Men carrying plants

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Related Publications

Harm reduction programmes for people who inject drugs in Nigeria:

Challenges in implementation and sustainability 

GDPO Policy Brief 20, June 2024

Ediomo-Ubong E. Nelson

Harm reduction services need to be responsive to the needs and concerns of people who inject drugs for there to be optimal utilization. Existing harm reduction services in Nigeria focus mostly on health needs, and do not adequately address the social, economic, and legal problems faced by people who inject drugs. There is currently a dearth of services addressing the peculiar needs of women who inject drugs, including sexual and reproductive health services. Lack of counterpart domestic funding, due to low prioritization of harm reduction programmes compared to law enforcement, threatens the sustainability of existing services. Limited recognition of the expertise of people with lived experience of drug use in policy[1]making processes results in a missed opportunity to de-stigmatize people who use drugs at the policy level. Law enforcement strategies (e.g., confiscation of drugs and injecting equipment) contribute to low uptake of services and encourage high-risk behaviours such as sharing of needles-syringes.  Inefficient procurement processes and non-adoption of a community-based approach to service delivery hampers the provision of life-saving services such as naloxone for overdose.

Read the fully policy brief: Policy Brief 20


Between Prohibition and Regulation:

Narrative Analysis of Cannabis Policy Debate in Africa

GDPO Policy Brief 17, October 2021

Ediomo-Ubong E. Nelson

A strong case can be made that cannabis prohibition, institutionalized in the UN narcotics conventions, is a colonial and racist remnant that undermines traditional practices, threaten livelihoods, and widens the reach of the criminal justice system. This is highly evident in Africa, where legal prohibition has often interfered with religious, cultural, and therapeutic uses of the plant, threatened the livelihoods of local communities and increased prison populations through incarceration of young people, mostly for possession of small quantities of cannabis for personal use.

Read the fully policy brief: Between Prohibition and Regulation


The Uruguay – West Africa trafficking connection:

An urgent need for closer cooperation and policy exchange

policy brief cover

GDPO Policy Brief 14, May 2020 

Axel Klein

Uruguay’s emergence as a transit route for cocaine provides new challenges to international law enforcement cooperation and creates greater need for setting up secure channels of communication between Uruguayan and West African law enforcement.

Read the full brief here: Uruguay-West Africa Connection


Drugs Policy in East Africa

Analysis cover

GDPO Situation Analysis, November 2018

Apondi Bernice Auma

Traditionally, East African countries have followed punitive drug policies and criminalised drug use. For People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) there is limited access to health care services. Many policy makers in this region are yet to understand the shift toward public health approaches; a shift that encourages drug users to access health care to prevent and reduce the risk of HIV infection. The East Africa Community in collaboration with KANCO (Kenya Aids NGO Consortium) is working to develop a regional policy targeting people who use drugs. If approved, the document will act as blueprint for the region in service delivery for people who inject drugs.

Read the full analysis here: Drug Policy in East Africa 


South Africa's National Drug Master Plan: Influenced & Ignored

GDPO Working Paper 4, August 2018

Shaun Shelley and Simon Howell 

The fourth South African National Drug Master Plan (NDMP), for the period covering 2018-2022, was recently released. The plan, developed by the Central Drug Authority (CDA), is intended to ‘outline the contribution and role of various government departments at national and provincial level in fighting the scourge of substance abuse.’ Theoretically the document is mandated to provide South Africa’s national, overarching policy framework with which to inform the country’s response to the use of drugs on all fronts – including the broad strategy for the reduction of the distribution and supply of drugs, as well as the interdepartmental framework for the resolution of substance use disorders and the mitigation of harm related to the use of substances in general.


Ghana Strives for a More Humane Drug Policy

analysis coverGDPO Situation Analysis, June 2018

Maria-Goretti Ane

Recently, the government of Ghana proposed the Narcotics Control Commission Bill of 2017 (NCC) to replace the current Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement, and Sanctions) Law of 1990 (PNDCL 236) that criminalizes all drug-related activities including drug use, possession, trade, and production. NCC aims to decriminalise drug consumption in Ghana. The initiative is a recognition of the grave impact on public health of the country’s current drug legislation, which imposes punitive sanctions on those engaged in the consumption, production, and trafficking. However, the ramifications of legal change could be felt beyond the country as Ghana could become a norm entrepreneur in the region for harm reduction policies....

Read the full analysis here: Ghana Strives for a More Humane Drug Policy


When Agendas Collide: Combating Drugs and Organised Crime in West Africa

Policy coverGDPO Policy Brief 4, June 2014

Axel Klein

A new Policy Brief from GDPO analyses the confluence of the European Union’s development policies and external security initiatives in West Africa.  Development objectives have taken a backseat to law enforcement, and many programmes suffer from a lack of distinction between fighting multiple forms of organised crime and combating drug trafficking.  To rectify the situation, law enforcement agencies cooperating with West African partners should draw on the experience of the development sector.  The European Commission should improve oversight and undertake a broader contextual analysis of drug markets and criminal activities in beneficiary countries to ensure that projects designed to promote development, good governance and the rule of law are sensitive to the impact and potentially counterproductive effect on organised crime and the drug trade in different West African theatres.

Read the full brief here: When agendas collide Combating drugs and organised crime in West Africa


European Policy on Khat: Drug Policy lessons not learned

policy coverGDPO Policy Brief 2, May 2014

Joanne Csete

With the UK likely soon to follow other European countries in introducing a ban on khat, a currently legal mild stimulant used by some African communities within this country, this policy brief examines how previous prohibitionist responses have failed to influence the market as intended. As is discussed, not only have khat bans resulted in the criminalization and stigmatization of users that they are intended to help, they have also led to the creation of illicit black markets. Moreover, criminalization of khat in key Northern European markets represents a major economic blow to rural producer communities in East Africa and the Middle East that are dependent for their livelihoods on the export of khat.  Since expert views on the topic have been sidelined during discussions and the Home Secretary determined to push forward with the ban, a novel constitutional mechanism has been used to articulate concern at the pending criminalisation of khat. In the House of Lords, a Motion of Regret will be read in the first week of May.  It will echo the position of the World Health Organization and other expert bodies that the risk of individual heath and social harms are too small to justify criminalising the substance. 

Click here to view the European Policy on Khat press release: Khat Ban Press Release


Cannabis and the Drug Law in Tunisia: A Reform Rooted in Social Justice Claims

Khalid Tinasti

Drug control policies in Tunisia are guided by the 1992 Narcotics Act (Act 92-52), adopted under the dictatorship following the 1987 Coup d’Etat. Until April 2017, the Act was one of the most punitive drug control laws in the world, sentencing people convicted of drug use or possession of small amounts to a mandatory minimum of one year in prison, and a monetary fine of 1000 Tunisian Dinars (400 USD). The specificity of this law has been the mandatory nature of its sentences, and the incapacity of judges to take into account mitigating circumstances, making it the only law in the Tunisian criminal code depriving judges of their discretion. This specific legal provision, as dictated by article 12 of the Act, was amended by the Tunisian Parliament in April 2017 to address prison overcrowding...

Read the full analysis here: Cannabis and the Drug Law in Tunisia A Reform Rooted in Social Justice Claims


Telling the story of drugs in West Africa: A New Front in a Losing War?

policy coverGDPO Policy Brief 1, November 2013

Joanne Csete with Constanza Sánchez

The emergence of significant drug trafficking routes in West Africa, particularly of cocaine from Latin America to European markets, has drawn a great deal of attention from global drug authorities, including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the government of the United States, which sees West Africa as a setting for replicating drug-control interventions used in Latin America. West Africa undoubtedly has  significant drug-related problems that merit an energetic response, but this paper questions whether the hyped-up narrative that has been constructed of a lethal problem is meant to justify placement of military, surveillance and anti-terrorism hardware and software in the region at a time when Latin American countries are saying they have had enough of the US-led ‘war on drugs’ in their territories. The response to illicit drugs in West Africa should benefit from a careful reflection about what has and has not worked in other parts of the world.

Read the full brief here: West Africa A New Front in a Losing War 

Click here to view the West Africa Policy Brief Press Release


Axel Klein-Illicit drugs: data vs narratives

Virginia Comolli on the drugs and terror nexus