A global meeting on drugs failed to deliver a highly anticipated shift from a punitive approach to narcotics, disappointing Myanmar advocacy groups.
The outcome of the UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs held last week in New York instead resulted in a draft resolution that brings little new to the table, experts said.
Nang Pann Ei, a coordinator of the Drug Policy Advocacy Groups, called the UNGASS meeting significant because Myanmar civil society was able to speak up for opium farmers facing the constant threat of crop eradication. But she voiced disappointment about the resulting policy document, saying it has “some serious gaps”.
“It did not mention harm reduction specifically, and decriminalisation of drug use and abolishing the death penalty for drug-related offenses was not mentioned,” she said. “This will impact Myanmar drug policies, which will still stick to repressive drug laws and not change to 100 percent human rights-based drug policies for the affected communities.”
“We hoped UNGASS would help change these outdated and repressive policies, but this unfortunately did not happen,” she added.
In most Asian countries, including Myanmar, many small and first-time drug offenders languish in jail, convicted to lengthy prison sentences. Civil society and advocacy groups say the current punitive approach has cost billions but changed little.
Tom Blickman, a researcher at Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute’s Drugs and Democracy Programme, said the UNGASS draft resolution, which was reached by consensus, continues existing approaches.
“In particular, ASEAN countries remain committed to a world free of drug abuse and will do little or nothing for reform like harm reduction and decriminalisation, let alone regulation,” he said.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon handed out to UNGASS attendees, celebrities, business people and world leaders like Hilary Clinton, Jane Fonda and George Soros called for a change to the response to drugs.
“The drug control regime that emerged during the last century has proven disastrous for global health, security and human rights,” the letter read. “Problematic drug use and HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and other infectious diseases spread rapidly as prohibitionist laws, agencies and attitudes impeded harm reduction and other effective health policies.”
Myanmar representatives also signed the letter, which was reportedly confiscated from participants upon entering the UN building. The Myanmar signatories were Nang Pan Ei of the Drug Policy Advocacy Groups, Sai Lone of the Myanmar Opium Forum, Kyaw Thu of the National Drug User Network, and Hkam Awng of the Department of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control.
Civil society groups said the uptick in opium and methamphetamine production in the Mekong is evidence that current approaches to narcotics have failed.
But a report on the special meeting for Mekong countries revealed that no ground-breaking or new approaches were discussed as country representatives vouched for their ongoing commitment to the current strategy.
China also pledged support for the existing Mekong drug approach. “The Greater Mekong sub-region is a priority for China ... China will in this framework continue to strengthen pragmatic cooperation, increase our support to member states by providing more funds and technology,” said Guo Shengkun, China’s Minister of Public Security.
On his sixth day in office at the time of the UN meeting, Myanmar Health Minister U Myint Htwe said the government was reviewing its drug strategies.
“Drug use seems to be on the rise. This is a very serious problem for our country,” he said.
Mr Blickman said that a regional shift in fighting drugs would come down to whether ASEAN countries are open to adopting new strategies.
“It will depend on the will of individual counties to provide room for other strategies,” he said.
