Weaponising stigmatising language around drugs has long been and continues to be employed by autocratically-minded politicians across the globe, with violent and destructive effects on lives, health and human rights.
Long a hub for opium production, the country has now seen vastly increased production of meth from native ephedra plants in the wake of economic and political crisis, spiking fears of increased meth use disorders both domestically and abroad.
A recent study by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention reinforces a global consensus in favour of decriminalisation as a policy that protects and promotes health and human rights, as outlined in the UN System Common Position on Drugs adopted in 2018, and the UN System Common Position on incarceration adopted last year in 2021.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza places ayahuasca components in the most restrictive scheduling, a decision that flies in the face of expert and scientific opinion.
The INCB is compiling information at the national level on the situation in the consumption of and access to internationally controlled substances for medical and scientific purposes.
Prohibition bloats profits benefitting informal networks that use their power to control land, wealth and civil servants, with dire impacts on the environment and indigenous communities.
The UN SR on Health seeks contributions to produce a report on the impact of racism as a driver of health inequities. The deadline to response is 2 June 2022.
It is time to acknowledge that certain elements of the global drug control treaties are unfit for purpose, resting on the foundations of the colonial legacy and unjust policy approaches.
