What is Marcos’ drug policy reform, really?

It’s a war on drugs that has no killing policy, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said of his drug policy reform in his State of the Nation Address (SONA). His false “bloodless” claim aside, a drug war that doesn’t kill wasn’t really what was promised in a multi-sectoral effort that was supported — and financially sponsored — by his friends in the international community.

So what is his policy reform, really?

“Paradigm shift” is how the United Nations described Marcos’ drug policy during a high-profile summit in July, which the President did not attend. The summit, a culmination of years-long consultations, made it very clear that the pivot would be toward harm reduction, a principle that regards the treatment of drug use as a complex issue that’s mainly anchored on health and not law enforcement.

The Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), which is under the Office of the President, even pushed for the amendment of the current anti-drugs law (Republic Act 9165), which human rights advocates said, enabled Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal campaign that killed an estimated 30,000 people.

Yet two weeks after that hyped summit, Marcos made no mention of it in his SONA, only saying that “we will continue to adhere, to the established ‘8 Es’ of an effective anti-illegal drugs strategy. Extermination was never one of them.”

“Simply stating that extermination is not part of the strategy is setting the bar so low,” Inez Feria, of the harm reduction advocacy group NoBox Philippines, told Rappler. Feria was among the civil society members consulted for the reform recommendations.

In fact, in the 11 themed recommendations that the UN-backed group sent to Marcos, only one is about law and order — that there should be a focus on big-time drug traffickers and manufacturers.

That was what Marcos reported in his SONA, saying that his government has arrested 97,000 drug suspects. “More than six thousand of those arrested were high-value targets. Four hundred forty of them were government employees, of whom forty-two were uniformed personnel. Seventy-seven were elected officials,” said Marcos.

“There was such a missed opportunity during the SONA, if indeed part of the plan, to make it unequivocally clear where the government stands in the context of the drug response on the protection of human rights,” said Feria, “or maybe the silence on these during the SONA is the real message and indication of where government is at with the reform.”

The last we heard from the government was a joint statement with the UN when the Joint Program on Human Rights (UNJP) ended on July 31. It simply said that a human rights-based drug policy would be continued, and that “5 of 8 joint regional consultations for the on-going development of the  Fourth Philippine Human Rights Plan (PHRP4) have been conducted.” The UNJP has been criticized by civil society members for lacking audit, and for being discontinued.

Decriminalize low-level drug offenses?

If legislation is a way forward, among the first to pick up was Senator Robin Padilla who filed Resolution No. 1131. But the resolution still focused on law enforcement, saying that there needs to be further inquiry on the 77 government officials arrested over drug suspicions. The resolution also questioned why the mandatory drug test for government employees covers only two kinds of drugs, pointing out that it was a loophole.

Feria said the resolution is not reflective of their recommendations. “It reflects a clear lack of understanding about the nature of drug use and the evidence surrounding drug testing. This is a prime example of how policies can be misguided and misinformed, and which can ultimately create more harm than benefit,” said Feria.

The UN-backed group even recommended decriminalizing low-level drug offenses, working on the framework that people use drugs for various of reasons — recreation for some, and for the poor, a way to last through ungodly hours of labor. “Decriminalization does not necessarily have to be equated with full legalization. Decriminalizing drug use will improve the speedy administration of justice and allow for more efficient handling of cases by reducing the burden on the criminal justice system, such as public attorneys and judges,” said its report.

What can be done?

RJ Naguit, a public health practitioner advocating for harm reduction, said there are existing programs that already have “certain elements of harm reduction.”

“However, the full realization of harm reduction is severely limited by the policies that prioritize ‘drug-free’ or criminalized approaches rather than interventions grounded on care,” Naguit told Rappler.

Indeed that was Marcos’ final statement on drug policy reform, that “we welcome the report that the number of drug-affected barangays in our country has been reduced by thirty-two percent. “

The UN-backed group has recommended shifting to a policy where treatment and rehabilitation are not coercive. The idea is if there is no obsession with making an area drug-free, there will be no “extremely harmful practices” as Feira put it like Duterte’s Oplan TokHang — forced drug tests, “voluntary” rehabilitation made under duress, surveillance, and killing.

Under our current law, rehabilitation is court-mandated. Drug suspects out on bail, parole, or even those acquitted, continuously need to secure certifications, lest they risk being rearrested.

“There are little to no conversations on how rehabilitation programs are run and if they are even effective for all the kinds of service users that they take in,” said Naguit.

Other countries do supervised consumption, where trained staff help people who use drugs to not overdose. In the Philippines, there have been needle syringe exchange programs particularly in Cebu as part of an HIV outreach. In this program, people who inject drugs are given access to sterilized syringe so they don’t transmit HIV and other blood-borne viruses.

“Under the current policy framework in the Philippines, needle syringe exchange programs, integration of mental health services, and scaling up of social and economic services are the low-hanging fruits,” said Naguit.

“A true paradigm shift would require a fundamental rethinking of drug policy,” said Feria, “but it’s worth noting that key issues like harm reduction and decriminalization were frequently raised during the Summit, yet were not even acknowledged, much less, addressed in the final responses from government.” – Rappler.com