen community-based health services for people who use drugs. The training follows a high-level symposium of ASEAN countries and China held late last year that announced a launch of a new approach to strengthen voluntary community-based health services throughout the region.

As reported in the third Regional Consultation on Compulsory Centres for Drug Users in Asia and the Pacific, 21-23 September 2015, Manila, Philippines, governments from seven countries in the ASEAN region estimated there are close to half a million people confined to compulsory drug treatment centres on a annual basis, usually for use or possession of methamphetamine. At the same time, the effectiveness of drug treatment in centres with prison like conditions has been called into question. Voluntary community level health and counselling programmes for drug users are still insufficiently available not just in Cambodia, but region-wide. In Cambodia, capacities to deliver treatment to people who use drugs are currently in need of more support.

Establishing community based drug treatment in Cambodia

The number of people being arrested for drug trafficking has reached an unprecedented level in Nepal, suggesting the country may be becoming a regional drug transit hub.

According to Nepal's Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), over 16,700 people were charged with drug smuggling or trafficking offences between 2011 and 2016, the Himalayan Times reports. In 2016 alone, a total of 3,696 people were arrested for such offences - marking a 39 per cent rise when compared with the previous year.

Cannabis is, by far, the most common drug being smuggled from or through Nepal, however significant quantities of heroin, opium, and cocaine have also been seized by the NCB.

Has Nepal become a major drug transit country?

Pregnancy holds a special space in most societies; it is a biological necessity for species preservation and represents the promise of future generations. Pregnancy is thought by many to bestow upon women an extra layer of societal protection and care. Social conventions dictate that pregnant women be given priority seating on buses, trains and other forms of transport and in lines for rest rooms and priority rescue during natural disasters. We believe ourselves to be solicitous and helpful to pregnant women and accord them an extra measure of respect.

But in many ways in the United States the treatment of pregnant women has been and continues to be class specific. Poor and working-class women often find pregnancy a difficult time, especially if they have jobs that don't offer health care benefits, sick time or maternity leave. Those challenges can make pregnancy difficult enough without the extra worry of health care providers and/or aggressive prosecutors looking over your shoulders and sometimes even examining your urine to make sure you aren't engaging in activities they consider 'harmful' to your fetus. In the aftermath of the crack cocaine media hysteria of the 1980s, laws that were enacted to give more protection to women who were physically assaulted while pregnant - began to be used against pregnant women. Punitive prosecutors and anti-choice advocates promoted the idea that the most dangerous place for certain children is their mother's womb. It appears that we are seeing a similar response to the increasing use of opiates by pregnant women.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Policing pregnancy is bad for public health

Ruth Dreifuss, Chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and former President of Switzerland, is on a brief visit to Thailand to meet with the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Minister of the Interior and the Governor of Bangkok, to exchange views and experiences on drug policy.

After having also visited the Ozone Foundation and listened to members of other non-governmental organizations that offer treatment and harm reduction measures, Ruth Dreifuss met today with members of the press at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand. At this event, she presented the recent report of the Global Commission, Advancing Drug Policy Reform: a new approach to drug decriminalization, and expressed her hope that Thailand would make important steps toward implementing such an approach.

Early this year, the government of Thailand decided to reform its drug laws, by lowering the penalties for drug use and possession and opening a debate on ending compulsory treatment for people who use drugs, as well as more effective ways to address methamphetamines.

Ruth Dreifuss said, “Drug policy in Thailand is, on the one hand, a model for the way it developed alternative economic perspectives for farmers, resulting in a peaceful eradication of the illicit cultivation of poppies. On the other, it has employed repressive policies that have had negative consequences for people who use drugs and their communities, producing prison overcrowding and spreading the HIV/AIDS epidemic, without reducing the presence of drugs. The Global Commission fully supports the Government of Thailand’s initiative to open the debate and consider more effective measures in preventing social and health harms, measures aligned with the principles of proportionality, dignity and human rights.”

The report Advancing Drug Policy Reform: a new approach to drug decriminalization details the destructive and harmful consequences of the punitive approach to drug policy. It shows how ending punishment does not mean encouraging or condoning the use of drugs, but rather it empowers individuals and communities, promotes better prevention and easier access to treatment, and builds confidence between the State and the citizens.

“On this visit, I hope to contribute, by sharing my experiences and those of my colleagues at the Global Commission, to the current debate on defining appropriate drug policies that are adapted to the particular environment and needs of Thailand,” said Madam Dreifuss.

Thailand on its way to a less punitive and more human rights and health-centred drug policy

Members of the newly formed Eastern African Harm Reduction Network (EAHRN) regrouping the following countries: Kenya, Burundi, Seychelles, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda & Mauritius, and of which 

 is a board member, met in Nairobi to develop its mission, vision, and strategic objectives. The team is expected to meet soon to finalise the various documents needed to register the network, and recruit a coordinator.

Eastern African Harm Reduction Network Meeting, Nairobi March 2017

Promessa de campanha do Partido Liberal do Canadá, legalização da cannabis pode acontecer em julho do ano que vem. O uso recreativo ainda é proibido do país. Mais informação em inglês está disponível abaixo.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government is reportedly planning to announce legislation that will legalise recreational marijuana use across the country.

Under the proposals, producers would be licensed and the national age limit to buy it would be set at 18, although some provinces would be allowed to set it higher.

Canadians who want to grow their own marijuana would be limited to four plants per household.

Canadá pode legalizar maconha em 2018

The Western Cape High Court has made a landmark ruling, declaring that it is an infringement to ban the use of dagga by adults in private homes.

In making the ruling on Friday, it has allowed for the possession, cultivation and use dagga at home, for private use.

It has also ruled that Parliament must change sections of the Drug Trafficking Act, as well as the Medicines Control Act.

South Africa: Cannabis can be used in the home, Western Cape High Court rules

Drugs offences in Malaysia will no longer be hit with an automatic death sentence, as the country’s government plans to give more power of discretion to the courts system.

The country’s cabinet took the decision after a review of the country’s drug legislation and the recommendation of attorney general Mohamed Apandi Ali to loosen the punishments.

Malaysia will still carry the death penalty for other serious offences such as murder and gun crime.

Malaysia loosens drug stance with removal of mandatory death sentence

An expert panel of doctors will tomorrow begin to draw up guidelines on how medicinal cannabis can be prescribed in Ireland.

Describing it as “a pivotal step”, Health Minister Simon Harris said the expert reference group, chaired by Dr Mairín Ryan of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), would start drafting guidelines on how the drug can be dispensed.

Patients and clinicians will also have a say on the guidelines which are to become the main building blocks of the Cannabis Access Programme (CAP) which Harris announced at the start of the year.

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