A QUIET REVOLUTION: DRUG DECRIMINALISATION ACROSS THE GLOBE NIAMH EASTWOOD, EDWARD FOX & ARI ROSMARIN MARCH 2016 THIS PUBLICATION This is the second edition of ‘A Quiet Revolution: Drug Decriminalisation Across the Globe’. The first edition was released in July 2012 and has since been cited by a wide range of organisations and agencies, including: the World Health Organisation, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Global Commission on Drug Policy. This edition builds on the 2012 publication, providing updates on the jurisdictions originally covered and highlighting a number of new countries that have adopted a non-criminal justice response to the possession of drugs for personal use. Many countries continue to incarcerate and criminalise people for possession or use of drugs, with criminalisation alone undermining employment, education and housing opportunities. In addition, many people who use drugs are often subject to human rights abuses by the state in jurisdictions which continue to criminalise them. The continued targeting of this group has not only a negative impact on the individuals in question, but their families and broader society as a whole. The aim of this report is to inform the public and policymakers alike on the impact of decriminalising drug possession offences, showing that decriminalisation does not lead to increased rates of use while equally demonstrating that law enforcement- led approaches have little impact on this metric. Rather, the decision to end the criminalisation of people who use drugs can negate the harms highlighted above when done effectively and produce positive social, health and economic outcomes, not just for the individual, but for society as a whole. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank the following people who reviewed the country information to ensure it was accurate and up to date: Aram Barra, Dr. Vendula Belackova, Mariano Fusero, Luciana Pol, Dr. Caitlin Hughes, Professor Tom Decorte, Maria Cristina Meneses Sotomayor, João Augusto Castel-Branco Goulão, Pablo Cuevas, Sergio Sánchez Bustos, Ana Maria Rueda, Marco Perduca, Pien Metaal, Ana Sofia Santos, Raymond Pryce, Tom Blickman, Bill Piper, Lynne Lyman, Stephen Gutwillig, Demaluí Amighetti López, Milton Romani Gerner, Ivan Varentsov, Luis Eduardo Sandí Esquivel, Professor Alex Stevens, Agnieszka Sieniawska, Christine Kluge Haberkorn, Magdalena Dabkowska, Joanne Csete, Diane Steber. Finally, thank you to Amber Marks for drafting and reviewing the section on Spain. Her expertise on this country is invaluable. DONORS Thanks to Open Society Foundations and to The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for funding this publication. 3 A QUIET REVOLUTION AUTHORS NIAMH EASTWOOD Niamh is the Executive Director of Release. Niamh has extensive experience of service delivery, policy strategy, and operational development and has co-authored Release’s two previous policy papers, ‘The Numbers in Black And White: Ethnic Disparities in the Policing and Prosecution of Drug Offences in England and Wales’, and the first edition of ‘A Quiet Revolution’. Niamh is also responsible for drafting many of Release’s briefings for Parliamentarians and policymakers, has presented at international and national conferences and is regularly invited to comment in the media. More recently Niamh co-authored an Amicus Curiae that was submitted in relation to the successful Mexican Supreme Court challenge to national cannabis laws, and served as technical advisor to the Global Commission on Drug Policy. EDWARD FOX Edward is Release’s Policy and Communications Manager, having previously worked as a journalist and editor in Colombia for InSight Crime. He served as technical advisor on the latest Global Commission on Drug Policy report, is regularly invited to comment in the media, has guest lectured at the University of London on drug policy and human rights, presented at national and international conferences and European Parliamentary briefings, and engages in developing Release’s policy briefings and research. ARI ROSMARIN Ari Rosmarin is the Public Policy Director at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, where he manages the ACLU-NJ’s legislative and policy advocacy work throughout the state. His work covers a broad array of civil rights and liberties issues, and is currently involved in campaigns to reform police practices, strengthen immigrants’ rights, and legalise, tax, and regulate cannabis for adults. Prior to joining the ACLU-NJ, Ari was the Senior Advocacy Coordinator at the New York Civil Liberties Union, where he led campaigns on drug sentencing reform, privacy rights, and post-9/11 government surveillance, among other issues. He has written various articles on drug policy reform in both the U.S. and the U.K. While in law school, he worked with Release in the summer of 2011 where he served as a co-author on the first edition of ‘A Quiet Revolution’. Ari received his B.A. from Columbia University and his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, where he was an Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellow. 4 A QUIET REVOLUTION CONTENTS Introduction 6 Considerations for Implementing an Effective Decriminalisation Model 9 Decriminalisation systems by country 13 - Argentina 13 - Armenia 13 - Australia 14 · South Australia 14 · Australian Capital Territory (ACT) 15 · Northern Australia 15 · Western Australia 15 · Drug diversion schemes 16 · Australia: Conclusions 17 - Belgium 17 - Chile 18 - Colombia 18 - Costa Rica 19 - Croatia 19 - Czech Republic 20 - Ecuador 21 - Estonia 22 - Germany 22 - Italy 22 - Jamaica 24 - Mexico 24 - The Netherlands 25 - Paraguay 27 - Peru 27 - Poland 27 - Portugal 28 - The Russian Federation 30 - Spain 31 - Switzerland 33 - United States of America 34 · California 35 · Washington D.C. 36 - Uruguay 36 Conclusion 38 References 39 5 A QUIET REVOLUTION INTRODUCTION Over 50 years since the foundation of the current autonomy, and mounting evidence of the devastating global drug policy regime was laid, prohibitionist consequences of criminal justice responses to drugs drug laws continue to inflict countless harms. An for individuals – stigmatisation, employment decline, estimated $100 billion is being pumped annually into housing issues, and public health harm, among law enforcement-led approaches around the world others – have led a number of countries towards to combat drugs1, with the results mainly involving an alternative policy option: the decriminalisation the criminalisation and incarceration of low-level, of drug possession and use. Under these regimes, nonviolent drug offenders. Indeed, an estimated the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs for 83 per cent of all drug-related offences worldwide are personal use is no longer a criminal offence. 6 simple possession offences.2 To call decriminalisation a new option is misleading. In spite of this undue emphasis on tackling drug use, Some countries have had decriminalisation policies the number of adults globally who have used drugs in place since the early 1970s, while others never increased almost 20 per cent between 2006 and criminalised drug use and possession to begin with. 2013 from 206 million to 246 million,3 underscoring how punitive approaches do not serve as a deterrent. However, in the past 15 years, a new wave of Rather, they help swell prison populations, stoke the countries have moved toward the decriminalisation spread of blood-borne viruses and other infectious model, suggesting growing recognition of the failures diseases and contribute to the shameful level of of the criminalisation approach and a strengthening drug-related deaths, which in 2013 stood at close to political wind blowing in the direction of an historic 200,000 globally.4 paradigm shift. The aforementioned are just a select few of the myriad The models of decriminalisation vary considerably – harms caused by criminalisation. As highlighted in some countries adopt a de jure model (one defined our 2013 report, The Numbers in Black and White: by law), others have de-prioritised the policing of Ethnic Disparities in the Policing and Prosecution drug possession through de facto decriminalisation. of Drug Offences in England and Wales,5 drug laws Furthermore, there is enormous geographical are often imposed most harshly against ethnic variance, with countries as disparate as Armenia, minority communities despite prevalence rates Belgium, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Mexico, among these groups being no higher than among the Portugal and parts of the United States all adopting white population. This disproportionality is reflected or extending some form of decriminalisation within elsewhere in the world, particularly the United States their jurisdictions in the last 15 years or so. where it has resulted in the mass incarceration of African Americans. Such a policing approach has had While the precise number of countries with formal serious implications for community-police relations in decriminalisation policies is not clear, it is likely many parts of the world. slightly above 30,7 depending on which definitions are used. Additionally, at the time of writing, Ireland was However, cracks are beginning to emerge in the exploring the decriminalisation of all drugs along the prohibitionist consensus, both in rhetoric and in lines of the model implemented in Portugal. practice. Across the globe governments are adopting different policy approaches to address drug use Decriminalisation has received considerable in their communities – some are reducing harsh