Aid charities pressed to act as war on drugs 'hits the poor'
War on drugs ‘hits poor’
Aid charities pressed to act
Millions of people face grinding hardship unless global development groups tackle the damage caused by the failing war on drugs.
This stark message comes today in a shock report from the British charity Health Poverty Action.
It warns the £65 billion cost for a war fuelling destitution, undermining health and marginalising communities rivals the £84 billion worldwide aid budget.
According to the report, Casualties of War, like tax avoidance and climate change, current global drugs policies harm anti-poverty initiatives, such as the UN millennium development goals.
These policies spark corruption and conflict, with poor countries’ governments spending massive sums on drug law enforcement, rather than welfare and education.
Relocating even some of this money could make a substantial difference in addressing poverty.
The report cites poll figures that show more than eight in ten Britons believe the war on drugs cannot be won.
And over half favour legalising or decriminalising at least some illicit drugs.
Yet UK development organisations have largely remained silent, while calls for drugs reform come from Southern counterparts, British tycoon Sir Richard Branson, current and former presidents, Nobel prizewinning economists and ex-UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
The charity urges the UK development sector to demand pro-poor moves as nations prepare for the UN general assembly’s special session on drugs next year.
Many non-government organisations, including British groups, have no lead contact or set process for participating in the session.
Health Poverty Action will launch Casualties of War at a major UK parliament event this evening. Image by Matthew Straubmuller
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The report claims many small-scale farmers grow and trade drugs in developing countries as their only income source.
Punitive drug policies penalise farmers who do not have access to the land, sufficient resources and infrastructure that they would need to make a sustainable living from other crops.
Alternative crops or development programmes often fail farmers, because they are led by security concerns and ignore poor communities’ needs.
The charity argues the militarisation of the war on drugs has triggered and been used to justify murder, mass imprisonment and systematic human rights violations.
It stresses that criminalising drugs does not reduce use, but spreads disease, deters people from seeking medical treatment and leads to policies that exclude millions of people from vital pain relief.
Less than eight per cent of drug users have access to a needle and syringe programme, or opioid substitution therapy, and under four per cent of those living with HIV have access to HIV treatment.
In West Africa, people with conditions linked to cancer and AIDS face severe restrictions in access to pain relief drugs, amid feared diversion to illicit markets.
Low and middle-income countries have 90 per cent of AIDS patients around the globe and half of the world’s people with cancer, but use only six per cent of morphine given for pain management.
Health Poverty Action states that the war on drugs criminalises the poor, and women are worst hit, through disproportionate imprisonment and the loss of livelihoods.
Drug crop eradication devastates the environment and forces producers underground, often to areas with fragile ecosystems.
The governments of Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala seek open, evidence-based discussion on UN drugs policy reform.
Both the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS not only share this view, but have called for the decriminalisation of drugs use.
The report’s factsheettells how a pioneering scheme, part-funded through a charity established by UK pop star Elton John, has aided efforts to reduce harm and HIV among Tanzanian drug users.
The scheme, run by Doctors of the World, has supported people like HIV-positive drug user Rehema, with another beneficiary.
The pair have become the country’s first drug users employed as HIV counsellors.
The report author, Health Poverty Action policy advisor Catherine Martin, said: “Failure to tackle the impacts of punitive drug policies will undermine attempts to strengthen health systems.
“It will lead to ineffective development programmes and deeper poverty, with increasing corruption and violence.
“The UN general assembly’s special drugs session next year provides the opportunity we must seize to champion pro-poor drug policies around the world.”
NOTE
The official launch for the report will take place at 5.30 pm this evening
(Thursday), organised by Health Poverty Action, together with the British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union. The union aims to serve UK interests by advancing the parliamentary dimension of Britain’s foreign relations. The speakers will comprise:
· Catherine Martin.
· Baroness Meacher, who chairs the parliamentary all-party drug policy reform group.
· Sir Keith Morris, former UK ambassador in Colombia.
· The MP Jeremy Corbyn, vice-chair of the parliamentary all-party human rights group.
· Dr Julia Buxton, a professor at Budapest’s school of public policy in the Central European University.
The venue is the IPU room, off Westminster Hall, in the Palace of Westminster, London SW1A 0AA.
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