SACABA, Bolivia (AP) — A U.N. envoy met with Bolivia’s interim president Saturday to find a way out of the country’s political crisis while the world body expressed concern the situation could “spin out of control” amid a rising death toll.

On leaving the meeting with interim leader Jeanine Áñez, envoy Jean Arnault said the United Nations hopes it can contribute to an “accelerated pacification process” leading to new elections following the resignation and exile of Evo Morales.

Meanwhile, another international body, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, condemned Áñez’s government for issuing a decree it says “exempts from criminal responsibility” soldiers who took part in efforts to break up protests and unrest that have left at least 23 people dead.

The norm was approved before the most violent day since the crisis began, when at least eight pro-Morales coca growers were killed when security forces opened fire during a demonstration.

“It is not a license for the Armed Forces to kill,” Presidency Minister Jerjes Justiniano told a press conference. He said the decree is based on the Criminal Code, which states that “if one defends oneself in self-defense, there is no penalty.”

Earlier Saturday, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet issued a statement calling the deaths “an extremely dangerous development.”

Bolivian interim leader meets UN envoy amid violence fears

You have almost definitely used drugs at least once in the last month. Might have been alcohol, might have been cocaine, might have been an expired angina medication that some deep web psychonaut discovered is good for making it feel like your tongue is about to explode.

The Global Drug Survey wants to hear all about your drug-taking experiences so it can continue to build a comprehensive record of how and why people use drugs around the world. Over the past few years, the anonymous data the team has gathered has revealed new drug trends and information, and has helped to inform policy and new harm reduction strategies.

This year, alongside all the more general stuff about what drugs you use, how often you use them, and what they were like, the GDS wants to know your opinion on: CBD and how people are using cannabis to treat their illnesses; what drinkers regret doing when they’ve been drunk; how exactly MDMA users dose over the course of a night; how people self-medicate with psychedelics; and, lastly, how variations in drug policy and access to harm reduction advice in different venues affected your approach to getting on it.

Take part in the world's biggest anonymous drugs survey

New Zealanders will know exactly what they are voting on at next year’s cannabis referendum with the release of the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill (‘Cannabis Control Bill’) by Justice Minister Andrew Little today.

The Government has outlined the details of its cannabis legalisation model, which prioritises public health and safety, introduces a government-licensed production and retail market, and puts controls around use. The detailed release has been welcomed by the Drug Foundation.

“New Zealand is recognised globally for progressive and pragmatic policy that is forward looking and solves problems. We continue to have some of the highest cannabis use in the world, despite government spending for decades in law enforcement. Prohibition is failing us and it’s time for a new approach. The Government’s proposed cannabis law set us in the right direction,” said Ross Bell, Executive Director.

“Any new approach must put public health and safety at the centre, which is exactly what the Cannabis Control Bill does, and is why we are endorsing a “yes” vote at the referendum,” said Mr Bell.

Earlier this year, the government released an overview of its legal cannabis model, including restricting sales to people aged over 20 years and banning public consumption and advertising. Today’s announcement provides much greater detail including:

Tax levies collected from a new industry will be redistributed to harm reduction activities

Products are required to be clearly labelled and potency will be regulated and controlled

Police resources will be redirected to focus on more serious crime, breaking the illicit model and minimizing criminal exposure to youth

Sales will be restricted to those aged 20+ years

Driving under the influence will remain illegal

Government will control the supply chain to minimise harm.

Cannabis Control Bill in New Zealand ticks the boxes

The future government has been urged to consider every available measure to curb the current drug death “crisis”, including decriminalisation, in an unprecedented plea from the UK’s major drug treatment providers.

They implored the next government to be “brave and radical” in the changes they make to current drug laws, described as “not fit for the modern world”.

An independent commission must be established to revamp “incredibly outdated” policy, with no options off the table, said the UK’s largest drug treatment provider, Change Grow Live. Ahead of the general election, the charity urged all political parties to commit to setting up this commission and implementing whatever it recommends, and to pledge centralised, ringfenced funding for drug and alcohol treatment until at least 2025.

The call was also backed by Addaction, Turning Point and Humankind. Together the four organisations provided support for the vast majority of the 268,251 adults receiving drug and alcohol treatment in England this past year.

The plea for every political party to prioritise the crisis and pledge tangible, evidence-based change ahead of the general election comes in response to record levels of drug-related deaths, with 4,539 fatalities in England and Wales in 2018, and 1,187 in Scotland – the highest rate anywhere in Europe.

“What is most concerning and completely unacceptable is that these tragedies can be avoided: with the right policies, approach and support,” Change Grow Live’s CEO, Mark Moody, told 

. Referencing the Misuse of Drugs Act, he said: “There are very few policies written in 1971 that are fit for the modern world – and drug legislation is one of those things.”

While the charity is “not suggesting a lift and shift of policies that have worked in other places” and doesn’t believe in “silver bullets”, Mr Moody said decriminalisation, and other evidence-based policies, need to be evaluated in a British context with nothing “off the table”.

“I don’t think you can necessarily say that what works for Portugal works for the UK,” he said, emphasising the need for nuanced policy discussions, even in terms of what different regions of the country may require.

But while he sees “no criminal justice or health benefits” to criminalising individuals for possessing small amounts of substances for personal use, Mr Moody suggested criminalisation can further stigmatise drug users – which he described as “a big part of the problem in the country. We should be talking about our fellow citizens as human beings who have a problem rather than demonising them,” he said. “When you characterise people in this caricature way, it does get in the way of sensibly thinking about how to do something, which is a problem for the whole of society, not just the person affected by it.”

 NGOs urge: Decriminalise drugs to tackle deaths crisis in the UK 

In early 2017, Myanmar police raided a house in Yangon’s Thaketa township with a warrant to search for drugs. Underneath a Buddhist altar, they found 10 tablets of yaba—a stimulant containing methamphetamine and caffeine. Three housemates, one of whom was the target of the warrant, were arrested and charged under two sections of Myanmar’s 1993 drug law: Section 15, for failure to register as drug users, and Section 16(c), for possession of illegal drugs.

At the time of the raid, a fourth person was in the house: a woman in her 20s who had been hired to come over and style the housemates’ hair. She was also arrested, and when police tested her urine, they found the presence of drugs in her system. Despite having no drugs on her, no prior criminal record, and no apparent connection to the drugs found in the house, she was slapped with the same charges. In early 2018, a judge sentenced all four defendants to 10 years’ imprisonment with hard labour—four for failure to register, and six years for possessing a stash of pills worth less than US$4.

“It was a conviction and a sentence that we were very, very aghast at,” says Sam Roberts, an American public defender who assisted with the hairdresser’s defence as a fellow for the International Legal Fund in Yangon.

To Roberts, the judge’s decision highlights the misguidedness of Myanmar’s brutal approach to drug control—an approach that treats drug users as criminals and funnels them into prisons by the thousands. Myanmar’s criminalisation of drug use, even personal use with no intent to sell, has deterred all but 3% of an estimated 300,000 drug users from seeking medical treatment. It’s also failed to bring down rates of dependency, disease transmission, and overdose. At least 50% of the country’s inmates are serving sentences for low-level drug offences.

“You are criminalising what’s essentially non-violent, ultimately non-criminal, addictive conduct that’s consistent with illness rather than bad intent, and you’re taking a lot of young people and putting them in prison for a long time,” Roberts says.

“This is crippling communities, families, and society as a whole.”

When the Myanmar military almost decriminalised drug use

A national conference on drug policy reform, led by civil society organisations, will take place in February 2020 to resist the harms of 30 years of prohibition and punitive drug policy in Italy. The convening takes place 10 years after the last government-led National Conference, despite clear legislation that the government is required to organise a convening on national drug policy every three years.

The 2020 “self-summoned” national conference, taking place at the Camera del Lavoro Metropolitana in Milan, is described as an act of “civil obedience” by its organisers, who are concerned that the Italian government has neglected its duty as outlined in the Italian Constitution, article 1, clause 15 of the law 309/90 to address drug policy and its impacts.

The government’s National Conference is meant to bring together politicians, experts on drugs and drug policy, civil society associations and other non-governmental organisations to assess the government’s current drug policy and examine its efficacy in terms of predetermined objectives, methods and strategies. The National Conference is also meant to be used to evaluate potential negative consequences – which, with regards to drug prohibition, have been many and egregious in character all over the world.

However, what could initially be considered a lack of due diligence on the part of the Italian government has now transformed into de facto law-breaking, resulting in the stagnation of both the public debate around drugs and national drug policy and law. Without regular National Conferences, the drug policy debate at the governmental and public level has waned, with impact assessment and evaluation much more difficult to carry out and ascertain. It is clear that this is a major limitation hindering improvement and reform of drug policy.

The last National Conference, convened in Trieste in 2009, was considered by many grassroots organisations to be of little relevance to their urgent concerns about the impact of the war on drugs in Italy. The last conference of any relevance – at least in terms of reforms proposed and the value of the debate, took place in Genoa back in 2000 – 9 years before the government’s last National Conference.

The Genoa conference contributed an active anti-prohibitionist thrust to the debate, with proposals from civil society organisations and even some government members ranging from the decriminalization of all drug use to the introduction of heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) and the legalization of cannabis. But following Genoa – with the Italian PM at the time declaring no agreement on the matter – the public debate came to a halt.

Only two conferences have been held since, and they both revolved around the measures projected in the ‘Fini-Giovanardi’ law (49/2006), the infamous piece of legislature criticized for being highly repressive towards people who use drugs (PWUDs) and for significantly contributing to the overcrowding of prisons in Italy.

Law 49/2006, in fact, abolished the distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ drugs (with cannabis equaled to cocaine and heroin, a huge increase in arrests followed) and introduced “quantitative thresholds in order to effectively distinguish between consumption and trafficking” (while drug possession, on paper, was decriminalized, the actual thresholds were derisory: 0.5g for cannabis; 0.25g for heroin; 0.75g for cocaine). Moreover, it reintroduced administrative sanctions for personal use, like suspension of a passport and/or driving licence, but for longer periods and in addition to other penalties like detention and community service, rather than instead of them.

Concisely, it was brutal on the drug users and street suppliers alike. It produced an unseen increase in incarceration rates, especially for non-violent offences. It wasted infinite resources for the tribunal, police and penal systems focusing on low-level offences with no significant impact on the illicit market.

Ten years without a National Conference on drug policy in Italy: the demand for change is led by civil society

RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY OFFICER (MATERNITY COVER)

The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) is a global network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that aims to promote objective and open debate on the effectiveness, direction and content of drug policies at the national, regional and international levels. We have over 190 member organisations worldwide, and the IDPC secretariat is based in London and Bangkok.

IDPC is excited to announce that we are looking to appoint a Research and Advocacy Officer (fixed-term contract to cover maternity leave) to contribute to the smooth delivery of IDPC’s publications work plan and to support the network’s advocacy efforts. The selected candidate would join our small but dynamic and busy team in London.

The successful candidate will have proven expertise in undertaking policy analysis, experience in engaging in drug policy advocacy, and knowledge of operational structures of the UN and other multilateral structures. They will have excellent written and verbal communications skills in English as well as Spanish, French and/or Russian, and a commitment to work with a range of partners and networks. Although not essential, experience in research and advocacy work related to women and drug policy is welcome.

Applicants must demonstrate that they have the right to live and work in the UK.

The job description and person specification are available below.

If you wish to apply for this post, please complete the application form below and send it to Daisy Bowdery (dbowdery@idpc.net) no later than 17.00 (UK time) on Friday 10th January 2020.

Shortlisted candidates will need to be available for interviews on Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd January 2020 in London or via teleconference or Skype. The successful candidate would be expected to start in March 2020.

IDPC recruits Research and Advocacy Officer!

中国毒品、犯罪和拘留数据库项目是第一个专注于中国政府毒品政策和国家司法系统的开放数值型数据库。作为开放数据资源，该数据库供研究中国毒品政策、刑事司法、治安和拘留问题的研究人员、倡议人士、记者和相关组织使用。

该数据库使用了200多个公开数据来源，涵盖500多个子类别，涉及议题包括：非法药物使用、减少危害干预措施、刑事和行政犯罪、司法审判和治安等。

作为开放数据资源，该项目解决了中国问题研究者面临的共同困境：如何获取数据。相较以往，中国现在公开了更多关于毒品、犯罪和司法审判的数据。但这些官方数据往往分散在难以计数的信息来源中，碎片化且不稳定。例如，一些早年国家政府报告中包含的数据类别在近年报告中消失了， 有些数据仅出现在新闻报道或学术著作中。虽然这些数据是公开的，但从中收集、整理信息需要大量的时间和精力。通过集中梳理这些分散的数据，该数据库为解决这些问题。

未来将进行数据可视化，研究成果将在《非法经济与发展期刊》上发表。

该数据库由伦敦政治经济学院(LSE)国际药物政策研究中心研究助理兼多伦多大学政治科学博士生阿米尔·德克斯创建。

中国毒品、犯罪和拘留数据库

The biting cold hits the people who come out of the Moscow subway this evening. It is a 45-minute ride from the city-centre to Marino, the most populated district of the Russian capital. There seems to be no end to the communist-era apartment buildings.

A minibus is parked not far from the subway station. It bears the acronym FAR, for the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice. A man hobbles towards it. There are several boxes of syringes, medicines and disinfectant. "Vanya!" says the social worker, Maxim. "What's up?" Vanya smiles. "Have you got any clean syringes?" he asks. Maxim starts packing some sanitary products in a bag.

FAR campaigns for the rights of drug addicts and sex workers in Russia. The bus comes to Marino every Tuesday. The rest of the time it goes to other parts of Moscow. Vanya is one of 5 million drug addicts in Russia. "I've been coming to the FAR bus for years. People here don't only do their work. They're interested in me and help me. I receive support if I need to go to the hospital or if I need a document."

His face darkens. "I can't say the same about the state. I have to watch out for those people." He was caught by a policeman once with just a small amount of drugs on him. That landed him four years in jail.

Drug addiction in Russia: Draconian laws instead of help

By Jamie Doward and Lily Gordon Brown, The Guardian

Up to 20,000 patients in the UK are to be given medical cannabis over a two-year period in an initiative that aims to create the largest body of evidence on the drug in Europe.

The move, to be unveiled on Thursday, is backed by one of the UK’s leading medical bodies and it is hoped it will persuade the NHS to prescribe the drug for a range of conditions.

Although medical cannabis was legalised in the UK a year ago, it remains unobtainable for many patients, according to campaigners.

“Medical cannabis is still out of reach for far too many,” said Professor David Nutt from the independent scientific body Drug Science, the organisation behind the launch of Project Twenty21, which will see 20,000 patients supplied with subsidised cannabis products by the end of 2021.

“Patients are left untreated, in significant debt from the cost of private prescriptions, or criminalised as they are forced to turn to the black market. They don’t deserve any of this, and the situation with prescribing desperately needs to change.”

The project – which will be launched at, and is backed by, the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) – aims to create the largest body of evidence on medical cannabis in Europe, to convince policymakers that the drug should be made as widely available, and affordable, as other approved prescription medications.

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