Pavel Bém is former Mayor of Prague and a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy,Czech Republic. Here he gives his assessment of April’s UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem.

The United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on “the world drug problem” was an important moment for the international community to evaluate and assess both the advances and the challenges facing drug control on a global level. Member states participated throughout the preparatory process, submitting country and regional positions, hosting meetings, inviting inputs from civil society organizations and engaging in thoughtful policy proposals. United Nations agencies also took note of the importance, submitting detailed reports of the impacts of drug control on human rights, development, health and economic growth. These expert reports were reflective of current efforts and put forward innovative proposals on how to improve policies directed at people who use drugs, producers and people incarcerated and others. The Global Commission participated through attending official meetings, hosting presentations on our recent reports and recommendations, bringing together countries to discuss possible reforms and engaging with the media so that more people would be aware of this historic opportunity.

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Much ado about nothing? The Global Commission on Drug Policy assessment of UNGASS

This week, world leaders are gathering at the United Nations in New York for the highest-level meeting on drug policy in nearly two decades. The United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drug policy is illustrating growing divisions in the "drug war" model as more states speak up in opposition to ineffective, punitive policies.

WOLA is at the UN in New York observing and participating in the proceedings. Senior Fellow Coletta Youngers offers insights into the proceedings and explains how, despite attempts to limit debate in support of reform, numerous countries have spoken out from the floor of the General Assembly and called for an alternative policies.

UN General Assembly on drugs: The beginning of a change in the drug war paradigm

Today the ‘Programme For Government’ was released by the new Irish government. The 156 page document outlines what policy the new Government will pursue during their tenure. The commitments cover an array of topics from health, homelessness, jobs, crime and much more.

You can read the Programme For Government in full here.

The programme for government makes very little reference to the topic of drug policy; however what is stated can perhaps be considered positive, or at least a change from the status quo. Some highlights:

A section on page 56 states that the new government will be.

Completing work and commencing implementation of a new National Drugs Strategy within 12 months.

It is good to see this commitment considering how vital the National Drugs Strategy (NDS) is, as it sets out our drug policy for the next few years. There are some signs to suggest the new NDS will be more progressive than previous incarnations. Leaked information on a report prepared for the NDS suggests Ireland should move away from criminalising people for the possession of drugs for personal use. Instead individuals should be subject to Garda caution rather than criminal prosecution.

What the new Irish government says about drugs

Imagine this: You’re a person living with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV), and you’re arrested for selling a small amount of heroin to support your drug dependence. Before your sentencing, you enter a drug treatment program and take steps to address your dependence.

The judge applauds your progress and acknowledges the negative health impacts incarceration will have. But his hands are tied, because there’s another drug-related conviction on your record from nearly a decade ago. Against all reason, you receive an automatic one-year prison sentence.

In Canada, these are the sorts of irrational sentencing rules that compromise access to treatment or scientifically proven harm reduction measures for people who use drugs.

But sentences like these may soon be a thing of the past in Canada. On April 15, in its 6–3 decision in 

, the Supreme Court struck down mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offenses, calling them a “constitutional infirmity” that violates the guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment in section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Will Canada’s ruling on drug sentences set the stage for further reforms?

Some Asian countries are dropping punitive approaches in favor of a health-centered approach.

Executions, forced and arbitrary detentions, beatings, whipping, incarceration and hard labor — This is a common face of drug policy in many Asian nations, and one that is looking ever more archaic.

Half a million drug users are held annually in compulsory detention centers in China and Southeast Asia, according to estimates from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Arduous physical exercises and military drills are often routine there, as is violence – former detainees described shocks with electric batons and whipping with electric wires to Human Rights Watch.

Roughly 50 to 70 percent of prisoners in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand are in jail for drug-related crimes. In extreme cases, prisoners pay with their lives. Indonesia is currently preparing executions for drug trafficking.

Asia's war on drugs

Harm Reduction International has published a new tool for use by prison monitoring mechanisms (national, regional and international) to monitor the management of communicable diseases and harm reduction in prisons and prevent human rights violations in this context. Gen Sander, Human Rights Analyst at Harm Reduction International, introduces the tool here.

"Last October, I wrote a blog for PRI in which I discussed the necessity of tackling communicable diseases such as HIV, hepatitis C (HCV) and tuberculosis (TB) in prisons. I explained that prisoners are significantly more likely to be living with these diseases than the general population for several reasons, including the fact that people who use or inject drugs comprise a large portion of the world’s prison population as a result of punitive drug laws, combined with an absence of harm reduction services, such as needle and syringe programmes (NSP) and opioid substitution therapy (OST), which are proven to prevent HIV and HCV transmission and strongly recommended by WHO, UNAIDS and UNODC."

Thumbnail: Flickr Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Scaling up harm reduction in prisons: a role for prison monitors and new tools

By Prashanth Parameswaran - The Diplomat

The third round of drug convict executions during Jokowi’s presidency is in the works.

Ten foreign drug convicts on death row will face firing squads this month as part of a third round of controversial executions under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, local authorities have said.

, Central Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. A. Liliek Darmanto said that ten foreign citizens, along with five Indonesians, would face the firing squad at the Nusakambangan prison island off the southern coast of Central Java. The ten include four Chinese, one Pakistani, two Nigerians, two Senegalese, and one Zimbabwean.

The executions would the first since eight drug convicts – five of them foreign – were executed in April 2015, a move which roiled relations between Jakarta and other countries and led Australia to temporarily withdraw its ambassador. An earlier round of executions occurred in January last year.

Indonesia to execute 10 foreigners in war on drugs

SSDP UK have recently launched a drug testing initiative in Newcastle university.

It’s obvious that the safest way to use drugs is not to use them at all and whilst no substance is inherently safe, drug use surveys at universities around the country have consistently shown that over 50% of students claim to have tried drugs. After more than 40 years of the failed war on drugs, drug deaths are at their highest since records began in England and Wales. The reality is that expecting young people to ‘just say no’ is inadequate and to claim that it works, avoids the real issues at hand.

Picture from SSDP campaign "Test your drugs, don't test yourself".

Thumbnail: CC Students for Sensible Drug Policy UK

‘Just say no’ has failed our generation: What you need to know about our drug testing initiative

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The Trinidad and Tobago government is examining the possibility of decriminalising marijuana and is reviewing existing legislation as well as planning wide consultation before adopting any position, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has said.

He told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper yesterday that there has been “a full exercise of analysing the types of crime in our prisons and the pre-trials detention or remand statistics for a range of offences, including possession of narcotics, and particularly possession of cannabis.

“From that perspective there’s certainly a drive to gather statistical information, as the issue of decriminalising of marijuana isn’t a simple one on the public side,” he said.

Al-Rawi told the newspaper that “if one were to argue for decriminalisation, the limits to be applied must be considered”.

Click hehttp://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/T-T-mulling-decriminalising-ganjare to read the full article.

Trinidad and Tobago mulling decriminalising ganja

A few weeks ago we attended the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS) in New York. This was the first time in 18 years that such a high level meeting has taken place to debate drug policy. For many working on the issue it was a significant opportunity to challenge the prohibition paradigm, and sow the seeds of reform.

Yet for us and other civil society attending, the meeting was a constant battle against exclusion. Despite having followed every process necessary to ensure access, the rules of admission changed not only daily, but hourly in some cases. This led to surreal levels of bureaucratic and security restriction, which limited and denied access to meetings and debates which many had travelled far to attend. The closed process of negotiations prior to the meeting in New York excluded not only civil society, but also more than 100 UN member states, largely from the Global South.

Whilst disappointing overall, the final outcome document adopted by all member states at the meeting contains some promising points on development. These include strong commitments to ensure access to controlled drugs for medical use, by targeting barriers in national legislation and regulations, with the aim to improve capacity, education and training, and affordability, all of which currently limit access to essential medicines.

The need to mainstream a gender perspective across all drug control policies, and to address specific gendered needs and vulnerabilities associated with involvement in the drugs trade was also recognised. Commitments were also made to address the disproportionate numbers of women being imprisoned on drug related charges, and gendered barriers in access to health, care and social services.

Reflecting on UNGASS: Disappointment and hope for sustainable development

Over the past decade, alternative development has come a long way. The recently launched "Sustainable Development Goals" and the "United Nations Guiding Principles on Alternative Development", which Thailand is proud to have played an active role in helping to shape, serve as valuable references to guide our alternative development efforts.

However, our work is far from over. We need to ensure we move forward from words and recommendations to actual implementation with measurable and sustainable outcomes. So please allow me as a development practitioner to speak frankly based on more than 50 years of experience working on the ground with the people.

Light shines on development goals in Thailand

The new government has pledged to press ahead with plans for supervised drug injection centres. The Fine Gael-led minority administration will also support a health-led rather than criminal justice approach to drugs, it was confirmed today in the new Programme for Government.

There were concerns among campaigners that plans for the injection rooms, which were championed by former drugs minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, could be set aside by the new government.

after losing his seat in the general election, the former Labour TD said he had “no idea” what would happen to the plan he had set in train.

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