Drug policy


A drug policy is the policy regarding the control and regulation of psychoactive substances, particularly those that are addictive or cause physical and mental dependence. While drug policies are generally implemented by governments, entities at all levels may have specific policies related to drugs.
Drug policies are usually aimed at combating drug addiction or dependence addressing both demand and supply of drugs, as well as mitigating the harm of drug use, and providing medical assistance and treatment. Demand reduction measures include voluntary treatment, rehabilitation, substitution therapy, overdose management, alternatives to incarceration for drug related minor offenses, medical prescription of drugs, awareness campaigns, community social services, and support for families. Supply side reduction involves measures such as enacting foreign policy aimed at eradicating the international cultivation of plants used to make drugs and interception of drug trafficking, fines for drug offenses, incarceration for persons convicted for drug offenses. Policies that help mitigate the dangers of drug use include needle syringe programs, drug substitution programs, and free facilities for testing a drug's purity.
The concept of "drugs" –a substance subject to control– varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For example, heroin is regulated almost everywhere; substances such as khat, codeine, or alcohol are regulated in some places, but not others. Most jurisdictions also regulate prescription drugs, medicinal drugs not considered dangerous but that can only be supplied to holders of a medical prescription, and sometimes drugs available without prescription but only from an approved supplier such as a pharmacy, but this is not usually described as a "drug policy". There are however some international standards as to which substances are under certain controls, in particular via the three international drug control conventions.

Regulatory levers

Between authorisation and prohibition, there is a continuum of possible regulations. The Swiss Federal Commission for Issues relating to Addiction identified 26 levers for drug regulation, in 6 domains :
;Production
  1. Production authorisation/reporting requirement
  2. Quantitative restrictions on production/import
  3. Qualitative restrictions on products
  4. Types of sales outlets
;Distribution
  2. Sales authorisation required
  3. Minimum age for sale
  4. Restrictions on the number/density of sales outlets
  5. Regulation of on-line sales channels
  6. Restrictions on opening hours of points of sale
  7. Restrictions on product availability
  8. Requirements for training of staff at points of sale
  9. Information requirements
  10. Obligation to provide information
  11. Information for people with problematic consumption
;Marketing
  2. Declaration of ingredients on packaging
  3. Warnings
  4. Packaging requirements
  5. Advertising restrictions
;Taxes
  2. Tax amount
  3. Use of tax revenue
;Prices
  2. Minimum price/prohibition on discounts
  3. Fixed prices
;Consumption
  2. Restrictions on consumption in certain places
  3. Temporary restrictions on consumption
  4. Restrictions on consumption in certain situations
  5. Protection of third parties
For each of the 26 variables, the instruments is already in use today, at least for some substances.

International drug control treaties

History

The first international treaty to control a psychoactive substance was adopted at the Brussels Conference in 1890 in the context of the regulations against slave trade, and concerned alcoholic beverages. It was followed by the final act of the Shanghai Opium Commission of 1909 which attempted to settle peace and arrange the trade in opium, after the Opium Wars in the 19th Century.
In 1912 at the First International Opium Convention held in the Hague, the multilateral International Opium Convention was adopted; it ultimately got incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. A number of international treaties related to drugs followed in subsequent decades: the 1925 Agreement concerning the Manufacture of, Internal Trade in and Use of Prepared Opium, the 1931 Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs and Agreement for the Control of Opium Smoking in the Far East, the 1936 Convention for the Suppression of the Illicit Traffic in Dangerous Drugs, among others. After World War II, a series of Protocols signed at Lake Success brought into the mandate of the newly created United Nations these pre-war treaties which had been handled by the League of Nations and the Office international d'hygiène publique.
In 1961 the nine previous drug-control treaties in force were superseded by the 1961 Single Convention, which rationalized global control on drug trading and use. Countries commit to "protecting the health and welfare of mankind" and to combat substance abuse and addiction. The treaty is not a self-enforcing agreement: countries have to pass their own legislation aligned with the framework of the Convention. The 1961 Convention was supplemented by the 1971 Convention and the 1988 Convention, forming the three international drug control treaties upon which other legal instruments rely. Their implementation has been led by the United States, in particular after the Nixon administration's declaration of "war on drugs" in 1971, and the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration as a U.S. federal law enforcement agency in 1973.
Since the early 2000s the European Union has developed several comprehensive and multidisciplinary strategies as part of its drug policy to prevent the diffusion of recreational drug use and abuse among the European population and raise public awareness on the adverse effects of drugs among all member states of the European Union, as well as conjoined efforts with European law enforcement agencies, such as Europol and EMCDDA, to counter organized crime and illegal drug trade in Europe.

Current treaties

The core drug control treaties currently in force internationally are:
There are other treaties that address drugs under international control, such as:
Additionally, other pieces of international law enter into play, like the international human rights treaties protecting the right to health or the rights of indigenous peoples, and, in the case of plants considered as drug crops, treaties protecting the right to land, farmers' of peasants' rights, and treaties on plant genetic resources or traditional knowledge.

Treaty-mandated organizations

There are four bodies mandated under the international drug control conventions :

Australia

Australian drug laws are criminal laws and mostly exist at the state and territory level, not the federal, and are therefore different, which means an analysis of trends and laws for Australia is complicated. The federal jurisdiction has enforcement powers over national borders.
In October 2016, Australia legislated for some medicinal use cannabis.

Bolivia

Like Colombia, the Bolivian government signed onto the ATPA in 1991 and called for the forced eradication of the coca plant in the 1990s and early 2000s. Until 2004, the government allowed each residential family to grow 1600m2 of coca crop, enough to provide the family with a monthly minimum wage. In 2005, Bolivia saw another reformist movement. The leader of a coca grower group, Evo Morales, was elected President in 2005. Morales ended any U.S. backed war on drugs. President Morales opposed the decriminalization of drugs but saw the coca crop as an important piece of indigenous history and a pillar of the community because of the traditional use of chewing coca leaves. In 2009, the Bolivian Constitution backed the legalization and industrialization of coca products.
Bolivia first proposed an amendment to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 2009. After its failure, Bolivia left the convention and re-accessed with a reservation for coca leaf in its natural form.

Canada

China

Colombia

Under President Ronald Reagan, the United States declared war on drugs in the late 1980s; the Colombian drug lords were widely viewed as the root of the cocaine issue in America. In the 1990s, Colombia was home to the world's two largest drug cartels: the Cali cartel and the Medellín cartel. It became Colombia's priority, as well as the priority of the other countries in the Andean Region, to extinguish the cartels and drug trafficking from the region. In 1999, under President Andrés Pastrana, Colombia passed Plan Colombia. Plan Colombia funded the Andean Region's fight against the drug cartels and drug trafficking. With the implementation of Plan Colombia, the Colombian government aimed to destroy the coca crop. This prohibitionist regime has had controversial results, especially on human rights. Colombia has seen a significant decrease in coca cultivation. In 2001, there were 362,000 acres of coca crop in Colombia; by 2011, fewer than 130,000 acres remained. However, farmers who cultivated the coca crop for uses other than for the creation of cocaine, such as the traditional use of chewing coca leaves, became impoverished.
Since 1994, consumption of drugs has been decriminalized. However, possession and trafficking of drugs are still illegal. In 2014, Colombia further eased its prohibitionist stance on the coca crop by ceasing aerial fumigation of the coca crop and creating programs for addicts. President Juan Manuel Santos, has called for the revision of Latin American drug policy, and was open to talks about legalization.