Regional anti-drug policies exacerbating problem: study

Regional anti-drug policies exacerbating problem: study

By Bill O'Toole   |   Monday, 02 June 2014

The steep rise is opium cultivation across Southeast Asia and its associated problems over the past five years is being encouraged by draconian anti-drug policies instituted as part ASEAN's strategy to become "drug-free" by 2015, a non-government organisation says in a new report.

The Transnational Institute said in the report, Bouncing Back - Relapse in the Golden Triangle, that regional governments should re-think their drug policies and instead manage the problem in the "least harmful way".

According to UN statistics, opium cultivation in Southeast Asia enjoyed a steady decline from the late 1998 until 2006. However, in less than a decade opium cultivation has nearly doubled, while amphetamine use has increased "significantly", the report said.

"The decline in cultivation in the 1998-2006 period was partly the result of the imposition of opium bans by local authorities, especially by ethnic armed groups in the northeast region of Shan State in Burma," the report said.

"Following the bans, however, opium cultivation - and outside investment - relocated mainly to southern Shan State. This phenomenon is often referred to as the 'balloon effect', whereby squeezing one area does not lead to a long-term reduction but rather to relocation."

In response to the shift in the market, most governments in the region "have adopted repressive drug policies that have negative impacts on community level livelihoods and food security, and also violate the human rights of drug users, traders and opium farmers", it said.

These human rights violations include mandatory jail sentences for small amounts of drugs, mass incarceration in overcrowded prisons and even executions for many small-scale drug traders and traffickers.

"Until regional governments and the international community properly address poverty, conflict and rising demand for heroin in China, opium bans and eradication will continue to fail. Alternative livelihood options need to be firmly in place before communities can be expected to abandon illicit cultivation," said Tom Kramer, one of the authors of the report.

"This deadline-oriented thinking has resulted in repressive drug policies, mainly targeting marginalised communities including drug users, opium farmers and small traffickers."

Co-author Martin Jelsman said the goal of a drug-free region was just an "illusion".

"[P]olicies and resources should be redirected toward managing the drugs market in the least harmful way, because whether we like it or not, that market is here to stay" he said.

"Continuing on the same path is not only destined to failure but is also causing untold devastation to human lives across Southeast Asia. At a time the Americas are turning their back to the war on drugs, Asia should also start to rethink its drug policy."

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2014/06/03/regional-anti-drug-policies-exacerbating-problem-study/