Debates have begun in Guatemala’s Congress over whether or not the country should regulate cannabis, but given the country’s conservatism and history of stalled reform attempts, tangible change appears unlikely.

The public discussions opened late last month after Congressman Alvaro Velasquez of the socialist Convergencia party introduced a bill in April that proposes regulating both recreational and medicinal cannabis.

Various different stakeholders will feed into the debates, which are set to run until August. Following this, a decision will be made as to whether the proposal goes for a full congressional debate.

Velasquez emphasised the need to approach Guatemala's drug policies from a health rather than criminal justice perspective. He also underscored that regulation could have economic benefits for the state and could alleviate pressure on the country's overburdened prison system.

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

Guatemala begins debating cannabis regulation

In July, Italy's parliament will begin debating historic changes to cannabis laws that could see the drug legalized.

On July 25th, the draft legislation will be presented in Italy's lower house for the first time. The following day, politicians will begin voting on whether or not to send the bill through to the upper house for final approval.

If new laws are passed, how will things change?

Obviously, the proposals being debated will probably undergo some amendments if they are to make it into law. However, in their current form proposals would allow:

Possession: Citizens will be able to hold up to 15 grams of herb at home and take up to five grams with them when they go out and about.

Cannabis growth: People will be free to cultivate a maximum of five plants at home but will be forbidden from selling what they grow.

Growers will be allowed to join together to form social clubs of no more than 50 members, where they can swap and share their produce. They will, however, be forbidden from selling the fruit of their labour.

Sale: Cannabis will be on sale in stores licensed by a state monopoly. Five percent of all revenue from sales will go towards fighting the war on illegal drugs in Italy.

Restrictions: While the drug will be readily available, it will be forbidden to smoke it in public places, including parks. Driving while high will also be illegal, as will exporting the drug.

How and why Italy's cannabis laws could soon change

The Andrey Rylkov Foundation, the only harm reduction NGO working in Moscow, has been declared a foreign agent by the Russian government.

The Andrey Rylkov Foundation (ARF) is the only NGO that provides sterile needles and syringes to injecting drug users in Moscow. This fact seems incredible, when you consider that Russia is a country with a rapidly growing HIV epidemic, which is largely driven by the sharing of injecting equipment. ARF workers are up against government hostility, lack of domestic financial resources, the retreat of international donors, and public apathy, when they go out onto the streets of Moscow every day to help marginalised young people.

We have been allies with ARF for several years. In 2012 we produced a movie about the organisation, to promote their fundraising campaign on Global Giving. A few years later, when they published content on their website about the effectiveness of opiate substitution treatment, the government blocked the site. Drugreporter was happy to help and we have been hosting their website to this day.

Unfortunately, it seems this was not enough for Putin’s government. ARF was recently included in the list of so called “foreign agents” - that is, non-governmental organisations that the Russian government regards as presenting a threat to national security because they receive funding from international donors. Inclusion on this list means stigma for an NGO, to a degree which makes normal operation and cooperation with other organisations almost impossible.

Russian harm reduction workers under attack

We are at a crucial moment in Canadian drug policy. The federal government has declared a restored commitment to harm reduction and public health, and is open again to discussions with civil society.

As evidence of this new dialogue, on June 17, we welcomed the federal Health Minister, Dr. Jane Philpott to Toronto to deliver opening remarks at “Decriminalization & Regulation: A Public Health & Human Rights Approach” — the 2nd national conference on 

Charting the Future of Drug Policy in Canada

 (co-sponsored by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, the Canadian Public Health Association, and with support from the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse). Over the course of the day, nearly 200 policy-makers, researchers, advocates, service providers and community members discussed the future of Canada’s drug policy and how we can learn from other jurisdictions.

Minister Philpott took the occasion to announce several initiatives aimed at addressing the current public health crisis of opioid misuse, including the mounting number of overdose deaths. Some of these were heartily welcomed by the audience, such as steps to increase access to naloxone and to increase access to treatment for problematic opioid use. Others, such as measures aimed at reducing the prescription of opioid medications by physicians, provoked some serious questions about potentially harmful
consequences of an overly restrictive approach. Dr. Philpott reiterated her commitment to ongoing consultation with civil society, including in the lead-up to a “summit on opioid abuse” she will convene later this year.

Of course, any discussion of drug policy must include the voices of people who use drugs. Jordan Westfall, President of the Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs (CAPUD), delivered a dynamic speech immediately following the Health Minister, and CAPUD members from across the country made up a large and articulate contingent, ensuring that policy-makers and politicians participating in the conference heard directly from those most affected.

In addition, attendees heard a riveting keynote speech from Joanne Csete, former Legal Network Executive Director and lead author of the report of the 2016 Johns Hopkins─Lancet Commission on Drug Policy and Health, and rousing closing comments from Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS-Free World.

One major session focused on cannabis. Lewis Koski, of Colorado’s Department of Revenue, discussed that state’s experience with legalizing and regulating cannabis. Eric Costen, the head of the new Health Canada secretariat on cannabis regulation, reiterated the government’s commitment to hearing from civil society (including people who use drugs) as it moves forward with legalization in Canada. Several interventions from the floor rightly questioned why, in the interim, the federal government is refusing to decriminalize simple possession of cannabis and continuing to criminalize people for something that the government has decided to legalize.

The conference also explored the need for drug policy reform beyond just cannabis legalization. Dr. João Goulão, Director-General of Portugal’s addictions agency, spoke about his country’s experience since decriminalizing the possession for personal use of all drugs in 2001. He presented data showing a remarkable decrease in overdose and drug-related deaths, as well as in the number of new HIV infections attributed to injection drug use. Other presenters highlighted the harms occurring under the current regime of prohibition, advocating instead a public health–oriented approach to all currently-illegal substances.

Overall, the urgent need for action was palpable — as the Minister declared of the overdose epidemic: “We are in a crisis.”

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

Charting the future: Shifting drug policy in Canada

The government will push to remove provisions of the country’s anti-narcotics law that require drug users to register with authorities and stipulates prison time for those who fail to do so, according to Colonel Zaw Win Tun of the Myanmar Police Force.


The requirement, laid out in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law of 1993, has been deemed in violation of Myanmar’s human rights commitments under the UN charter, and the decision to remove the provisions comes following a review of the legislation conducted jointly with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

“The existing law states drug users shall register and if not, they shall be imprisoned. Now we are trying to amend the law and remove the provision [requiring drug users to register],” the police colonel told 

Registration provision for drug users on chopping block in Myanmar

How many of us actually know that the origins of the United Nations' (UN) ban on harmful drugs go back to the imperial drug trade in Bengal from 1757 to 1925? A revisit to colonial history in South Asia would give us the right answer.

P. Godfrey, in a letter to Fort William in March 1757, indicated that the British East India Co. (BEIC) established its monopoly trade in opium along the West Coast by October 1754, and had 'prohibited' all other parties 'from trading therein'. A similar intent animated the BEIC for capturing the political throne of the Kingdom of Bengal within a span of three years. George Watt, in 1891, documented that the sudden attack by Siraj-ud Daula over the Kashimbazar military base broke the supply line of Patna opium to the British, and that led to the Battle of Plassey in the following year. A similar content was maintained by James F. Finley in 1894, that suggests Siraj-ud Daula's attack drove the English merchant out of the drug market, with the 'cultivation of opium being greatly restricted'.

Upon capturing state power, the BIEC founded the Bengal Government Opium Monopoly in 1773. China became the major market where the British smugglers forcefully drifted illicit opium into different port cities. It resulted in 30 percent addict population in China, of whom 10 percent were chronic patients, coupled with the losing of silver currency to the British. In a futile attempt, the Chinese Emperor had banned opium trafficking in 1800, and were then locked into Opium Wars against the naval coalition led by the UK at the turn of the 1840s and then in mid 1850s. China lost 20,000 marine soldiers and had to recompense costs of War every time.

Origins of the global anti-drug movement

The long-awaited research - commissioned two years ago amid major concerns about how officers were using the procedure - warned stop and search “has been used disproportionately, particularly on children and young people”.

It revealed younger people feel victimised with many having very negative views of police, how people in Glasgow were far more likely to be stopped than anywhere else and how the majority of searches found nothing.

The report says: “There continue to be many examples of where the practice is being undertaken in ways which are not acceptable, nor having the impact that is intended.”

Police continuing to use ‘inappropriate’ stop and search methods in Scotland

Canada's health minister said Thursday that the government has formed a special task force to propose ways to regulate sales of recreational marijuana ahead of legalization in 2017.

The group includes a former attorney general of Canada, an expert in pain management and cannabis therapeutics, a drug policy researcher, a law professor and a handful of ex-cops, said Health Minister Jane Philpott.

The panel will examine the production and testing of the drug, distribution and marketing, and "look at the experience of other jurisdictions" that have lifted bans on the recreational pot use, Philpott said.

Canada to unveil recreational marijuana rules in November

IDPC will hold its Annual General Meeting of its Board of Directors in the UK from the 6th to 8th July. Following a call for new Board members in May and a difficult selection process due to the high number of excellent applications, four individuals have been invited to the July meeting with the expectation that they will join the Board of IDPC. The Board will also appoint a new Chair and Vice Chair at the AGM. An announcement with full details of all Board changes will be released following the end of the Board meeting this week.

IDPC to hold Annual General Meeting of Board of Directors

A substance abuse group is to explore the case for opening an injecting facility for drug users in Glasgow.

The Glasgow City Alcohol and Drug Partnership said about 500 vulnerable drug users injected in public places.

It said these people were responsible for the majority of discarded needles which posed a health risk and also contributed to public order problems.

The partnership will examine if an injecting area, like those in Europe, Canada and Australia, could help here.

If such a facility was approved, it would be the first of its kind in the UK.

The Glasgow City Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) is a multi-agency group tasked by the Scottish government with tackling alcohol and drug issues.

Case examined for drug injecting area in Glasgow city centre

Turkey’s move from illicit to licit opium production for medicinal use demonstrates that an orderly transition, with a range of benefits for the producer country, is possible in places with the institutional capacity to deliver the right regulatory framework.

It provides a useful example of the practical steps involved in transitioning, and how such changes can impact on the global illicit trade, even while wider global prohibitions remain in place alongside steady or rising demand.

However, Turkey also demonstrates that moving opium production from the illicit market to the licit medical use market alone will not reduce overall global illicit production. The economic dynamics of the illicit trade mean supply will expand in other countries to meet continuing illicit demand. This is true of all ‘silver bullet fantasy’,1poppy-for-medicine proposals in places such as Afghanistan, Guatemala and Mexico, that are aimed at eliminating global illicit opium production.

Turkey’s opium trade: successfully transitioning from illicit production to a legally regulated market

California will vote on whether to legalise marijuana for recreational purposes on 8 November, after an initiative backing the measure secured the 402,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. The California Secretary of State’s office announced on Tuesday that voters could now decide whether to approve the creation of the world’s largest legal marijuana market.

If passed, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) would permit California adults aged 21 or over to possess and carry up to an ounce of marijuana, and to grow up to six cannabis plants for personal use. It would create the framework for a distribution and retail market, managed by a new Bureau of Marijuana Control, with a 15 per cent tax on all cannabis product sales.

Jason Kinney, a spokesman for the initiative, said the news marked “a fresh start for California,” adding that AUMA would “replace the costly, harmful and ineffective system of prohibition with a safe, legal and responsible adult-use marijuana system that gets it right and completely pays for itself.”

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