MANILA, Philippines — His record of arrest and detention for drug use during his youth did not discourage Johann “Panki” Nadela, now 49, from advocating a society that understands, not punishes or kills, people like him who need humane care and support the most.

Since 2015 when he cofounded a community drop-in center in Cebu City for people involved in drugs, Nadela has put a face to substance abuse in the country with his experience in drug addiction and its consequences—using his newfound resolve to help seek better options to the drug problem.

“It doesn’t need to be a war,” he said in an interview. “I believe that we can have an environment where persons who use drugs are not arrested, mistreated or killed, but are given the chance to be understood and reintegrated,” he said. “They can receive proper care and treatment and their rights to live normally are restored.”

The former intravenous or injecting drug user (IDU) is the executive director of IDUCARE, a Cebu City organization managed exclusively by former IDUs.

The group still carries its name despite changing terminologies steered by the United Nations and other international organizations to promote a more compassionate language—from IDU to persons who inject drugs (PWIDs), persons who use drugs (PWUDs) and persons involved in drugs.

Philippines: People with drug dependence turned advocates aim to change drugs narrative

On a sweltering Tuesday morning, a Vietnam War-era helicopter filled with judicial police officers and military explosives experts lifts into the sky above the Amazonian backwater town of San José del Guaviare, Colombia.

As it flies south, the mosaic of cattle pastures crisscrossed by red clay roads dissolves into patches of jungle disfigured by fresh deforestation. This is the Amazon frontier: a vague and constantly progressing delimitation between humankind and the wild. From the sky, the jungle seems infinite and paradisiacal. But the tensions that exist below are soon revealed in the form of iridescent green scars: patches of Erythroxylum coca, an innocuous-looking shrub whose leaves are the raw material for cocaine.

In the distance, a spindly smoke signal marks the point where the helicopter’s passengers wound disembark for a routine mission: the destruction of a cocaine laboratory hidden in the surrounding forest. It’s here, in one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, where the front lines of the war on drugs can be found.

Despite decades of economic and military support from the United States--ironically both the world’s largest consumer of cocaine and the largest bankroller of the 

--Colombia continues to lead global cocaine production, accounting for nearly 70% of the world’s supply. Years of prohibitionist policies have not achieved the promised reductions in coca and cocaine in Colombia. In fact, in the last few years, the country has produced more cocaine than at any other moment in history. Despite the clear failings of existing policies, the US government continues to insist on advancing this war, even in the face of 

opposition from Colombian President Gustavo Petro

Colombia’s forests, silent victims of the war on drugs

Iranian authorities have executed at least 173 people convicted of drug-related offences this year after systematically unfair trials, nearly three times more than this time last year, Amnesty International said today.

Executions for drug-related offences make up two thirds of all the executions carried out in Iran in the first five months of 2023 and have predominantly impacted people from marginalized and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Members of Iran’s persecuted and impoverished Baluchi ethnic minority account for around 20 per cent of the recorded executions despite making up only five per cent of Iran’s population.

“The shameless rate at which the authorities are carrying out drug-related executions, in violation of international law, exposes their lack of humanity and flagrant disregard for the right to life. The international community must ensure that cooperation in anti-drug trafficking initiatives do not contribute, directly or indirectly, to the arbitrary deprivation of life and other human rights violations in Iran,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“States and intergovernmental bodies must condemn the Iranian authorities, in the strongest terms, for these arbitrary executions, call for an official moratorium on all executions, send representatives to visit prisoners sentenced to death, and seek attendance at trials involving capital crimes. Given the crisis of impunity for mass arbitrary executions, they must also urgently pursue meaningful pathways for accountability.”

This year, the authorities have also significantly increased the number of overall executions for all crimes, with at least 282 people executed in total so far in 2023 – this is nearly double the number of executions that were recorded at the beginning of June last year. If the authorities continue to carry out overall executions at this alarming pace, they could kill nearly a thousand prisoners by the end of this year.

Prisons turned into killing fields in Iran as drug-related executions almost triple this year

Many people – including me – used to think it is quite difficult to sell harm reduction to politicians as an alternative to punitive drug policies. Decision makers like to be presented with simple solutions to complex problems. Rather than dealing with underlying inequalities and trauma, they prefer to use policing as a cosmetic tool to “clean” the streets of “deviant” groups, such as homeless people, people who use drugs, and sex workers. We often see how politicians support aggressive law enforcement policies in office and become promoters of harm reduction only after retirement.

But there are some refreshing exceptions: people who become decision makers after they have been engaged in harm reduction activism for a long time, courageously leading the way to new progressive drug policies. One of them is Nanna W. Gotfredsen, the founder of Danish Street Lawyers, a harm reduction organisation that has been at the forefront of drug policy reform in Denmark for several decades. One day she decided it was time to try herself in the world of politics – without becoming a professional politician. She ran for the national parliamentary elections as a candidate of the Moderate Party, with a very honest campaign, and secured a seat as the representative of the capital, Copenhagen.

We met and interviewed Nanna at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna in March 2023, a day after she made a very powerful speech at a side event on Scandinavian drug policies. We talked about how and why she decided to be an MP, why she does not identify as a politician, and how she can use her position to move drug policy reform forwards in Denmark.

An activist in parliament: An interview with Danish MP Nanna W. Gotfredsen

For the first time, regular and ongoing community drug-checking clinics are now available in Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin.

A drug user in his 20s, who lives in Wellington, is looking forward to visiting the new clinic. He prefers to get his drugs checked because he said it’s quite common for dealers to bulk out drugs with other substances in order to make more money.

"I was a little bit more relaxed knowing that what I was taking, what I spent my money on, isn't going to potentially kill me,” he said.

1720 drugs were checked to determine what was in them. A third of those were completely or partially different from what people thought they were

The new clinics, provided by the Needle Exchange Services Trust, are part of a nearly four-million-dollar government investment towards the cost of delivering drug-checking services and harm reduction advice.

Regular drug checking clinics now open in three cities of New Zealand / Aotearoa

from David Mansfield, the leading expert in the field, suggests that the ban on opium threatened last year by the Taliban has come to pass, and there is an estimated 80%+ reduction in Afghan opium production - which supplies some 95% of the European heroin market.

What are the implications of this opium ban for Afghanistan and the region; for global opium and heroin production, and for UK policy?

We outline three possible scenarios that could come out of recent developments in Afghanistan and put forward proposals for preparedness and risk mitigation.

 Opium ban is sustained, production is displaced to other regions

 Opium ban is sustained, displaced production does not meet demand, and synthetic opioids (and other drugs) fill the market void

Taliban opium ban: What the future holds

“Drugs were a way to escape from reality. But because of it, I have faced a lot of discrimination,” said Yukusna Kurumbang. “After a while I had no one around me. No friends I could contact. I have my family but they do not trust me. I am trying to improve.”

There aren’t many resources at Ms. Kurumbang’s disposal. She’s fashioned her own path to recovery including volunteering with YKP Lead Nepal—a youth-led organisation.

“I’m investing in myself and others to escape drugs,” she explained. “I’m trying to control my mind.”

The organisation’s President, Rojal Maharajan, recalls the feeling of isolation he too faced while using: “It’s very humiliating—the gossiping and negative comments. My family also got sick and tired of me. Eventually I had no one to tell about my problems and my mental health status.”

He started his advocacy eight years ago after a successful rehabilitation stint.

“I wanted to do this work to make sure young people who use drugs are treated as human beings. They deserve to have a good life and better opportunities,” he said.

These deeply personal perspectives help YKP Lead Nepal respond to the addiction challenge facing Nepal’s youth. And it’s a complex challenge.

 of the human rights situation of people who use drugs in Nepal by the International Drug Policy Consortium, Recovering Nepal, YKP LEAD Nepal and Youth Rise International. It notes that the Narcotic Drugs Act criminalises not only drug possession, but addiction itself. According to a 2019 survey of people who use drugs, almost half had been arrested for drug use or a related offence. Among people who injected drugs the arrest rate shot up to 63%. 

Demanding more options for young people who use drugs in Nepal

“I first started taking drugs when I was 15,” says 49-year-old Prapat Sukkeaw. “I smoked marijuana, but it was laced with heroin. I felt like I was floating, and it meant that I could forget about all the problems that I faced as a teenager. It was a beautiful feeling.”

Prapat Sukkeaw is one of an estimated 57,000 people who currently injects drugs in Thailand. His drugs of choice, marijuana and heroin, reflect a period in Thailand’s recent history when both illegal narcotics were the main stimulants being trafficked out of the storied Golden Triangle, a remote and somewhat inaccessible region which includes northern Thailand as well as Myanmar and Laos.

Employed by a non-governmental organization (NGO), he has on occasion wanted to give up heroin due to pressure from family and friends. Now, he has recognized that, even if he admits to being addicted, taking drugs “is my preference and my right”. He has now started taking the synthetic drug methamphetamine, as heroin has become progressively more expensive.

His focus has moved from abstaining from drugs to living with the side effects and managing the potential harm of their prolonged use, for example by not sharing needles.

Like all Thai citizens, Mr. Sukkeaw has access to universal health care, but he found that as a person who uses drugs, he was stigmatized and discriminated against by health care workers. He was referred to Ozone, an NGO based in a suburb of the Thai capital, Bangkok.

Ozone’s goal is to reduce the health and social impacts of drug addiction, promoting abstinence, but also supporting clients who want to carry on using and ensuring that they have access to the health services they require.

Thailand: Moving from punishment to treatment of people who use drugs

Burundi has historically lacked any protection of the rights of people who use drugs. So much so, in fact, that when the Burundi Network of People who Use Drugs was set up, they were contacted by government agents to change their name to the Burundi Association of People who 

 People (BAPUD), as they are now known, to ensure they’re seen as dissuading people from using drugs. 

 was founded in 2017 as part of the East African HR-HIV sub-regional project, where the Burundian organisation 

 (Burundian Alliance against AIDS) helped direct funds to establish this network. Since then, BAPUD has been fighting to uphold the human rights of people who use(d) drugs, particularly by ensuring they have access to health interventions their population needs.

HIV remains a key threat for people who use drugs in Burundi. The American President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) found 

 that 1% of Burundian adults between the ages of 15-49 were HIV positive. Prevalence was higher among older age groups (2.1% among 50–54 year-olds), and particularly within female populations, that had higher (3.2%) rates than men (2.1%) within this age group. Prevalence was three times higher in urban than rural areas. A 

 found that around 10% of tested Burundians who inject drugs were HIV positive. This figure was replicated in the 

 which found 10.2% seroprevalence in identified hotspots in the capital in 2019.

Despite these rates, bringing harm reduction to the East African nation has been an uphill battle. As UNAIS reported on Burundi 

: “Drug use is widely criminalised and stigmatised and its complexities misunderstood.” This widely stems from the lack of national acknowledgement of injecting drug use, preventing evidence-based harm reduction interventions from getting public support.

“You can find 8 to 10 users for the same needle” a member of BAPUD told a Burundian news outlet in 

. This stark reality needed an immediate intervention, one that they took into their own hands.

“Because all harm reduction services are not allowed in Burundi, like MAT [Medication Assisted Treatment] programme, NSP [Needle and Syringe Programmes], BAPUD staff board took a dangerous decision to do a hidden NSP inside hotspots,” a BAPUD member told TalkingDrugs, on the condition of anonymity.

BAPUD staff began in February 2019 to educate six drug using peers to distribute syringes in Bujumbura, Burundi’s largest city, to 400 identified intravenous drug users. Beyond providing them with sterile equipment, they trained peers to educate others on the risks of sharing needles, to signpost people with skin infections to existing health services, and to connect new injecting users with HIV-related associations. This attests to BAPUD’s health-centred approach to drug use, stemming from their involvement with regional HIV alliances like the 

“Each drug user was given a syringe to be used during a short period like one month until the next day of distribution. We also taught them to sterilise needles before re-using. This was not a legal programme, to ensure that BAPUD was not exposed and then erased like other Burundian NGOs,” a member of BAPUD explained to TalkingDrugs.

“This programme had to be done just like drug dealers: during the night to escape all suspicious eyes. The injecting drug users were educated and told during the day that the peer educator will pass in certain hotspots to distribute syringes,” he added.

Funding for syringes was collected from the community, primarily BAPUD members with enough to contribute. However, the lack of external funding from public or private agencies meant that the programme ended after 10 months, in November 2019.

“They [people injecting drugs] appreciated the project, because as you know, nothing about us without us. They believed in us because we are the same.”

“Some of them still ask us to do it [restart the NSP] but we fear the repression. We could be jailed.”

Police harassment, extortion and imprisonment are common challenges to BAPUD’s work. Police will frequently come to drug using hotspots, and demand bribes in exchange for people’s freedom. Earlier this year, police was called to one of these hotspots, arresting several BAPUD members, including three peer educators, after a police officer claimed they had threatened to beat him. Two members remain in prison, unable to pay the fine of $30 USD for their release.

One of BAPUD’s largest concerns is that the lack of recognition of a worsening condition not just for people who use drugs, but other key populations as well. HIV prevalence rates have continued to spiral for key populations. The latest Annual Report on the National Fight Against AIDS (PNLS-IST) of 2021 [available for download below]

The lack of updated information on health indicators does not only apply to drug using populations. There is a general lack of evidence on other marginalised groups: the most recent study on HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men and sex workers was conducted 

, which estimated 4.8% and 21.3% prevalence, respectively.

Until then, BAPUD continues to support the growing population of injecting drug users, however they can. “If no advocacy like ours is done, drug users from Burundi will continue to be victims of the Government’s war on drugs.”

If you wish to get in touch with BAPUD, they are contactable through their

“During the night to escape all eyes”: Underground harm reduction in Burundi

Uganda, compared to its neighbouring countries, continues to have a harsh enforcement of drug prohibition. That is why news broke two weeks ago that the Controlled Substances Act was nullified, it reverberated across the international community.

This surprising decision came out after news in early May about a petition filed in 2017 by Wakiso Miraa Growers and Dealers Association Limited, a group of miraa (

) Ugandan cultivators. This petition sought to repeal the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Act of 2016, challenging that there had been a lack of quorum by Parliament during its passing, meaning that there had not been enough parliamentarians present during its vote to qualify as a constitutional decision.

Understandably, the news that a Drug Control Act had been repealed led to

 from some, claiming that the drugs it controlled were now, somehow, legal. But the Judiciary Court

, “the substances previously restricted under the National Drug Policy and Authority Act [2016] remain restricted… For now, it should be known that the Constitutional Court did not and has never legalised the use of the restricted drugs and/or substances under the impugned law.”

This is because the National Drug Policy and Authority Act of

 still remains in place; and while it is an antiquated document – still referring to cannabis as “Indian hemp” – that mostly served to implement the UN’s international control schedules in Uganda, it still prohibited the consumption, sale and production of controlled substances.

TalkingDrugs contacted Isaac Ssemakadde, a human rights lawyer that represented Wakiso, to understand the story behind the nullification, and what this means for drug control in Uganda. Behind the cannabis-focused headlines laid an incredulous story of political mishaps, erroneous enforcement of khat’s criminalisation, and the unjust arrest of hundreds of people using, growing and selling this plant across Uganda.

Uganda's cannabis news unveiled a deeper systemic injustice

Mexico’s president has been the first North American leader 

 the outright ban of the medical use of fentanyl, as relationships between his country and its northern neighbour sour through the handling of the overdose crisis.

The traffic of fentanyl from Mexico across to the US has strained relationships between both countries: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has 

 in the past that his government is doing more to control the drug than their northern neighbours, and that the American overdose crisis is more related to the decay of family and moral values than about the drugs.

Fentanyl in North America is the iron law of prohibition in action

While concerns with drug deaths involving fentanyl are important to highlight, banning their use from medical contexts will do nothing to stem deaths. This is primarily because fentanyl is 

 the heroin (and increasingly other substances’) supply. As a 

, small quantities of it can be mixed into -or entirely replace – many drugs to potentiate their effects. However, this can have deadly effects as consumers are not aware that this is going on unless they 

. Since its introduction into the North American heroin and benzodiazepine drug supply (which happened as early as

, fentanyl has come to dominate drug markets.

Fentanyl’s infiltration of the North American market is an example of the iron law of prohibition 

 of opioid medication like OxyContin to North American patients, as well as lax regulation on prescribing, created a massive demand for this class of drugs. After the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention 

 of opioids in 2016, cracking down on pill mills and excessive prescribing, the disappearance of a safe supply of this drug alongside massive demand created the perfect conditions for a potent, easily imported and manufactured substitute to appear.

Mexico's threat to ban medical fentanyl is painfully misguided

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

GENEVA (23 June 2023) – The international community must replace punishment with support and promote policies that respect, protect and fulfil the rights of all, UN experts* said today. Ahead of the

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking 2023, they called for transformative change in the international approach to drugs, focusing on health and other human rights and issued the following statement:

“The ‘war on drugs’ may be understood to a significant extent as a war on people. Its impact has been greatest on those who live in poverty, and it frequently overlaps with discrimination directed at marginalised groups, minorities and Indigenous Peoples. In our reporting and experience, we have 

 that such discriminatory impact is a common element across drug policies with regard to the widest range of human rights, including the right to personal liberty; freedom from torture, ill-treatment and forced labour; fair trial rights; the right to health, including access to essential medicines, palliative care, comprehensive drug prevention and education, drug treatment, and harm reduction; the right to adequate housing; freedom from discrimination and the right to equal treatment before the law; right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; cultural rights and freedoms of expression, religion, assembly and association.

Globally, drug control has had massive costs for the dignity, humanity and freedom of people of African descent, with reports showing that people of African descent face disproportionate and unjust law enforcement interventions, arrests and incarceration for drug-related offences. In various countries, the ‘war on drugs’ has been more effective as a system of racial control than as a tool to reduce drug markets. Policing interventions based on racial profiling remain widespread, whilst access to evidence-based treatment and harm reduction for people of African descent remains critically low.

Around the world, women who use drugs face significant stigma and discrimination in accessing harm reduction programmes, drug dependence treatment and basic health care. Although one in three people who use drugs are women, women constitute only one in five people in treatment. Women are also 

 affected by criminalisation and incarceration, with 35% of women in prison worldwide having been convicted of a drug-related offence compared to 19% of men. The causes of women’s interaction with the criminal justice system in relation to drugs are complex, often linked to other factors such as poverty and coercion, and may reflect systemic gender inequality in society more broadly. Of note, most women in prison for drug related offences have little education.

Under international law, States that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose capital punishment for the ‘most serious crimes’, meaning crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing. Drug offences clearly do not meet this threshold. However, drug-related offences are still punishable by death in over 30 countries, and human rights experts have raised concerns about evidence of its discriminatory impact on individuals belonging to minorities.

Everyone without exception has the right to life-saving harm reduction interventions, which are essential for the protection of the right to health of people who use drugs. However, according to UN 

, only 1 in 8 people with drug dependence have access to appropriate treatment, and the coverage of harm reduction services remains very low. The situation is particularly critical for women, LGBTIQ+ persons, and other marginalised groups, for whom harm reduction and treatment services may not be adapted or respond to their specific needs. Women and LGBTIQ+ persons also face even higher levels of stigma, including self-stigma, and discrimination than men who use drugs.

As the world grows older, drug use among people over 65 has also increased. The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the health and well-being of older persons, and studies show an increased use of pain relievers, tranquillizers, and sedatives among this age group. Older drug users are also more often using the dark web, social media, and online forums to obtain illicit substances resulting in a rise of drug-related deaths among older populations.

The criminalisation of substances traditionally used by Indigenous Peoples such as the coca leaf can also result in the suppression, undermining and marginalization of traditional and indigenous knowledge systems and medicine, which has wide-ranging health impacts and is rooted in discriminatory hierarchies and conceptions. Forced eradication of crops, including through the aerial spraying of highly hazardous pesticides, can cause serious harm to the environment and clean water, as well as to the health and welfare of Indigenous communities. Indigenous Peoples that might be affected by these and other drug control operations must be meaningfully consulted, and guarantees should be given that their lives, cultural practices, lands and natural resources are not violated.

Criminal laws and the punitive use of administrative and other sanctions stigmatise already marginalised populations. Criminalisation results in significant barriers to access to health services (including those for HIV and palliative care) and in other human rights violations. As called for by the UN system Common Position on drug-related matters, drug use and possession for personal use should be decriminalised as a matter of urgency. Drug use or dependence are never a sufficient justification for detaining a person. Compulsory drug detention and rehabilitation centres need to be closed and replaced with voluntary, evidence-informed, and rights-based health and social services in the community.

“People first: stop stigma and discrimination, strengthen prevention”

 the United Nations and the international community have a historical responsibility to reverse the devastation brought about by decades of a global ‘war on drugs’ on communities that have been marginalised and discriminated against.

, we call on Member States and all UN agencies to ground their drug policy responses in international human rights law and standards. States and international bodies that provide financial or technical assistance on drug policy should ensure that these policies are gender-responsive while upholding and actively seeking to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

We urge Member States and international bodies to supersede their current drug policies with ones grounded in the principles of the application of a comprehensive, restorative and reintegrative justice approach. Effective, community-based, inclusive, and preventive measures are equally important.

Now more than ever, the international community must replace punishment with support and promote policies that respect, protect and fulfil the rights of all.”

Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights

Meskerem Geset Techane and Melissa Upreti

Working Group on discrimination against women and girls

Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences

Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity

Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities

Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

Special Rapporteur on the right to education

Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences

Special Rapporteur on trafficking in person

Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism

Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment

Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples

Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons

Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes

of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work voluntarily; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.

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