White House holds summit on reducing overdose toll, Nevada psychedelic study bill goes to governor, and more.
Opium poppies are becoming a rare sight in Afghanistan after the Taliban ban. (UNODC)
Marijuana Policy
New Coalition of Major Marijuana Groups Launches Push for Scheduling Reform. A new coalition of marijuana companies and advocacy groups calling itself the Coalition for Cannabis Scheduling Reform announced Tuesday that it is launching a campaign to reschedule marijuana even as it pushes for full-on legalization. The group will work with advocates, stakeholders, lawmakers and administration officials to promote education about the need to remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
That is a less bold position than that held by advocacy groups calling for outright legalization, but the coalition says that moving marijuana to Schedules III, IV or V of the CSA would still represent "historic progress." that shouldn’t be discounted.
The coalition includes Acreage Holdings, American Trade Association for Cannabis & Hemp (ATACH), Columbia Care, Cresco Labs, Curaleaf, Dutchie, Green Thumb Industries, Marijuana Policy Project, National Cannabis Roundtable, Scotts Miracle-Gro, US Cannabis Council, Weldon Project, and Vicente LLP.
Advocates of full-on legalization warn that placing marijuana in another, less restrictive schedule (as opposed to completely descheduling it) could wreak havoc in existing legal marijuana markets and lead the way to further big business consolidation within the industry.
Psychedelics
Nevada Assembly Approves Psychedelic Task Force Bill. A bill to create a working group to study psychedelics and develop plans to allow for regulated access for therapeutic purposes that has already passed the Senate, Senate Bill 242, passed the Assembly on Sunday. When introduced, the bill had language legalizing psilocybin and promoting research into the psychedelic, but it was amended in the Senate to now have only the working group, which would examine the use of psychedelics "in medicinal, therapeutic, and improved wellness." The bill now goes to the desk of Gov. Joe Lombardo (R).
Drug Policy
At White House Summit, Biden Administration Vows Renewed Effort to Fight Drug Overdoses. At a White House summit held jointly with public health officials from Canada and Mexico, the Biden administration vowed to improve its fight to combat drug overdoses, which took 109,000 lives last year. Administration officials pledged a multifaceted approach to tackling illicit drugs, especially fentanyl.
"Today's summit is needed because the global and regional drug environment has changed dramatically from just even a few years ago," Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP, the drug czar's office), told the summit. "Synthetic drugs have truly become a global threat," he added. "Today, we're here to ... look at how our collective response can be improved, and the role data collection has on saving lives," Gupta said.
International
Taliban Opium Ban Is Taking Hold. An April 2022 prohibition on opium-growing from Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada did not result in significant reductions in cultivation last year, but this year is different. The BBC traveled the country, consulted with farmers, government ministers, and experts, and used satellite analysis to report the following:
"The Taliban leaders appear to have been more successful cracking down on cultivation than anyone ever has. We found a huge fall in poppy growth in major opium-growing provinces, with one expert saying annual cultivation could be 80% down on last year. Less-profitable wheat crops have supplanted poppies in fields - and many farmers saying they are suffering financially."
"It is likely that cultivation will be less than 20% of what it was in 2022," said Afghanistan drug trade expert David Mansfield. "The scale of the reduction will be unprecedented. The high resolution imagery of Helmand province shows that poppy cultivation is down to less than 1,000 hectares when it was 129,000 hectares the previous year," said Mansfield, noting that would be a 99 percent reduction in the crop in that formerly key opium-producing province.
Farmers aren't happy, though: "You're destroying my field, God destroy your home," one woman shouted angrily at a Taliban eradication unit as they razed her poppy field.
One never knows when something good is going to happen. Last night, with the signing of the budget and stimulus bill, the drug conviction question on the federal college aid form was finally done away with -- students will no longer lose financial aid because of drug convictions, at least not automatically or in many cases. Congress also restored Pell Grant eligibility to prisoners.
Barney Frank led the fight in Congress for many years. He and nine other congresspersons spoke at our 2002 press conference.
Our fight to repeal that law -- section 1091(r) of the Higher Education Act -- began in 1998, after the law passed and before it took effect. The effort was multifaceted and long-term. We circulated a resolution adopted by student governments. We founded the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform (CHEAR), which worked actively through most of the '00s. Through this campaign, we founded the group Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), an independent organization that plays an important role in drug policy reform. We even created a scholarship fund for students losing financial aid because of drug convictions.
All of these efforts drew attention from the media and from Congress. News stories appeared in all the major US outlets, through a campaign we carried out in partnership with SSDP. Most of the news inquiries, by design, were steered to our student partners. But we did some too -- here's a New York Times story I was quoted in. The voices of people affected by the law were key to driving public attention and to gaining more allies. Our first student spokesperson was Marisa Garcia, whose story appeared publicly for the first time in Rolling Stone magazine. Rolling Stone went on to donate advertising space for the campaign.
Now former US Rep. Barney Frank led the fight in Congress for many years, sponsoring the Removing Impediments to Students' Education (RISE) Act. He and his office energetically recruited other members of Congress to cosponsor the bill. We worked with them on several press conferences, including one in 2002 at the "Triangle" area of the US Capitol where ten members of Congress spoke, as well as representatives of leading civil rights and higher education groups. We also held a series of forums and fundraisers for the John W. Perry Fund, with members of Congress and other notable personalities. The Perry Fund supported about twenty students who'd lost their federal aid, and was covered by news outlets including BET.
Marisa Garcia in Rolling Stone magazine, 2001
In 2006, Congress scaled back the law, limiting its reach to drug law violations committed while a student was in school and receiving federal financial aid. Then in 2009, a further reform limiting it to sales convictions passed the House of Representatives. That was included in a Senate higher education bill too. The section of that bill that included the reform got stripped from the final legislation, after Democrats combined their student aid bill with the health care reform bill as part of their strategy to pass both in 2010.
What's interesting about what almost happened in 2009/2010 was that by that time, our work had already put the provision solidly on the radar of members of Congress. It was congressional staffers who contacted lobbyists who were active with the coalition that time, not the other way around, to tell them they were already planning to take it up and had figured out what they could do. We'd also been successful in communicating our message that partial changes to the law were good but not enough.
Changes in Congress made it less clear after that, when the next chance to repeal the law would be. It had also become clear to us that further work had to be done by groups with full-time legislative staff who could lobby on other issues too. We continued to contribute as we could to the effort, but we mostly left the lead to groups in education and drug policy and criminal justice who are funded in that way. I'm thankful that some of them did so and that this was able to happen.
I'm also grateful to people who supported our campaign, and to the many past staff of our own organization who poured themselves into it through the years. One of them called the news of the law's repeal "a random ray of light." But the unexpected usually isn't random -- it was made possible in part through work done by him and others. I'm especially grateful to the students and would-be students who agreed to our publicizing their stories. More of the history can be found on the web site for the campaign, RaiseYourVoice.com.
the language eliminating the drug conviction question
We have continued to do our work in much the same way as we did on our Higher Education Act campaign. We pick issues that are important but where there are important roles not already being played by other organizations. We organize coalitions. We do targeted work like media-worthy events and lobbying selected members of Congress. We find the pressure points where the smaller resources can make a larger impact. We support and build up our partners and allies, so their strength can be brought to bear on these efforts too. And we reach out for new allies, as the new issues we take on present those opportunities.
The last few years a lot of this work has been on the international policy front. We've organized nine events at official international meetings. The latest, on the International Criminal Court and the murderous drug war in the Philippines, was covered in that country's media last week. Our work before a major UN drug meeting was covered by the Washington Post and other media.
Click here, here and here to read about our work on human rights in the drug war, democracy and rule of law, the issue of marijuana legalization within the UN drug treaties, and other drug policy issues at the UN.
We continue to raise funds for our end-year $10,000 matching grant, on which we have $4,000 left to go. I hope if you haven't contributed recently that you might do so over the next few days. A donation to our 501(c)(3) nonprofit, DRCNet Foundation is tax-deductible, and can be done online here by credit card, PayPal or ACH. Note that even if you don't itemize your taxes, under pandemic rules you can deduct up to $300 total above-the-line for charitable gifts in 2020.
A non-deductible contribution to our 501(c)(4) nonprofit, Drug Reform Coordination Network would also count toward the matching grant, and can be made here. This would support our congressional outreach, legislative action alerts, and the technical publishing costs for our newsletter.
You can also send a check or money order, if you prefer, to us at P.O. Box 9853, Washington, DC 20016. Please make sure to indicate whether it's tax-deductible for DRCNet Foundation, or non-deductible for Drug Reform Coordination Network. There's also info on how to donate stock shares on our web site here.
Thank you for your support, and the work continues.
Sincerely,
David Borden, Executive Director StoptheDrugWar.org P.O. Box 9853, Washington, DC 20016 https://stopthedrugwar.org
The event also featured a statement provided by Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), an organization found by journalist Jamal Khashoggi before his assassination in Istanbul by Saudi agents; and a statement from US Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD).
For nearly a decade now, a collection of former heads of state, high political figures, businessmen, and cultural figures have been working to reform drug policy at the national and international levels. Known as the Global Commission on Drug Policy, this group of planetary elders has been busy issuing reports at the rate of one a year on how to reduce the harms of prohibitionist drug policies and what would be more effective and humane alternatives.
members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy (globalcommissionondrugs.org)
Now they've just released their latest report, Enforcement of Drug Laws: Refocusing on Organized Crime Elites, which takes on the perverse and insidious ways drug prohibition actually empowers and encourages criminal enterprises, and counsels nations and the global anti-drug bureaucracy to find a better way. That includes pondering the possibility of drug legalization and the taming of illicit markets through regulation -- not prohibition, which has demonstrably failed for decades.
"This report has a new perspective on the problem of organized crime," said commission member Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand and former head of the United Nations Development Program. "Organized crime is a challenge in every society, and if it gets into the political realm and starts corrupting political systems, that is a huge issue, and it has done that," she said.
"Where the commission comes from is that we're saying 'drugs are being caught up in this' because of the refusal of the international community to accept that drugs need to be responsibly regulated," Clark continued. The attempt to prohibit them has actually been a license for organized crime to build a half-trillion dollar a year industry peddling stuff. Could we take drugs out of that through responsible regulation?
As president of Colombia between 2010 and 2018, Juan Manuel Santos mediated a peace treaty with the leftist guerrillas of the FARC and won a Nobel prize for his efforts. He also presided over a country that is perennially in contention for being the world's largest cocaine producer. He knows about what drug prohibition can bring.
"I come from a country that has fought drug traffickers and drug trafficking for so long and has probably paid the highest price of any country in the world -- Colombia has lost its best leaders, best journalists, best judges, best policemen -- and we are still the number one exporter of cocaine to the world markets," Santos said. "Corruption and drug trafficking go hand in hand. The most dangerous and protected individuals often escape, while ordinary people who happen to use illicit drugs see their lives destroyed by the war on drugs," he argued.
"To fight organized crime, we must follow the money," Santos continued. "People are realizing that a war that has been fought for a half century and has not been won is a war that has been lost, and so you have to change your strategy and your tactics if you want to be successful. Corruption, violence, profits, and prohibition are very closely related. You do away with prohibition, you regulate, you bring down the profits, and immediately you will start to see an improvement in violence and corruption."
The commission's work centers around five pathways, explained commission chair and former Swiss president Ruth Dreifuss.
"It is putting health first," she said. "Second, it is also giving priority to the use of some of these substances for their medical benefits. It is one of the dramatic situations also, mainly in poor countries, that the people have no access to scheduled pain killers. The third pathway, which we think is very important, is to end the criminalization of people who use drugs. The fourth chapter of our reform program is that we have to deal with the criminality related to drugs, and that is why we issued this report today. And the last point is that we have to take control. The state -- reasonable and responsible people -- have to take control of drug markets and not let them stay in criminal hands."
While the 52-page report provides a detailed, evidence-based examination of the challenges of grappling with criminal groups that thrive under prohibition, it summarizes its findings with five basic recommendations for national governments and at the United Nations, whose anti-drug treaties form the legal backbone of global drug prohibition. These are:
States must acknowledge the negative consequences of repressive law enforcement approaches to drug policies and recognize that prohibition forges and strengthens criminal organizations. Sharing such conclusions with the public must then feed national debates to support bold drug policy reform. (We all know the litany by now: From racially-biased and militarized policing and over-incarceration in the United States to bloody drug wars in Mexico and Colombia financed by prohibition profits, to the murderous and repressive anti-drug campaign in the Philippines, enforcing drug prohibition has dreadfully harmful consequences.)
States must analyze the transnational and trans-sectorial nature of criminal organizations, to review and reform the current exclusive focus on law enforcement. (Drug trafficking organizations don't just traffic drugs; they tend to get their fingers in whatever illicit enterprises can turn a buck for them, from wildlife smuggling to counterfeiting to extortion. And maybe we'd be better off devoting more resources to treatment and prevention instead of trying to suppress and arrest our way out of the problem.)
States must develop targeted and realistic deterrence strategies to counter organized crime and focus their response on the most dangerous and/or highest profiting elements in the criminal market. States must also reinforce interdepartmental cooperation to address criminal markets in a broad sense, not solely drugs, and develop effective transnational coordination against trans-border criminal groups and international money laundering. (It's both cruel and ineffective to target drug users and street-level dealers for arrest and prosecution. But the recent Mexican experience has shown that the alternative strategy of going after "kingpins" can lead to an increase in violence as gang lieutenants engage in murderous struggles to replace each capo killed or captured. It's a real dilemma -- unless you undercut them by ending prohbition.)
States must consider the legal regulation of drugs as the responsible pathway to undermine organized crime. (This increasingly seems like a very reasonable approach.)
UN member states must revisit the global governance of the international drug control regime in order to achieve better outcomes in public health, public safety, justice, and greater impact on transnational organized crime. (It's way past time to nullify or amend the anti-drug treaties that guide international drug policies.)
The Global Commission on Drug Policy has laid out a framework for radical reform. Now, it's up to the nations of the world and the international institutions that bind us together to act.
Colombian cocaine production is way up, the US says as it pushes for forced and aerial eradication, NJ pot legalization supporters organize for victory, WVA is moving to increase meth sentences, and more.
Cocaine production in Colombia is at record levels, the US says. (Pixabay)
Marijuana Policy
New Jersey Legalization Supporters form Coalition to Push for November Victory. Advocates and stakeholders in the state's marijuana industry have formed a campaign coalition, NJ CAN 2020, to fight for marijuana legalization that includes a racial and social justice approach. The group includes members of New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform, including the ACLU of New Jersey, Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, the Latino Action Network, the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, the NAACP New Jersey State Conference and the NJ CannaBusiness Association.
Oklahoma Sees Another Legalization Initiative Filed. Stakeholders in the state's medical marijuana industry have filed a legalization initiative, SQ 811, in response to an earlier filed legalization initiative that they say would not fully protect the state's existing medical marijuana industry. The initiative would tax marijuana at 25% but says medical marijuana would be "exempt from all taxes." The same group also filed a decriminalization initiative, SQ 812, the same day.
Virginia Legislature Approves Decriminalization Bill. The state Senate on Sunday approved a decriminalization bill, SB 2. The bill has already passed the House, so it now heads to the desk of Gov. Ralph Northam (D). Under the bill, possession of up to an ounce will now merit a fine of no more than $50.
Sentencing
West Virginia Legislature Approves Bill Raising Meth Sentences. The state Senate on Sunday approved HB 4852, which would double mandatory minimum and maximum sentences for possession with intent to manufacture or deliver methamphetamine. What is currently a one-to-five-year sentence would become a two-to-10-year sentence. The bill has already passed the House but has to go back for a concurrence vote to approve changes made in the Senate.
Foreign Policy
United States and Colombian Officials Set Bilateral Agenda to Reduce Cocaine Supply. Last Friday, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) led a counternarcotics dialogue with the Government of Colombia to set forth a bilateral, whole-of-government joint action plan to reduce the high levels of coca cultivation and cocaine production by 50 percent by the end of 2023.The dialogue focused on increasing coca eradication and cocaine interdiction, improving security and economic opportunities in the rural areas most afflicted by narcotics trafficking, and targeting narcotics-related money laundering and illicit finances. A focus of the discussion was expanding the results of Colombia’s integrated coca eradication program by ensuring full use of all available tools, including manual eradication, alternative development, and a Colombian-led aerial eradication component, supported by rural development and rural security programs.
International
Canadian Drug Decriminalization Bill Filed. Toronto Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith has recently tabled a drug decriminalization bill, C-235, which would remove simple drug possession from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. "The international evidence is pretty clear that the way we have dealt with drug use, the war on drugs and throwing police resources to reduce drug use, has failed and has undermined public-health efforts," Erskine-Smith said. "And the overwhelming evidence today is that we should treat drug use as a health issue and we should be removing barriers to seeking treatment, and decriminalization of simple possession would do just that." Private bills rarely pass, but this is a start.
Colombia Cocaine Production Hit Record High Last Year Despite Forced Eradication, US Says. Cocaine production increased 8% last year, reaching an all-time high, according to figures released by the US government. The increase came even as the US and Colombian governments have been promoting forced eradication of coca crops and refusing to support crop substitution and rural development programs that are broadly considered more effective.
The Drug Policy Alliance has a new executive director, Mexico's effort to legalize marijuana stalls in the Senate, the Oklahoma House moves to regulate kratom, and more.
Kassandra Frederique is the new executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. (DPA)
Drug Policy Alliance Names Kassandra Frederique as New Executive Director. Ten-year Drug Policy Alliance veteran Kassandra Frederique has been named executive director of the group following the resignation of Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno earlier this year. Frederique was managing director of policy, advocacy, and campaigns before being named executive director. "Kassandra is well suited to lead DPA," the group said in a press release. "Kassandra started at DPA a decade ago as an intern. Her exemplary work propelled her meteoric rise through the organization... In New York, she ran the campaign that reduced marijuana arrests in NYC by 84%. Through strategic advocacy, she shifted the politics around the issue, even bringing skeptic Gov. Cuomo around to the point that New York is now poised to legalize. Kassandra is the architect of innovative campaigns to roll back mass criminalization and expand the debate around overdose. Her voice leads national conversations about the complex interplay between race and the overdose crisis."
Hawaii Senate Approves Drug Defelonization Bill. The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that turns low-level drug possession felonies into misdemeanors. House Bill 2581 would create a new fourth degree misdemeanor category for people caught with less than two grams of a controlled substance. Currently, possession of any amount of drugs except marijuana is a felony. The bill now heads to the House for consideration.
Mexico Marijuana Legalization Stalled in Senate. With less than two months to meet a Supreme Court deadline to legalize marijuana, legislation to get it done has stalled in the Senate. That's according to opposition Senator Miguel Angel Mancera, who said there is no consensus between the parties. “[Legislation for] recreational use is not moving. It’s more difficult than outsourcing,” the former Mexico City mayor said, referring to a congressional battle over outsourcing last year.
Fentanyl Trade Fuels Cartel Battle in Central Mexico. Five competing drug trafficking groups are fighting over control of the fentanyl trade in the north-central state of Zacatecas, and it's leaving a toll of dead. The number of killings in the state reached 666 last year, more than double the figure from a decade ago. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel dominate the trade, but three other groups are trying to muscle in. They are the Gulf Cartel and two offshoots of the Zetas, known as the Talibanes and the Northeastern Cartel.
The Drug Policy Alliance is a funder of StoptheDrugWar.org.
A national coalition of civil rights, labor, and civic groups calls for descheduling marijuana; New Jersey isn't quite there yet, France takes a step toward allowing medical marijuana, and more.
still waiting for Garden State marijuana legalization (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy
National Coalition Calls for Marijuana to Be Descheduled. A coalition of civil rights groups, labor unions, and other groups is calling not only for Congress to deschedule marijuana but also for it to ensure that communities most harmed by pot prohibition see benefits. The coalition includes AARP, the AFL-CIO, and the League of Women Voters. "Pass legislation de-scheduling marijuana with racial equity and justice reform components," the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said in a letter outlining priorities for the coalition in the 116th Congress that begins in January.
New Jersey Legalization May Not Happen Until Next Year. Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin met with Gov. Phil Murphy (D) Thursday for a closed-door meeting to discuss marijuana legalization but made no decision. The lawmakers now say a vote may not take place until next year, even though Murphy wanted it in the first 90 days of his term.
Asset Forfeiture
New Mexico Appeals Court Rules Against Albuquerque Asset Forfeiture Law. The state Court of Appeals has ruled that Albuquerque's municipal vehicle seizure program is not only pre-empted by the state's law governing seizures, it "completely contradicts it." The city can only seize vehicles after a criminal conviction, the court held. "While the language of the NMFA does not prohibit municipalities from enacting and enforcing criminal forfeiture proceedings, it restricts forfeiture to criminal proceedings, and imposes specific requirements on any criminal forfeiture proceedings that must comport with… the NMFA."
International
France Moves Toward Allowing Medical Marijuana. A government-appointed committee has given initial approval for the use of medical marijuana. The Agency for Drug Safety has concluded that it is "relevant to authorize the use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes for patients in certain clinical situations." If a patient is receiving insufficient relief from current therapeutics, cannabis represents a viable alternative, the committee decided.It said people with chronic pain, cancer patients, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis sufferers and patients in palliative care could all benefit from cannabis use.
StoptheDrugWar.org plays a leading role in US-based global drug policy reform. We advocate for drug policies prioritizing health, human rights and development. We call for revision of the three UN drug conventions in light of national moves toward marijuana legalization. On the basis of the supremacy of human rights under the UN charter, we assert countries' right to consider legalization or marijuana or other drugs, despite current treaty language. And we work for rule of law and accountability for gross violations of human rights in countries' drug wars.
Our work at UN meetings of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), in the human rights system and in other meetings at the UN and elsewhere has advanced dialogue on all these isues.
Global drug policy is implicated in criminal justice and human rights issues such as sentencing and the death penalty. It affects public health issues like AIDS and Hepatitis C. Development is affected by drug policy, as are crime and security. The international system has made opioid pain medications largely unavailable in most countries. UN drug scheduling is a discouragement to governments wishing to legalize medical marijuana, and adverse treaty language discourages governments from considering legalization. The international system affects global commerce prospects for the legal marijuana trade.
WashingtonPost.com story on our UNGASS coalition statement
In preparation for the April 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem, (UNGASS) we organized sign-on statements and letters with hundreds of organizational signatories that included some of the world's leading NGOs. These documents promoted the idea that human rights takes precedence over drug control objectives when the two are in conflict -- even on the question of whether to legalize marijuana or other drugs, which faces adverse treaty language -- while arguing for a range of reforms in the areas of public health, development and access to medicine.
Our work on the UNGASS included a teleconference for media with legislators involved with marijuana legalization efforts in Canada and Mexico. This led to the first mainstream media report, published by the New York Times, noting US opposition to taking up reform of the drug treaties, despite marijuana legalization in the US moving the country into tension with the treaties. Our sign-on documents were covered by major media including WashingtonPost.com.
Our 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit, DRCNet Foundation Inc., has been an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since July 2016. This enables us to deliver interventions (short speeches) at UN meetings, to help allies get admitted to meetings, and to hold educational side events at the UN.
Our first side event, at the 2017 Commission on Narcotic Drugs annual meeting, triggered a major political incident after then Vice President Leni Robredo of the Philippines provided us with a powerful video statement which criticized then President Duterte's brutal drug war. Allies of the president including the Speaker of the House of Representatives attacked her for criticizing the Philippines at the UN, leading to a weeks-long (ultimately unsuccessful) drive to impeach her.
Our continuing work on the Philippines crisis has led us to engage with global rule of law advocacy in support of the International Criminal Court and of Magnitsky and similar targeted sanctions laws. More of that side of our program is detailed here.
In 2023, we are engaging with US foreign policy related to drugs in the legislative process, pressing human rights, rule of law issues and accountability in drug policy at the Human Rights Council and elsewhere; and returning to our advocacy linking human rights with the need for alternatives to prohibition, opposing the death penalty, supporting the global NGO reform agenda for drug policy. As part of this we will promote core forward looking documents like the UN Common Position on Drug Policy and the International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy.
Below we present our work related to the 2016 UNGASS; in our ongoing event series at the CND, HLPF and HRC; in opposition to the death penalty for drugs; and other statements we've delivered for UN meetings. (See our Philippines/Rule of Law page for other events held at the ICC Rome Treaty's Assembly of States Parties.)
work on the 2016 UNGASS:
David Borden presented at a February 2016 preparatory event for UNGASS, at the UN in New York.
David Borden delivered an intervention during the April 2016 UNGASS, Roundtable on Cross-Cutting Issues. The remarks criticized the rationale countries had offered for avoiding any discussion of possible modifications to the treaties, noting that it's the norm for treaties to be updated at times. Borden also called for regulatory approaches to be considered for New Psychoactive Substances, one of several major issue areas in drug policy that the UN has identified, not solely prohibitionist approaches.
We organized ateleconference for media on prospects for marijuana legalization in Canada and Mexico, featuring Mexican Senator Laura Rojas and Canadian Member of Parliament Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, as well as representatives of leading NGOs in both countries.
Seattle Times editorial (4/17/16) – we're not mentioned, but provided information
New York Times (4/18/16) – we're not mentioned, but provided information. The article was the first in a major media outlet to note the US opposed taking up treaty reform at the UN, despite US movement toward legalization.
Our signature effort for the UNGASS was a sign-on statement with nearly 350 organizational signatories, released to media and at the UN in May 2015 and again in April 2016. The statement was endorsed by such leading NGOs as ACLU, Human Rights Watch and AIDS United.
The statement argues that in cases of irreconcilable conflict, nations' obligations under the human rights treaties, which are enshrined as fundamental in the United Nations Charter, take precedence over provisions of the drug control treaties.
The statement also calls for a range of improvements to policies in areas such as development, public health and security; for the UN to appoint a "Committee of Experts" to study the topic of drug treaty reform; and calls on the Obama administration to harmonize its foreign policy on drugs with its domestic policies by providing leadership at the UN to make that happen.
We also organized a sign-on letter to President Obama in advance of the March 2016 Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) meeting that preceded UNGASS. It noted positive aspects to the administration's approach to UNGASS, but argued that "in key respects... the... US position for UNGASS [took] a short-term approach, stopping short of the crucial reforms called for by UN agencies and US allies, while failing to address new realities." The letter generated a great deal of excitement in the NGO community, and was signed by over 250 organizations in a short period of time, many of them representing mainstream issues affected by drug policy.
As noted above, we organized a sign-on letter to President Obama in advance of the March 2016 Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) meeting that preceded UNGASS, which was covered by media.
David Borden delivered an intervention at the June 2016 High Level Meeting on Ending AIDS at the UN in New York, panel discussion on the Sustainable Development Goals. The remarks discussed ways that prohibition and the drug war contribute to the spread of HIV and AIDS, and called for the UN to take on these issues during the upcoming 2019 High Level Review of UN drug policy.
David Borden delivered an invited intervention on the relationship between drug policy and the Sustainable Development Goals, for the January 2017 Intersessional CND meeting (transcript on UNODC web site). The remarks noted tensions between drug prohibition and SDG goals #1 (poverty), #3 (health), #8 (work), #10 (inequality), and #16 (peace, justice and strong institutions. The remarks also noted the decline in global AIDS funding, particularly for programs responding to injection drug use.
Robredo's video drew massive attention in the Philippines and some internationally. Unfortunately, opponents of the vice president used the video to attack her politically, leading to a campaign for her impeachment, a threat which is currently being considered by the Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives. We regret that political leaders of the Philippines misrepresented our event to attack the vice president, instead of facing the grim reality of widespread human rights abuses.
More information on our Philippines-related work, including full video footage and transcripts of our side event, as well as press coverage, is available here.
Also at the 2017 CND, we organized an NGO sign-on statement (initial submission on the UN Office on Drugs and Crime web site, updated version with more signatories on our web site). A major signatory on this statement, new to our global drug policy efforts, is the National Organization for Women (NOW).
We served as ECOSOC sponsor for a side event on marijuana regulation, and for the photo exhibit on safe injection sites shown above, organized by European partners for the March 2017 CND annual meeting. David Borden presented on the panel, discussing the "path toward consensus" on marijuana legalization in the US. Since 2016 we have also provided UN accreditation for these and other partners in advocacy efforts on marijuana's status in the UN drug scheduling system, enabling them to serve as representatives to the UN facilities in Geneva and Vienna; and have served as the charitable sponsor nonprofit for donations to the project.
We submitted a statement for the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) 2017 Integration Segment (April 2017). The statement makes the case that adjustments are needed to drug policy in order to make the eradication of poverty a truly integral objective of UN programs, and noted several ways in which prohibitionist drug policies work against achievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
In March 2018, a high-profile Philippine Senator and opponent of President Duterte, Antonio "Sonny" F. Trillanes IV, keynoted for our side event at the annual CND meeting, "Human Rights Challenge: One Year Later, Drug War Extrajudicial Killings Continue." The senator's arrival in Vienna coincided with the Duterte government's notice withdrawing the Philippines from the International Criminal Court; and Philippine government prosecutors filed a sedition arrest warrant against him the morning before our event, as part of their ongoing legal harassment campaign.
The event also featured Philippine human rights advocate Ellecer Carlos, and a reading by advocates of a written statement provided by imprisoned Philippine Senator Leila de Lima. Click here for more information about the event, including mainstream news articles, as well as a series of fake news stories about the senator's visit to the UN that appeared in the Philippines.
At the March 2019 CND annual meeting, we presented "Alternative Values, Alternative Facts: Drug Policy and Justice as Casualties in the Struggle Between Authoritarianism and Democracy." This event featured prerecorded presentations by leading human rights attorney, and at the time senatorial candidate, Chel Diokno; researcher Pamela Combinido, whose group interviewed organizers and rank-and-file "trolls" who carry social media disinformation campaigns; and a video from BuzzFeed News on Facebook's role in fueling Duterte's drug war, which accompanied an award-winning article on the topic by technology reporter Davey Alba. (Atty Diokno joined live discussion with attendees, but the video footage was not usable.)
Diokno's statement prompted significant news coverage in the Philippines, particularly his statement that the Philippine justice system is "eroding," and elicited a response from then Philippine Justice Secretary Menardo Guevara. Click here for more information and news links.
At the March 2020 CND annual meeting, we presented the side event "Human Rights Tools: Incorporating International Justice and Targeted Sanctions Into Drug Policy." The event included our first talk on the Bangladesh extrajudicial drug war killings, and comments from a representative of the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights.
Statement of UN representative and medical cannabis patient Michael Krawitz, 63rd Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, March 2020. Michael was a member our delegation and is an annual designated representative for DRCNet Foundation at the United Nations. He delivered this statement on behalf of Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access.
David Borden intervened during a plenary session of the 2021 Commission on Narcotic Drugs, as part of a discussion of the Commission's contribution to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Borden argued that many current drug policies impede achievement of the goals and compete with the UN human rights system. The submitted written version is online here.
David Borden delivered a statement on Plenary Item #6, implementing the 2019 Ministerial Declaration, 65th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, March 16, 2022. Due to the time limit, some of the content was omitted from the delivered presentation. The statement addresses the denial of methadone therapy in Crimea by occupying Russian forces, and suggested its applicability to the ICC Ukraine case and Magnitsky sanctions regimes due to Crimea's continued international status as part of Ukraine. (Due to a mishap, video of the original English presentation was not preserved. We have posted the French, Russian and Spanish interpretations.)
Also for the 2022 CND, we presented the side event "Open Wound, Extrajudicial Drug War Killings in 2022," featuring Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit from the Commission on Human Rights of the Republic Philippines, and Hong Kong-based Bangaladeshi native Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman of the Asian Human Rights Commission.
David Borden delivered a statement on Plenary Item #5E, on implementing the international drug conventions, other matters relating to the implementation of the convention, during the 66th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, March 15, 2023. The statement notes intractable misconduct in the US drug war to make a case that human rights and drug control are often in tension, asserting the supremacy of human rights as a justification for legalization systems. The statement also addresses the need to make use of international human rights mechanisms like Magnitsky laws and the International Criminal Court, noting again Russia's termination of methadone access in occupied Crimea.
coming soon: footage from our March 17, 2023 in-person side event, "Fractures: Rule of Law Challenges in the Global Drug War"
side events at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development:
In July 2018, we presented "Human Rights Challenge: Judicial and Extrajudicial Drug War Killings in a Time of Authoritarianism," which included a prerecorded statement from Senator Risa Hontiveros of the Philippines.
In July 2019, we held a side event for the HLPF at UN Headquarters in New York, "Alternative Values, Alternative Facts: Drug Policy and Justice as Casualties in the Struggle Between Authoritarianism and Democracy." Footage of the live discussion is not currently available.
In July 2020, we held an online side event for the HLPF, "No Time Like the Present: Drug Policy Reform is More Urgent Than Ever." Speakers included representatives of Housing Works, UNAIDS, the UN Office on Drug and Crime, and a well-known prison educator from the Philippines.
In July 2021, we held an side event for the HLPF, "SDG 16: The Global War on Drugs vs. Rule of Law and Human Rights."
In July 2022, we held an online side event for the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), "Building Back with Justice? Marcos, Duterte, the ICC and the Philippine Drug War."
work in the UN human rights system
August 28, 2020 intervention for informal NGO consultation on UN human rights system, March 2022 side event at UN Human Rights Council, Geneva
Side event at the UN Human Rights Council, October 4, 2022, "The Continuing Detention of Senator Leila de Lima, featuring Vicente de Lima II, brother of the former senator; well-known Philippine human rights advocate Father Albert Alejo in person (currently based at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome); and a prerecorded message from opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
Standalone copy of Senator Hontiveros's statement.
work opposing the death penalty:
In April 2015 we organized a sign-on letter protesting the resumption of executions for drug offenses by the government of Indonesia. The link is to a copy of the letter published as part of an article in Huffington Post, linked from their home page for 24 hours.
Georgetown Law professor Jason Wright presented on the death penalty for drug offenses, linking to general death penalty issues and his work as a public defender in Afghanistan-related cases, on our July 2018 HLPF event.
Researcher Iftitahsari of Indonesia's Institute for Criminal Justice Reform presented on Indonesia's death penalty for drug offenses, and Duterte-imitation extrajudicial drug war killings, for our July 2021 HLPF event. Indonesia's diplomatic mission at the UN in New York responded during the Q&A.
To mark Drug War Chronicle's 1,000th issue, we asked our former associate director and the publication's first editor for a guest editorial.
A thousand issues is a long run for a weekly publication, particularly one that’s been published entirely online.
Adam J. Smith (craftcannabisalliance.org)
I first got involved with DRCNet (as StopTheDrugWar.org was called in those days) as a law student back in 1994. At that time, DRCNet was a single email discussion list that Dave Borden had launched from his bedroom computer in Boston. When I joined, the list was comprised of perhaps 30-40 activists of various stripes (needle exchangers, cannabis activists, prison reformers, etc.) from around the country, with a couple of international participants thrown in. At that moment in history, fewer than 12% of Americans had Internet access, and fewer than 25% believed that cannabis should be legal for adults. Reform seemed a long way off, but we were engaged in the first serious drug policy reform efforts online, and we were convinced (despite the snickerings of more than a few old school organizers) that the Internet was going to enable us change the world.
By 1996, I had finished law school and moved down to Washington DC, to become DRCNet’s Associate Director (which sounds impressive, until you know that there were only two of us) where our little discussion list had become an actual, if small, organization, with multiple topic-oriented discussion lists and a growing web presence. Despite its small size and smaller budget, DRCNet was, unequivocally, the center of drug policy reform on the Internet. It was an interesting time, and an interesting place to be.
When we launched The Week Online, in the summer of 1997, long before it was re-named Drug War Chronicle, the percentage of Americans with Internet access had climbed all the way to 18%.
Our first several issues were mainly a re-cap of our recent action alerts, blurbs about key news stories, a link of the week, and my editorial. Truly, we were making it up as we went along.
In those days, the mainstream media covered drug busts and drug hysteria far more than they covered actual policy. Because why cover policy when there was such broad agreement that this was a law enforcement problem? When they did cover policy, it was generally framed as a debate between those who wanted to build more prisons, and those who wanted to build A LOT more prisons. Quotes were spread evenly between law enforcement and grandstanding politicians, with occasional input from hackish “think tanks” such as Joe Califano's Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse, or someone from the Drug Free America Foundation.
That was not the conversation we were having online.
Into that breach, we quickly expanded both the breadth and the scope of The Week Online. We began covering stories on our own -- often the same stories that the MSM was covering -- but with quotes and perspectives from experts and professionals who had a very different take on both drugs and drug policy. The experts that we were quoting had the advantage of being far more experienced, and far more credible in their fields than anyone being highlighted in the mainstream press. And people started to listen.
We were the only online publication in the country covering drug policy from a reform perspective, and it felt important. Over time, The Week Online’s readership grew considerably, and it soon became a must read for anyone -- in government, public health, academia, or advocacy -- involved in these issues. We did interviews, and broke national stories. We highlighted injustice, and framed issues. And we did what we could to show how all of these issues, and all of the various efforts at reform starting to bubble up around the country, were connected as part of a larger movement that was just starting to assert itself in the national dialogue.
For the first 138 issues, The Week Online was the centerpiece of my work and my activism. The publication brought me into contact with many of the most knowledgeable, engaging, and courageous voices in drug policy reform, and I could not have asked for a better seat at the table, nor for a richer opportunity to delve deeply into the myriad areas being impacted by our nation’s second disastrous foray into Prohibition.
When I left DRCNet in May of 2000, I was exhausted from the grind, but I was thrilled to see my chair filled by Phil Smith. Phil has long since surpassed my time at the helm, and it has been his hard work and unwavering dedication, along with Dave Borden's steady and often quirkily brilliant leadership that has brought the (now) Drug War Chronicle to the almost unbelievable accomplishment of a thousand issues.
A lot has changed since July 1997. The Internet is ubiquitous, of course, and drug policy is being covered in thoughtful and intelligent ways across a range of media. Cannabis is legal in eight states and counting, with 64% of Americans, including 51% of Republicans in favor. Ending mass incarceration too, has bipartisan support, and substances like MDMA and psychedelics are seen as promising medical options. And the drug war -- that failed, expensive and destructive experiment in controlling people’s consciousness at the point of a gun -- is crumbling across the hemisphere beneath the weight of its own insanity.
And every week Drug War Chronicle, that original online news source for a movement that has gone global, is there.
Congratulations to Phil and Dave on reaching issue #1,000. And thanks to everyone who has ever written a piece, or provided insight and perspective, for being part of what is undoubtedly one of the longest-running weekly newsmagazines on the Internet. I truly believe that this publication set a standard that helped move the public debate forward, and I am honored to have been a part of that. May our collective progress towards rational and humane drug policies continue. And may there be no need for issue #2,000.
