The Global Commission on Drug Policy is urging countries to replace criminal penalties with accessible health services, social support and health services, saying that worldwide, harsh enforcement laws and punitive measures do more harm than good to young people and children, reports Daily Maverick.
At the launch of the commission’s new brief, Making Children and Young People Visible in Drug Policy: A Child Rights-based Agenda for Reform, last week, commissioner Juan Manuel Santos, a former president of Colombia, said that protecting children should be one of the fundamental responsibilities of governments, but policies needed to be judged by their results, not by the rhetoric used to justify them.
“For decades, punitive drug policies have been defended partly on the basis that harsh laws and enforcement are necessary to protect our children. But the evidence increasingly shows a much more complicated and troubling picture,” he added.
The development of the policy brief involved engagements with about 150 people across 47 countries, including South Africa. It highlighted that children (under 18) and young people (aged 10-24) were profoundly affected by drug laws and their enforcement, regardless of whether they used drugs, yet remained largely absent from drug policy consideration.
The policy brief identified four priority areas where reform was “urgently needed”:
Ceasing the arrest, detainment and prosecution of children and young people because of harsh drug policies, with governments instead investing in diversion, restorative justice and community-based responses.
Providing equitable access to essential controlled medicines for these groups, as many continue to experience unnecessary pain and suffering because medicines required for palliative care, pain relief and other medical conditions are unavailable or inaccessible.
Providing access to evidence-based, child-and youth-friendly health services that prevent avoidable drug-related harms, as punitive laws, stigma, age restrictions and barriers to confidential care can prevent many from accessing timely support and accurate, age-appropriate information.
Recognising the children and young people recruited or exploited within illicit drug economies primarily as victims, rather than treating them as offenders.
Through the South African lens
Charity Monareng, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy International and a South African youth advocate, said the organisation she represents seeks to empower young people with knowledge and skills, and work with government departments to improve drug policy development.
South Africa, she pointed out, has limited rehabilitative and health support services aimed at adults who use drugs, while those that are “youth-friendly” or specific to young people are virtually non-existent.
This challenge exists on an international scale, according to the Global Commission on Drug Policy’s new policy brief. It notes that drug-related health services, including harm reduction programmes, for youngsters under 18 are limited in many settings due to factors like age restrictions, stigma, moral judgment and social exclusion.
Monareng said the Children’s Act ensured access to contraceptives to children over 12, even without parental consent, showing a precedent for prioritising and empowering children in health policy, but substance use has continued to be seen as a criminal issue.
“Government tends to shy away from looking at it and responding to it from a social and health perspective,” she said.
In the playground…
Monareng highlighted the situation in schools. Under the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, pupils must be suspended immediately by a governing body if accused of specified acts of serious misconduct on school premises, and formally charged by the police. This includes any offence under any law relating to possession of drugs or supply of drugs.
Having a police response to children using or selling drugs in schools, rather than a “social community response”, is one of the problems accompanying the criminalisation of substance use, she added.
“Schools are supposed to be a safe space for children. But because substance use is criminalised … schools may become the first place where young people come into contact with police, where you would expect this contact to be when they are much older or in their communities. It’s happening in the space where they’re supposed to be protected,” she said.
According to the policy brief, punitive drug policies and their associated harms disproportionately affect children from groups already marginalised, including racial and ethnic minority groups, indigenous communities, migrants and low-income households.
Drug-related interventions should seek to understand the underlying causes of substance use, including trauma and social issues in the environments in which people grow up, argued Monareng.
“We really need to start looking at substance use from a holistic perspective: looking at not only the person but the surroundings; fixing the social issues; ensuring you journey with a person,” she said.
“If you’re arrested for substance use when you’re young, you automatically have a criminal record, meaning you can’t find a job. If you can’t find a job, it’s a vicious cycle of poverty. We blame the person and not necessarily the situation that… forced them into a life where they have to use substances to cope.”
Among the recommendations in the Global Commission on Drug Policy’s brief was that children and young people should have opportunities to be meaningfully involved in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of drug policies and programmes affecting them.
Daily Maverick contacted the Department of Basic Education about drug-related policies in schools but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Passion for reform
Kamogelo Moleane (27), a representative of the Youth Rise International Working Group, started using drugs when he was 13. After a nine-year battle with substances, the turning point came when he joined an opioid substitution therapy (OST) programme at the Anova Health Institute in Johannesburg, where he received counselling, health screening and OST.
Later, he was employed by Institute as a peer educator to spread awareness about the treatment and support options available to drug users, and where he became familiar with the challenges linked to the lack of services.
Moleane said children and young people in some areas were exposed to substance use from a young age, and a “normalisation” of these behaviours, as well as peer pressure.
“Most of the policies … are not working towards benefiting young people at all because they are less public health system oriented. Mostly, when it comes to kids using drugs, there are not even clinics catering to them.”
“We see a lot of deaths… most of them are 12 … to 18 years.”
Moleane emphasised the importance of creating not only more health services for young people using drugs, but also more recreational spaces that could provide alternatives to involvement in gang activities and substance use.
Daily Maverick article – Global commission urges youth-focused drug policy reform (Open access)
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