Turkey has legalised cannabis production in 19 provinces in order to crack down on illegal production, according to new regulations by The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock.

 in late September, “Hemp Cultivation and Control of Regulations” will allow highly-controlled and ministry-sanctioned cannabis production in the selected provinces for medical and scientific purposes.

Under the regulations, growers must obtain permission from the government allowing them to grow the plant for a three-year-period.

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

Turkey legalises controlled cannabis production in 19 provinces

By Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court

My Office is aware of worrying reported extra-judicial killings of alleged drug dealers and users in the Philippines, which may have led to over 3,000 deaths in the past three months. I am deeply concerned about these alleged killings and the fact that public statements of high officials of the Republic of the Philippines seem to condone such killings and further seem to encourage State forces and civilians alike to continue targeting these individuals with lethal force.

Extra-judicial killings may fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or "Court") if they are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population pursuant to a State policy to commit such an attack.

The Republic of the Philippines is a State Party to the ICC and as such, the Court has jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on the territory or by nationals of the Philippines since 1 November 2011, the date when the Statute entered into force in the Philippines.

Let me be clear: any person in the Philippines who incites or engages in acts of mass violence including by ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing, in any other manner, to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC is potentially liable to prosecution before the Court.

My Office, in accordance with its mandate under the Rome Statute, will be closely following developments in the Philippines in the weeks to come and record any instance of incitement or resort to violence with a view to assessing whether a preliminary examination into the situation of the Philippines needs to be opened.

Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda concerning the situation in the Republic of the Philippines

Katherine Bellegarde had just nodded off when she was sexually assaulted. It was six years ago. She was alone. Ms. Bellegarde, a drug user, had fallen asleep in the “chill room” of Insite, Vancouver’s public supervised-injection site.

“I was up for days and needed sleep,” she recalled in an interview outside the facility this week. “I went to the chill, I went to sleep. I only had a basketball shirt on. That’s how he was able to – I woke up to that.”

She ran outside and cried. For several weeks after, she injected in back alleys. What happened to Ms. Bellegarde at Insite is exceedingly rare. But, like her, a small segment of women – for whatever reason – do not feel fully comfortable using the co-ed facility. For them, Vancouver Coastal Health is planning a women-only supervised injection site in the Downtown Eastside.

Women-only supervised injection site to open in Vancouver

In an unprecedented move, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has posted a notice in the Federal Register stating that it is withdrawing its plans to ban kratom using emergency scheduling powers. The DEA instead is opening a public comment period ending December 1st. The official notice indicates that comments received by the DEA will be considered - along with formal input from the Food and Drug Administration - before a determination is made about scheduling kratom. The DEA's proposed ban on kratom, a medicinal plant used for millennia in Southeast Asia and currently used by millions in the U.S., was anticipated to go in effect as early as September 30.

Today’s announcement by the DEA comes amidst enormous pressure on the agency from the public and federal lawmakers to halt the proposed kratom ban. In recent weeks, prominent members of Congress, including Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), have sent letters to the DEA criticizing the kratom ban and calling on the agency to provide a public comment period. Today’s announcement is considered unprecedented for a law enforcement agency that has never backed down when using its controversial emergency scheduling powers.

In unprecedented move, Drug Enforcement Administration withdraws emergency kratom ban

The infamous war on drugs has for decades stirred controversies and violence. And 2016 is no different. Last month, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte asked for an extension for his war on drugs, saying in reference to those involved in the drug trade, “he cannot kill them all”. Since Mr. Duterte took office in May, however, more than 3,000 people have been killed in his crackdown. The violent impact of the ongoing battles against the narcotics trade around the world has led some to call for a liberalisation of drug policies. Proponents of such measures cite the failure of the war on drugs, the possibility of governments to tax the trade and a reduction in crime, amongst other aspects. Those opposed in turn argue that prohibition deters drug use and that a legalisation of cannabis for example could serve as a gateway to harder, more dangerous substances. Others worry about a legitimisation of a drug culture in society. Should more countries follow the example of Portugal, which decriminalised the possession of all drugs 16 years ago? Or do drug laws need to be further tightened to achieve success? The question for those in favour of liberalisation is also whether drugs should be decriminalised or, more drastically, fully legalised.

Should drugs be legalised?

“Hitler massacred three million Jews … there’s three million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”

These words, spoken by Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte in September, have become notorious worldwide.

Duterte has since apologised for the reference to the Holocaust. But alongside continued concern about the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines drug war, questions remain about whether there are actually three million drug users in the country – and whether they are addicts.

If true, drug users would represent 3% of the nation’s population – even higher than Thailand’s 1.8% (based on a recent estimate of 1.2 million), or Indonesia’s 1.8% based on an official (but questionable) estimate of 4.5 million.

Are there really three million “drug addicts” in the Philippines?

Just how big is the drug problem in the Philippines anyway?

Australia voiced its concern over human rights violations in the Philippines as the Philippine government continues its anti-narcotics campaign.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Monday urged Manila to stop extrajudicial killings and allow drug suspects to have face time with the local courts.

"The Australian government is concerned about ongoing reports of human rights violations in the Philippines and we are monitoring the situation closely," Bishop was quoted in the Australian Financial Review report as saying.

Australia urges Philippines: Stop extrajudicial killings

France’s first ever drug consumption room (DCR) is set to open in Paris this month, beginning the rollout of similar harm reduction sites in other cities across the country over the coming months.

Set in the Lariboisière Hospital in northeast Paris – an area that has reportedly witnessed high levels of problematic drug use - the DCR was inaugurated on October 11 and is due to officially open its doors on October 17.

The facility contains 12 spaces for people to use drugs intravenously, and an inhalation room for those who smoke. Operated by the Gaia Association, it will be open seven days a week from 1:30 pm to 8:30 pm and is designed to receive 300-400 visits per day.

France’s first drug consumption room inaugurated in Paris

To end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, the global response to HIV must leave no one behind, including people who inject drugs. It requires drug policies and HIV-related prevention, treatment, care and support services that meet both the human rights and the health needs of people who inject drugs.

Estimates show that worldwide there are approximately 12 million people who inject drugs, 1.6 million (14%) of whom are living with HIV and 6 million (50%) of whom are living with hepatitis C. HIV prevalence among women who inject drugs is often greater than among their male peers. UNAIDS estimates that 140 000 people who inject drugs were newly infected with HIV globally in 2014 and there has been no decline in the annual number of new HIV infections among people who inject drugs between 2010 and 2014.

Do no harm: health, human rights and people who use drugs

 shows that having laws and policies that do no harm to people who use drugs and increasing investments in harm reduction programmes and services results in a decrease in new HIV infections and improved health outcomes and delivers broader social benefits.

Ending AIDS by 2030 requires investment in harm reduction for people who inject drugs

In 2006, Felipe Calderón, then the incoming president of Mexico, vowed that change was coming to fix the problem of drug trafficking and drug-related violence. To fulfill this promise he sent the army into the streets and embarked on a full-on war against drug trafficking.

The year before he took over, Mexico’s homicide rate was 9.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. The rate soon doubled, prompting the government to deny there were any civilian victims: those dead in the war against drugs were either evildoers (drug traffickers) or heroes (the policemen and soldiers who fought them). A decade later, too many unknown victims have fallen in this war. The estimates are close to 150,000 dead and 28,000 missing. Mr. Calderón’s promise was epic; his strategy, simplistic.

The war of drug traffickers against the government and among themselves has expanded. In places like Tamaulipas, along the border with the United States, to speak out is often a death sentence. In what’s known as the Golden Triangle (Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa), controlled by the Sinaloa drug cartel, threats by “sicarios” (the cartel’s hit men) force the inhabitants to flee their communities. Tourist resorts are no longer sanctuaries. Acapulco is now the country’s most violent city, and one of the world’s most violent.

Thumbnail: Borderland Beat/Creative Commons

A decade of failure in the War on Drugs

To mark World Day Against the Death Penalty today, Thailand and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have reason to revisit and recommit efforts to abolishing capital punishment.

Much work remains to be done. Thailand, which has not executed anyone for seven years, and a few other Asean countries with capital punishment continue to hand down the death penalty on drug-related offences, which is unlikely to deter crime. It is the ultimate denial of the right to life and a violation of fundamental human rights.

Of the world's 198 countries, 102 have legally abolished the death penalty for all crimes. An additional 32 countries are abolitionist in practice since they have not executed anyone in the last 10 years and they have a policy or commitment not to carry out executions. Six countries reserve the death sentence only for the most serious crimes of culpable homicide and murders. Of the 58 countries that have not abolished the death penalty, just 25 carried out executions in 2015. However, of those 25 exceptions, four are member states of Asean. Thailand is not among them.

Asean moves boldly to end death penalty

Co-signed by Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland and Chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, and Senator Mark Golding, former Minister of Justice of Jamaica.

The Caribbean has been a major cocaine trafficking route for the last 50 years originating from outside the region, and many of its countries are now experiencing a problematic rise in the use of crack-cocaine. Furthermore, the region produces cannabis for domestic consumption.

The responses to the drug problem in the Caribbean were and are still quite different from one country to the other.

Some, such as Jamaica in 2015, have decriminalised the personal use of cannabis. Others, such as those in the Dutch Caribbean, have prioritised health and harm reduction over punishment. The majority, however, still favour a zero-tolerance approach to drugs, supported by the anti-narcotics activities of the United States and other consumer nations.

News