JUST say no. That’s supposed to be our reaction to recreational drugs. The trouble is, lots of people say yes please. As a result, the world’s governments have been waging a war on drugs for more than a century. Since 1961, the battle has been orchestrated via international treaties targeting all parts of the supply chain, from the producers to the smugglers, the sellers to the buyers.
Yet this supposedly united front has developed some conspicuous cracks. Now those countries backing a different approach have called a to make the case for change.
The question is whether the UN is ready to soften its stance or whether it will plough on despite mountains of evidence suggesting its zero-tolerance approach has failed. As the reformers collate this to present at the meeting, New Scientist looks at how the approaches taken by different countries stack up (see “Drugs around the world”, below), and asks what can happen next.
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Some nations are already taking change into their own hands. Portugal has decriminalised personal use of any drug – including cocaine and heroin – and several South and Central American countries are moving in the same direction. As for cannabis, the number of places where its open sale has been decriminalised in some form grows ever larger.
Most of these changes stem from the idea that while drug-taking has some health risks, a zero-tolerance approach means that those who become addicted cannot easily access treatment. And the majority who use drugs without getting hooked are criminalised, harming their life chances and putting pressure on justice systems.
Another catalyst is the damage wreaked , especially in countries where drugs are grown and trafficked. In Mexico, for instance, the number of deaths from the “narco wars” has started .
On the face of it, the UN meeting looks set to be a damp squib, with the three existing UN Drug Conventions unlikely to be superseded by a more liberal text.
“Countries are going to get more confident in their right to do what they think is best for their citizens”
For while the US has softened its hawkish stance on drugs, other countries have taken its place, particularly Russia and China. In many other countries, such as the UK, politicians have staked their careers on stamping out drug use. Large sections of the public wouldn’t stomach change.
Yet some think the open revolt that’s set to happen at the meeting will be a turning point. “Countries are going to get more confident in their right to do what they think is best for their citizens,” says Amanda Feilding of the , a pro-reform NGO based in Oxford, UK.
So what are the options for the reformers? In the short term they can express dissenting statements from the meeting’s official report. Longer-term, they can try to negotiate exemptions, like Bolivia did when it left the conventions and returned only in 2013 when it got . Another option is for countries to negotiate breakaway treaties.
Even if countries choose to deviate from the conventions without official permission, it is unlikely there will be consequences. Realistically all the UN can do is issue ; sanctions tend to be reserved for rogue nuclear states.
A key player could be Canada, whose new prime minister made a pre-election promise to . If a country with Canada’s financial clout goes down this route, possibly by following Bolivia’s example, then this would galvanise other nations, says Feilding. If Canada did manage it, it would be the first Western country to get around the conventions as medical legalisation and decriminalisation are technically within their wiggle room. (The US hasn’t officially flouted the rules as states that have legalised recreational cannabis operate under their own laws rather than federal law).
“This meeting is not going to be the end of the war on drugs,” says Steve Rolles of Transform, a pro-reform charity in the UK. “But it could be the beginning of the end.”
Drugs around the world
ZERO TOLERANCE
Sweden
Some of the toughest drug laws in Europe are seen in Sweden. The country’s stated aim is to create a “drug-free” society, which translates into strict policing with zero tolerance of possession.
Levels of drug use are generally low compared with other parts of central Europe, and according to from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, “the achievements of Sweden are proof that each government is responsible for the size of the drug problem in its country”.
But critics of the report say Sweden’s drug use is low simply because the culture has long been relatively abstemious, with similarly low use of alcohol and prescription drugs. There is also less social inequality – which can drive drug use – thanks to low unemployment and a generous welfare system.
The downside of zero tolerance is that harm-reduction measures like needle-exchanges are thin on the ground, and when people overdose their friends may not summon medical help for fear of being arrested. This means that despite low usage figures, the death rate from drugs is more than three times the European average, at about 70 per million people.
DECRIMINALISE USE
Portugal
In Portugal you can take any illicit substance without fear of jail – ecstasy, cocaine, even heroin. Critics warned this policy, introduced in 2001, would encourage more people to take drugs. Instead, .
The biggest change has been the health gains for users. Deaths related to drug use have shrunk to . New HIV infections among drug injectors have shrunk to about one-twentieth.
Only the use of drugs has been decriminalised, not their sale, so criminals still profit. “But the policy was not brought in to reduce crime, it was to help people with drug dependence,” says who heads the International Society of the Study of Drug Policy, UK. “The evidence shows they have met their goals.”
Stevens says the health gains have not arisen from decriminalisation alone, but also from the services that were put in place when the law was introduced, like the provision of free needles for injectors, and methadone for those wanting to quit heroin.
FREE MARKET
US states
The possession of small amounts of cannabis has been decriminalised in countries such as the Netherlands for many years, but now some places are going further and legalising its production and sale.
While many people smoke cannabis without problems, in a minority it does seem to trigger schizophrenia or dependence. Some fear that legalisation will mean more users and therefore more such health problems. “It’s like oil or alcohol – if the price goes down and it’s more available, consumption will go up,” says , a psychiatrist at Stanford University in California.
Some countries are wary of letting market forces reign supreme. Spain, for instance, allows cooperative-like growers’ clubs, which don’t advertise or sell to minors. Uruguay plans to make it available through state-licensed pharmacies.
In Colorado, however, cannabis is now advertised in shop windows, free papers and phone apps. “That’s capitalism in action,” says Humphreys. “But I think it’s a mistake to create another tobacco industry.”
California, which looks set to legalise cannabis in a referendum this year, is likely to take a , with health warnings and limits on advertising. “We are in the middle of a massive experiment,” says Stevens. “Each of the different models are going to have their benefits and disadvantages.”
HARD DRUGS ON PRESCRIPTION
Switzerland
It might work for cannabis but it’s hard to imagine legalising access to harder drugs like heroin. Yet that is what has happened in Switzerland – and the evidence suggests it’s been a success.
The usual treatment for heroin addicts is oral methadone, which dampens withdrawal symptoms without much of a high. But some people still can’t kick their habit. The idea of a heroin prescription is that it gives them time to sort their lives out, free from the worry of finding their next fix – and the money to pay for it. The heroin is consumed at supervised clinics (see photo, above).
A accessing heroin prescriptions in Switzerland found that after six years, about half had managed to switch to methadone or quit using altogether. The rest were still taking heroin, but at least they no longer needed to steal or deal to fund their habit, says Ambros Uchtenhagen of the University of Zurich, who worked on the study. Other studies show the scheme .
Prescribing heroin has been experimented with in other countries, such as the UK and the Netherlands, but it often faces public opposition, and the UK has recently cut back funding. But the Swiss backed the scheme in a 2008 referendum. “They have seen it reduces the visible problems of heroin use, like people injecting in parks,” says Uchtenhagen.
Heroin use has been on the wane in Europe for some years but has recently risen in the US, Canada and Australia, probably triggered by wider use of prescription opiate painkillers. In the US, things are so bad that the recent rise in drug overdose deaths has been described as looking like “a new infectious disease“. Despite this, in North America even methadone prescription is still controversial.
We have corrected the story to more accurately represent Portugal’s drug laws. It appeared in print under the headline “Ending the war on drugs”
