A Misguided 'War on Drugs'

[Guest guest]

A Misguided 'War on Drugs'

By MANFRED NOWAK ANAND GROVER

Published: June 25, 2009

Anything goes in the " war on drugs, " or so it seems. Governments around the

world have used it as an excuse for unchecked human rights abuse and irrational

policies based on knee-jerk reactions rather than scientific evidence. This has

caused tremendous human suffering. It also undermines drug control efforts.

That human rights abuses are widespread is no secret. Nor is frivolous rejection

by many governments of proven, effective strategies to protect the health of

drug users and communities. Both have been well documented.

In 2003, law enforcement officials in Thailand killed more than 2,700 people in

the government's " war on drugs. " More than 30 U.N. member states, including

China, Indonesia and Malaysia, retain the death penalty for drug offenses — some

as a mandatory sentence — in violation of international law. In Russia, untold

thousands of heroin users cannot obtain opioid substitution treatment because

the government has banned methadone, despite its proven effectiveness.

In the United States — and many other countries — prisons are overflowing

because drug users are routinely incarcerated for nonviolent, low-level drug

offenses. These prisoners often have no access to effective drug treatment or

basic medical care. In Colombia, Afghanistan and other countries, crop

eradication has pushed thousands of poppy and coca farmers and their families

deeper into poverty without offering them any alternative livelihood and has

damaged their health.

In China, hundreds of thousands of drug users are forced into drug

detoxification centers, where they can be detained for up to three years without

trial, treatment, or due process. In India people are dying in uncontrolled

detoxification programs.

The " war on drugs " has distracted countries from their obligation to ensure that

narcotic drugs are available for medical purposes. As a result, 80 percent of

the world population — including 5.5 million cancer patients and 1 million

terminally ill AIDS patients — has no access to treatment for severe pain.

Strong pain medications are almost unavailable in most African countries. In

India alone some 1 million cancer patients endure severe pain; most have no

access to appropriate medications because of restrictions on prescribing them.

Such failure by the governments to ensure access to controlled medicines for

pain relief or to treat drug dependence may violate international conventions

proscribing cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Moreover scarce

resources are being diverted from effective treatment to programs with no proven

efficacy.

This is not only a human rights problem: It is bad public policy. Research shows

that abusive drug control practices, including mass incarceration, are

ineffective in controlling illicit drug consumption and drug-related crime, and

in protecting public health.

Scientific evidence has shown that more supportive " harm-reduction " programs

prevent HIV among injection drug users, protect people's health and lower future

health costs. And for those with untreated pain, ignoring their needs removes

them and their caregivers from productive life.

In March 2009, the United Nations met in Vienna to set new drug policies for the

next 10 years. Sadly, the strategy adopted by member states contains scant human

rights commitments. It congratulates the international community for what it

says are successes of the past 10 years of drug policy, without mentioning its

collateral damage. It proposes to continue those policies, with little change,

for the next 10 years.

On Friday, the United Nations observes both the International Day against Drug

Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and the International Day in Support of Victims of

Torture. As the U.N. special rapporteurs on health and torture, we take this

occasion to urge member states to end abusive policies and to create drug

policies based on human rights that include harm reduction, access to

evidence-based drug treatment and essential medicines, and protections against

torture in law enforcement.

Too many lives are at stake for the current head-in-the-sand politics, and if

the United Nations and member states continue to bury their heads, they will be

complicit in the abuses.

Anand Grover is a lawyer in India, and a U.N. special rapporteur on health.

Manfred Nowak is professor of human rights at Vienna University and a U.N.

special rapporteur on torture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/opinion/26iht-ednowak.html?ref=global