Video 9: Would you join the drug reform movement?

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来自 University of Geneva 的课程

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

4 个评分

University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

4 个评分

This MOOC is the first of its kind, since it addresses critical issues related to drugs from a multidisciplinary, health and human rights-based approach. Throughout the course you will cover a range of questions including what are drugs and why they controlled? What are the benefits and harms of taking drugs? How public health policies can address drug use? You will also learn about the intricacies of the international drug control framework and the negative consequences of widespread prohibitionist drug policies around the world. Finally, you will examine ways of furthering drug policy reform. The topics will be presented by over 40 speakers from scientific, academic and institutional backgrounds, spokespersons of civil society as well as people who use drugs presenting their views. By the end of the course you will have: - a strong understanding of the major health issues related to drug use and drug policy; - a clear vision of why drug policy is debated today; - and, if you so wish, you will be equipped to engage in the drug policy reform movement at your local or regional level.

从本节课中

Module 6: The case for drug policy reform

Welcome to Module 6! Congratulations, you have made it to the last Module of the Course! This week focuses on how prohibitionist drug policies have failed and how it is time for drug policy reform. Some highlights include decriminalisation, legalisation and regulation being broken down for you, so that you really understand what the terms mean and how countries can move towards them in terms of drug policy goals. A big part of this Module also concentrates on how to get involved in the drug reform movement: you will hear from people who have intimate experience with this: from civil society actors working in the field to networks of people who use drugs; before being able to you, yourself think about how and what you could do to join the drug reform movement. By the end of this Module you will be able to: • Give examples of decriminalization and regulation of drugs and discuss outcomes; • Defend the involvement of civil society and people who use drugs in the design and evaluation of drug policies; • Reflect on and develop your potential role in the world drug debate.The final evaluation will consist of a peer – review, during which you will have the possibility to think about how what you have learnt throughout the course applies to the situation in your own country with regard to drug policy (specifically in relation to protecting human rights and promoting health); and to reflect on how people who use drugs are perceived and/or treated and consider what role you could play in this possible reform. Please don’t forget to go through the essential reading list and some of the optional additional resources available to you. We hope you have enjoyed the six Modules and look forward to receiving your peer-evaluations as well any feedback you may have. Best wishes,The Drugs, Drug Use, Drug Policy and Health team

Video 7: The role of civil society13:28

Video 8: The role of drug user groups8:42

Video 9: Would you join the drug reform movement?9:55

Video 10: What you can do?6:24

与讲师见面

Michel Kazatchkine
Senior Fellow
Global Health Center, Graduate Institute for International Affairs and Development, Geneva
Barbara Broers
Professor (in Addiction Medicine)
Community Health Departement, Geneva University Hospitals
Aymeric Reyre
Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Medicine, Paris 13 University
Jennifer Hasselgard-Rowe
Researcher and Lecturer
Institute of Global Health, University of Geneva

The drug policy reform movement is a broad, growing,

and increasingly diverse movement of people,

of networks coming together to basically say "Enough is enough.

It's time to reform drug policies and move away from

the disastrous and damaging policies of the past."

This movement includes representatives of people who use drugs,

representatives of farmers who grow crops destined for the illicit market,

people advocating for women's rights,

for racial equality, for the end of the death penalty,

for access to controlled medicines,

for the relief of pain and suffering,

for economic justice, for ensuring development outcomes.

It is a very diverse movement and particularly following the UNGASS in 2016.

The UNGASS in 2016 serve to attract

many new actors enter the drug policy reform movement who saw that there was

an intersect between the work that they did or the things that they cared about

and a pursuit of damaging and problematic drug policies.

So the movement has grown exponentially in the past few years and continues to grow.

In addition to many of the advocates and activists from all over the world,

we also have important high profile individuals who speak out in favor of reform.

The most prominent group of these have formed the Global Commission on Drug Policy,

and these include ex-heads of state, ex-senior UN officials,

powerful public global figures who also have made the case that the war on drugs has

failed and that it's time to consider new approaches including legal regulation.

Their voices helped to bolster this movement

because many people would not expect such individuals as

Mr. Kofi Annan or Richard Branson to speak

out for the rights of people who use drugs and to say the things that they're saying.

The fact that they've spoken out has given cover for

many governments also to be honest about the need for change.

So, it is an important and growing and diverse movement.

It's global in nature and it is an exciting time for drug policy reform.

In the old days,

people tended to think about the issues of drug policy as one of two choices,

either we waged a war on drugs or we were going to legalize all drugs,

and that of course, was always a false and somewhat absurd choice.

The way I've tended to think about drug policy and about drug policy reform

is about addressing or advancing a set of options along the spectrum,

a spectrum of drug policy from

the most punitive drug policies on the one hand to the most free market on the other.

From the kind of lock-him-up, hang-him, torture-him,

pull-out-their-fingernails kind of Saudi Arabia

and Singapore and other repressive countries' policy,

and even to some extent the United States,

to on the other hand the sort of free market policy.

Maybe the policy we have with respect to cigarettes in many countries 40 or 50 years ago.

The objective of drug policy reform,

if I was to summarize it in one sentence,

long sentence but one sentence,

would be that what we're seeking to do is to reduce

the unnecessary role of criminalization and the criminal justice system

in drug control policy as much as possible but stopping short

at the point at which it would risk threat to public safety or public health.

So once again, it's about

reducing the role of criminalization and the criminal justice system in

drug control policy as much as possible while still

advancing public health and safety, down this spectrum.

If you ask, what's the drug policy reform movement?

Well, we're the people who lie at this end of

the spectrum and we're diverse in our views.

We all agree that the war on drugs is doing more harm than good.

We all agree we have to pull away from

heavy reliance on criminalization and on the criminal justice system.

We all agree that we need to address drug policies with a sense of science,

compassion, health, and human rights,

and that those are core values.

But when you get down here, we,

of course, have our differences.

There are those who may be free market libertarians or people

who are frustrated by the horrific consequences of the drug war who say,

"Just legalize everything and that will produce the best consequences."

Then there are others who say, "Well, wait a second.

Legalization of everything goes too far.

Maybe cannabis but with the other ones,

we need a harm reduction approach, a decriminalization approach."

What's important, as our movement grows,

is not to be caught up in fierce battles over where we are this spectrum,

especially not while most of

drug policies around the world lie at this end of the spectrum.

Our job is to be as unified as possible in trying

to move the policies down this direction. We've been successful.

Look what's happened in Europe over the last 30 years with

harm reduction and even emerging in the United States.

Look what's happened with cannabis reform

with now eight states in the United States have been

chosen to legalize marijuana for all adults in 29 states as of early 2017,

legalizing it for medical purposes.

Look at Portugal and Switzerland and Netherlands.

Look at some of the debates that emerged in Latin America in recent years.

So, we see this movement but we still have very far to go.

So, drug policy reform around the world is at

different stages in different countries and different regions.

I think the last five or 10 years that have, however,

seen an enormous step forward both in terms of

the penetration of formally controversial drug policy initiatives like harm reduction,

which are now penetrated most countries around the world.

The trend towards decriminalization is gathering momentum and has now got

high level support across the UN and doing

governments and in academic institutions around the world,

and significantly, perhaps most significantly of all,

the legalization of certain drugs has moved

from the margins of public debates towards the mainstream.

It's now not just a theoretical discussion.

It's actually reality, particularly with

cannabis reforms that we're seeing in the US and Canada,

in Uruguay, in Jamaica,

and increasingly around Europe.

So, we're not anywhere near

the finish line in terms of drug law reform but

we're certainly not stuck in the starting blocks anymore.

It's picking up pace.

It's gathering momentum, and I think the direction of

change is only going to go in one direction from here on in.

We're moving away from the failures of the sort of

punitive prohibitionist war on drugs model towards

a much more pragmatic evidence-based approach which

prioritizes community well-being and public health and that can only be a good thing.

In many respects, I think we're just entering the second generation of

whether inevitably will be a multi-generation at least regeneration movement.

That means, understanding we're in this for the long term.

It means understanding that the way we pursue reform most

successfully is by keeping a vision ahead of us,

a vision of drug policies grounded in science,

compassion, health, and human rights,

but at the same time,

understanding that most of reform in most situations and

certainly with drug policy is a matter of taking incremental steps.

Vision is important, so that when we advocate for incremental steps,

whether it involves alternatives to incarceration, new policing strategies,

cannabis reform policies, it's important to keep that vision in mind so

that we don't land up taking two steps forward and then three or four backward, right?

I think that's where we're headed.

It's a rough moment right now in 2017.

The United States with the election of Donald Trump and the appointment of

Jess Sessions as Attorney General and Tom Price as head of Health and Human Services,

I mean, these are nightmarish characters.

They're a throwback to an ugly older time,

and you look elsewhere around the world with Putin and Xi in China and Erdogan

and Duterte in the Philippines and some of the ugliness emerging in Latin America,

and it's a very difficult period.

It's wonderful to be here in Canada and be able

to admire with the Trudeau government is doing right now.

But our times will come again and what we also know is that

most of the significant reforms begin and manifest at the local level,

in the states, in the cities,

in the Canton, in the Lander.

That's where policy emerges and eventually becomes national policy.

So this is a long term struggle.

I've been doing it for 30 years and I hope for another 30 to come,

and that's the way we're going to succeed over the long term.

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