By the International Narcotics Control Board

VIENNA, 22 December (United Nations Information Service) - During its 129th session, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) held consultations with senior representatives of the Government of the Philippines to discuss the country's implementation of its legal obligations under the three international drug control conventions in conjunction with continued reports of extrajudicial acts of violence, including killings of people in the Philippines suspected of engaging in drug-related conduct and drug use.

Over the past years, INCB has joined other UN bodies in drawing the attention of the international community to these allegations and has repeatedly called on the Government of the Philippines to immediately halt acts of violence against people who use drugs and people suspected of involvement in the illicit drug trade and to take measures to ensure that all reported incidents are investigated, and if warranted prosecuted, according to the rule of law.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has highlighted that reports of these killings continue, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. INCB has remained in dialogue with the Government of the Philippines on these issues and has been working to secure a Board mission to the country to review implementation of the three drug control conventions on the ground.

INCB reviews the drug control situation in the Philippines

By Gideon Lasco, Suchitra Rajagopalan / Inquirer

In May 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a man in Singapore was sentenced to death for a drug offense via a remote hearing on Zoom. This incident personifies the approach to drugs in Asia. Countries in Asia hold the unfortunate distinction of being among the most prolific users of the death penalty for drugs, and for having some of the most punitive drug laws in the world.

Despite the proven ineffectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent to drug use or sale, its use for drug offenses has continued, with Bangladesh expanding the death penalty to cover the manufacture and trafficking of yaba (methamphetamine). Sri Lanka’s former President Maithripala Sirisena sought to reinstate the death penalty for drug traffickers last year, and Indonesia continues to hand out death sentences for drug-related offenses.


While executions sometimes receive media attention, much less is said of the plight of people on death row for drug offenses. At least 3,000 people convicted of drug offenses are languishing on death row. Government data is insufficient and inaccessible so the actual figure is likely to be much higher. Many of these people have been on death row for a decade or more, and hundreds more continue to be sentenced to death every year.


Asia: From a punitive to public health drug approach

Over 200 drug policy, harm reduction, health care, and community based organizations from across the country today sent a letter to Rahul Gupta, Team Lead for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) on President-Elect Biden’s Transition Team. The letter urges the Biden administration to implement proven, bold solutions to curb the overdose crisis and begin dismantling the drug war. Led by People’s Action, VOCAL-NY, the Drug Policy Alliance, and National Harm Reduction Coalition, the letter also makes clear the disproportionate consequences the drug war and overdose crisis have on Black, Brown, and low-income communities, which have contributed to the U.S. leading the world in mass incarceration and preventable overdose deaths.

“Like the President-elect, we too have watched the nation stigmatize our loved ones for substance use, and, instead of judging, we unconditionally love and support them. And, like the President-elect, we too have experienced the insurmountable grief brought on by the loss of family members,” the groups wrote. “It is our strong hope and belief that ending the drug war that has inflicted incredible harm in communities across this nation, and centering evidence-based solutions to address the overdose crisis, could be a great catalyst for a national transformation.”

In the letter, the groups outline immediate and longer-term policy recommendations based on to combat the overdose crisis and begin dismantling the drug war.

Over 200 drug policy, harm reduction, health care, and community groups call on Biden administration to prioritize public health solutions to curb overdose crisis and dismantle drug war

Since 2020’s uprisings against anti-Black police violence, communities and institutions across the country have been critically re-evaluating their relationships with police agencies. Contracts have been terminated, and cities like Denver, San Francisco, New York and Philadelphia have created mental health response teams that dispatch non-police, trained first responders for mental health calls, including those involving overdoses.

It is time for harm reduction organizations to follow suit by cutting ties with police and committing to an abolitionist vision for harm reduction.

Currently, harm reduction organizations work with police in a variety of contexts. Naloxone trainings are the most common. Additionally, these nonprofits sometimes consult on Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) programs—which coerce people who use drugs (PWUD) into treatment or connect them to other services after a drug-related encounter. Organizations have worked with law enforcement to pass needlestick safety laws, framing protections for drug users who disclose needle possession as an occupational safety issue for police officers. The Open Society Foundations published a guide in 2018 about how police can work in the spirit of harm reduction to both “advance public health and public safety.” The case for working with police has even been made here in 

A harm reductionist’s case for abolition

The governor of Illinois has expunged nearly 500,000 criminal records related to cannabis in the state.

JB Pritzker cleared the state's no felony marijuana cases, along with 9,219 low-level cannabis convictions to begin in 2021.

The Democratic politician signed legislation in 2019 legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in Illinois, which began last year.

That allowed nearly 770,000 state residents to eliminate marijuana-related crimes, causing a criminal conviction record to be destroyed or sealed from state or federal records.

The governor had said it could take four years to work the cases, but announced that nearly 500,000 had been ruled out by 2021.

Illinois clears 500,000 low-level cannabis charges

The war on drugs is fuelling racism, research revealed today, reigniting calls for all non-violent drug offenders to be released and their convictions erased.

In a new peer-reviewed research paper, more than 60 international experts, including bioethicists and psychologists, joined forces to demand an end to the “costly” and “ineffective” policy.

They called for the personal use and possession of small amounts of all drugs to be decriminalised immediately in Britain and the United States, followed by legalisation, regulation and restrictions on age, advertising and licensing.

Calls reignited for non-violent drug offenders to be released, as research reveals ‘war on drugs’ fuels racism

There were more than 81,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in the year leading up to May 2020, which surpassed record highs, according to a grim update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC said fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were mainly fueling the spike in overdose deaths, which increased 38% from the prior 12-month period. Almost every U.S. jurisdiction -- 37 of 38 -- with available data on opioids reported an uptick in related deaths. Fatal overdoses surged 50% in nearly half of the jurisdictions, and 10 states throughout the West listed a 98% rise in deaths attributed to synthetic opioids.

A top official with the Drug Policy Alliance, a coalition working to reframe drug policy, told Fox News the figures offer a glimpse into worsening figures as the pandemic progressed beyond May.

Vakharia said the Drug Policy Alliance is urging the incoming Biden administration to prioritize a "health-centered approach over past punitive approaches that have failed our communities" and increase access to services like "like harm reduction and medications for substance use disorder."

Amid coronavirus pandemic, US drug overdose deaths top record high, CDC says

The number of women being jailed globally has increased by more than 100,000 in the past decade, despite international rules aimed at reducing the female prison population.

New data released by Penal Reform International around the 10th anniversary of the “Bangkok Rules” adopted by the UN show there are now 741,000 women and girls in prison.

“The number of women in prison globally is climbing at an alarming rate – even though they are typically convicted of low-level, nonviolent crime,” said Olivia Rope, executive director of Penal Reform International.

The organisation’s research highlights a lack of progress, with women unduly imprisoned in numerous countries.

More than 80 organisations have signed a call to action for governments to fully implement the rules and review policies to reduce the number of women behind bars.

'Alarming': Female prison population rises by 100,000 in past decade

By Kassandra Frederique & Danielle Sered, Truthout

November’s election saw criminal legal system and drug policy reform win big at the polls. Oregon became the first state to decriminalize all drugs, and voters overwhelmingly passed other reforms to drug laws, even in deeply red states like South Dakota. Policing took center stage in the national dialogue. And both the vice president and president-elect in their first addresses to the nation promised to “root out systemic racism” in the criminal legal system.

The people have spoken, and we are on the precipice of a new moment for justice reform. But how we understand the scope of this collective call for change — and the challenge to which Biden and Harris will have to rise — stands to shape what our new world may look like for decades to come.

Central to determining the outcome of that question will be whether or not we as a nation move past one particular old and dangerous habit: for decades, reforms have underscored a dichotomy between nonviolent and violent offenses. This contrast often gets good traction, since it allows people who support drug policy and lower-level criminal legal reform to avoid having to grapple with the question of violence. It has been a winning strategy — but only for certain victories and people, and not without long-term costs.

Let’s reject the violent vs. nonviolent crime dichotomy to end the war on drugs

Theo, a 14-year-old living in Rio de Janeiro, suffers from a type of epilepsy that causes absence seizures—brief lapses in awareness. “It’s not exactly those seizures that we know where the person falls to the ground, but they are challenging and difficult to control and have an impact on his quality of life,” Theo’s mother, Rita Carvana, told 

. Theo was diagnosed when he was 12. The first drug prescribed by his neurologist had little effect. Neither did the second. Carvana decided to try medical cannabis. There were many difficulties in obtaining it; “few neurologists in Brazil prescribe,” she said.

It’s difficult to buy medical marijuana in Brazil, and difficult to maintain the course of treatment—the oil is very expensive. Carvana says she used to pay the equivalent of nearly $400 per month.

Carvana managed to pay for the treatment for almost a year, suffering from the devaluation of the Brazilian currency to import it. In March 2020 she went to court to force her health insurer to cover the cost. In May, she won. Today, her health care plan covers both types of extract that Theo uses: isolated cannabidiol and full-spectrum.

“In the middle of the pandemic, it was a great relief,” Carvana said. “I was able to pay all this time but it was very expensive … I work in the cultural sector and, in the last two years we have lost a lot of standard of living, economic crisis in Rio de Janeiro is very strong. If on the one hand I had this privilege of paying for my son’s medicine, it also cost me a lot in the sense that I have many debts.”

One of the biggest difficulties in the fight for the complete legalization of medicinal cannabis is the prejudice that exists against THC. “The industry, the market, gains much more from CBD oil than from full-spectrum cannabis oil, which can have high-, medium- or low-THC dosage,” Carvana said. “The full-spectrum oil will almost always act better because of the ‘entourage effect,’ and requires smaller doses. So, we see clearly that the prejudice against THC is being fostered by the pharmaceutical industry … and this is for purely financial reasons.”

The much-desired “entourage effect”—whereby the many chemical components of a drug produce better results than any would alone—can only be obtained with full-spectrum cannabis, which is not yet found in pharmacies.

The struggle for medical marijuana access in Brazil

India has voted in favour of a move by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs to remove cannabis from Schedule IV of the 1961 convention, where it was listed alongside drugs like heroin. This means India supports reclassification of marijuana to drop it from the strictest drug control list. However, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that the government at home has been doggedly pursuing and prosecuting Bollywood personalities for allegations of marijuana possession of very small quantities. If government thinks marijuana is a less dangerous drug and has potential medicinal and therapeutic value, then why has it been coming down heavily on Bollywood for what can at best be classified as a minor offence?

In treating allegations of marijuana possession as a serious matter and tarnishing Bollywood’s image, government through agencies like the Narcotics Control Bureau has undermined the one industry that has contributed the most to India’s soft power. If the idea here was to put Bollywood in its place, this kind of a statist mindset isn’t conducive for any industry. Besides, the contradiction in the implementation of the law is even more glaring when sadhus and ascetics can openly consume marijuana while Bollywood personalities have the book thrown at them.

The fact is marijuana use has long been part of Indian tradition. It was only under American pressure that the Indian government banned all narcotic substances, including marijuana, in the 1980s. But today there is a change of heart in the US itself. The House of Representatives just passed a legislation that would decriminalise marijuana and expunge non-violent marijuana-related convictions. In fact, at least 15 American states have legalised recreational cannabis while 35 states in all have legalised medical marijuana. India too must reverse course and decriminalise marijuana. A BJP government ought to be more inclined towards upholding what’s been for long an Indian tradition anywayI

Legalise marijuana: Indian government's contradictions on cannabis use must be ironed out

By Cormac O’Keeffe, Security Correspondant for Irish Examiner,

Drug organisations in favour of decriminalisation have described as a “move in the right direction” a legal change allowing gardaí to caution, rather than charge, people caught in possession of cannabis for their own personal use.

The development, announced by Garda HQ today, applies, primarily, to a first offence and only to cannabis.

Under the changes to the Adult Caution Scheme, gardaí will still retain their discretion to prosecute if they believe it is not appropriate in the circumstances to give a caution.

The change in relation to cannabis possession has been a Garda/DPP proposal for some four years now and runs parallel to a wider reform of Government policy towards possession of all drugs.

But unlike the recommendation of the 2016 Working Group on Alternatives to Prosecution (WGAP) and the August 2019 Government Working Group to Consider Alternative Approaches to the Possession of Drugs for Personal Use – which recommend changes apply to all drugs – the Garda directive solely applies to cannabis.

Anna Quigley of the Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign, which has advocated decriminalisation of possession of all drugs, said: “Citywide has a clear position that people who are in possession of drugs for personal use should not be criminalised, as the evidence shows that criminalisation has no positive impact and can have a lot of negative impact on people’s lives.

"This change to the Adult Caution is moving in the right direction, but obviously given our position we would like to see more significant change in the current criminal status of people who are in possession of drugs for their personal use.”