Across Canada, African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) people face state-sanctioned violence that is deeply rooted in the legacy of slavery and the enduring presence of anti-Black racism, which manifests in Canada’s drug laws. Black people are racially profiled and disproportionately criminalized and targeted by drug laws, which are themselves rooted in colonialism and the oppression of Black, Indigenous, racialized, and migrant communities. This has had severe consequences for Black communities in Canada, leading to child apprehension, mass incarceration, and deportation. As Black advocates have long urged, decriminalizing people who use and share drugs is one necessary component of undoing systemic discrimination against Black people.

This pamphlet answers questions about Canada’s drug laws to provide better knowledge of drug offences and the powers of police, prosecutors, and courts.

Know your rights: On drug laws for African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) people who use drugs

17 ORGANIZATIONS CONDEMN FORCED DETENTION PLANS: BCCLA, South Asian Legal Clinic of BC, Pivot Legal, Surrey Union of Drug Users & 12 more join P.O.W.E.R. to denounce involuntary treatment expansion

Moms Stop the Harm, Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society, Spring Mag, VANDU, HRNA, Care Not Cops, Stop the Sweeps, BCAPOM, EACH+EVERY,CSSDP Vancouver, Crackdown, and COPA join the call.

, Premier David Eby announced that his BC NDP would expand apprehensions under the 

 should the party be re-elected. Eby’s press conference follows a similar 

 from the BC Conservatives, and puts the competing forerunners in consensus on this 

Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society

BC Association of People on Opioid Maintenance

Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy - Vancouver

Committee Organizing for Prohibition Abolition

, 17 groups in total, have joined together to condemn all proposed expansions of involuntary treatment.

Canadian Mental Health Association - BC division

 have already publicly decried the plans.

Policy details are still to be decided – or have yet to be announced – however, it is clear that criteria will explicitly include drug use as justification for apprehension and forced detention under both parties’ proposals, and prisons are included 

, and often includes restraints, apprehension, forced injections, as well as widely varied detention lengths. 

, have shown it to be a practice with net negative and/or harmful outcomes. Rare, selective positive stories from a few 

 the impacts felt by the many people who suffer negative consequences.

As P.O.W.E.R. researcher Stephanie states, “

this is just another way for them to hide the problem,

” including unaddressed issues linked to the 

 of poverty across British Columbia (BC).

When the BC NDP announced a similar plan in 2020 to pass Bill 22, which would permit the involuntary detention of youth who overdose, there was immense 

. This resistance was driven primarily by Indigenous groups, and led to the party 

, citing commitments to reconciliation and collaboration with Indigenous communities.

This is another way to criminalize Indigenous people, we know the jails are already full of my Indigenous kin. This is the continuation of a colonial framework to keep Indigenous people below the poverty line, criminalized and oppressed,”

 states Sparkling Fast Rising River Woman Elder Mona Woodward, Board of Directors, Surrey Union of Drug Users, Cree, Lakota-Sioux and Saulteaux from Kawacatoose First Nation.

Treatment does not have a specific meaning, but we know that involuntary treatment is upheld by the violence of apprehension and police power

,” adds Tyson Singh Kelsall ਟਾਈਸਨ ਸਿੰਘ, a PhD candidate in Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. “

We know who police discretion is weaponized against and who it benefits. We do not need further carceral creep into all facets of everyday life, instead we need to foster community care and inclusion.”

, due to the traumatic and violent nature of the intervention. An omnipresent threat of involuntary treatment can drive 

“I see the trauma caused by healthcare daily. Individuals experiencing inequities with poor health outcomes, disengaged from care and untrusting of the system. The politicians announcing involuntary treatment will kill people,”

 reflects Blake Edwards, outreach worker and BScNursing student, Care Not Cops. 

“[The threat] will erode the fragile trust I try so hard to cultivate.” 

Legal experts have also raised concerns that involuntary detention will undermine fundamental legal rights.

“We are very alarmed that political leaders in BC are proposing to subvert the vital principle of bodily autonomy – the idea that people have the right to consent to medical treatment and are free to make decisions about their life,”

 says Meghan McDermott, policy director and staff counsel at the BC Civil Liberties Association. 

“The forced detention and treatment of people who use drugs cannot be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society and would inherently violate Charter rights, including Section 7, which guarantees everyone the right not to be deprived of life, liberty, or security of the person. Without a genuine investment in decriminalization and a safe supply of drugs, and culturally safe, accessible, and voluntary treatment services, musings around involuntary detention and treatment for drug use are socially irresponsible and downright cruel.”

Darren Graham, a researcher with P.O.W.E.R. and board member of the BC Association of People on Opioid Maintenance questions the lack of access to community and voluntary support, 

“We must service the infrastructure for those who want it.”

We must build support across the voluntary care spectrum that people actually want to access, and that fits our needs. Instead, we are seeing another expansion of colonial, carceral legal tools that sever community relations. Weaponizing this violence as a political and governance strategy is unbecoming, cruel, and 

Involuntary care will not end the drug crisis

Involuntary Care: Criminalization by Another Name

Forcing drug users into treatment is violent policy


Marilou Gagnon, Tim Gauthier, Nesa Hamidi Tousi et al.: 

Why NDP Should Drop Its Youth Overdose Bill

Protecting the Rights of Involuntary Patients under the Mental Health Act

The impact of an unsanctioned compassion club on non-fatal overdose

Canada: 17 organisations condemn forced detention plans in BC

November 25 is the international day for elimination of violence against women which marks the beginning of 16 days of action through to December 10, International Human Rights Day. 

WHRIN encourage interested organisations and groups worldwide to collaborate and organise actions to highlight the need to end violence against women and gender-diverse people who use drugs and actions to end violence against women and gender-diverse people who use drugs and orient drug policy towards human rights, gender awareness and harm reduction. 

To join our global campaign, please adapt/translate and print out the poster and take photos while wearing something orange (to pick up on the international theme colour for eliminating violence against women) while ensuring your action brings particular attention to the situation of women and gender diverse people who use drugs.

You are encouraged to invite media to hear and receive statements from your organisation/s. An optional press release can be translated and adapted to context in your city, adding your own contact or logo etc. To register your EVAWUD planning and/or apply for a small grant, click here. Recommended hashtags include: #EVAWUD24 #orangetheworld #WHRINetwork 

In contexts where publication of identifying images could have negative repercussions, it is proposed that the poster is held in front of faces to protect identity, or that blur face options be offered. Those participating will agree to having the images used for campaign purposes targeting UN agencies, drug policy forums and via partner harm reduction, drug policy and feminist agencies. Campaign organisers will be responsible for coordinating informed consent (see and example template here). 

By December 10-14, please email your photos and a brief description of activity (max 200 words) back to policyandcommunityengagementlead@whrin.site. The reports will be pooled collated and repropelled through relevant networks aiming to achieve a global-level profile for the campaign.

Campaign for the elimination of violence against women who use drugs - EVAWUD 2024


While research has demonstrated associations between experiencing violence from intimate and non-intimate partners and non-fatal drug overdose among women who inject drugs, existing studies focus predominantly on the Global North and are analytically limited. Guided by syndemics theory, this study examined whether different forms of gender-based violence exert independent and interactive effects on non-fatal drug overdose among women who inject drugs in Indonesia.


We recruited 731 cisgender adult women who injected drugs in the preceding year via respondent-driven sampling. We used multivariate logistic regressions to examine associations between self-reported intimate partner violence (IPV), police sexual violence, and police extortion, and non-fatal drug overdose, with covariance adjustment for factors drawn from the risk environment. We tested for interaction effects among violence measures by calculating metrics for attributable proportion (AP), relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI), and synergy index (S).


Experiencing IPV (AOR 2.5; 95 % CI 1.2, 5.1; p = 0.012), police extortion (AOR 2.2; 95 % CI 1.5, 3.2; p ≤ 0.001), and police sexual violence (AOR 3.7; 95 % CI 1.5, 9.4; p = 0.005) each independently predicted non-fatal overdose, after adjusting for potential confounders. A significant positive interaction was detected between IPV and police sexual violence on drug overdose (AP=0.6, p = 0.001; S = 3.8, p = 0.015) such that the joint effect of these two forms of violence was associated with a nearly fourfold increase in non-fatal overdose risk compared to the main effects of each violence exposure.


This is the first study to show that concurrent IPV and police sexual violence exert an amplifying effect on non-fatal overdose beyond the additive effects of each exposure. Supporting the value of gender-responsive harm reduction services that integrate violence and overdose responses, results suggest that eliminating one form of violence when multiple forms of GBV are present could magnify the expected reduction in overdose.

Synergistic effects of exposure to multiple types of violence on non-fatal drug overdose among women who inject drugs in Indonesia

Although this article isn’t about me, I think it’s important to give you some context.

My name is Jéssica, I’m 31 years old, I was born and raised in the Complexo de Favelas do Alemão, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. I’m an LGBTQIA+ person, I have no children and I’m a human rights activist.

I’d like to start by talking about activism – more specifically, about what drives someone to become an activist. In my case, it was an almost-choice. I emphasise “almost” because, although it was a choice like many others I’ve made, sometimes that decision is thrust upon you, like a foot ramming down a door, forcing you to take part in a fight that no one would ever ask you to join.

Today, this text is not about me. I’m writing about the growing movements of mothers and other relatives who, from one moment to the next, have their lives changed and must fight for the memory and the rights of the victims of the drug war. According to the 17th edition of the Annual Brazilian Public Security Report, 83% of those killed by the police in Brazil in 2022 were Black, and 76% of these were aged between 12 and 26. These figures reveal not only a very important detail of who is executed by the police; they also show how these killings leave a trail of blood and pain on so many mothers, families and friends whose lives are violently crossed by the pain of loss.

The weight of inaction: The mothers fighting the war on drugs in Brazil

How we think about, regulate, moralise or criminalise drugs is often not a response to domestic considerations, but a negotiation with global forces in an uneven international environment. Drug control in Lebanon is no exception to this rule. Its policies, since their inception, are the result of colonial and neo-colonial impositions and local resistance to these international impositions.

The colonial roots of drug policies are clear in Lebanon. The first drug control imperatives were introduced under the French mandate in the 1920s. In fact, the 1922 

 of the League of Nations that put Lebanon and Syria under French rule specifically mentions in article 12 that France will adhere, on behalf of the countries under its mandate, to conventions related to “drug trafficking” among other things.

The imposition of prohibitionist policies had to contend with the reality that 

 of Lebanon’s economy was reliant on cannabis. As a result of the decline of the silk industry in the early 20th century, many farmers resorted to cannabis cultivation, which had been part of the Lebanese agricultural landscape for centuries. French authorities were 

 by local politicians for prohibiting cannabis cultivation, which was a source of income for the villagers. Lacking power in the rural areas, and unwilling to alienate powerful landowners whose support they relied on, the French authorities resorted to a “

” implementation of drug policies, aimed at satisfying international requirements without ostracising domestic political forces.

The intersection of colonial impositions with local negotiations, resulting in performative drug control policies, would become the 

After its independence, Lebanon continued the French charade. After declaring that it would take drastic measures to curb hashish production during WWII, members of the British Security Mission who assisted Lebanese authorities 

 that they had to apply “considerable direct pressure . . . on a reluctant Gendarmerie” to get any action done.

The colonial legacy of drug control in Lebanon

This report is based on information provided to the EMCDDA by the EU Member States, the candidate country Türkiye, and Norway, in an annual reporting process.

The purpose of the current report is to provide an overview and summary of the European drug situation up to the end of 2023. All grouping, aggregates and labels therefore reflect the situation based on the available data in 2023 in respect to the composition of the European Union and the countries participating in EMCDDA reporting exercises. However, not all data will cover the full period. Due to the time needed to compile and submit data, many of the annual national data sets included here are from the reference year January to December 2022. Analysis of trends is based only on those countries providing sufficient data to describe changes over the period specified. The reader should also be aware that monitoring patterns and trends in a hidden and stigmatised behaviour such as drug use is both practically and methodologically challenging. For this reason, multiple sources of data are used for the purposes of analysis in this report. Although considerable improvements can be noted, both nationally and in respect to what is possible to achieve in a European-level analysis, the methodological difficulties in this area must be acknowledged. Caution is therefore required in interpretation, in particular when countries are compared on any single measure. Caveats relating to the data are to be found in the online Statistical Bulletin 2024, which contains detailed information on methodology, qualifications on analysis and comments on the limitations in the information set available. Information is also available there on the methods and data used for European-level estimates, where interpolation may be used.

European Drug Report 2024: Trends and developments

MANILA - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on April 15 he would not hand his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating his deadly drug war.

Thousands of people have been killed in an anti-narcotics campaign started by former president Duterte in 2016 and continued under Mr Marcos.

Asked on April 15 if he would hand Mr Duterte – who has accused him of being a drug addict and criticised his policies – to the ICC if it issued a warrant for his arrest, Mr Marcos said no.

“We don’t recognise the warrant that they will send to us. That’s a no,” he said at a forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

“We are well within international law when we take the position of not recognising the jurisdiction of the ICC in the Philippines,” Mr Marcos said.

Mr Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019 after the Hague-based tribunal started probing allegations of human rights abuses committed during his drug war.

The ICC launched a formal inquiry into Mr Duterte’s crackdown in September 2021, only to suspend it two months later after Manila said it was re-examining several hundred cases of drug operations that led to deaths at the hands of police, hitmen and vigilantes.

Philippines: Marcos says he will not hand Duterte to ICC over drug war

 of settler colonialism by Canada, while their prohibition and attached criminalization have been used to 

Collective prohibitionist policies are key to the interlocking social relations of colonial control and capitalism under Canada. The carceral apparatus, which includes courts, prisons and provincial-level 

 systems, is largely powered by drug war-related charges, either through direct drug-related events, or the indirect violence generated by an unregulated drug market.

, Canada is overseeing a crisis of mass death due to the unregulated drug market now producing a contaminated and unpredictable supply in response to a century of shifting forms of 

 by drug opioid and stimulant drug poisonings between January 2016 and September 2023 in Canada (and 

 people died in the province of British Columbia alone from April 2016 to January 2024).

In Palestine, restrictions on substances have been employed as a tool of war by the settler state of Israel.


Undoing colonial carcerality everywhere: Palestine & the global drug war

The 55th Human Rights Council took place between 26 February and 4 April 2024. This briefing highlights the key debates, decisions and documents that discuss drug control and its impact on human rights.

 of the High Commissioner’s annual report on the situation of human rights in Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras, the High Commissioner, Volker Türk, welcomed the adoption of Colombia’s key policies as part of its post-conflict peacebuilding process, which includes a new drug policy which integrates the International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy (

Despite the Sri Lankan government’s Operation ‘Yukthiya’, an ongoing anti-drug operation which has led to over 40,000 arbitrary arrests and detention in overcrowded prisons and compulsory drug treatment centres, drug control was not addressed by the High Commissioner during his oral 

ID with the Special Rapporteur on torture

The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, Alice Jill Edwards, 

 her two reports. In the first report regarding current issues and good practices in prison management globally (

), she addressed the link between poverty and prisons – with prison populations being largely composed of members of economically disadvantaged and marginalised communities, including people convicted for “low-level” drug or related offences. Additionally, the Special Rapporteur addressed the high risk of spread of contagious diseases in closed settings and called on all Stakeholders to include prisons in national pandemic planning as well as in the Pandemic Treaty currently negotiated at WHO...

ID with the Special Rapporteur on Iran and the death penalty

), The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javaid Rehman, expressed concerns at the recent spike in death sentences and executions. As he noted on his report, 2023 saw a 43% increase in executions compared to 2022, with over 56% of the executions carried out in 2023 being for drug-related charges. This is in line with HRI’s findings reported in 

The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2023

. The Rapporteur also paused on the disproportionate imposition of capital punishment against ethnic and religious minorities, especially for drug or security-related crimes. He also recalled on some positive steps, particularly the 2017 amendment of the drug trafficking law which until 2020 had led to a significant decline in drug-related executions. Accordingly, in his report the Rapporteur recommended that pending total abolition Iran imposes an immediate moratorium on drug-related executions and abolishes the death penalty for offences that do not amount to “the most serious crimes” threshold...

55th Human Rights Council: Drug policy highlights

Monday April 15, 9:00pm ET | Tuesday April 16, 9:00am PHT

As Mayor of Davao City and then President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte orchestrated a campaign of widespread extrajudicial killings in the Philippine drug war. Now the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court, the Duterte drug war according to the government has claimed more than 6,000 lives, while NGOs believe the true number is upwards of 30,000. Since late during the Duterte presidency and continuing under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., drug war killings reported by media outlets in the Philippines have continued at a rate of about one per day.

Adding to the the suffering of victims/survivors, burial plots rented by the government have expiration dates, leading to cremations when families can't pay or sometimes without their knowledge. In addition to the indignity, this is also a potential evidentiary issue for the ICC. The AJ Kalinga Foundation's Program Paghilom helps families make arrangements for their loved ones' remains, with ritual to provide closure, and conducts forensic examinations, as part of a support framework that includes education, legal support and other basic needs.

International Center for Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma

, Founder and Executive Director, Rock Ed Philippines and head of its 

Fr. Flaviano Villanueva SVD is a leading human rights advocate in the Philippines. He will discuss the work of Program Paghilom, including its efforts to document and memorialize extrajudicial killings in the Duterte drug war while helping victims/survivors move forward with their lives.

Dr. Yael Danieli, a clinical psychologist, psychohistorian, victimologist and traumatologist, will discuss the challenges faced by victims/survivors of atrocities, the role of victims in relation to cases at the International Criminal Court, and the concept of reparative justice in international law. She will also discuss the impact that trauma from mass atrocities has on future generations, a phenomenon recognized by the ICC for the first time in the Uganda Dominic Ongwen prosecution.

Gang Badoy Capati is the founder of Rock Ed Philippines and Project: Steady Asia, and is a trauma therapist and trained media literacy instructor with a background in media, documentary filmmaking, education and publishing. She will discuss victims' trauma in the context of events and conditions in The Philippines.

Victims move forward from the Philippine drug war

New research into service users’ experiences of drug treatment services in the NEIC Dublin was launched in the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission by ICON, SURIA and CAN.

Applying a public sector equality and human rights duty approach to the human rights and equality issues identified by Service Users of Drug Treatment services in the North East Inner City (NEIC)

 details the process and findings of a collaborative peer led research programme.

77% of service users are aged between 36-55

56% of service users are in treatment over 16 years

87% have never been offered an alternative to methadone

88% feel they have been treated differently due to being in treatment and/or addiction

88% have never been asked their opinion on services

48% are still required to give weekly urinalysis

‘It’s like I am chained to my clinic’

‘I can’t get a job because I have to go to the clinic every day except Christmas when its closed.

The moment people know, they come undermining and dismissive of my view.

‘..that we wouldn’t be left on methadone for our lives’

Working directly with service users to identify their human rights and equality issues and monitor progress over time has facilitated their voice to be heard and validated. In doing so, it recognises the value the unique knowledge and experience of lived experience and the power it has to bring perspective and expertise to the design and delivery of services that are both appropriate and based on respect and rights.’

36% of those we surveyed were homeless, creating an additional burden on service users as they have to navigate both the addiction and homeless services. If other treatments such as Buivdal were an automatic option, people would have more flexibility to work on personal growth, particularly for women. It could enable them to access education, work, housing without having to be so open to potential employers. It would prevent attending clinics from being a part of daily life as for many, that’s there the triggers are.’

this research allowed us to facilitate service users to communicate their lived experiences and to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives from a rights based perspective. The onus is now on the HSE and public bodies to address the experiences of the service users and promote positive actions to fulfil their responsibilities and act on non-compliance of the Public Sector Duty.’

1pm – 5pm, Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission,

‘Trapped in Treatment’ – Applying a public sector equality and human rights duty approach to the human rights and equality issues identified by Service Users of Drug Treatment services in the North East Inner City (NEIC)