On the 26th of December 2020, an international seminar marked the launch of a pilot project, the Centre of Excellence for Illicit Drug Supply Reduction, a partnership between the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Brazilian National Office on Drug Policies (SENAD, in the Portuguese acronym), with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The pilot stage is planned to last for 18 months, and the Centre is expected to be incorporated by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. It goes without saying, of course, that the language adopted by the Centre describes illegal drugs themselves—and not prohibitionism, punitivism, and incarceration—as a social problem to be overcome by reducing supply.

There are many issues with this infelicitous partnership. On the ideological level, it lays bare the will of the Brazilian far-right to confirm its bias and prove that there is an epidemic of drug misuse in Brazil that would legitimise the use of force for combating the supply and use of illicit substances. The recent censorship of Fiocruz’s large-scale study on the use of illicit substances in Brazil tells a lot about this stance.

Another point to consider is that a partnership with a UN agency lends international support to Bolsonaro’s draconian drug policies. The UNODC has been supporting decriminalisation and decarceration in the last decade—a stance that has caused polemic in the recent past—, something very distant from Bolsonaro’s drug policies, but its programmes aimed at the Global South are still strongly oriented towards building capacity for law enforcement instead of focusing on other areas of social care that have been delegated to the field of policing over the years. It is not a coincidence that the seminar that inaugurated the Centre of Excellence for Illicit Drug Supply Reduction gathered many professionals linked to the police forces and the penitentiary system, with few researchers present.

Will the UN revamp its disastrous 'drug-free world' campaign in Brazil?

Civil society has, rightly, long been an integral part of CND proceedings and debates – engaging alongside member states, UN officials, academics and others through interventions, side events, disseminating materials, and holding bilateral meetings. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 64th CND (12-16 April 2021) will take a “hybrid” format – with the vast majority of participants from outside of Vienna participating online.

With the precise modalities of a hybrid Commission still to be announced, the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs (VNGOC)1 would like to make the following practical and realistic recommendations to ensure strong and meaningful civil society participation – despite the many challenges that exist. We acknowledge the hard work of the CND Secretariat, Bureau and others towards this, but also believe that an online CND should be an opportunity to expand participation, rather than limit it. Furthermore, 2021 could be a good opportunity to implement permanent procedures to facilitate the active, online participation of NGOs from around the world in 2022 and beyond.

VNGOC position statement: Urgent recommendations to protect civil society participation at the 64th UN Commission on Narcotics Drugs (CND)

By Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

In line with the Congress’s theme of advancing the UN’s Agenda 2030 through crime prevention and criminal justice, the Kyoto Declaration does reflect progress in the way organized crime is understood as a blocker and disruptor of sustainable development. However, it does not align that understanding with innovative or holistic approaches, instead cementing a focus on law enforcement and criminal justice, and assigning states the role of lead responders. At the multilateral level, the document also sticks to familiar positions placing the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and its policy fora at the centre of the response rather than prioritizing interagency and cross-UN cooperation.

It outlines a range of threats and reaffirms existing and manifold law enforcement and criminal justice responses. It does not, however, provide a strategic vision of how the international community could respond in a more holistic and whole-of-society way. This is not surprising, as the negotiation and preparatory process was largely closed to civil society.

Kyoto Declaration - States affirm their primacy in crime prevention and criminal justice amid downgraded role of civil society

The House of Representatives passed a bill providing for legal presumption on who is considered an importer, financier, or protector of illegal drugs – meaning suspects would be presumed guilty upon apprehension.

On Tuesday, March 2, lawmakers approved on final reading House Bill (HB) No 7814, which aimed to give more teeth to Republic Act No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

A total of 188 legislators – a majority of whom are allies of President Rodrigo Duterte – voted in favor of HB 7814, while only 11 voted no and 9 abstained.

The Duterte-controlled House approved the bill just days after the shootout between agents of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency – the vanguards of Duterte’s landmark but deadly campaign against illegal drugs.

Most of the House members who opposed the bill or abstained from the vote raised red flags over the HB 7814’s provisions that presumes the guilt of drug suspects without proper investigation by law enforcement agents.

House committee on human rights chair Jesus “Bong” Suntay voted against the bill since it contained 20 presumptions of guilt on drug-related criminal acts that would result to a penalty of life imprisonment.

House OKs bill that presumes drug suspects guilty until proven innocent in the Philippines

The prospect of safe consumption sites (SCS) for mitigating the United States’ historic overdose death toll has long been delayed by the federal obstruction of a Philadelphia-based organization’s bid to open the first sanctioned site. Now, hope may be found a few states over: Rhode Island, where residents are witnessing an exacerbated fatal overdose crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A bill to authorize the creation of SCS, or what the lawmakers are calling “Harm Reduction Centers,” has returned to the state’s General Assembly after first being introduced in 2019. This time, “there’s really been strong support,” Haley McKee, co-chair of the Substance Use Policy, Education, & Recovery PAC and a lobbyist in support of the newly reintroduced H 5245 and S 0016, told 

. “I’ve seen a lot more involvement of people with lived or professional expertise.”

On February 23, the state Senate passed S 0016, which would establish an advisory committee to make recommendations to the state health department’s director on regulating SCS. However, it’s unclear when the House Committee on Health and Human Services—which is currently reviewing the chamber’s version, H 5245—will vote on it, much less when it will move to a floor vote.

If the House passes H 5245, and the legislation is signed by Governor Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island could be first state to legalize SCS. Lawmakers are defining the “Harm Reduction Centers” as “community based resource[s] for health screening, disease prevention and recovery assistance where persons may safely consume pre-obtained controlled substances.”

Unlike the House version, the Senate bill stipulates a liability protection explicitly shielding from arrest and prosecution at least “property owners, managers, employees, volunteers, clients or participants, and state, city, or town government employees acting in the course and scope of employment.”

Will Rhode Island be the first state to legalise safe consumption sites?

A series of protests which began on January 15 in various cities and neighborhoods across the country have largely focused on economic inequality and police repression. But recently, some of those protesting have revived an old demand of decriminalizing cannabis usage. One event appears to have pushed some to take up this demand again with renewed visibility in the streets and on social media: on January 21, 2021 a judge in El Kef handed out 30-year jail sentences to three young men for cannabis consumption in a public place.

Law 52 passed in 1992 criminalizes more than 130 narcotics from cocaine to cannabis with no apparent distinctions made between the substances.

According to a statement by Faouzi Dhaouadi, the State’s assistant prosecutor at El Kef’s Court of First Instance, the as-yet unnamed individuals who were sentenced had already been in pretrial detention for a year and half and received the maximum sentence under article 11 of Law 52 because they were in a sports stadium—a circumstance that allows a judge to add 20 years to the five for consumption and five for possession covered in other articles of the law. An appeal scheduled to take place on February 16 was postponed to March 9.

Demonstrators in front of the National Theater in downtown Tunis on February 6, 2021. Photo by Fadil Aliriza.

Meshkal spoke with several people who participated in recent protests in downtown Tunis who were calling for authorities to not enforce Law 52.

“People from poorer backgrounds are definitely more singled out through this law, because if you put them in jail, they will not ask for employment,” said 25-year old cannabis user Fatma (not her real name).

Fatma said she began using cannabis for therapeutic reasons about five years ago.

“I just use it to feel better and sleep better,” she said.

As of late 2015, a Human Rights Watch report found that about 5200 out of 7451 people in jail for drug-related offences were there for using or possessing cannabis. The same report noted that those 7451 people in jail for drug-related offenses represented 28 percent of the country’s total prison population, and of them 98 percent were men.

“My fear has certainly gotten bigger with the current situation… since they [the police] hunted down the person whose picture was taken while rolling a joint in a protest, then it definitely means that they are targeting those people,” Fatma said.

Meanwhile, Fatma believes that it’s hypocritical for police to arrest young men for cannabis usage because she thinks that there are police who also use cannabis.

After 30-year jail sentence for cannabis users, some demand decriminalization in Tunis

The survey, involving a quarter of a million people, was carried out last month by a parliamentary fact-finding mission, which showed that more than 80 percent of those polled agree that consumption and production should be allowed, governed by law.

“We now know that the legalisation of cannabis is no longer a taboo in France and that our fellow citizens are observing the ineffectiveness of the current legislation in the matter,” said LREM MP Caroline Janvier in a statement.

However, only 14 percent believe it should be decriminalised, while nearly five percent believe sanctions against it should be strengthened, but less than one percent believe that France should keep the legal framework the way it is now.

Most French people in favour of legalising cannabis, parliamentary survey finds

By The Editorial Board / Maggie MacPherson, Globe and Mail

Sophie Breen suffered through trauma and mental illness and pursued a degree in social work. She died at 27. Nick Crazy Bull was a musician and a gamer. He died at 19. Christopher Martin worked as a mine millwright. He died at 40.

Ms. Breen, Mr. Crazy Bull and Mr. Martin are three names on a list that is far too long and getting longer every day – the toll of Canada’s overdose epidemic. Overdoses have killed more than 20,000 Canadians since 2016. Last weekend, The Globe and Mail presented the stories of 100 people who were lost in 2020 to overdoses, because last year was Canada’s worst year yet.

Most governments in Canada have been too slow to respond to an epidemic that shows no signs of abating. There are no magic solutions and no single policy that can instantly reverse the tide, but health experts have long advocated for changes such as drug decriminalization and access to a safer supply of drugs as two important measures that could save lives.

The severity of the epidemic has led to a shift in recent months. Many political leaders previously rejected policies such as decriminalization and safer supply, but the ideas are now, to a growing extent, embraced. The debate is no longer stuck on whether an idea is worth trying. It is more and more about how best to do it.

Drug overdoses have killed more than 20,000 Canadians since 2016. It’s time to embrace bold prescriptions

Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say fatal drug overdoses nationwide have surged roughly 20% during the pandemic, killing more than 83,000 people in 2020.

While the CDC doesn't track overdose deaths by race, a growing body of research suggests Black Americans have suffered the heaviest toll. "It wasn't until we started looking at the level of race and ethnicity that we realized Black and brown communities are being disproportionately affected," said Dr. Utsha Khatri, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.

Khatri's team analyzed drug overdose data collected in Philadelphia during the pandemic. They found overdose deaths surged more than 50% among the city's Black residents. Among whites, by contrast, drug overdose fatalities remained flat and in some months even declined.

For whites and those who are financially well-off, substance use disorder is often treated as a chronic but survivable illness. That means long-term health care and life-saving medications. By contrast, people of color and poor Americans who experience addiction regularly face arrest and incarceration, while rarely gaining access to high-quality healthcare.

US: Drug overdose deaths surge among black Americans during pandemic

Today, the HIV Legal Network welcomes some of the amendments in Bill C-22, 

An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act

. Bill C-22 repeals mandatory minimum sentences for all drug offences, increases the availability of conditional sentences, and provides alternatives to criminal charges for people in possession of drugs for personal use. These are all positive.

 But the bill falls short by failing to simply repeal the criminal prohibition on personal drug possession,

even while it acknowledges that drug use is a health issue and that criminalization causes harm and contributes to stigma.

For more than two decades, the HIV Legal Network (formerly the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network) has called on federal policymakers to treat drug use as a health issue, not a law enforcement one. 

We have consistently called for the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences as harmful on fiscal, public health, and human rights grounds. 

Mandating minimum prison terms guarantees unfair and harsh sentences in the case of drug offences — disproportionately affecting Black and Indigenous communities, people living in poverty, and people who are dependent on drugs. As we argued in the cases of 

, mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences is also unconstitutional.

Canada: Bill C-22 introduces welcome drug policy amendments but falls short, advocates say

Currently, there is no central or local government funding earmarked for HIV prevention services for key populations including for people who inject drugs and no funding mechanism in place for non-governmental organisations in Romania.

As a consequence, ARAS - the main provider in this field since 2001 with an annual coverage of around 3,500 people who use drugs - publicly announced in early February the closure of its mobile unit service (as of 31 December 2020) due to the lack of funds.

Despite existing evidence on an HIV concentrated epidemic among for people who inject drugs (PWID) in Bucharest, Romania, since the end of the Global Fund Programmes on HIV in 2010, very little resources were allocated to sustain HIV prevention services for PWID and no formal mechanism was developed for subcontracting the harm reduction services performed by civil society organizations.

Additionally, the drop-in centre for vulnerable populations run by the same organisation has also significantly reduced its harm reduction activities for the same reason.

Romania: No funding for needle exchange

Morocco plans to allow the farming, export and domestic sale of cannabis for medical and industrial use, the government said on Thursday, a move it hopes will help impoverished farmers in the Rif mountains amid a growing legal global market for the drug.

Past attempts to legalise cannabis farming in Morocco have failed, but the co-ruling PJD party, the largest in parliament, dropped its opposition after the U.N. drug agency removed the plant from its list of most tightly controlled narcotic drugs.

The bill, which the cabinet is expected to approve next week, aims to improve farmers’ incomes, protect them from drug traffickers who now control the trade in cannabis and gain access to the booming legal international market for the drug.

Cannabis is mostly grown in the northern Rif mountains, which in recent years have seen protests over economic inequality.

News