In the context of Manipur, the approaches that we have observed to curb drug menace in the state, since way back in the early 80s, is criminalisation and the nature of criminalisation has continually evolved into various worse forms till date, said CoNE president Nalinikanta Rajkumar
TFM Desk
District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Imphal West in collaboration with Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE) under the aegis of Manipur State Legal Services Authority (MASLSA) on Tuesday conducted a webinar on the theme “Criminalisation of drug users: A threat to health and social development”.
CoNE president Nalinikanta Rajkumar was the speaker-cum resource person of the webinar with the legal services functionaries (Panel Lawyers and Para Legal Volunteers), representatives of CSOs working towards the welfare of people who use drugs (PUD) and other organisations and the public in general being the target participants.
The speaker in his talk shared how substance abuse refers to the hazardous use of psychoactive substances including alcohol and illicit drugs (WHO, 2018), how drug addiction is a complex multifactorial health disorder characterized by chronic and relapsing nature that is preventable and treatable and not the result of moral failure (UNODC, 2016) and how drug abuse impacts negatively on individuals, families and communities as its effects are cumulative and why we need to regard drug abuse as physical and mental health problem (NIDA, 2018). The speaker cited the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MSJE), Government of India’s stand on the need to view drug abuse as a psycho-social-medical problem.
Nalinikanta Rajkumar also cited Article 38 of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 and Article 20 of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 which obligates countries for taking all practicable measures for the prevention of abuse of drugs/psychotropic substances and for the early identification, treatment, education, after-care, rehabilitation and social reintegration of the persons involved and also for promoting training of personnel in these areas.
He elaborated how the government of India also brought out a National Policy on Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in 2012 to serve as a guide to various ministries, state government, international organisations, NGOs etc. The policy, inter-alia, states the role of the government for treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration of drug addicts and the Policy also noted that several de-addiction centres have come up in the private sector and states that the central government shall lay down standards and guidelines for these de-addiction centres to follow and shall recognize such centres as are found to be meeting the standards and guidelines.
The speaker also mentioned Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 target 5 and how it also talked about strengthening prevention and treatment of substance abuse including narcotic drugs and alcohol.
The speaker stated that in order to achieve the goals that had been emphasized in various policy documents, three strategies have been developed to manage drug abuse namely —
1) Demand Reduction which aims to reduce the desire to use drugs and to prevent, reduce or delay the initiation of drug use.
(2) Supply Reduction which aims to disrupt the supply and availability of drugs.
(3) Harm Reduction that aim to reduce the negative impacts of drug use.
He emphasised, “subsequently drug abuse has been part of human society from the very beginning as a result zero tolerance-based strategies such as legal prohibition of substances and abstinence-oriented treatment have not been able to eliminate drugs or substance use. Hence a drug free society has now become nigh impossible to achieve. What we are observing now is an increase in the harms associated with drug use through marginalisation and criminalisation of drug users.
The resource person also discussed Nixon’s war on drugs (1971) which had been America’s longest war and the recent war on drugs declared by Rodrigo Duterte, the President of Philippines (2016) and how both the “wars” had destroyed millions of lives and contributed towards detrimental consequences to both the users and those around them, and the negative impacts on individual, families and communities which are increasing. The only emerging consequences of such militarised prohibition were increased rates of HIV transmission and other blood borne viruses. Secondly, trauma, in other words, psychological distress and finally this drug war will have a negative impact on structural health equality over the decade to come, stressed the speaker.
He cited the case of Portugal, which on the opposite end, is one of the countries with worst drug problem where 1 per cent of its population were heroin addicts, became the first country to officially get rid of all related criminal penalties about the personal possession of drugs as a result the Prime Minister with the opposition party unanimously chose the better solution of giving health services to drug addicts instead. Decriminalisation holds the idea of seeing drug use and dependence as an aspect of health and social issues instead of criminal justice or moral issues. People started realizing the success and favourable outcome of Portugal’s decriminalisation approach, according to the speaker
In the context of Manipur, the approaches that we have observed to curb drug menace in the state, since way back in the early 80s, is criminalisation and the nature of criminalisation has continually evolved into various worse forms till date.
Considering the variation in the above-mentioned approaches of criminalisation and decriminalisation, an idea of organising a webinar on the theme, “Criminalisation of drug users: A threat to health and social development” evolved, explained the speaker.
The speaker also echoed the voices of various other organisations propagating rights-based approach, who believe that the ongoing subculture of forced pick up, arbitrary detention, breach of confidentiality, verbal abuse, humiliation, physical and mental tortures, vigilantism by moral policing etc. can only be stopped and prevented through adoption of decriminalisation strategy.
He laid down the following recommendations to be acted upon at various levels by the concerned authorities with a sense of urgency:
Need for organising district-level consultation with various stakeholders, including police involved in criminalising drug users community in the state.
Need for constitution and materialisation of special units (as per NASLSA scheme) to help government efforts of strengthening drug treatment quality and to improve prevention through raising awareness on drug abuse.
Need to explore whether the option of decriminalisation will be applicable in the context of Manipur.
Need to explore an option for composition of a committee comprising various stakeholders to develop a mechanism for proper referral of addicts to treatment.
CoNE is a network of community based organisations or groups of people who use drugs (PUD) formally registered at the state level under the Society Act, Government of Manipur in the month of January 2012, with a mission to promote a self-sustainable network owned by people who use drugs (PUD) working for reduction in stigma, harassment and discrimination to improve the standard of living of PUD.