… Ask the 50 jurisdictions worldwide that have decriminalised drug use!
… A new web-tool launched today shows that 49 countries and jurisdictions across the world have adopted some form of decriminalisation for drug use and possession for personal use.
… Experts say the number of jurisdictions turning to this policy option is likely to increase in the coming years.
‘Drug Decriminalisation Across the World’, an interactive map developed by Talking Drugs, Release and the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), offers an overview of the different decriminalisation models – and their level of effectiveness – adopted all over the world.
Twenty-nine countries (or 49 jurisdictions) have adopted this approach in recognition that the criminalisation of people who use drugs is a failed policy, disproportionately targeting people living in poverty, people of colour and young people, and causing untold damage.
When effectively implemented, decriminalisation can contribute to improved health, social and economic outcomes for people who use drugs and their communities, as well as reduced criminal justice spending and recidivism. Further, there is no evidence that drug use increases under this model – or that it would decrease if criminalised. Decriminalisation is not a ‘soft’ policy option – itis the smart approach to reducing harms for individuals and society.
The major harms caused by the so-called ‘war on drugs’ have now been widely recognised: one in five people incarcerated for drug offences globally; more than half a million preventable deaths by overdose, HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis in 2016 alone; and severe human rights violations including arbitrary detentions, executions and extrajudicial killings. While this horrific situation is getting worse each year, the scale of the illicit drug market and prevalence of drug use continue to soar – at least according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s latest global overview from 2019.
Nigeria has been described as the “Africa’s narcotics hub and a major transshipment point between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres” and “the focal point of West African narcotics trafficking”. According to the 2018 UNODC Drug Use in Nigeria Survey Report, about 17 million people use drugs in Nigeria.
The 2017 prevalence of any drug use in Nigeria is estimated at 11.4 per cent or 14.3 million people aged between 15 and 64 years.
The extent of drug use in Nigeria is comparatively high when compared with the 2016 global annual prevalence of any drug use of 5.6 percent among the adult population.
In order to address the growing problem of illicit drugs over the years, Nigeria government has been ‘waging the war on drugs’ using ‘a repressive and law enforcement approach’ to respond to the challenges of drug trafficking, production and use.
However, the successes been recorded for the ‘war on drugs’ in Nigeria are based on the level of crops eradicated, number of arrests and seizures made and severity of punishments applied to users, growers and dealers in Nigeria which has led to many unintended consequences including human rights violations, swelling prison populations and significant increases in violent crimes and conflicts and other social problems affecting the entire country.
Emphatically, people who use drugs in Nigeria are continuously witnessing series of human rights abuses including routine arbitrary arrest and detention, extortions, physical harm, rape and sexual assault, social stigmatization and neglects. Indeed, people incarcerated for drug offenses account for a substantial percentage of prisoners throughout Nigerian prisons. Those incarcerated are often the most marginalized – small time dealers, low level drug offenders, and overwhelmingly, the people who use drugs.
The most Nigeria drug control laws and policies undermine lifesaving health services. Illegality of drug use and of harm reduction programmes drives drug users away from services and/or into prisons and fuel the spread of HIV in Nigeria. Persons who inject drugs (PWIDs) in Nigeria now account for 9 per cent of new HIV infections annually. Also according to the UNODC Drug Use in Nigeria report 2018, people who inject drugs constitute a sizeable proportion of high risk drug users in Nigeria. I in 5 high risk drug users is injecting drugs.
While there is no silver bullet for addressing 100 years of punitive drug policies, removing criminal sanctions for activities associated with drug use is a necessary step in the right direction.
Niamh Eastwood, Executive Director of Release, said: “What we really wanted to show here is the number and diversity of existing decriminalisation models adopted all over the world, and whatthe real impact is on the ground in terms of health, human rights, criminal justice and social justice outcomes”.
Ann Fordham, Executive Director of IDPC, said: “In Portugal, decriminalisation has significantly reduced health risks and harms. But that’s not the case everywhere. In Russia and Mexico, ill-designed models have exacerbated incarceration rates and social exclusion. When designing decriminalisation models, governments have to carefully review the evidence of what does and doesn’t work to ensure success”.
Imani Robinson, Editor of TalkingDrugs, said: “The most useful element of this interactive map is that it highlights the impact of decriminalisation for communities on the ground. Many models enable the liberation of people who use drugs through a broad commitment to greater health and social gains overall and an emphasis on the provision of harm reduction education and services; others do not garner the same results. Smart drug policy is not decriminalisation by any means necessary, it is decriminalisation done right.”