MELBOURNE: Former New Zealand prime minister and current member of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, Helen Clark, has praised Thailand for decriminalising cannabis, but has also called on the country to end capital punishment, especially for those convicted of drug offences.
Thailand praised
Speaking on the sidelines of the Harm Reduction International Conference 2023 (HR23), Ms Clark said Thailand is one of the countries in the world that has succeeded in decriminalising cannabis which she said was a very good step in stopping criminalisation.
"In Thailand, there have been prisons which have a huge number of people convicted of drug offences. [It is] totally unnecessary and wrong to criminalise people who are using drugs.
"We would save [money] immensely from the police system to the court system if we move away from the criminalisation [of drugs] and also help promote good health for those using drugs," Ms Clark told the Bangkok Post.
In June last year, the Thai government officially removed cannabis from the Category 5 narcotics list. Possession, cultivation, distribution, consumption, and the sale of all cannabis plant parts are legal. Cannabis extracts and cannabis products (including edibles, food supplements, cosmetics, etc.) containing THC of more than 0.2% by weight are still categorised as narcotics.
Import and export of cannabis are still regulated. Recreational use of cannabis products is discouraged but legal. There is no restriction on THC content for cannabis plant parts. Sales of cannabis plant parts, products, and edibles are prohibited to minors less than 20 years old, pregnant women, and breastfeeding women.
Cannabis smoke is considered a public nuisance and thus prohibited in public areas. However, a much-awaited cannabis bill is yet to be vetted by parliament.
Ms Clark, who is also the current chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, was invited as the keynote speaker to give her ideas on harm reduction approaches that included decriminalisation of drug use and her campaign against the death penalty in countries around the world.
The conference, under the theme of Strength in Solidarity, which opened on Sunday ends on Wednesday. About 1,200 delegates from 60 countries are attending the conference which is a global gathering of professionals active in the area of health and social services. UN officials, former heads of state, health professionals, policymakers and networks of people who use drugs, some of whom are from Southeast Asia are also attending the event.
Ms Clark also said that Southeast Asia is known for a heavy crackdown approach to drugs. The decriminalising of cannabis in Thailand is encouraging, while Malaysia has abolished its mandatory death penalty for certain drug and other offences. So, harm reduction is vital for the health and well-being of people who use drugs. Drugs have some potential for harm, including tobacco and alcohol.
"So, we need harm reduction services that can support people who are using to stay and lead a healthy life," she said.
Calling for end to death penalty
She also said, as a member of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, she has campaigned against the death penalty for all offences.
"What we can say specifically about the death penalty for drug offences. It is a disproportionate penalty [in Thailand] and illegal under international law. So we are against the death penalty in general and specifically when it is applied to drugs,'' she said.
Thailand retains the death penalty, but carries it out only sporadically. Thai law permits the imposition of a death sentence for crimes, including treason, murder, and drug trafficking.
The 2022 World Drug Report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that around 284 million people, (or 5.6% of adults aged 15-64) had used an illicit or controlled drug within the previous 12 months -- a number which had increased by 26% since 2010.
UNAIDS reports that the risk of acquiring HIV is 35 times higher among people who inject drugs than among those who don't.
Harm Reduction International's 2022 Global Overview of the Death Penalty for Drug Offences reports that 35 countries provide for the death penalty for those convicted of drug offences, and around a dozen of those apply a mandatory death penalty for certain drug offences, she said.
More than 3,000 people are currently on death row for drug-related offences. In the past ten years at least 4,000 people have been executed for drug offences around the world -- that is disproportionate treatment and a breach of international law.
Punitive drug laws drive prison overcrowding. Penal Reform International reported in 2022 that one in five people in prison is held for drug offences. That's an estimated 2.2 million people worldwide who are in prison for drug-related offences, she said.
Harm reduction services
Ms Clark was asked what messages she would like to give to governments in Southeast Asia on adopting harm reduction approaches.
Harm reduction seeks to minimise the harmful consequences of drug use to the individual, families and the community at large.
She said her messages would be always putting people's health and well-being first and that heavy prohibition regimes put people in extremely unsafe situations.
She said people have been using drugs for thousands of years. The drugs convention [the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs] over the last 60-plus years has mandatory prohibition approaches that have been very bad because it puts people into unsafe situations.
The former prime minister said countries are still confronted by this damaging convention and its many highly negative impacts and consequences. Punitive, prohibitionist drug policies continue to ruin lives around the world.
Prohibitionists set goals of eliminating or substantially reducing the number of people who use drugs and the volume of drugs consumed. The evidence from six decades of this flawed approach demonstrates its utter failure.
"So the first thing is you must not criminalise use of drugs, and then start to look at how you can put in place harm reduction, which is in the legal framework," she said.
Since the Global Commission on Drug Policy was established in 2011, it has advocated for policies on drugs which are based on research evidence, human rights, and health and well-being. Harm reduction plays an essential role in the approach for which the commission advocates.
From the earliest days of harm reduction, those in frontline service provision understood that the harm caused by using drugs could be mitigated without being conditional upon cessation of drug use. The aim was to provide whatever levels of support people were willing to accept, and to support the agency of individuals.
The evidence is clear that harm-reduction services can address a number of the negative impacts of bad drug laws. Harm reduction services work and are cost-effective. But bad laws need to be overturned. The Global Commission on Drug Policy will continue to campaign against prohibition and for the legal regulation of drugs, Ms Clark said.
In many countries, harm-reduction services are non-existent. Worse, some countries criminalise possession of syringes as drug paraphernalia, including syringes supplied as part of needle and syringe exchange programmes.
The prohibition and criminalisation of the possession and use of psychoactive substances have also resulted in harmful consequences for the most vulnerable members of our societies: women, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, children and young persons, people living with HIV and Aids, members of the LGBTQIA+ communities, homeless persons, sex workers, and others.
Ms Clark said that the list of human rights violations associated with enforcement of prohibition is long. This suffering must serve as a constant reminder of the need to move away from punitive approaches to evidence-based policies that respect human rights.
Harm reduction is a key part of that change and, indeed, is part of a wider movement for human rights, working with intersectoral human rights movements across the globe.
"Now, more than ever, we need strong political will to address the funding gaps in harm-reduction services and to reach the UNAIDS 2025 '90% target' on coverage of safe injecting practices among people who inject drugs," she said.
"Our political leaders, at all levels of government, need to stand up for harm reduction and recognise that this is a human rights issue.
"Ours is a shared mission here today to make harm-reduction services available and accessible to all and to uphold the human rights of every human being," Ms Clark added.
