Category: International

Towards a North American Strategy to End the War on Drugs

I met Javier Sicilia at the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City last February while at a conference on drug policy organized by Mexico Unido Contra la Delincuencia, a civil society group working on crime prevention strategies. Gillian Maxwell, a member of our Executive Committee, and I made the trip to share our experiences working on drug policy issues in Vancouver, to improve our understanding of the situation in Mexico and to make connections with Mexican NGOs and business groups. We were also keen to meet with Javier Sicilia who was working with colleagues in Mexico and the US on an ambitious new project.

Sicilia is a well-known poet, writer and journalist who was thrust into the spotlight when his son was brutally murdered in Cuernavaca after being caught in the crossfire between drug gangs. Upon this tragedy, he became one of the tens of thousands of innocent victims of the war on drugs being waged across this magnificent country. I had heard how Sicilia had stopped writing poetry and taken to the streets, igniting large protests that saw a hundred thousand citizens marching from Cuernavaca to Mexico City, demanding an end to the drug-related violence that has shaken the foundations of Mexican society.

Javier Sicilia

I spotted Sicilia in the foyer of the museum and approached him from behind, calling out his name as he walked towards the museum auditorium. As I had no Spanish and knew he did not speak any English, I wasn’t sure how our meeting would begin should I get his attention. Finally he heard my calling, spun around, reached out and embraced me tightly with both arms and welcomed me into his space. Such a fulsome greeting offered to a complete stranger surprised me but over the next few hours I saw that Sicilia was an intense, committed individual who embraced many.

Our conversation was limited but we had a good connection and agreed to meet again with his organizers. We wanted to speak with them about the meeting the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition was organizing with American and Mexican groups to work on the idea of a North American coalition. The coalition would work together to highlight the negative impacts our current drug policies are having on Canada, the US and Mexico, with a specific focus on how the criminalization of drug use has created such a pervasive and violent underground market in all three countries.

Sicilia was interested in the concept of a North American strategy to end the violence in Mexico as he was already working to organize a Mexican/US project; the Caravan for Peace with Dignity and Justice. Which was about to traverse the US with a hundred or so victims of Mexico’s drug war.

The main objective of the Caravan is to bring to the streets and communities of the US the reality that Mexicans are facing – the loss of life, the destruction of communities, the culture of fear that permeates so many localities, and the unrelenting violence that takes place each day.

In the coming months CDPC will be exploring the connections between Canada, the US and Mexico and how our so-called drug problems are interrelated. We will be supporting the Caravan for Peace with Dignity and Justice through our blog, social media channels, and by travelling to Baltimore, Maryland to participate in a drug policy town hall meeting when the Caravan visits on September 8^th and 9^th.

We hope you will begin to think about how Canadians can become involved in supporting efforts to stop the violence in Mexico and look forward to your thoughts and ideas over the coming months.

August 28, 2012
International Overdose Awareness Day: People’s Lives Matter

“We also hear from many parents of drug users who have saved their own sons and daughters. Often when people shoot drugs, it happens near relatives rather than other drug users, who sometime know better than doctors how to provide help. If parents have a Naloxone kit at home and if they have been trained how to use it, they can make an injection and see their child come back to life right in front of their eyes. Often mothers ask us: Why didn’t we know about naloxone before? Why didn’t the drug therapist ever mention that there is a product that can reverse an overdose and save a life immediately?”

These are the words of Natalia, an outreach worker in the Ukraine as she describes the positive impact of her organization’s overdose prevention program on clients, employees, and the community. Natalia was interviewed by Sharon Stancliff from the Harm Reduction Coalition in New York during a Regional Workshop on HIV and Drug Use in Kiev, Ukraine. This interview is from a series of videos of people talking about the positive experiences with overdose response programs.

Natalia is not alone. Many people have been saved by proper training about overdose prevention and response. Many more could be saved by expanding these initiatives. That’s what International Overdose Awareness Day is about.

What is an overdose?

An overdose means having too much of a drug (or combination of drugs) for your body to be able to cope with. There are a number of signs and symptoms that show someone has overdosed, and these differ with the type of drug used. Check out this website for information on the signs of an overdose.

Between 2002 and 2009 there were 1654 fatal overdoses attributed to illegal drugs in B.C. Death from drug‐related overdose is a leading cause of accidental death in Ontario. Increases in the use of prescribed medications like Oxycodone have precipitated increases in overdose. Each year in Ontario between 300 and 400 people die from overdose involving prescription opioids — most commonly oxycodone. In Ontario, prescriptions of oxycodone increased by 850% between 1991 and 2007. The addition of long-acting oxycodone to the drug formulary was associated with a 5-fold increase in oxycodone-related mortality and a 41% increase in overall opioid-related mortality.

What is International Overdose Awareness Day?

International Overdose Awareness Day is held on August 31st each year. Commemorating those who have met with death or permanent injury as a result of drug overdose, it also acknowledges the grief felt by their families and friends. Celebrated around the world, it aims to raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of drug-related death, especially for those mourning the loss of a loved one. It also spreads the message that the tragedy of overdose death is preventable.

An Inspired Idea

International Overdose Awareness Day originated in Melbourne, Australia in 2001. Sally Finn, manager of a Salvation Army needle and syringe program, was touched by the sorrow she observed among the friends and families of those who had overdosed. She witnessed their inability to express that sorrow because of the stigma surrounding people who use drugs.

Sally decided to organize an event of remembrance. To commemorate those who had died from overdose, Sally thought of distributing ribbons. She thought she’d need 500… she gave out 6,000.

Eleven years later, that one event in the back yard of a suburban crisis centre has evolved into International Overdose Awareness Day, which is now celebrated around the world. Its global significance reflects the universality of the human emotions triggered by the tragedy of overdose – a tragedy that is preventable.

Events in Canada marking International Overdose Awareness Day 2012

Ottawa: This year Ottawa is hosting an event at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin St. (at Laurier St.) in front of City Hall from 11:30am -12:30pm. Speakers will give an update on overdose statistics in Ontario, Dr. Lynne Leonard (Ottawa University) will speak and organizers will demand overdose prevention programming (Naloxone), evidence based treatment facilities, and the establishment of a supervised injection facility in Ottawa. For more information check out this page.

Toronto: The South Riverdale Community Health Centre is offering an afternoon of events with food and films. To kick things off, they are declaring their facility to be a Good Samaritan Zone and reminding people that they won’t be penalized for drawing attention to an overdose occurring on the site. Events will continue with a talk by Chantal Marshall from The Works in Toronto, who will discuss the role that Naloxone can play in responding to overdose, and Walter Cavalieri from the Canadian Harm Reduction Network, who will speak about the importance of remembrance on International Overdose Awareness Day.

Edmonton: On August 31st, Streetworks will be hosting a candlelight ceremony at City Hall at 2:00pm. Along with the ceremony, there will be words spoken by the Medical Officer of Health for the Edmonton Zone, Dr. Christopher Sikora, as well as a designate from City Hall. There will also be a raffle, with all proceeds going to overdose awareness programs.

Victoria: A vigil will be begin at 10:00am on the corner of Quadra and Pandora to honour those lost to fatal drug overdose and to recognize how stigma and discrimination, criminalization and a lack of harm reduction services, including supervised consumption services, continue to result in overdose fatalities. Check here for more information.

August 27, 2012
Caravan for Peace with Dignity and Justice

60,000 killed, 10,000 disappeared and 160,000 displaced.

This is the ongoing tragedy that has been wrought upon the Mexican people in the few short years since Felipe Calderón declared a “war on cartels” in December, 2006.

Javier Sicilia, the famed Mexican poet, stopped writing poetry after his son was gunned down in Cuernavaca in March, 2011. On the day his son died he wrote one final verse before putting down his pen: “the world is not worthy of words, they have been suffocated from the inside, just as they suffocated you.”

CC photo by Caravan4Peace

Since then he has been taking to the streets of Mexico, with hundreds of thousands of other citizens in a dramatic plea to the drug cartels and the government to stop the violence that has been tearing apart their country. Sicilia, as he is known in Mexico, led two Caravans for Peace – one from Cuernavaca to Mexico City and the other through the north of Mexico, where the violence has been beyond comprehension.

On August 12^th, Sicilia led close to a hundred victims of the drug war in Mexico across the border from Tijuana to San Diego to begin a month-long Caravan for Peace across the southern and north eastern US. The overarching message of the Caravan for Peace is that the war on drugs continues to devastate his country and is the result of drug policies initiated in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. CDPC will be joining the Caravan for Peace in Baltimore, Maryland on September 9^th as it stops to hold a Town Hall Meeting on drug policy that will look at how all three countries have much to gain by considering alternatives to a failed war on drugs.

Follow our blog in the coming weeks to read more about the Caravan for Peace, Javier Sicilia, and Canada’s relationship to Mexico’s drug war.

August 22, 2012
Drug policy off-limits at AIDS 2012 Opening

The opening session of AIDS 2012 is the anchor event for many attendees. This is the place where world leaders in the AIDS movement say their piece and inspire attendees to continue their work. Speakers at this year’s session were numerous and notable, including World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, who delivered the message that his organization cares and wants to see more involvement of civil society in shaping global anti-poverty programs (despite years of insisting that countries scale down their social safety nets to receive World Bank financial assistance). The conference co-chairs, Diane Havlir and Elly Katabira, along with the Deputy President of South Africa also urged conference attendees to embrace the goal of eliminating HIV in our generation. All good stuff.

New Vienna Declaration Ad

The highlight of the evening was Annah Sango from the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS who spoke most poignantly about the need to integrate women’s issues into the international AIDS agenda. She praised the work of NGO’s addressing the needs of people who use drugs and reminded the audience that the way forward cannot proceed without the voices of those most affected, including people who use drugs, women, and sex workers. Speakers made it clear that organizations focused on AIDS in a global context have had major successes at scaling up prevention and treatment. Yet it was apparent that discussion of controversial issues like the decriminalization or even legalization of drugs was a nonstarter. Last night’s speakers briefly mentioned needle exchange but the overall framework of global drug policy was clearly not on the agenda.

These profound absences were supposed to be remedied by the 2010 Vienna Declaration. But the lack of drug policy discussion last night makes it clear why CDPC’s presence is needed in Washington this week. Our work is to remind attendees that drug policy is AIDS policy and that harm reduction interventions and a discussion of legal frameworks should not only be up for discussion, but are central to the conference’s goal of an AIDS-free generation.

July 23, 2012
Twin Epidemics AIDS 2012 Pre-Conference

The CDPC is in Washington D.C., for AIDS 2012 – a sprawling conference and gathering that attracts some 25,000 people from across the world. Yesterday we attended a day-long satellite meeting on the “Twin Epidemics of HIV and Drug Use”. It was an intriguing mix of solo speakers and panel presentations.

Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. Drug Czar, kicked off the day with a short talk about American drug policy. He talked about the U.S.’s new approach to drugs as a “third way”, though I’m not sure he spelled out the other two ways. Clearly he wanted his audience to appreciate that the U.S. War on Drugs was coming to an end. But the deployment of American law enforcement along the Mexican border, in Honduras and parts of Africa might suggest otherwise.

Photo via HCLU

Kerlikowske took pains to talk about his support for a public health approach to drug use and praised his government’s support for the 2,600 drug courts already in existence in the U.S. However, he did not mention some of the issues inherent to the quasi-coercive methods used by these courts.

He also made clear his support for needle exchange, though was careful to note that Congress had tied his hands by banning federal funding for syringe distribution in 2011. He ended with a vague call for a “critical convergence” between public health and public safety. His definition of public health was clear from his earlier remarks, but his definition of public safety remained a small mystery, though he is likely referring to a continuation of the criminalization of some drugs.

Liz Evans from the Portland Hotel Society gave an impassioned presentation of the successes of Vancouver’s supervised injection site, Insite. Panel presentations ran the gamut. There was much discussion about the need to scale-up harm reduction interventions that can reduce HIV transmission. Speakers praised efforts to increase the availability of methadone, needle exchange, treatment, detox, and overdose prevention programs.

There was talk about the UNAIDS goal to reduce HIV infections by 50% among people who use drugs. Presentations examined the gap between what countries are willing to do and what’s needed. Over and over again, it was clear that civil society organizations with the support of the Global Fund and the Open Society Foundations carry the lion’s share of responsibility for harm reduction services around the world.

Funding for these groups is often precarious and time-sensitive. Speakers from the Global Fund advised audience members that the Fund is undergoing a review of its proposal processes and its approach to funding harm reduction. Clearly, audience members were worried that this might spell an end to the Fund’s support for harm reduction. We were advised to contact board members at the Fund to press our case for the continuation of harm reduction funding.

It likely won’t come as much of a surprise that U.S. concerns shaped the agenda for this meeting. Congress’s decision to withdraw funding for needle exchange underscored the stigma that shapes the lives of people who use illegal drugs. With this ban in place, it was difficult for some U.S. attendees to move beyond discussion of needle exchange to programs like supervised injection and heroin assisted treatment. Daniel Wolf from the Open Society Foundations pressed U.S. representatives to help audience members make sense of Congress’s decision and it was clear from their responses that promoting discrimination against people who use drugs is still politically useful in the U.S. There was also a curious sentiment among U.S. attendees: their hope for more meaningful drug reform measures in Obama’s second term (if he wins in November).

Some of the speakers spoke of their drug use histories and reminded audience members to focus on the whole person in their efforts to stem HIV infections. Representatives from civil society organizations including those in the U.S. talked about the needs of the people they serve and decried the deeply “resource scarce” environments in which they operate.

Over and over again some speakers spoke of the vulnerable groups who need harm reduction services, including men who have sex with men, people who use drugs and sex workers. So much so, that a speaker from New York’s Harm Reduction Coalition challenged some of these presenters to avoid re-marginalizing people with language that both fails to recognize the diversity within these groups and frames these groups as problems to be solved. As this critic noted, it was clear that politicians and world leaders were clearly the problem when it comes to meeting the needs of people who use drugs.

All in all, the day ended with a feel good sentiment but not much consensus on how to move forward. Speakers acknowledged that practical solutions exist, but are often politically unpopular. In the coming days, we look forward to deeper discussions at the conference about how to scale-up proven programs like needle exchange and supervised consumption.

July 22, 2012
Drug Courts in Canada: the Good, the Bad and the Badly Researched

Drug treatment courts (DTC’s) are often touted as the solution to a cycle of drug addiction and crime. But are they? That’s the question the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network sought to answer in a 2011 publication that reviews the operations of six federally funded drug courts in Canada (Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Regina). This study is also a detailed primer on drug courts for the uninitiated. The report does not completely dismiss DTC’s but raises some serious questions about how they operate and their effectiveness.

Photo: Some rights reserved by s_falkow

The notion that addiction is the result of a moral failing sometimes gives way to the idea that it’s a chronic illness that will respond to medical treatment. But as this report points out, drug courts operate on a combination of these assumptions.

Promoted as a way to reduce drug use and prevent crime, drug courts embrace the idea that treatment can alleviate addiction.

But they also use quasi-coercive and punishing methods more akin to the criminal justice system. Applicants to a drug court treatment program must plead guilty to a crime and submit to a mandatory urine screening. Failure to adhere to the court ordered treatment program can mean a prison sentence. But if addiction is a chronic relapsing illness as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes suggests it is, how well does it respond to these quasi-coercive techniques used in drug courts? Not that well according to the authors of this report.

This report also raises serious questions about the methodology of research on drug courts. Its authors argue that given the lack of follow-up research on the experiences of participants, and the low retention rates in many DTC programs, it’s difficult to conclude at this stage whether or not drug courts result in decreased drug use and/or recidivism. More alarmingly, these authors found that women are less likely to apply to DTC’s and less likely to graduate at comparable levels to men, partly due to a lack of gender specific programming and program flexibility that accommodates parenting responsibilities. Indigenous women and men are also less likely to complete drug court programs due in part to the lack of Indigenous-specific treatment services.

Download the report

The report’s authors question how voluntary the entry to treatment is when prison is the alternative and access to other treatments are limited. As stated in the report,

“given the difficulty of obtaining drug treatment and social services without going through the DTC system, it is questionable whether a person is voluntarily entering DTC.”

The authors also point out that a DTC system can potentially undermine some of the safeguards of the traditional judicial system. Drug courts may also violate human rights, specifically, the right to health outlined in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights because participants can be denied access to a health service if they do not follow the rules of a DTC program.

Overall, this report questions whether dedicating limited resources to quasi-compulsory drug treatment via the criminal justice system, rather than scaling up access to quality voluntary treatment, is the best way to help people limit their drug use and prevent recidivism.

For more information see: Impaired Judgment: Assessing the Appropriateness of Drug Treatment Courts as a Response to Drug Use in Canada from the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. Available at: http://www.aidslaw.ca/publications/publicationsdocEN.php?ref=1302

July 18, 2012
The Global Commission on the war on drugs and HIV/AIDS

On June 26^th, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a groundbreaking report on the war on drugs and its failures. Titled “The war on drugs and HIV/AIDS: How the criminalization of drugs fuels the global pandemic”, the report focuses on the relationship between drug policy and the spread of HIV.

Global Commission Report Launch with Michel Kazatchkine, Ruth Dreifuss and Ilona Szabó

Covering a range of issues directly connected to the HIV and AIDS pandemic, the report points out the inability of law enforcement to reduce global drug supply. In fact, the global supply of illicit opiates, such as heroin, has increased by 380% in recent decades. And it describes how repressive drug control policies actually drive the HIV epidemic in many regions of the world. The report also details how policies that prohibit needle exchange increase syringe sharing and the risk of HIV infections, and how the fear of arrest drives people underground and away from needed services. It urges countries to scale up proven drug treatment and public health measures, including harm reduction services, to reduce HIV infection and protect community health and safety.

Canada often prides itself on being a positive and progressive force on the international stage. But politics, rather than evidence, tend to be the deciding factor in defining Canadian drug policy. As the Global Commission’s report explains, mass incarceration also drives the HIV pandemic. The recent passage of the Omnibus Crime Legislation prescribes mandatory minimum penalties for some drug crimes. This will have the effect of driving up incarceration rates in Canada’s already crowded prisons, and as the Canadian HIV/AIDs Legal Network recently pointed out, the lack of needle exchange programs in Canadian prisons contributes to the spread of HIV and endangers public health.

The report also documents how the fight against HIV is being won in countries where problematic substance use is treated as a health issue. In Australia and European countries such as Portugal and Switzerland, newly diagnosed HIV infections have been nearly eliminated among people who use drugs.

The Global Commission members are no lightweights when it comes the development of governmental policy. The Commission comprises a distinguished group of high-level leaders whose ranks include George Schultz, former US Secretary of State, Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group and advocate for social causes, and Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland, among many others.

This is the second report released by the Global Commission. Its first report, released in June 2011, catalyzed international debate about the urgent need for fundamental reforms of the global drug prohibition regime. It recommended implementing reforms such as alternatives to prison, a greater emphasis on health approaches to drug use, decriminalization, and experiments in drug regulation that avoid the negative effects of full prohibition.

With widespread media coverage around the world, the report has pushed the topic of drug policy reform back into focus just in time for the International AIDS 2012 Conference, taking place in Washington, DC, later this month. Stressing the need for urgent action, the Global Commission makes a number of recommendations to world leaders and the United Nations, the most fundamental of which being that they acknowledge and address the causal link between the war on drugs and the spread of HIV.

For more information see:
Global Commission on Drug Policy: http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network: http://www.aidslaw.ca/EN/index.htm

Read the Report

July 4, 2012
Director’s Report

The past three months have been a blur of activity as we further establish our presence and connect with organizations and individuals across the country and around the world. There truly is something bigger going on and momentum is building towards considering new and innovative approaches to addressing drug problems.

Mexico Unido Contra la Delincuencia

In February, I was invited to speak at an international conference in Mexico City – Drogas: Un balance a un siglo de su prohicion, organized by the crime prevention group Mexico Unido Contra la Delincuencia. The forum provided a thorough consideration of possible alternatives to the devastating consequences of the Mexican government’s war on drugs. Speakers came from around the world to share stories of innovation, legislative changes and practices that have moved their drug policies towards a public health approach and away from a failed criminal justice model.

Integrating Supervised Injection Into Health Services and Community: A National Knowledge Exchange

CAHR 2012 Montréal

In April, CDPC organized a forum on supervised injection services in partnership with the Dr. Peter Centre in Vancouver and Cactus Montreal as an ancillary event at the Canadian Association of HIV Research meeting in Montreal. The event was held in the beautiful Biblioteque et Archive National du Quebec and was a chance for organizations to share their experiences and review the current state of the discussion in their jurisdictions. CDPC will be working with a number of organizations to keep this national discussion moving forward as different localities explore implementing these services.

North American Drug Strategy Meeting – San Francisco, April 12, 13

San Fransisco

As part of CDPC’s international work we co-hosted a meeting in partnership with the Drug Policy Alliance in the US and CUPHID from Mexico City to explore the development of a coordinated North American drug policy dialogue. The San Francisco meeting was the initial exploratory session to see how we can work together to bring forward alternatives to North America’s current drug policies. In an effort to strengthen our ties across the continent, CDPC is currently looking for Canadian allies interested in supporting our work in Mexico.

Visit to the Maritimes

People & Policies Conference Halifax

As part of our ongoing efforts to build a national coalition I visited Atlantic Canada in May, attending events and meetings in Halifax, Saint John, New Brunswick and Charlottetown. Atlantic Harm Reduction Research Network invited CDPC to be a part of their public session – People and Policies: How do Drug Policies Impact the Health of our Communities? In addition to this, a day-long session with service providers and researchers also considered how best to integrate harm reduction services into shelter and emergency ward settings.

In Saint John, NB, AIDS Saint John, the Urban and Community Studies Institute at University of New Brunswick and CDPC co-hosted an event – Drugs and the City, which featured a panel discussion on drug policy with Tim Christie, Ethics Director, Saint John Health Region and Bill Reid, Chief of Saint John Police Department.

In Charlottetown, I met with a number of parents who are concerned about the lack of youth treatment on the Island and are interested in organizing a provincial “addictions movement” to generate discussion, share experiences and engage the provincial government in dialogue on improving services for people with drug problems.

Thunder Bay Municipal Drug Strategy

Pot, Pills and Parties Thunder Bay

On May 24^th Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Thunder Bay Drug Strategy put on the event – Pot, Pills and Parties. The event focused on the impact of Bill C-10 on young people and included a presentation from CDPC – Changing the Frame: A New Approach to Drug Policy in Canada.

As CDPC reaches out across the country we are finding new and innovative ways to strengthen and build our national coalition to improve Canada’s approach to drug problems. We will continue to engage Canadians and work at the international level towards this end.

Photo Credits:
Mexico – Steve Rolles
Montréal – Caroline Mousseau
San Fransisco – CC Flickr evoo73
Halifax – Wooden Shoe Photography

June 29, 2012
Insite withstands test of international drug control conventions

At the 55^th meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs held in Vienna March 12 – 16^th Damon Barrett, Human Rights expert at Harm Reduction International spoke candidly in the plenary session regarding the erroneous statements made by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) in their recent annual report (2011) concerning Vancouver’s supervised injection site, Insite.

In paragraph 437 of the report the INCB clearly states: “drug injection and consumption outlets that allow illicit drug possession and use are not in line with the international drug control conventions”. This is an outright falsehood and the United Nations Drug Control Program’s own legal advice commissioned in 2002 admits as much. It can be read here.

Insite Press Conference

The fact that the INCB still carries on trumpeting this false information ten years after the UN’s legal opinion was sought makes a mockery of the INCB’s integrity and credibility.

Here is the offending paragraph from the INCB report:

437. In September 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its judgement with respect to the applicability of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to a supervised drug injection facility in Vancouver. The facility had been allowed to operate due to an exemption to the application of the law for “medical or scientific purposes” that had been granted by a previous Government. The Court ruled against the Government’s decision to refuse to extend the injection facility’s legal exemption, thereby allowing the facility to continue to operate. The Board reiterates that under international law, provisions of national law cannot be invoked to justify non-compliance with the international drug control treaties to which a State has become a party. The Board further reiterates its position that drug injection and consumption outlets that allow illicit drug possession and use are not in line with the international drug control conventions, to which Canada is a party.

Damon Barrett set the record straight for the INCB with this statement:

The recent Canadian Supreme Court decision on Vancouver’s safe injection facility is criticized as running contrary to article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. This states that national law cannot be used to justify non-compliance with international legal obligations. This is true. But the Canadian Supreme Court Case was decided on the basis of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a constitutional document. As the Board is aware, article 3(2) of the 1988 Convention relating to the requirement to criminalize possession for personal use is subject to States parties’ constitutional principles. Similar wording is used in relation to the penal provisions of the 1961 Single Convention. In addition, in 2002, the UNDCP legal affairs team stated in an opinion on the matter that such interventions do not breach the conventions.

INCB-legal-brief

Vienna International Centre

As such, there is no conflict between the Canadian Supreme Court ruling and the drug conventions. These provisions of the treaties, however, and the UNDCP opinion are not referred to in the Board’s analysis of the case. We would welcome clarification of the Board’s view of the Canadian Supreme Court decision in the light of these terms of the drug conventions and its view of the 2002 UNDCP opinion.

To Canada’s credit the Canadian delegation also spoke up and let the plenary know that Canada was indeed in full compliance with all of the international treaties pertaining to drug control. Now that this mater is settled in the international arena, we look forward to our Justice Minister Nicholson reaffirming these facts for the Canadian public.

April 2, 2012