78 governments and civil society in 106 countries report the existence of laws and policies which present obstacles to accessing HIV services for key populations.
In late May 2013, the Vancouver based Pivot Legal Society will release its report on the effects of the Safe Streets and Communities Act (SSCA) on low-income drug users in Canada.
The report documents the failing role that current federal drug policies play in supporting safety and health and draws attention to the acute need for an improved system of supports for people who inject drugs.
This report summarises the results of site assessments on HIV and drug use, conducted by the International HIV/AIDS Allianceand drug use in China, India, Indonesia, Kenya and Malaysia.
There are a range of alternative policy models available, from increasingly punitive “zero-tolerance” enforcement, through various harm reduction strategies and options for decriminalisation of possession and use, to models for the legal regulation of drug production and supply.
The war on drugs is actively undermining development and security in many of the world's most fragile regions and states.
Drug traffickers can be more confident of a reliable, cheap supply of coca leaf, poppy or cannabis if government employees, honest politicians and armies can be kept at bay, and if farmers have few alternatives to drug production because they have little access to alternative sources of credit, and have to pay high prices to transport fertilizer or ship bulkier non-drug crops to market.
As a result, traffickers prefer it if there is little economic infrastructure or governance in producing and transit areas. So they target weak states through equipping private armies, financing or merging with separatist and insurgent groups, and simultaneously corrupting politicians, police, judiciary, armed forces and customs officers. Key examples include the internal armed conflicts in Colombia and Afghanistan.
Once an area is sufficiently destabilised, it deters investment by indigenous or external businesses and restricts the activities of international development NGOs and other bodies. It also diverts large amounts of valuable aid and other resources from health or development efforts into enforcement – often through the military, which can undermine accountability.
The same corrosive consequences for health, governance, public authority, and democracy are replicated as traffickers trans-ship heroin, cocaine and cannabis through the Caribbean, Central America, Central Asia and West Africa.
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This study uses inmate self-report surveys from 2002 and 2004 to examine characteristics of the prison and jail populations in the USA and examine drug courts experience.
The objective of this UNODC report is to further the understanding about the mechanics of illicit trade in the East Asia and the Pacific region: the how, where, when, who, and why of selected contraband markets affecting the region.
