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Dear reader,
Last month, TNI released its latest publication “A Sustainable Future for Cannabis Farmers: ‘Alternative Development’ Opportunities in the Legal Cannabis Market”. The report sums up how lessening the barriers for traditional cannabis growers, whilst raising them for large companies can help to steer legal cannabis markets in a more sustainable and equitable direction. TNI discusses how the market can develop in a way that ensures principles of community empowerment, fair trade and sustainable development are at the forefront.
Very few cannabis farmers have been offered substantial development assistance for moving out of the illegal cannabis market, despite the fact that this market is a survival economy for millions of people. In this report, TNI argues that ‘Alternative Development’ in its original sense is no longer a viable policy perspective for cannabis, if it ever was. Instead, TNI proposes that greater attention should be paid to ‘Alternative Development with cannabis’. In recent years, some traditional producing countries have chosen to allow medicinal cannabis production, but very few have included traditional growers, and instead have prioritised foreign commercial enterprises. To ensure that farmers can conquer some space in the emerging legal market, it is crucial that they are not pushed out by big corporations, as is increasingly the case.
Access the full report here.
 Cannabis grower, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, November 2019 / Photo credit Sylvia Kay
64th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs
This years CND took place from 12-16 April, largely in an online setting. TNI hosted a side event on ‘The Future of Cannabis in the Caribbean’, in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Cannabis Research in Jamaica and the Global Drug Policy Observatory at Swansea University. Two years after the presentation of the 2018 CARICOM report “Waiting to Exhale: Safeguarding our future through responsible socio-legal policy on Marijuana”, the side event discussed progress made regarding public policies on cannabis and the development of a medical cannabis industry in the Caribbean region. The event was a great success, including interesting and insightful talks from speakers including from the governmental cannabis regulation agencies of Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Pien Metaal presented TNI’s brand new report mentioned above. You can re-watch the side event here.
In addition to the side event, Pien gave an official statement on behalf of TNI during the 64th CND session. The statement draws attention to the fact that the new UNODC Strategy 2021-2025 fails to mention the UN System Common Position on drug policy, nor does it refer to the inter-agency Task Team that UNODC is meant to lead. The UN Common Position and the Task Team are both hard-won achievements and unprecedented milestones in regard to drug policy. In this light, TNI called on Member States to actively support the work of the Task Team, and to ensure that the relevant UN entities, and especially UNODC, actively promote the UN Common Position.
You can read the written statement on the TNI website, or alternatively on the CND blog, where you will also find statements of several countries and organisations.
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Following the devastating eruption of St. Vincent’s La Soufrière volcano, TNI staff are raising money on behalf of traditional cannabis growers whose crops and livelihoods have been destroyed. So far, the fund has received over €2000 in generous donations, which will go towards helping rebuild their lives and generate new income perspectives in the aftermath of this tragedy. There is some perspective that the government will give out land titles to affected families in the near future and we will keep all supporters informed about progress. We would kindly ask anyone wishing to donate to use the following links:
Donations inside of the EU
Donations outside of the EU
Coca in Colombia: one issue, two opposite solutions
The coca debate in Colombia came under the spotlight in April when two opposing initiatives were presented to control the increase of coca plantations. On one hand, president Ivan Duque signed Decree 380 of 2021 that, if approved by the National Narcotics Council (CNE), will reboot aerial spraying using glyphosate. The government argued that Decree 380 complies with the adjustments required by the Constitutional Court to resume aerial spraying, after the CNE suspended its use in 2015 following the WHO warnings of potential damage to people and the environment. Although CNE approval is still pending, the government insists that spraying is the only instrument to curb the increase in coca crops, despite its few benefits and the large number of related risks and harms.
On the other hand, senator Iván Marulanda (Green Alliance Party) and Feliciano Valencia (Indigenous and Social Alternative Movement, MAIS) presented Bill 236 of 2020 to regulate the supply chain of coca leaf production, with an emphasis on human rights, public health and harm reduction. The bill focuses on supporting marginalized and indigenous communities involved in growing coca, but also suggests a regulated cocaine market in which the Colombian State could emerge as a global supplier. The bill passed its first procedural vote (1 out of 4) and although it is unlikely to pass the second vote in the full Senate, it is an important step towards putting a relevant discussion on the table that has already gained important support in both the public and political sphere.
These two positions reflect the internal debate in Colombia regarding drug policies: a more progressive sector that demands a change in the prohibitionist approach, versus the government’s fixation to crack down on the illicit traffic by proven ineffective methods, and its grudging disposition to implement the crop substitution mechanism introduced in the Peace Agreement in 2016.
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Formed in 1996, the TNI Drugs & Democracy programme explores the underlying causes of drug production and consumption and advocates for evidence-based policies that respect the human rights of producers and consumers.
Missed our previous newsletters? Revisit them here. |
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