New Report Shows War on Drugs in Asia is a Massive Failure

In March 2009, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) held a segment in Vienna to determine a 10-year international drug-strategy. This led to the international consensus on the “2009 Political Declaration and Plan of Action on International Cooperation towards an Integrated and Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem.”

Among other measures, the declaration emphasized the need to “reintegrate marginalized segments of society and draw them into, rather than push them out, of the law” as a method to curb the illicit drug trade. A decade later, it is time to see what changes have been made – and it doesn’t look good.

The report, titled "10 years of drug policy in Asia: How far have we come?" by the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), reveals that global efforts, particularly in Asia, have been ineffective and even counter-productive. The results are largely attributed to the war on drugs approach the region has taken, which has had a devastating impact on communities while failing to minimize the drug market in the region.

Current laws in Asia predominantly rely on the criminalization of individuals as a method to deter use. However, with drug users already facing marginalization by their communities, criminal chargers only alienate them more, an occurrence the UN calls counterproductive. In Asia, these criminal charges can include the death penalty.

Half of the world’s countries with the death penalty are in Asia. Since 2009, countries including India, Malaysia, and Thailand have taken measures to reduce or eradicate the use of capital punishment for such offenses. But other countries, like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are looking to reinstate the practice. And in the Philippines, tens of thousands of extrajudicial deaths came as a result of Rodrigo Duterte’s draconian drug policies. Similarly, Bangladesh’s recent war on drugs started in May 2018 saw “130 killings and 15,000 arrests in its first three weeks.”

The IDPC report also highlights the alarming incarceration rates in Asia as detrimental to helping marginalized societies. Often, 50-80% of Asian prison populations are in for drug-related crimes, of which “the overwhelming majority of those imprisoned for drug offenses are accused of non-violent charges such as drug use or possession.” In prison, counseling, harm reduction, dependence treatment and other forms of psychological support are rarely given. Instead, individuals are placed in facilities where they face aggressive punishments involving acts of torture, including “suffocation and electric shocks by police.”

Of the thousands of imprisoned individuals for drugs today, many were deprived access to a fair court ruling. The report shows that in Cambodia and Bangladesh alone, thousands of arrests were based on mere suspicion of drug-related crimes. Many of such arrests lead to the placement of individuals in Compulsory Centers for Drug Users (CCDU’s), where systemic human rights violations are continuously reported, including forced manual labor, abuse, and neglected treatment. As of 2014, 450,000 people in Asia are kept in CCDU’s, and no significant changes in numbers have been reported in recent years.

So as more people involved with drugs get thrown in jail, shouldn’t the regional drug trade shrink as well? And as more drug users are arrested, shouldn’t there be fewer drug users on the streets? The report shows this is not the case as “drug-related fear-mongering, which characterizes the bulk of messaging promoted by Asian governments, is associated with no or negative prevention outcomes”.

Hard-line measures have only been met with increasing drug use. For example, the report shows that Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) saw an alarming increase of 99.7% between 2011 and 2016. 168 new psychotic substances have entered the East and Southeast Asian illicit market between 2008 and 2016. 287 million methamphetamine tablets have been seized in East and Southeast Asia in 2015, compared to the 3.1 million seized in 2008. These statistics highlight the drastic failure of the drug war.

Drug policies have also failed to address “the social, economic and health harms associated with drug markets”, including the spread of blood-borne diseases. The report shows that unsafe drug use in Asia has caused disproportionately high rates of HIV, viral hepatitis and tuberculosis amongst drug users. These numbers have either increased or remained unchanged. However, these are difficult to tackle when open public discourse and education are curbed by punitive measures.

As corruption is often entangled in the war on drugs approach, communities are further damaged, the report claims. In the Philippines for example, “the stiff penalties for drug-related offenses have also meant that police officers and politicians alike can use drug-related accusations either to extort favors or persecute political opponents” and as a result, “many communities are living in fear because of indiscriminate drug-war related violence.”

The report concluded that the time has come for a regional effort to envision a drug-plan that places individuals and their communities at the center of the strategy, by “seeking to improve their living conditions, address their vulnerabilities and protect their human rights”. With its collateral damage to human rights, Asian communities are paying the price for a senseless war on drugs.

As the international community meets again in March to discuss the next 10-year plan, will certain countries be forced to see the detrimental impact of their policies?