The All Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia for the Reform of All Places of Detention (APPGM) has called for the country to reconstruct the current prison system into a rehabilitative one to better manage drug offenders.

In an interview with Astro Awani on their 

 talk show, lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo from the group said prisons are already “running over 200 per cent over capacity” and that 60 per cent of inmates were incarcerated for minor drug offences.

“To address that, you would be looking into an entire policy reform and that must translate into legislation.

“Currently, our drug laws for possession, even for use, send you straight into prison and that is not the answer,” she said during the interview.

She also added that incarceration does not address the issue of drug abuse in the country.

Malaysia: Citing prison overcrowding, group urges reform to rehabilitate minor drug users

Cannabis users will not be sent to prison and will be able to grow a limited amount of plants as part of government’s reform, Robert Abela said.

The proposals were fleshed out by the Prime Minister on Thursday morning when speaking to journalists on the fringes of a business breakfast on employment.

This is the first time that a government official has given a clear indication of the direction the promised reform will take.

He said the reform will end police arrests for people caught in possession of a small amount of cannabis and hinted that the current limit of 3.5g allowed at law would increase.

Malta: Cannabis reform will allow users to grow plants for personal use, Robert Abela says

The Norwegian government has released an official communication on this proposal, which can be accessed here under the name 'Help, not punishment for drug use'.

Norway plans to decriminalize the personal use of illegal drugs in small quantities, citing recommendations from the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

The Nordic country will abolish criminal liability “for the use of drugs and the acquisition and possession of a small amount of drugs for own use,” according to legal proposals by the health-care ministry to lawmakers, published on Friday. The acts will be illegal, but not punishable.

“The drug reform is a historic shift in Norwegian drug policy,” Health Minister Bent Hoie said in an emailed statement. “It’s high time we replace punishment with help.”

Norway to decriminalize personal drug use in ‘historic’ shift

On a hillside in northern Colombia, three dozen men in blue overalls toil through a field, destroying coca bushes. They work in pairs: one rams a hoe under the roots of a bush and levers it free; the other grabs the plant by its bright green leaves and wrenches it out of the ground.

The government of Iván Duque hails the eradicators as unsung heroes. And yet, the men in blue overalls are losing their war. Once they have cleared a field, coca growers invariably came back and replant. Or they plant elsewhere. Eradication by hand is also labour-intensive and dangerous — drug traffickers do not take kindly to having their bushes ripped up. Since Duque came to power in mid-2018, armed groups have killed 29 members of eradication teams, mostly soldiers and police officers. More than 200 have been injured, some maimed for life by landmines.

And despite their efforts, Colombia’s coca production has soared. Between 2012 and 2017, it increased by more than 250 per cent to a record 171,000ha, according to the UN, which uses satellites to monitor cultivation. By beefing up the eradication teams, Bogotá has brought that figure down, to 154,000ha in 2019, but even so the country is by far the world’s largest producer of coca leaf and cocaine.

Faced with this bleak reality, the Duque government wants to turn back the clock and resume crop spraying ... But a resumption of crop spraying would be highly controversial. The IARC stands by its 2015 conclusion that glyphosate might cause cancer. ... Other papers have focused on potential damage to the environment and water sources. A study in the Journal of Applied Toxicology in 2014 concluded that glyphosate had “the potential to alter the physiology of aquatic organisms”.

Cocaine: Colombia weighs a new aerial war on drugs

The Liberal government’s newly proposed criminal justice reform legislation fails to address inequities around addiction treatment and will reinforce harms associated with drug criminalization, drug policy experts and harm reduction advocates say.

On Thursday, the Liberal government tabled Bill C-22 that would, if passed, repeal mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offences and encourage police and prosecutors to pursue alternatives to simple drug possession charges, including diverting people facing charges to addiction treatment programs.

For people caught with small amounts of illicit drugs, the law would give police officers the option to just let the person go, issue a warning, or give them the option to voluntarily be referred to an “agency or other service provider in the community that may assist the individual.” Courts would also be given greater ability to use conditional sentencing—allowing people to serve sentences in the community if they abide by certain requirements—when the case involves someone who is not a violent offender.

While experts are heartened the bill would remove mandatory minimum criminal sentences for certain drug crimes, they say scrapping drug possession offences altogether is what’s urgently needed to help address the worsening overdose crisis and help mitigate the potential for violence during interactions with police.

In Canada liberals' justice reform bill keeps war on drugs alive, policy experts say

Oral statement on the anti-drugs campaign in the Philippines

Statement delivered by International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), Harm Reduction International, and NoBox Philippines

This statement is delivered on behalf of the International Drug Policy Consortium, Harm Reduction International, and NoBox Philippines.

The human rights situation related to the anti-drugs campaign in the Philippines continues to deteriorate, and the Human Rights Council must remain engaged.

As we speak, the Philippine Congress is deliberating on the reimposition of the death penalty for dru offences. Extrajudicial killings continue unabated. And last December, the chief prosecutor of the ICC found that there is ‘reasonable basis to believe’ that these killings constitute crimes against humanity.

Beyond extrajudicial killings, the Council must address the human rights violations related to the criminalisation of people who use drugs, forced drug treatment, mass surveillance, denial of lifesaving health interventions, and the ongoing targeting of human rights defenders working on drug policy.

The Council’s decision to provide technical assistance to the Philippines on human rights must translate into drug policies that are evidence- and human rights-based.

We urge the Council and Member States to remain engaged, and to continue to closely consult with civil society. We also call on the Council to actively support the High Commissioner’s work in assessing progress made under the UN Joint Programme, which must include monitoring and critically evaluating the human rights situation on the ground. If no clear and measurable improvement is made soon, an international, impartial, and credible investigation will be necessary.

Oral statement at the 46th session of the Human Rights Council - On the 'anti-drugs' campaign in the Philippines

Are you passionate about global drug policy and want to support reform? IDPC is looking for a motivated volunteer to contribute to our communications work!

The selected candidate will help us enhance IDPC’s visibility online and provide some research support to our small Secretariat team. Volunteers are also invited to suggest areas of expertise that they would be interested in honing during the volunteering period (ex. design, research, blogging, etc.)

The volunteer's time commitment will be up to them, depending on availability and capacity. That said, we do suggest considering an experience of at least three months to fully familiarise with the work and make space for induction, training, feedback, and progress. For more information about the position, have a look at the full description below.

If you are interested in volunteering with us, please send your CV and 1-2 paragraphs outlining why this experience is of interest to you by 19 March 2021

. Please note that, given the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a very high likelihood that this volunteering experience will take place remotely. Please, do get in touch if you have any questions about this volunteering experience.

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