To address its serious drug use problems, Myanmar should change its drug policy towards a harm reduction approach. Instead of a repressive approach, voluntary and evidence-based treatment and public health services, including harm reduction, should be made available and become generally accepted by enforcement officials and by the community at large.

Situated in South East Asia’s ‘Golden Triangle’ , Myanmar is well known for poppy cultivation and opium production. International reports claim that the country is the world’s second largest opium producer after Afghanistan . Opium cultivated in Myanmar is locally consumed, especially in the mountainous ethnic regions where it also has traditional and medicinal uses. However, a large amount of opium is turned into a more dangerous form - heroin - for the local market as well as for export, mostly to countries in the region, especially China. Myanmar is also under international surveillance because of its production and export of amphetamine type stimulants (ATS). In Myanmar prevalence of problematic drug use is high, though there is no reliable data on the issue. According to official reports, the most commonly used illicit substances are heroin, opium, methamphetamines, and cannabis. Major health problems such as HIV, hepatitis B and C, drug overdoses and tuberculosis are related to risky injection practices and the sharing of smoking paraphernalia. Problematic drug use is especially related to unsafe practices by injecting heroin users.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

‘Found in the dark’:  The impact of drug law enforcement practices in Myanmar

Paraguay is the principal producer of cannabis in South America. Despite its importance as a supplier of cannabis in South America, there has been a surprising absence of serious studies of its impact on its own society, and on the play of offer and demand in neighbouring countries.

The history of Paraguay in the import/export and processing of illicit drugs, together with the growing and exportation of cannabis, goes back to the late 1960s, when cannabis growing became established in the department of Amambay, around the town of Pedro Juan Caballero, on the northeastern frontier with Brazil. At the same time venal and cash-hungry central authorities discovered that this trade allowed them to finance a corrupt local political structure, heavily dependent on illegal cash flows and closely tied to the pre-existing caudillo system.

The chain of drug trafficking has evolved considerably from the amateurish structures of the 1960s, and has taken root within the state. The real question is what will happen next. Will Paraguay continue increasing the violence on its civilian population and with it the number of murders and forced disappearances? The most optimistic scenario is that a discussion about some form of legal regulation will move the debate forward, for without this, the prevailing structures of poverty and inequality will only continue to feed into present levels of corruption, money laundering and illicit trafficking.

Paraguay: The cannabis breadbasket of the Southern Cone

Victims should always be at the centre of the debate on the death penalty. This book gives voice to a wide array of perspectives, including family members of crime victims, the wrongfully convicted and children of persons condemned to death, as well as judges, lawyers, prisoner staff and others whose job it is to oversee executions. Their testimonies make the brutality and trauma of the death penalty wrenchingly clear.

There is wide consensus that the surviving family members of crime victims should also be considered as victims. They may not only suffer from crime emotionally and psychologically, but also socially and economically. For practical purposes, it may be questioned how close to the victim a family member or another person needs to be in order, for example, to be entitled to compensation or to be heard by the court when the sentencing is discussed.

Death penalty and the victims

In February 2016, the Bolivian President Evo Morales suffered electoral defeat for the first time in ten years. In a national referendum, a majority of voters rejected a proposal to bypass constitutional law and allow Morales to run in 2019 for his fourth consecutive presidential term.

That judgment, however definitive in legal terms, did not put an end to the controversy, and in the months following the referendum several attempts emerged to revoke its results. More recently, other signs of a growing political crisis reached the international media when Vice-minister Rodolfo Illanes was taken hostage and killed during negotiations with a belligerent group of cooperative mine workers in August 2016. As reflected in recent events, after a brief interruption in Morales’ first years of presidency, Bolivia’s political leadership is again subject to a growing risk of reaching high levels of contested governance. This paper explores the historical context, socio-economic and political developments that frame the current situation, from the perspective of state-society interactions in Bolivia. Based on this analysis, it identifies key actors and options for a conflict prevention and resolution agenda, and for safeguarding human Security in Bolivia going forward.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Plurinational Bolivia: Change process and social conflict


The purpose of this paper is to compare the response to HIV/AIDS and drug use (drugs harm reduction) with tobacco harm reduction.

Design/methodology/approach
Analysis of historical and contemporary sources, combined with personal knowledge of key stakeholders in the history and development of both fields.


Both drugs harm reduction and tobacco harm reduction share a similar objective – to reduce health risks for people who are unwilling or unable to stop using their drug of choice. Both also share a broader public health aim of helping people to make healthier decisions. Drugs harm reduction – as a response to HIV/AIDS – included the adoption of a wide range of radical harm reduction interventions and was a public health success. It became an established part of the professional Public Health agenda. In contrast the Public Health response to e-cigarettes and tobacco harm reduction has ranged from the negative to the cautious. A recent Public Health England report is exceptional for its endorsement of e-cigarettes.


Highlights contradictions in Public Health responses to drugs and tobacco; and that public health interventions can be implemented without and despite the contribution of professional Public Health.

A tale of two epidemics: drugs harm reduction and tobacco harm reduction in the United Kingdom

In Thailand, senior government officials have declared their commitment to ending the use of torture. Nevertheless, Amnesty International has found, through a two year investigation, that torture remains shockingly common. Legislators are considering a new law that, if passed, would explicitly criminalise torture and further protect against torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Adopting and implementing an anti-torture law that fully complies with the UN Convention against Torture are essential steps that Thailand must take to end these grave violations. “Make him Speak by Tomorrow" describes the findings of a two year investigation by Amnesty International into the use of torture and other ill treatment by Thai authorities. With the help of local human rights NGOs, Amnesty International collected first-hand testimony of survivors, court documents, medical records and various other forms of evidence relating to 74 cases of torture perpetrated in a variety of contexts. In southern Thailand, soldiers have tortured individuals with suspected links to insurgent groups. Elsewhere, authorities have tortured or otherwise ill-treated individuals accused of politically-related offences or acts of political violence, suspected drug users, migrant workers and others. This report identifies the legal and institutional failures that facilitate torture and other ill-treatment in Thailand and offers recommendations to such abuses once and for all.

"Make him speak by tomorrow": Torture and other ill-treatment in Thailand

The Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB or Board) for 2015 is, like the broader international drug policy debate, coloured by what was then the approaching United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem of April 2016. A number of key themes are reflected in the Report, including the abolition of the death penalty for drug-related offences; the defence of the international drug control conventions, and the availability of controlled drugs for medical and scientific uses. This might be summarised in what the President terms in his Foreword ‘the right way in drug policy’.

As is increasingly the case, the Report is highly informative as regards the contemporary drug landscape. In addition, this is complemented by a reduction in explicit political content, a trend that has featured over recent years. Prior to this trend, the Annual Reports tended to be filled with examples of the Board exceeding its mandate. Shortcomings do continue, with the Board often failing to comment or recommend with respect to issues on which it should, and which sit squarely within its mandate. One of the most blatant instances is the neglect of criticism of Russia’s failure to provide opioid substitution therapy (OST). Furthermore, while there is much to be welcomed in the Board’s support for the principles of human rights, it is often expressed in vague language. There is a reluctance to speak out regarding human rights violations, though the explicit critique in August 2016 of the ‘war on drugs’ in the Philippines represents a promising exception.

IDPC response to the 2014 INCB Annual Report

IDPC response to the 2013 INCB Annual Report

IDPC response to the 2012 INCB Annual Report

IDPC response to the 2011 INCB Annual Report

IDPC response to the 2010 INCB Annual Report

IDPC response to the 2009 INCB Annual Report

IDPC response to the 2008 INCB Annual Report

IDPC response to the 2007 INCB Annual Report

IDPC response to the 2015 Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board

The 1st Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies took place from July 11 to July 13, 2016, at the Hotel Schloss Lübbenau in picturesque Brandenburg, Germany. The forum was hosted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ), jointly with the Drug Commissioner of the Federal Government of Germany, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and the Transnational Institute (TNI).

Within the framework of the Global Partnership on Drug Policies and Development (GPDPD) project, the meeting brought together 48 expert participants from Germany, Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States — as well as from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and several international, regional, and national civil society partners.

The 1st Brandenburg Forum aimed to provide a platform, protected by confidentiality rules, for an open and timely discussion after the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) 2016, reflecting on its positive outcomes and remaining challenges alike. This report summarizes exclusively the discussions during the meeting and does not reflect the institutional positions of the co-hosting parties.

1st Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies - 'Taking Stock of UNGASS 2016 and the Challenges Ahead'

Drug overdose factsheet (MENAHRA)

6. Stresses that responses to the illicit drug trade must be carried out in full compliance with national and international obligations

7. Urges the authorities to ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards and international instruments ratified by the Philippines;

8. Encourages the authorities to launch an immediate investigation into the extraordinarily high numbers killed during police operations;

9. Notes that UNODC stands ready to engage further with the Philippines to bring drug traffickers to justice with the appropriate legal safeguards in line with international standards and norms;

10. Recommends that a national mechanism for the prevention of torture be put in place without delay, as provided for by the Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol;

11. Urges the Philippine Government to condemn the actions of vigilante groups and to investigate their responsibility for the killings; urges the Philippine authorities to conduct an immediate, thorough, effective and impartial investigation in order to identify all those responsible, to bring them before a competent and impartial civil tribunal and to apply the penal sanctions provided for by the law;

European Parliament resolution of 15 September 2016 on the Philippines

This report contains the findings from a rapid review of the Irish National Drug Strategy (INDS). The review is primarily based on site visits and meetings conducted during an intensive week long study visit. During the visit the panel met with over 150 individuals, including governmental officials, statutory and voluntary sector service providers, community members and service users. Although meetings took place only in Dublin and Cork, the panel also met people with responsibility for, or with knowledge of, the situation in other locations. The panel also considered some additional contextual documentary evidence and all those attending interviews were invited to submit additional evidence in written form. These submissions were also taken into consideration in drafting the views expressed in this paper. A list of the organisations that contributed to the review, either through participation in meetings or by providing submissions to the review panel, often both, is provided in Annex A. In many cases we saw several representatives of these organisations with different responsibilities or geographical remits.

The Rapid Expert Review (RER) was designed to provide a top-level overview of the strategy to inform the work of the Steering Group tasked with developing the new strategy. As such, it presents insights useful for framing the ongoing strategy development work, but is not intended as a formal evaluation of the outgoing strategy. The terms of reference for the rapid expert review panel work can be found in Annex B. Put simply, the review is intended to inform the development of the next National Drug Strategy by providing a ‘helicopter view’ of and capturing some key learning points from the experiences of the National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016. In doing this the panel members hope to provide useful input to facilitate the development of the new strategy whilst recognising that the responsibility and expertise necessary for undertaking that exercise lies elsewhere.

 Report on Rapid expert review of the National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016 in Ireland

The APPG Report launched on the 13th September emphatically calls on the UK government to legalise medical cannabis based on the results of their 7 month inquiry into the issue and on the findings of an independent review of global evidence commissioned by them that ran alongside the Inquiry.

According to Caroline Lucas MP, co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group, ‘Many hundreds of thousands of people in the UK are already taking cannabis for primarily medical reasons. It is totally unacceptable that they should face the added stress of having to break the law to access their medicine. This a matter of compassion and human rights. The government should have the political courage to view the issue of medical cannabis separately from any wider drugs reform and act urgently.’

According to Baroness Molly Meacher, co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group, ‘The findings of our inquiry and review of evidence from across the world are clear. Cannabis works as a medicine for a number of medical conditions. The evidence has been strong enough to persuade a growing number of countries and US states to legalise access to medical cannabis. Against this background, the UK scheduling of cannabis as a substance that has no medical value is irrational.’

Publications

‘Found in the dark’: The impact of drug law enforcement practices in Myanmar