MAPS: !!!! Letter To UN Commission On Narcotic Drugs

[Peter Webster <vignes@xxxxxxxxx>]

Antwerpen, 6 March 2002

Dear friends,

The following is the definitive text of the letter which will be presented
on behalf of the International Coalition of NGOs for Just and Effective
Drugs Policy (114 member organisations, 28 countries) to the Annual Meeting
of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the UN in Vienna, next week. The
main subject of that meeting will be measures towards drugs production in
developing countries (Andean Region, South East Asia, Afghanistan, among
others)

It is a common effort of many people - please distribute it as widely as
possible. It can be found also on ENCOD's website: www.encod.org/letter.html

Best wishes,

Joep Oomen

FROM: THE INTERNATIONAL COALITION OF NGOS
FOR JUST AND EFFECTIVE DRUG POLICIES

TO: THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE COMMISSION ON
NARCOTIC DRUGS, UNITED NATIONS,
VIENNA

Vienna, 11 March, 2002

Dear ladies and gentlemen:

Our Coalition, composed by 114 NGOs from 28 countries across the world,
represents, among others, millions of citizens who experience the
day-to-day reality of the drug problem, and failing drug control policies,
in their own lives. We propose policies that are based on public health,
science, sustainable development and human rights. With this letter, we
wish to make some recommendations related with the topic of Alternative
Development, which occupies a central place in the current meeting of the
UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

Alternative development

The root cause of many of the problems surrounding the production of and
trade in drugs is the fact that they are illegal. In our view, the global
regime of drugs prohibition urgently needs to be replaced with national or
regional drug policies that are primarily shaped from the perspective of
public health and sustainable development.

Obviously, when prohibition is replaced by more efficient ways of
regulating the drugs market, this may not be as profitable for small
peasants and traders as the illegal activities that we witness in the
present situation. This underscores the importance of Alternative
Development, which should be a core ingredient of any drug policy, and an
important tool to accompany the transition towards a more just and
effective drugs policy.

Alternative development (AD) should contain measures in the economic,
political and social field, taken in consensus with all the involved
sectors, in order to diminish the dependence on the cultivation of plants
used in the production of illicit drugs by small peasants in developing
countries, safeguarding the licit and culturally accepted use of these plants.

These measures are, of course, incompatible with operations of forced
eradication and with strategies aiming at the destruction of crops. These
approaches, aiming at the complete elimination of drug-linked cultivation,
such as the devastating practices of aerial fumigations with chemical
herbicides and the considered use of biological agents for eradication,
have an extremely negative impact on the environment and human health.

The current situation

In the political declaration of UNGASS, agreed upon in June of 1998,
emphasis is put on the need to establish political and financial long term
commitment between donor and recipient countries to a balanced approach of
AD and law enforcement in order to confront illicit cultivation. Four years
later, neither the AD programmes nor the operations of forced eradication
have had a significant impact on the production of drugs at global level.
According to figures of the UNDCP, the production of cannabis, coca leaves
and opium has remained stable in recent years. The only exception has been
last year's dramatic decrease of opium cultivation in Afghanistan, which,
however, will not be sustainable. On the main consumption markets, the
wholesale and retail prices have decreased while purity increases. This
means that there is no shortage on the market, and there rather exists a
trend of increasing drugs supply.

In the UNGASS declaration, reference is also made to the need to establish
a balance between measures of supply and demand reduction. We conclude that
the figures of the main consuming countries (United States and Europe)
demonstrate that demand has not fallen. Here, there is also a slight
tendency of increase.

It should be added that access to data on the drugs market continues to be
extremely difficult. For example, the official figures that are published
on illicit cultivation are not reliable, and the various sources often
contradict each other. Their value for the debate about the effectiveness
of policies is therefore limited. We request more sincerity in the handling
of these data by national and international authorities.

Our recommendations

The structural problems that derive from poverty in the countries that
produce coca leaves, opium poppies and cannabis are determining factors for
the increase of this cultivation; consequently, AD should become a core
element of national plans of integrated, sustainable and concerted
development in the corresponding countries.

In this sense we consider that a philosophy of harm reduction could well be
applied to the policies towards drugs producing countries. In those
European countries and cities where harm reduction forms the basis of
rational policies on the drugs consumption side, the incompatibility with
repressive focuses is obvious and explicit.

Governments should not criminalize small farmers. As in the approach of the
reduction of harm for drug abusers, they should try to provide conditions
that allow farmers to diminish their financial dependence on illicit crops.
If that does not work, farmers should not be killed, imprisoned or
fumigated, but receive assistance in order to continue in a way that
reduces the damages for themselves and society in general.

Our concrete recommendations to improve AD programmes are:

1. Programmes should neither be made conditional to a prior elimination of
drug crop cultivation nor should a reduction be enforced on small producers.*

2. In no case should the land be fumigated with the result that nothing can
be grown on the area attacked. Research needs to be urgently carried out to
make those areas which have already been subject to biological and chemical
attacks cultivatable again.

3. Programmes should be designed through open spaces for dialogue with
small producers without deadlines nor 'zero option' philosophies.

4. Programmes should reduce the harm done to environment resulting from
illicit cultivation and the use of chemical precursors in the manufacturing
of drugs.

5. Options should be explored to establish direct links among the reduction
of harm on the supply and demand side. For example, use of raw material
produced by communities in developing countries to supply the programmes of
controlled distribution of drugs in countries where their use is accepted
(e.g. papaver somniferum as the source of opiates for medical purposes such
as analgesics).

6. Programmes should contribute to a climate where illicit drugs are no
longer demonised, and information is available on their potential damages
and benefits, on the basis of scientific studies. One way of doing this is
to allow the export of beneficial coca leaf products to the international
markets, through so-called 'Fair Trade' schemes.

Finally, it is important that the international community establishes
financing mechanisms that allow the implementation of alternative
development programmes and guarantee access to the market for alternative
products. However, we also recommend improving the transparency in the use
of funds for AD, the participation of local farmers in the implementation
of programmes and a greater coherence of international economic and
financial policies with the objective of promoting Alternative Development.

We hope that these concerns and recommendations are considered when you
decide on future policies and would be happy to further discuss the
approaches described above, or to provide further information on them.

Yours sincerely,

International Coalition of NGO's for Just and Effective Drug Policies (ICN)

* The first recommendation is literally taken from the Declaration of
Feldafing, edited by about 80 international experts in Alternative
Development who were united by the government of Germany and the UNDCP in a
Conference in January 2002. The other recommendations, we feel, largely
coincide with the spirit of this Declaration.

The International Coalition can be contacted at:

EUROPEAN NGO COUNCIL ON DRUGS AND DEVELOPMENT
Lange Nieuwstraat 147
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium
Tel 00 32 (0)3 272 5524 / 00 32 (0)3 237 7436
Telefax 00 32 (0)3 237 0225
E-mail: encod@xxxxxx
Web: http://www.encod.org/


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