The Asian Drug Dilemma: Decriminalizing Narcotics

By: Rizkina Aliya

There is no single civilization in the face of mankinds history that is ever truly drugfree. Drugs have been essential to the development of society as people seek it for a multitude
of purposes, from energy boosters to a means of communing with God. It is and forever will
be a highly profitable commodity despite societys keenness on eradicating drugs and its
detrimental effects.
The main issue lies in the premise that drugs are a burden to a nations well-being. Its
presence in society gnaws on the lives, productivity, economy, and ultimately the
development and existence of a state. Thus, nations have embarked on a battle against the
cancer in their very own body. In Indonesia, the drug trade is projected to cost Rp. 97,8
trillion by 2020, an enticing market that the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) 1 predicts will
further encourage dealers to penetrate potential markets to gain more profits, making the
dream of ridding the region from the influence of narcotics even more intangible.
In Asia, drug policies are geared towards declaring war on drugs as though at the end
of a certain period, the continent will be completely rid of its effects. However, the drug
dilemma seems to continue as harder efforts to push down on soft and hard drugs are actually
increasing the number of users, distributors, and victims. It is time that countries in Asia
evaluate the efficacy of our choice to severely criminalize drugs, and rationally consider the
potential benefits of decriminalization. Coordinator of the Transnational Institutes drug and
democracy program, Martin Jelsma mentioned that, Its an illusion that you can make the
drug market disappear when in fact the size of the market has not been reduced at all2
It seems that this continents concern towards criminalizing drug use has stemmed
since 1998 during a special session of the General Assembly where the claim to a drug-free
world seems attainable. In fact, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
1 Damayanti, Rita. Laporan Akhir Survei Nasional Perkembangan Penyalahguna Narkoba

Tahun Anggaran 2014. 34. Report. Jakarta: Badan Narkotika Nasional, 2014.
Oakford, Samuel. "Southeast Asia's War on Drugs Is a Grotesque Failure, but Why Stop? |
VICE News." VICE News RSS. July 9, 2014. Accessed April 14, 2016.
https://news.vice.com/article/southeast-asias-war-on-drugs-is-a-grotesque-failure-but-whystop.
2

proclaimed the goal to make the region drug-free by 2015. In 2014, less than a year before
the deadline, indications of the region weaning itself of drugs did not manifest. Opium
production in the Golden Trianglethe notorious region between Laos, Myanmar, and
Thailandhas doubled in the last ten years, taking up thirty percent of the global cultivation.
Amphetamine-based substances such as meth are spreading rapidly across the region taking
different shapes and prices, and the Southeast Asian region that was once merely a transit
point has now become home to labs and a sizeable domestic market.
Zero-tolerance policies that are being imposed in the region have proven its
inefficacy. Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore are countries in the region that still
impose the death penalty, and even with its current war-like drug-control policies, it still
estimates a loss of 143,8 trillion rupiahs by the year 2020 in a recent 2014 report by the
BNN3. Cracking down on drugs also burdens countries systems with non-violent drug
offenders whose habit may be exacerbated in non-hygienic, disease-ridden prison systems. In
2012, drug offenders constitute 65% of Thailands prison population, and future projection
predicts that the practice is unsustainable and counterproductive to the aim of reducing
narcotics harmful impact4.
Criminalizing drug use and convicting non-violent drug offenders may actually
intensify the negative impacts of narcotics. It drives users away from proper health care and
helps proliferate the spread of HIV and other diseases that may be contracted from
unhygienic drug use. East and South East Asia are currently two regions with the highest
concentrations of HIV-positive injecting drug users. Over forty percent of injecting drug users
are HIV positive according to a fact sheet published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
along with UN AIDS5. By criminalizing users and putting them in detention facilities instead
of properly-equipped health institutions, bars a significant amount of a countrys population
from receiving proper health care.

3 Op.Cit. Page 35
4 Fawthrop, Tom. "The New War on Drugs: ASEAN Style." The Diplomat. November 30,

2012. Accessed April 14, 2016. http://thediplomat.com/2012/11/the-new-war-on-drugs-insoutheast-asia/1/.

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Facts About Drugs Use and the Spread of HIV. Issue brief. UNODC.

Globally drug-control policies have been set with a number of different international
conventions. In 1961, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1971 Convention on
Psychotropic Substances provided an international legal framework of which countries may
standardize their domestic drug policies upon. Further legal mechanisms were then
established with The United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances. The treaty itself was settled in Vienna, December 20, 1988, has 87
signatories, and has become the basis for a number of domestic drug policies around specific
parts of Asia such as Indonesias 2009 Act on Narcotics (UU No. 35/2009).
The treaty itself is mainly devoted to fight the increasing number of organized crime
cases specifically fueled by the lucrative drug trade. The growing demand for cannabis,
cocaine, and heroin in the developed world around 1970-1980 became the market for
growing criminal groups. The issue became an international security concern as the preamble
notes that the drug trade and related activities undermine the legitimate economies and
threaten the stability, security and sovereignty of States. The convention aims to regiment
the supply end of the chain, by not just controlling international drug traffic but also banning
possession of drugs for personal use as per Article 3:
Subject to its constitutional principles and the basic concepts of its legal system, each
Party shall adopt such measures as may be necessary to establish as a criminal
offence under its domestic law, when committed intentionally, the possession,
purchase or cultivation of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances for personal
consumption contrary to the provisions of the 1961 Convention, the 1961 Convention
as amended or the 1971 Convention6.
With the treaty in mind, national implementations that tend to over-criminalize drug
use and possession seems a natural progression from the international agreement; however,
with recent developments, it seems that an alternative to criminalizing drug-use has to be vied
for. This means that nations must be open to decriminalizing certain drug-usage and perhaps
relaxing their grip on particular drug control policies in favor of better results that are truer to
the aim of lowering the number of users, the allure of the drug trade, and other detrimental
effects of narcotics towards society.

United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances, Article 3 (1988).
6

Decriminalization by definition means that policies:

retain most drug laws that forbid manufacture, importation, and sale of
illegal drugs, but remove criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of drugs
for personal use. Such proposals suggest that possession of drugs for personal use be
legal or subject only to civil penalties such as fines7.
States in Asia have not shown their tendency towards reforming their drug policies that
decriminalizes drug possession; however, the region may learn from Portugal as one of the
most successful executors of decriminalization. Fourteen years into their reform, Portugal is
not in a drug crisis, in fact the contrary has occurred. The rate of continuation of drugs use
among all adults (age 15-64) has decreased 15% from 2001-2012, along with drug-induced
deaths and HIV infection rates.8 Portugal is essentially teaching the rest of the world that
decriminalization may free up resources for more effective response towards drug-related
problems. Countries in the Asian region should take this lesson in stride and use it to look
into their domestic drug issues and evaluate the efficacy of their policies. Assessments of how
potent they are in barring illicit drug trade and also how competent the system is in cutting
off demand by various rehabilitation programs must be made. For example, in 2003, a
European Parliament committee recommended repealing the 1988 convention upon
evaluation of its implementation, and stated that:
[D]espite massive deployment of police and other resources to implement the
UN Conventions, production and consumption of, and trafficking in, prohibited
substances have increased exponentially over the past 30 years, representing what can
only be described as a failure, which the police and judicial authorities also recognise
as such ... [T]he policy of prohibiting drugs, based on the UN Conventions of 1961,
1971 and 1988, is the true cause of the increasing damage that the production of,
trafficking in, and sale and use of illegal substances are inflicting on whole sectors of
society, on the economy and on public institutions, eroding the health, freedom and
life of individuals.9

7 Goldberg, Ray. Taking Sides, 5. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2012.

8 Aleem, Zeeshan. "14 Years After Decriminalizing All Drugs, Here's What Portugal Looks

Like." Mic. February 11, 2015. Accessed April 14, 2016. http://mic.com/articles/110344/14years-after-portugal-decriminalized-all-drugs-here-s-what-s-happening#.dds2UIEhK.

Currently with no termination clause and considered to be non-amendable, the

convention may still be set in place; however, changes in the judicial system of Asian states
concerning drug control is both imperative and possible as flexibility is also constructed in
the provisions that appreciate and respect a states sovereignty, with the words, Subject to its
constitutional principles and the basic concepts of its legal system, each Party shall This
means that a signatory nation has the prerogative upon devising an effective and suitable
domestic drug control code. For example, is the United States decision to not implement
Article 3 with the legalization and regulation of marijuana in certain states.
In the long run, efforts must be made to establish an international standard that
balances between controlling the criminal nature of the drug trade and reducing the harm
from its influence through decriminalization. However, it all starts with a conscious choice to
acknowledge that the use of drugs may never truly disappear as the desire to alter
consciousness may be a part of our basal instinct; thus, instead of attempting to eradicate its
presence and influence through indiscriminate criminalization, we have to learn how to
monitor and maintain adverse effects from growing out of hand. Routine evaluation of
domestic and international drug situations will show that the benefits of decriminalization
may actually outweigh our fears of implementing regulatory laws that seem too lenient on
substance abuse, and give further proof that thinking out of the box with drug control laws is
more important than preserving a legal status quo that has shown to be impotent. Though
nations have declared war on the cancerous form of drug abuse, states have to be smart and
recognize that targeting it with violence may inadvertently do more harm than heal.

Buitenweg, Kathalinje Maria. Proposal for a European Parliament Recommendation.

Report. 2003.
9

Bibliography:
Aleem, Zeeshan. "14 Years After Decriminalizing All Drugs, Here's What Portugal Looks
Like." Mic. February 11, 2015. Accessed April 14, 2016. http://mic.com/articles/110344/14years-after-portugal-decriminalized-all-drugs-here-s-what-s-happening#.dds2UIEhK.
Buitenweg, Kathalinje Maria. Proposal for a European Parliament Recommendation. Report.
2003.
Damayanti, Rita. Laporan Akhir Survei Nasional Perkembangan Penyalahguna Narkoba
Tahun Anggaran 2014. 34. Report. Jakarta: Badan Narkotika Nasional, 2014.
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Fawthrop, Tom. "The New War on Drugs: ASEAN Style." The Diplomat. November 30,
2012. Accessed April 14, 2016. http://thediplomat.com/2012/11/the-new-war-on-drugs-insoutheast-asia/1/.
Goldberg, Ray. Taking Sides, 5. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2012.
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VICE News." VICE News RSS. July 9, 2014. Accessed April 14, 2016.
https://news.vice.com/article/southeast-asias-war-on-drugs-is-a-grotesque-failure-but-whystop.
United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances, Article 3 (1988).