A hepatitis C epidemic fuelled by the “war on drugs” is sweeping amongst injecting drug users globally, says a new landmark report released today by the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Of the 16 million people who inject drugs around the world, an estimated 10 million are living with hepatitis C. The report, entitled The Negative Impact of the War on Drugs on Public Health: The Hidden Hepatitis C Epidemic, condemns the drug war as a failure and recommends immediate, major reforms of the global drug prohibition regime to halt the spread of hepatitis C infection and other drug war harms.

The launch of the report happens in advance of next week´s 23rd International Harm Reduction Conference, taking place in Vilnius, Lithuania. Nearby Eastern Europe end Central Asia are home to the fastest growing hepatitis C and HIV epidemics and are largely being driven by injecting drug use.

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The negative impact of the war on drugs on public health: The hidden hepatitis C epidemic

Reflections upon this year’s CND are mixed. On the one hand, some states went further than ever before in openly challenging the current regime on the grounds that, after a century, it needs modernising. That the government of Uruguay is currently considering a domestic policy on cannabis that would put it in breach of the Single Convention shows that, in one instance at least, we have moved beyond rhetoric and posturing. Moreover, while couched in terms of ‘containment’ and a confidence in the fundamentals of the treaty framework as it stands, Mr. Fedotov’s pronouncement that human rights and public health considerations must be at the core of international responses to drug use and to HIV represents the continuation of a welcome shift away from a law enforcement approach, an approach too long privileged within the Commission.

On the other hand, it is difficult to ignore several issues of concern. Vienna remains out of step with many other parts of the UN system in its dealings with non-governmental organisations (NGOs). This was at its most startlingly obvious in the Committee of the Whole during discussions of possible civil society engagement in the high-level review next year. This, however, is surely the time when all expertise, inter-governmental and NGO alike, must be brought to bear upon the issue. Moreover, it is hard to be positive about the demeanour of the President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) at this year’s meeting with NGOs. This remained hostile and confused, particularly relative to the INCB’s mandate. Indeed, while in the current atmosphere there is a temptation to become preoccupied with potentialities beyond the present treaty framework, the INCB’s overstepping of its remit regarding scheduling within the current regime has once again become a serious point of unease.

This report aims to provide a summary of what was discussed – and to highlight what was not – at this year’s meeting, including various side events, and offers some analysis of the key discussions, debates and emerging new trends, as well as the Commission’s re-engagement with some that are more familiar.

IDPC report of proceedings: The 2012 Commission on Narcotic Drugs

IDPC report of proceedings: The 2011 Commission on Narcotic Drugs

IDPC report of proceedings: The 2010 Commission on Narcotic Drugs

IDPC report of proceedings: The 2009 Commission on Narcotic Drugs

IDPC report of proceedings: The 2008 Commission on Narcotic Drugs

IDPC report of proceedings: The 2007 Commission on Narcotic Drugs

IDPC report of proceedings: The 2013 Commission on Narcotic Drugs

 report presents a top-level overview of the drug phenomenon in Europe, covering drug supply, use and public health problems as well as drug policy and responses. Together with the online 

, it makes up the 2013 European Drug Report package.

European drug report 2013: Trends and developments

The objetives of this research are to determine the costs and savings attributable to the California Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act (SACPA), which mandated probation or continued parole with substance abuse treatment in lieu of incarceration for adult offenders convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and probation and parole violators.

The researchers used individually linked, population-level administrative data to define intervention and control cohorts of offenders meeting SACPA eligibility criteria. Their results show that the additional costs of treatment were more than offset by savings in other domains, primarily in the costs of incarceration. We estimated the statewide policy effect as an adjusted savings of $2317 (95% confidence interval = $1905, $2730) per offender over a 30-month postconviction period. SACPA implementation resulted in greater incremental cost savings for Blacks and Hispanics, who had markedly higher rates of conviction and incarceration.

Read here the full publication (restricted access)

Offender diversion into substance use disorder treatment: The economic impact of California’s proposition 36   

Last November, Colorado and Washington voters approved ballot initiatives to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana—decisions that put them at odds with federal law, which continues to ban marijuana. The states are moving ahead with implementation of their unprecedented laws in the face of uncertainty regarding the response of the federal government.

What exactly have the states voted to do? What authority does the federal government have with respect to the new laws? What are the trends in U.S. public opinion on marijuana policy?

In this paper, John Walsh and leading experts from the field respond to the most pressing questions in this debate, discussing the implementation of the new laws and exploring the key challenges in creating regulatory regimes for recreational marijuana—even as the federal ban remains in place.

This paper, edited by Washington Office on Latin America Senior Associate John Walsh, is the third in a WOLA-Brookings series on marijuana policy in the United States and abroad.

Q&A: Legal marijuana in Colorado and Washington

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 use drugs including harm reduction. The report’s authors found that Canada’s current federal government is openly hostile to evidence-based measures like harm reduction services and has clearly taken a punitive approach to addressing drug use problems. And failure by all levels of government to fully meet the needs of people with drug problems, means that some groups are still outright denied these lifesaving services and many community-based organizations struggle to meet the basic needs of their clients.

This report also highlights recent changes to Canadian law that implement mandatory minimum sentences and Canada’s escalating military role in the war of drugs. Despite these ominous developments the report also documents the innovations in harm reduction pioneered by Canadians in a North American context including supervised injection services and heroin-assisted treatment.

Getting to tomorrow: A report on Canadian drug policy

About 700 agencies provide treatment for alcohol and other drug issues in Australia, and three-quarters of these agencies are in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Most of the closed episodes provided in 2010-11 were for clients receiving treatment for their own drug use, and alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern in most states and territories. Counselling was the most common main treatment type in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania, and was the second most common main treatment in the remaining state and territories.

Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2010-11: State and territory findings

In 2010-11, health expenditure for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was estimated at $4.6 billion, or 3.7% of Australia¿s total recurrent health expenditure. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population comprised 2.5% of the Australian population at this time. Expenditure equated to $7,995 per Indigenous person, which was 1.47 times greater than the $5,437 spent per non-Indigenous Australian in the same year. Governments funded 91.4% of health expenditure for Indigenous people, compared with 68.1% for non-Indigenous people.

Expenditure on health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2010-11

The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) Illicit Drug Data Report 2011–12 provides a snapshot of the Australian illicit drug market. The report combines illicit drug data from a variety of sources including law enforcement, health and academia. The Illicit Drug Data Report is the only report of its type in Australia and provides an important evidence base to assist decision-makers in the development of strategies to combat the threat posed by illicit drugs.

Over the last decade, cannabis has remained the dominant illicit drug in the Australian market in terms of use, seizures and arrests. Other prominent drug types in the Australian market are amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) and ‘other and unknown’ drugs. The number of illicit drugs seized nationally continues to increase, with 76 083 seizures in 2011–12, the highest reported in the last decade. Illicit drug related arrests are also the highest reported in the last decade, with 93. 148 arrests in 2011–12.

Illicit drug data report 2011-2012 in Australia

Cannabis has accounted for the highest volume of drug arrests since 1996–97; in 2010–11, there were 58,760 drug arrests involving cannabis. In comparison in the same period there were 2551 heroin-related arrests. Drug arrests are more commonly consumers than providers, particularly for cannabis.

The report of the Australian Institute of Criminology shows that there were an estimated 287,000 cases of physical assault in 2011-2012 where AOD was a contributory factor.

Australian crime: facts and figures 2012 

New research undertaken on the streets of Richmond and Abbotsford has revealed increasing health risks for people who inject drugs and significant community concern over the impact of injecting in public areas.

The Burnet Institute report, ”North Richmond Public Injecting Impact Study” by Dr Robyn Dwyer, Professor Robert Power and Professor Paul Dietze was released on Monday 20 May.

The researchers identified increasing high rates of heroin-related overdose attendances by Ambulance Victoria (The City of Yarra had the highest number of attendances of any local government in Melbourne); a four-fold increase in the past two years in the collection of needles and syringes from street-sweeps; and a lack of access to sterile injecting equipment after hours and on weekends leading to a medium to high risk of blood-borne virus infection amongst people who re-used syringes.

North Richmond public injecting impact study

In many countries around the world, including Argentina, the number of women who aredeprived of their liberty has risen over time and has increased disproportionately in com parison to male prisoners. In Argentina, the number of female prisoners within the federal system increased 193%, while the male population rose 111% from 1990 to 2012. Nonetheless, little research has been done to understand why there has been such a dramatic increase in women’s incarceration. At the same time, international and domestic laws governing prisons and prison policies and practices have traditionally been designed for men. In 2010, however, the United Nations adopted the first international standards relating specifically to women prisoners – the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Female Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Bangkok Rules).

The global “war on drugs” serves to explain, in part, the significant (and disproportionate) increase in rates of femaleimprisonment within Argentina’s SPF, as well as in other South American countries moregenerally. As part of the “war on drugs,” the United States pressured Latin American countries to increasingly prosecute and target drug crimes. Argentina also adopted stricterdrug laws but, like other countries in South America, Argentina’s enforcement of anti-drug-trafficking laws has not successfully addressed the higher levels of organized drug trafficking. Rather, enforcement disproportionately targets lower-level crimes, in which women are usually the main participants.

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