The Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) (Amendment) Bill 2020 was passed by the National Assembly during a session of the Committee of the Whole House on May 19, 2021 and is now awaiting President Uhuru Kenyatta's assent to become law.

But there are arguable and compelling reasons as to why His Excellency the President, in his wisdom and concern for the welfare of all Kenyans - including those burdened by drug addiction and their families - should not append his signature to the Bill but have it returned to the House for further deliberation, input and consensus.

The Bill, as it is, is a product of a process that excluded robust public participation as required by the Constitution and deliberately ignored concrete evidence presented to the drafters that, among other things, it unnecessarily creates insurmountable hurdles in regard to access to healthcare for low cadre users hopelessly hooked to drugs.

This despite international best practices and trends now unreservedly recommending that such individuals be considered candidates for public health interventions.

Kenya: Let President reject narcotics bill

Ongoing discussions, including among key international donors, have raised concerns within Harm Reduction International and the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) about the proposed inclusion of mental health within the harm reduction package and more generally about conflating drug use and mental health. This paper aims to stimulate and clarify the discussion around this.

Although there are people who use drugs who may experience mental health issues, drug use and drug dependency itself is not a mental health condition. The concerning conflation of drug use and dependency with mental health issues is inaccurate, stigmatising and might have long term harmful consequences to the community, including removing the agency and capacity of people who use drugs to make decisions about their own bodies and lives. It could reduce resources available for harm reduction and community-led services, and lead to deprioritizing evidence-based, lifesaving public health interventions in national and international guidelines. A lack of political will and insufficient funding are major barriers to implementing harm reduction at scale, and this conflation could seriously disrupt availability, access and delivery of essential services.

Drug use and drug dependency itself is not a mental health condition - Statement

To: Dr. Philippe Duneton, Executive Director, Unitaid Madame Marisol Touraine
Unitaid Executive Board

Dear Dr. Duneton, Madame Chair Touraine, and Esteemed Members of the Unitaid Board,

We write to call urgent attention to the plight of the 354 million people living with viral hepatitis and the dire need to elevate efforts to improve patients’ health, which has potentially resounding effects for affected communities, governments, and global health. We applaud Unitaid’s leadership in strengthening and accelerating activities to ensure generic access to HIV, viral hepatitis, TB, and malaria treatments, and the development of simpler, point-of-care diagnostics. We commend your organization’s significant accomplishments, in partnership with civil society organizations (CSOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and community advocates, to spur global uptake of innovations in hepatitis C virus (HCV), to sensitize governments and communities, and to catalyze political commitments to end viral hepatitis, HIV, TB, and malaria in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Thanks to highly effective treatments and vaccination, we have the unique opportunity to end HBV and HCV globally by 2030. We must seize this opportunity to ensure that hepatitis patients are not left behind and that diseases with the greatest chance for cure in our lifetimes are eliminated.

We urge Unitaid to continue making catalytic investments towards curing people with HCV and treating people with HBV and to enable LMICs to reach WHO targets and Sustainable Development Goal 3 by 2030 through funding and targeted action.

Unfortunately, progress towards HBV and HCV elimination in the majority of countries is hampered by the difficulties of finding and diagnosing asymptomatic patients, due to complex and costly diagnostics and antiviral/direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) prices that are still unaffordable where generic access is not possible. We believe that CSOs, NGOs, community health workers, and affected communities, with the support of Unitaid and other partners, can help overcome these barriers and accelerate progress on all these fronts.

Significant progress in other fields has been made to generate demand for simpler diagnostics and more optimal treatments, to increase treatment uptake, and to adopt changes in national policies by supporting community engagement efforts led by people living with HIV and TB, such as the IMPAACT4TB initiative. Notably, community engagement, as part of treatment and diagnostics literacy and leadership-building efforts, have been important activities in the Unitaid- funded HEAD-Start project to generate demand for simpler, innovative HCV diagnostics, and are an integral component of the Unitaid LONGEVITY grant to develop long-acting formulations for malaria, HCV, and latent TB infections. Unitaid’s support has enabled affected communities to meaningfully participate in high-level national elimination planning; aided in scaling up community-based testing and treatment with oral DAAs; and strengthened the technical capacity of community leaders to serve on steering committees and a WHO-level technical working group focused on HCV and substance user health. Additional investment is necessary to sustain this momentum, to strengthen and capacitate effective leadership that achieves similar accomplishments as in the HIV and TB spaces, to spur action towards HBV elimination, and to ensure greater participation by affected communities in advancing health equity in national elimination strategies.

To date, Unitaid’s investment in HCV and grassroots advocacy to champion the needs of affected communities and people disproportionately affected by viral hepatitis has made enormous impacts. Community healthcare and advocacy trainings have increased HCV awareness and strengthened technical knowledge of thousands of community-based providers in at least a dozen countries when launching national hepatitis programs. Support for community-government dialogues have contributed to community mobilization to find the ‘missing millions’ of undiagnosed patients; decentralized testing and treatment; and catalyzed initiatives, such as the integration of viral hepatitis test-and-treat programs in HIV, maternal health, harm reduction, and prison settings.

Unitaid’s unique and holistic involvement in HCV also instigated the development of innovative, simpler diagnostics, including HCV self-tests, generated real-world evidence on the effectiveness of generics, and supported the development of ravidasvir/sofosbuvir. Unitaid’s end-of-project evaluations have also acknowledged the game-changing role that core antigen rapid diagnostics tests could play for bringing fast, confirmatory testing to the community level.

Despite HCV and harm reduction programs saving lives, saving costs, proving cost-effective, and providing enormous returns on investment, the funding necessary to apply these innovations to accelerate treatment and diagnosis is absent. We are deeply concerned by the impact that COVID-19 has had on implementing viral hepatitis programs worldwide, in addition to ever-growing funding gaps in this field. Global hepatitis programs are estimated at US$500 million annually – less than one-tenth of the US$5-6 billion required annually to achieve elimination by 2030. Global health funding for harm reduction is also dire, amounting to 5 percent of the US$2.7 billion required annually to meet global need.

Additionally, while investment and prioritization has led to progress towards HCV elimination, to date, very little progress has been made towards eliminating HBV, which affects 292 million individuals and has effective treatments that prevent liver cancer and save lives. HBV continues to be under-prioritized globally, and it is critical that we are more inclusive of HBV when planning for and funding viral hepatitis elimination efforts.

We encourage Unitaid to help reinforce health systems during the pandemic and bridge funding gaps, thus playing a catalytic role to accelerate access to HBV and HCV diagnostics and treatments in LMICs. In fact, leveraging Unitaid’s COVID-19 funding, such as research and development on HBV surface antigen and core antigen rapid diagnostic tests; support for lab infrastructure and civil society networks to integrate viral hepatitis screening/testing in COVID- 19 responses; and investing in community engagement across its projects, could strengthen health systems to address viral hepatitis and to continue to work on HIV, TB, and malaria under your mandate. We propose several strategies as part of creating these enabling environments:

Expansion of awareness among decision-makers that HBV and HCV are diseases that can be eliminated by 2030 with existing tools but that need community education and participation, action plans, and financing;

Development of financing mechanisms for viral hepatitis elimination;

Support for simplified HBV and HCV diagnostic tools; and

Support for access to simple and affordable DAA and HBV treatments in high-burden LMICs.

The 130 signatories of this letter represent CSOs and NGOs committed to eliminating viral hepatitis, healthcare providers, patients, and communities living with or affected by HBV and HCV and fighting for affordable, equitably accessible treatments and diagnostics. We welcome an opportunity to further discuss with you how discontinuing funding for HCV-related initiatives will roll back the progress that we’ve made.

We request acknowledgement of this letter and a meeting in the coming months to plan how we can collaboratively tackle this global health issue and continue to offer hope to the hundreds of millions of people living with or at risk of viral hepatitis.

Treatment Action Group
Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics

Civil society and community organisations call on Unitaid leadership to support funding for hepatitis & harm reduction 

Today, I announce that the preliminary examination into the situation in the Republic of the Philippines ("the Philippines") has concluded and that I have requested judicial authorisation to proceed with an investigation.

As I stated in December 2019, at the annual session of the Assembly of States Parties, before I end my term as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or the "Court"), I intend to reach determinations on all situations that have been under preliminary examination during my tenure, as far as I am able to do so in accordance with my obligations under the Rome Statute. In that statement, I also indicated the high likelihood that several preliminary examinations would progress to the investigative stage.

The situation in the Philippines has been under preliminary examination since 8 February 2018. During that time, my Office has been busy analysing a large amount of publicly available information and information provided to us under article 15 of the Statute. On the basis of that work, I have determined that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder has been committed on the territory of the Philippines between 1 July 2016 and 16 March 2019 in the context of the Government of Philippines "war on drugs" campaign. The Office does not take a position on any government's internal policies and initiatives intended to address the production, distribution and consumption of psychoactive substances within the parameters of the law and due process of law, and in the present case, it is duly acting strictly in accordance with its specific and clearly defined mandate and obligations under the Statute. Following a thorough preliminary examination process, the available information indicates that members of the Philippine National Police, and others acting in concert with them, have 

 killed between several thousand and tens of thousands of civilians during that time. My Office has also reviewed information related to allegations of torture and other inhumane acts, and related events as early as 1 November 2011, the beginning of the Court's jurisdiction in the Philippines, all of which we believe require investigation.

Statement of the Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on her request to open an investigation of the situation in the Philippines

Full-time position based in Bangkok, Thailand

12 months, full-time contract (with possibility of extension)

The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) is a global network of NGOs and professional networks that aims to promote objective and open debate on the effectiveness, direction and content of drug policies at national and international level, and supports evidence-based policies that are effective in reducing drug-related harm. We have over 180 member organisations worldwide, and extensive communication and contacts with a range of experts in the field. The IDPC Secretariat is based in London with a smaller presence in Bangkok.

IDPC is looking to appoint a Programme Officer to provide support to the IDPC regional work programme in Asia.

The successful candidate will report to IDPC’s Regional Director: Asia and support financial management and reporting to donors, communications, administration, networking amongst IDPC members in the region with the potential to take on policy research and analysis work.

The successful candidate will be highly motivated, flexible, capable of working both independently and as part of a team, and will possess a willingness to combine financial management and administrative work with communications, networking and other tasks requiring more autonomy and creativity. At present, IDPC does not have a physical office in Bangkok, so the successful candidate would be expected to work from home with regular face-to-face meetings in shared working spaces with the Regional Director: Asia and other colleagues when appropriate.

Demonstrable experience and/or interest of issues relating to human rights, public health, HIV/AIDS and harm reduction, criminal justice and law reform as it relates to drug policy in Asia

Demonstrable project and financial management skills with experience of managing budgets, expenditures and project and financial reporting to donors

Excellent interpersonal, representational and communications skills, especially in developing and sustaining relationships with a wide range of stakeholders in a professional and courteous manner at all times

Excellent organisational skills with attention to detail

Strong problem-solving skills along with the ability to work independently

Ability to multi-task and manage competing priorities, including those that arise on an ad hoc and urgent basis

Excellent spoken and written English and Thai language skills

Strong capabilities in policy research, analysis, and writing

Experience working on strategic social media communications

Please note that we can only accept applications from individuals who already have the right to live and work in Thailand

If you wish to apply for this post, please complete the application form and send it to Ms. Daisy Bowdery (dbowdery@idpc.net) by 6:00 pm (Bangkok time) on Wednesday 23 June 2021.

It is expected that interviews will be held from 28 June 2021, with a commencement date as soon as possible afterward.

IDPC recruits Programme Officer in Bangkok!

Today, ahead of the 50th anniversary of when President Richard Nixon declared the “war on drugs,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) released a Bully Pulpit Interactive (BPI) poll showing strong support for eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession and replacing it with a new approach centered in public health.

June 17th marks 50 years since President Nixon famously declared drugs “public enemy number one.” This proclamation waged a full out offensive that has pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into law enforcement, leading to the over-surveillance and incarceration of millions of people, disproportionately Black, Latinx and Indigenous people.

The new poll shows the vast majority of American voters believe the policy has been a failure that has only increased drug-related harms and contributed to overcrowding the nation’s jails and prisons.

United States: On 50th anniversary of “war on drugs,” new poll shows majority of voters support ending criminal penalties for drug possession, think drug war is a failure

The Multi-Stakeholder Task Force welcomes the adoption today by the United Nations General Assembly of the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS.

Four decades after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first known cases of HIV/AIDS in its historic report of June 5 1981, the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS represents a transformational moment in the global AIDS response. Communities and civil society voices calling to get back on track to end AIDS by 2030 through supporting a fully funded, human rights- and evidence-based response have been heard by the global community.

We affirm the progress represented by the Political Declaration, even as we are disappointed by some critical omissions and weaknesses. We pledge our action and vigilance to ensure that these are addressed as the work of moving towards an AIDS-free world continues.

Statement in response to adoption of 2021 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS

By Apoorva Mandavilli / The New York Times

The United Nations on Tuesday adopted new targets for ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, seemingly a goal most countries could easily have agreed to. But consensus had been elusive.

In early negotiations over the agreement, called a political declaration, the United States and the European Union fought to ban policies and laws that stigmatize, or even criminalize, high-risk groups — and drastically scaled back moves to relax patent protections for H.I.V. drugs.

The U.N. declaration sets priorities for the global AIDS response and guides policies at a national level. It also gives global health groups and civil society organizations leverage to pressure governments to honor their commitments.

On Monday, Dr. Kavanagh and his colleagues published new work showing that countries that criminalize same-sex relationships, drug use and sex work have had much less success in turning back H.I.V.

A U.N. declaration on ending AIDS should have been easy. It wasn’t.

RE: PETTITION AGAINST GRANTING OF PRESIDENTIAL ASSENT TO THE NARCOTICS, DRUGS AND PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES (CONTROL) (AMENDMENT) BILL 2020.

We jointly write to you as the Caucus on Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Reforms in Kenya (CHRDPR) an initiative that brings together individuals and institutional advocates of drug policy reforms in Kenya.

This is to humbly Petition you against giving presidential assent to the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) (Amendment) Bill 2020 that was passed by the National Assembly during the Committee of the whole house on 19 May 2021.

We laud your government’s efforts towards the eradication of illicit drug trafficking in Kenya, bearing in mind the harms of illicit drug trade and use on our youth and economy. We also loud the efforts of the legislature to curb illegal drug trade by the promulgation, and passing of the above mentioned Bill in an attempt to support your governments efforts to curb the illegal drug trade in Kenya.

However, your excellency, the legislative approach on the issue of drug use and the plight of persons with problematic substance use has ignored evidence of what works.

The punitive approach of having minimum mandatory sentences is misused by law enforcement to target low level offenders with small quantities of drugs including amounts for personal use. This diverts law enforcement efforts from traffickers, limiting the objective use of police, courts and scarce public resources. Overly punitive measures to fulfil objectives relating to drug control have and will continue to affect the poorest and most marginalised Kenyans; particularly women and young people should we fail to take advantage of this current opportunity to inform the law based on evidence. Although the changes propose a lower prison sentence for users, the increase in the minimum fine payable will guarantee mass imprisonment for economically overburdened women and youth.

Further, we commend the changes which now rightly recognize treatment in addition to voluntary rehabilitation for people in possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use. However, their introduction into law as an additional rather than an alternative to punishment is counterproductive to public health efforts. Kenya’s classification as a middle income country could soon impact access to funding for harm reduction programmes which are heavily funded by international development partners. Having sound legislative backing will catalyze greater commitment by the government of Kenya by establishing the most effective framework to sustain and expand comprehensive and coordinated harm reduction resources and services in Kenya.

It is established best practice that persons with substance use problems be diverted from the criminal justice system to public health interventions, which are readily available to your able ministry of health. The cost of keeping users in prison wastes limited resources that can be used to improve already strained health services including treatment and rehabilitation.

It is our submission that despite our efforts to sensitize legislators on the economic and social benefits of public health approaches for users, the amendments as proposed fails to;

Make adequate provisions to address the public health needs of persons with problematic drug use contrary to article 43 of the constitution, which negates the whole object of reforming these individuals leading to relapse or even adverse impact to their health since these victims require treatment and not incarceration,

Make adequate and intentional provisions to tackle the public concern of unnecessary incarceration of petty offenders who include individuals arrested with small quantities of drugs for personal use, which results in overcrowding of prisons with individuals who would otherwise be productive members of the community given effective support.

Your Excellency, the state has already implemented several interventions regarding treatment and reintegration of persons living with drug use disorders.

These processes have been ongoing for many years, which include inter alia,

The Methadone programs in several counties,

Establishment of guidance, counselling and rehabilitation centres in several counties.

The proposals that we have made shall have minimal fiscal allocation for implementation since the call is for the already existing infrastructure to be integrated in the criminal process as an alternative to incarceration. As such, the cost of implementation of these proposals shall be negligible, as it will seek to rely heavily on already existent Public Health infrastructure. Your Excellency in conclusion, it is our humble submission that the war against drugs can only be won through decisive action in regard to persons living with drug use disorders from a human rights and public health perspective, and more intentional tackling of trafficking. In this regard we humbly petition you to not assent to the bill as is, and refer it back to parliament to either:

Undertake proper public participation which includes consultations with public health experts and affected communities for an informed perspective of what works in effectively addressing the issue of problematic drug use; or

Re-draft the sub section on treatment and rehabilitation of persons arrested for possession of small quantities for personal use to avail effective alternative options and not additional punishment.

Signed by Caucus on Harm Reduction and Drug Police Reform in Kenya (CHRDPR), Nextgen Lawyers, Kenyan Network of People who Use Drugs (KeNPUD), VOCAL Kenya, Reachout Centre Trust, Teens Watch, New Leaf Rehab Centre Lamu, Muslim Education and Welfare Association.

Kenyan civil society organisations call on the President to halt harmful reforms to the country's drug laws

By Colleen Daniels & Suchitra Rajagopalan - Harm Reduction International / Filter

By every measure, the global drug war has failed. It has failed to decrease drug use and sales. Drug-involved overdose deaths continue to soar around the world. And violence related to the illicit markets created by prohibition wreaks havoc on individuals and communities.

The drug war also continues to enable racist policies and practices. Black, Brown and Indigenous people are disproportionately targeted by punitive drug law enforcement and overrepresented in prison populations worldwide.

Every year over $100 billion is spent on global drug law enforcement. This is more than 500 times the amount invested in harm reduction services for people who use drugs. Prioritizing punitive enforcement over interventions which protect the health of people who use drugs is a political 

 made by many governments. This approach violates human rights, drives stigma and discrimination, and has no impact on drug use. As well as being expensive for governments to implement, it places additional economic burdens on public health, communities and the individual, further amplifying inequalities.

Decades of advocacy by drug policy reformers and human rights activists have resulted in a recognition of the magnitude of the damage done by the drug war’s punitive logic. As we reimagine drug policy, it is essential that we question who is best placed to respond to drug use and sales—and that we advocate for the redirection of funds within local, national and international budgets, away from punitive drug control towards compassionate and effective health and community programs.

We must divest from the failed drug war locally, nationally and globally

Interview with Linas Tamošaitis & Young Wave / EHRA

This year “Young Wave” has focused small grant activities on the development of the social campaign. Why have you chosen such kind of activity? Could you please tell us what your campaign is about?

Even though it was a small grant, for us it was a big project! In Lithuania, we knew that the Parliament is due to discuss drug decriminalization amendments this year. As the only NGO in the country focused on drug harm reduction for young people, we decided that it is our responsibility to start raising awareness and understanding on how drug criminalization disproportionately affects young peoples’ lives. Over the past 3 years, alarming indicators have shown that drug policy in Lithuania is focused only on criminalization of people who use drugs and those, who possess small amounts of drugs without intent to distribute. For example, possession of drugs in small quantities without intent to distribute accounted for 77% of all drug related crimes committed in 2019. 63 % of offenders were under the age of 29. Each year, about 750 people are serving sentences in prisons, which cost Lithuania around 10,5 million Euro per year. These are just a few indicators, that prompted us to create a social campaign on the harms of drug criminalization. The campaign is called “Give a helping hand, not handcuffs” 

(in Lithuanian – “Ištiesk ranką, ne antrankius”)

Why this campaign was developed, what were the expectations, main expected results/changes?

This campaign was developed in recognition of the fact that the political process to achieve drug decriminalization would be very contested, and our opposition would mobilize in the media and social networks. We realized that we also need to strengthen our message so that politicians feel that young people and society at large are concerned about the harms of drug criminalization. If we don’t take action, who will? The expectation was that our campaign would get featured publicly in the media, social networks, and at least will offer a counterpoint to the narratives of the political right wing in our country. Obviously, the main expected change would be for the drug decriminalization law to pass the vote in the Parliament, but we still have some time before the vote. If it doesn’t pass, at least we would have mobilized the community and got it ready for the next response. During the campaign we have found new allies and new stakeholders for us to grow and be more impactful in the future.

Give a helping hand, not handcuffs: Social decriminalization campaign in Lithuania

Drugs like opium and cannabis have been used in cultures around the world for millennia. Drug regulation, on the otherhand, arrived when settlers and colonizers did—particularly in African and Asian countries.

“Criminalization is a colonial legacy,” Tripti Tandon, deputy director with the Lawyers Collective, told 

Lawyers Collective is one of the oldest human rights organizations in India. Tandon had just spoken on the impact of colonization on drug policy within the country during a May 26 panel hosted by Harm Reduction International, Release, Dejusticia, the International Drug Policy Consortium, the Transnational Institute, and Voices of Community Action & Leadership, Kenya. The panel, 

Decolonising Drug Policy: Dismantling Racism and Colonialism Through Drug Policy Reform

, was the first of a four-part series. Speakers from India, South Africa and Kenya shared their experiences.

“The American experiment in drug prohibition … really became one of the flagship foreign policies of the USA,” said Kojo Koram, a lecturer at the Birkbeck School of Law, during the panel. “[It] had the consequences of actually reproducing, and in some cases accelerating, the racial and geographical divisions within the world.” Koram’s research points to implementation of drug prohibition and penalization policies as a way to “civilize” Indigenous peoples.

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