During a period when the supply of drugs in Southeast Asia, especially synthetic drugs produced in Myanmar and distributed through neighbouring countries, has reached record levels, it may be surprising that the Kingdom of Thailand amended its drug laws to reduce the numbers of people in prison. However with the largest prison population amongst ASEAN countries, and over 80% of people in prison held for drug offences, due mostly to legal changes in 2002 that increased penalties for possession of small amounts of methamphetamine (the substance for which most people are ..read more

Co-authored by Doris Bangfu, Legal practicioner, Ghana On the 14th and 15th September 2021, the POS Foundation and the West Africa Drug Policy Network (WADPN) Ghana Chapter organised a two-day workshop for law enforcement officials in the country. The workshop was delivered in collaboration with IDPC Africa, with support from the Open Society Foundations – and the theme was “Understanding the Narcotics Control Commission Act 2020: The role of law enforcement and prosecutors in health- and rights-based implementation of the Act”. Nearly 30 participants were drawn from the Ghana Police Serv ..read more

Beyond drugs and drug policy: Towards transformative Indigenous liberationReflections on a webinar on drug policies and Indigenous rights By Dania Putri For decades, drug policy has been a vehicle of oppression violating Indigenous rights. From forced crop eradication to the ban on traditional uses of psychoactive plants, repressive drug policy has taken away lives and livelihoods, while ripping Indigenous peoples away from their ancestral identities and ways of living. It was primarily for this reason that Indigenous rights’ advocates gathered online last month, on this year’s International D ..read more

As Thailand battles another wave of COVID-19 infections, government authorities and businesses must prioritize the health of people, without neglecting marginalized groups who are systematically targeted by law enforcement, criminalised, and discriminated against. During this unprecedented period, community organizations are right at the coalface of issues of inequity and inequality that Covid-19 has amplified. In December 2020, APCOM, the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), Health Opportunity Network (HON), Ozone Foundation, and the Asia-Pacific Transgender Network (APTN) i ..read more

“Drugs cost lives” – so begins the preface of the World Drug Report 2021, the flagship annual publication from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) which is published on the UN’s International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. This year’s slogan for the day was  #ShareFactsSaveLives and in the preface, UNODC’s Executive Director states that, “it is crucial to cut through the noise and focus on facts, a lesson that we must heed in order to protect societies from the impact of drugs”. It is therefore deeply disappointing that UNODC’s report omits so many facts ..read more

By Maria-Goretti Loglo and Charity Monareng Every year, governments worldwide gather at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna for debates about the global drug situation. This year's session (12-16 April) was a unique one, as it turned out to be the first-ever virtual session of the CND. In a week-long session, governments took the floor to tell the world about their drug policies and responses. Whilst some countries are exploring innovations and finding alternatives to the old methods, many are still supportive of punitive drug control efforts that exacerbate harm. While th ..read more

Instead of gathering in-person in Vienna for the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), this year the majority of participants – including government officials, UN staff and civil society – joined the “hybrid” event online for the first ever time. This year’s CND had elevated importance too, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 50th anniversary of the 1971 UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and the 5th anniversary of the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs. IDPC published an analysis of “progress” m ..read more

By Constanza Sánchez, José Carlos Bouso, & Natalia Rebello In March 2020, the results of a significant trial related ayahuasca importation in Spain concluded with an acquittal that paves the way for the future of ayahuasca in this country. There is one additional case in process in Spain, which we hope will be the last, based on the results of this trial, along with other historical precedents. In this post, we analyze the details of the case, the legal route it took, as well as the implications of the sentence on the future of the legality of ayahuasca and other traditional pla ..read more

By Jirapart Limaksorn, IDPC volunteer The war on drugs waged by our government for over 30 years has had disastrous consequences, as shown by the over-incarceration rate in prisons and detention centres, including those in the guise of 'drug rehabilitation centres'. Thailand has the highest share of people in prison for drug offences in the world. We lock up so many people who use or sell drugs, young and old but mostly poor, in places where we cannot see them suffer. To make matters worse, we lock them up in overcrowded facilities with poor conditions and call it a 'drug rehabilitation' progr ..read more

This blog post was made possible thanks to Janko Belin's (President - društvo AREAL) inputs and corrections. Please, consider following društvo AREAL's Facebook account for updates on their important and liberatory harm reduction work. First came the Police, then the bulldozers. The ruins of the Autonomous Factory ROG speak volumes of the progressively increasing ease with which Slovenian authorities are deploying violence to curtail rights and freedoms. Amidst the ruins lies the office space of društvo AREAL, the only community-led harm reduction initiative in Slovenia. Its Presiden ..read more