Don’t rely on security to fight drugs, former New Zealand PM tells EU

Por Claudia Chiappa — POLITICOPolitics » POLITICO

BRUSSELS — Europe’s approach to tackling soaring illicit drug use and dealer gangs should focus more on preventing uptake and treating users rather than too heavily on law enforcement, argues former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Europe’s latest long-term plan to tackle street drugs was adopted by EU capitals this summer. As chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy — an independent panel of world leaders and public figures that promotes science-based drug policy reform — Clark is in Brussels to discuss the plan with European Commission, Council and Belgian officials.

With countries now looking to implement the plan, Clark urged Europe to keep a “balanced” approach when tackling growing drug use and violence across the continent.

This includes “sustained investment in public health, in treatment, in harm reduction and human rights,” Clark told POLITICO. “You can’t law enforce your way to success in this area,” she said, adding: “It doesn’t deal with the social determinants of drug use.”

The EU published its revised EU Drugs Strategy and action plan against drug trafficking last December, laying out how to boost international cooperation, stop the import of illicit drugs, dismantle production sites, curb recruitment of young people into criminal networks and tackle the growing drug-related violence that has gripped capitals. It covers Europe’s response to this crisis from 2026 to 2030.

The European Commission said the strategy treats drug use as a public health issue as well as a security concern.

“Public health and social determinants are front and centre of the strategy,” a Commission spokesperson told POLITICO, including prevention and treatment, reducing stigma and reintegration.

But while the strategy promotes improving access to health and social services for people who use drugs, “health policy remains primarily within the competence of Member States,” the spokesperson added.

Following the publication of the strategy, Clark and former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski warned that the EU risked “reversing decades of evidence-based, health- and human-rights-focused drug policy in Europe” with the plans.

Speaking to POLITICO, Clark said the strategy looks good “on paper,” and includes strong public health elements, such as a call to improve access to treatment, raising awareness and addressing drug-related harms. But “how much investment is there in the the health and rights side?” she asked.

The EU is funding work on vaccine-preventable cancers associated with drug use, the Commission spokesperson said, as well as two projects on HIV and hepatitis among drug users, while Horizon Europe supports drug-related research.

Clark said it would be up to the capitals to adopt an approach that supports greater spending on health and social policies to support drug users.

Political uncertainty

With many EU countries facing elections in the coming years, there’s uncertainty over what approach they will take to tackle drug use.

Michel Kazatchkine, former executive director of the Global Fund and a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, said Europe “has been good at harm reduction overall” and continues to lead compared to other regions of the world, with programs such as “drug checking” (analyzing drug samples to check their contents before use) and safe consumption rooms.

But he’s concerned about the upcoming elections and the “increasing political weight of the far right,” he added, which tends to prioritize a “zero drug strategy.”

This approach has failed historically, Kazatchkine said. “For 60 years of war on drugs, it has failed. The number of people who consume drugs is increasing, the drugs are becoming cheaper, there are much more drugs, different drugs on the market.”

Not only has the approach failed, but also generated a “huge set of collateral damage,” he added, such as a stronger black market, public health crises such as HIV and the hepatitis epidemic among injectors, human rights abuses, over-incarceration, and stigma and discrimination.

Fighting organized crime

Europe is grappling with a surge in the availability of cocaine, synthetic stimulants and potent opioids, alongside increasingly complex trafficking networks and rising drug-related violence, particularly in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The quantity of drugs seized in the EU has increased dramatically between 2013 and 2023 with authorities seizing 419 metric tons of cocaine in 2023 — six times more than the previous decade.

“It’s fine to have a focus on organized crime, but crime will go where it sees a market,” Clark said. The world looks at Europe to “uphold decent values” and human rights, Clark added.  

The U.S. has used military force against illicit drug traffickers, launching a new war on drugs last September. Since then, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has conducted dozens of airstrikes on alleged drug smuggling vessels in the waters near South America and Central America, killing at least 235 people.

The United Nations has raised concerns the strikes risk violating the due process rights of suspected criminals, particularly as there is no clear evidence that the vessels are ferrying drugs.

“These are extrajudicial killings, which we should not see a Western country carrying out,” Clark said.

The U.S. Department of Defense declined to comment. Trump has previously justified the actions by saying the U.S. was in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. He said drug cartels are “foreign terrorist organizations” and that he “unleashed” the U.S. armed forces to eliminate them.

Fonte: POLITICOPolitics » POLITICO