SA Drug Policy Week’s difficult debates

EXPERTS worldwide are advising that authorities may not be making the right policy moves to address issues around drugs, and are questioning the wisdom of the “war on drugs”.

The National Drug Master Plan; law enforcement policies around drugs; the position on injecting drug use and HIV; harm reduction; sex work, drugs and the law and the war on drugs are among the topics to be addressed during an SA Drug Policy Week 2017 convention in Cape Town this week.

Controversial debate is expected as some of the world’s leading researchers, experts and activists on drugs policies engage with their local counterparts.

Recent drug busts at OR Tambo airport, community unrest and gang-related shootings have focused attention on drugs and South African communities.

In the first six months of this year, drugs worth nearly R180 million were seized at the country’s entry and exit points.

SA Drug Policy Week organiser Shaun Shelly said the experts will “have the difficult conversations” to understand issues and identify solutions.

According to Shelly, this is an important year for drug policy in South Africa. The National Drug Master Plan, as well as several Departmental Drug Plans, are in development and are slated for release before the end of the year.

“The stakeholders present are among the most influential to be found in policy making.

“We will see what works in drug policy and better understand the effects on people and their communities how it affects health and freedom. We’re going to have difficult conversations about drugs, drug use, reducing harm.”

Among the speakers is human rights activist Anand Grover, who is known for leading the legal case for the repeal of laws criminalising homosexuality in India.

He has also acted as the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health and is a member of the Global Commission on Drugs.

Professor David Nutt, a British expert on Neuropsychopharmacology said that “drug laws are not based on the science of drugs.”

According to Nutt and others such as Ethan Nadelmann, adviser to the Global Commission on Drug Policy, drug policies are based on politics more than science.

“The reason some drugs are legal and others are not has nothing to do with science or health or the risk of drugs, and everything to do with who uses, and is perceived to use, certain drugs,” Nadelmann said.

Public events take place today and August 3 at UCT’s Kramer Building at 7pm.