LEGAL REGULATION OF DRUGS THROUGH A SOCIAL JUSTICE LENS
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Legal Regulation of drugs
through a social justice lens
15 key priorities to be included in legal
regulation policy that will directly
impact and strengthen sustainable
development and global equity
We stand at a unique moment in history.
We have a once in a lifetime opportunity
to create an unprecedented legal framework
that reconfigures one of the world’s major
illegal trades – to make it work for social
justice rather than against it.
We have identified 15 key priorities to be
included in legal regulation policy that will
directly impact and strengthen sustainable
development and global equity.
This paper is an invitation for organisations
and advocates to get involved in the
process of developing legal regulation
and by doing so begin to address the
harms caused by years of prohibition.
A World
with Drugs
Since the mid-20th century, global drug policy has
been dominated by the dogmatic pursuit of prohibition.
The direct and indirect consequences of this have been: fragile
states, armed conflict and violence, increased and sustained
levels of poverty, unaccountable governance and corruption,
racial and gender injustice, weak and underfunded services,
and a major sector of the global economy that (being illicit)
is neither taxed nor regulated. It is a policy that has not only
undermined, but worked in direct opposition to the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). The so-called ‘war on drugs’,
has been a war on human dignity, life and health.
Today there is another option, which has the potential to
work as powerfully for social justice as prohibition has
worked against it.
This is the approach of legal regulation; regulating the global
drug market to promote equitable development, champion public
health, safeguard human rights and protect the environment.
It is an opportunity governments across the world are
beginning to explore. Legal regulation is happening.
But here lies both the opportunity and the threat. Designed
well, with social justice, human rights and public health at its
heart, and including the voices of those most impacted and
harmed by prohibition, legal regulation could be transformative
– and strengthen our global duty towards the SDGs.
However, it has to be the right kind of regulation, designed
through a social justice lens. If legal regulation and the new
markets it creates are captured by corporate and neo liberal
political interests – legal regulation could perpetuate or
intensify many of the same problems caused by prohibition.
This paper summarises learning from a ground-breaking
series of global webinars, exploring what we must prioritise
to achieve legal regulation through a social justice lens –
and what we must avoid.
2 • Legal Regulation of drugs through a Social Justice Lens
Prohibiting the production and To safeguard this reform as one that improves “We are already seeing the
consumption of drugs has only ever people’s lives and protects the planet, it is
corporatisation of these emerging
essential that legal regulation policy is designed
been the shop front to the so-called with the full participation of impacted communities markets and policymakers need to
‘war on drugs’. and relevant stakeholders, equipped to exert match that corporate speed and
“A drug free world” – the slogan of the real influence, and hold regulators to account. confidence with a creative and
United Nations International Drug Control Drug policy intersects with a plethora of social visionary framework, which will work
justice areas including: trade justice, tax justice,
Programme – is neither possible nor realistic.
race and gender justice and public health. to reduce inequality and poverty and
Drugs have always and will continue to be
To give legal regulation its greatest chance not perpetuate them. Central to this is
used for traditional purposes, for medicine
and for recreational use. Prohibiting them of success people working in these specialist finding ways to make sure that those
has never, and will never work. areas must commit and contribute to designing whose livelihoods are dependent
the new legal regulatory models.
on the illegal drugs trade can be
In fact, drug policy has been used by
governments for over 60 years as a successful From impacted communities and civil society, supported to transition into the legal
tool of control and oppression for particular to national and international NGOS, and all markets and that drug policy reforms
working for social justice: drug policy reform
groups of people. Its motivation has always
needs to be part of your agenda.
will make their lives better, not worse.”
been and remains racist – resulting in policing,
criminalising and mass incarceration that is Helen Clark
disproportionate in both scale and approach “We started our relationship with Chair, Global Commission on Drugs Policy
towards communities of colour, indigenous Ganja (as we call it) in the Caribbean, and former Prime Minister of New Zealand
people and marginalised groups. (Panellist from the webinar series A World With Drugs)
long before the rules for psychotropic
Drug policy is the sharp edge of institutional drugs and the UN Convention came
global racism. What’s more, it undermines along. We use the herbs for healing The global justice and sustainable development
democracies, threatens gender justice, sectors have a duty to stand in solidarity with
undermines public services and diverts and for spiritual and religious practices.
the most vulnerable in this transition and
money from sustainable development. The cultivation of Ganja is also a means advocate alongside them for their rights.
of sustainable economic development Those who have been most subject to poverty
Fortunately the call to support rather than
punish people and address the harms for our community. We need legal and exploitation during prohibition will still be at
of prohibition is getting louder from the regulation that respects our cultural risk in a post-prohibition world if legal regulation
is co-opted and driven by corporate interests
grassroots to intergovernmental bodies. rights but equally supports us in and exploitative trade practices.
Legal regulation of drugs presents an entering the new economic markets.”
opportunity to address and begin to reverse Without strong advocacy and engagement for
the harms caused by prohibition and is Vicki Hanson social justice approaches, corporate exploitation
beginning to be trialled around the world in Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Centre could pick up where organised crime left off. Now
different guises and jurisdictions. for Cannabis Research, Jamaica is our time to organise to deliver a just transition.
(Panellist from the webinar series A World With Drugs)
Legal Regulation of drugs through a Social Justice Lens • 3
Key priorities for have impeded development and negatively
affected whole countries. It will benefit not
KEY: Sustainable Development Goals that
will be strengthened by Legal Regulation
legal regulation just people who are currently involved or
suspected of involvement with the drugs Goal 1 End poverty in all its forms everywhere
trade, but anyone negatively impacted by
From a ground-breaking series of Goal 2 End hunger, achieve food security
corrupt and unaccountable governance, by
global webinars, bringing together dysfunctional and underfunded state
and improved nutrition and promote
sustainable agriculture
drug policy reform with global justice services (such as healthcare and education),
and sustainable development actors, and by armed conflict and violence. Goal 3 Ensure healthy lives and promote
well-being for all at all ages
Health Poverty Action has identified This needs to be done from the start Goal 5 Achieve gender equality and
15 key priorities to be addressed in and throughout. empower all women and girls
legal regulation. These are set out Goal 8 Promote sustained, inclusive
To contribute towards achieving a more
graphically in the lens below. and sustainable economic growth,
sustainable and equitable world, legal
full and productive employment
If these 15 areas are adopted as priority goals regulatory frameworks must be considered and decent work for all
for legal regulation (and the effectiveness of for the whole supply chain from cultivation,
Goal 9 Build resilient infrastructure,
the regulations monitored and evaluated production, trade, possession and use. It is
promote inclusive and sustainable
against them), then legal regulation of the important these regulations are culturally industrialization and foster innovation
drugs trade will contribute powerfully to appropriate, and respect traditional use.
This sector has experience in doing this. Goal 10 Reduce inequality within and among
strengthening equitable and sustainable
countries
development. It will impact substantially on This time however, we do not have to do it
progress towards at least 11 of the 17 SDGs. retrospectively. The window of opportunity Goal 11 Make cities and human settlements
to create the new market is now. inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
This lens also serves as a call to action and Goal 12 Ensure sustainable consumption and
guide for inter-sector collaboration where production patterns
the contribution and expertise from people “The shaping of a legal framework Goal 15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable
working to improve Social and Environmental in South Africa needs to design use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably
Reform, Justice, Economics and Governance
licensing regimes that would be manage forests, combat desertification,
is required to design appropriate legal and halt and reverse land degradation
regulation that will deliver social justice. inclusive of farming families. These and halt biodiversity loss
communities need to be engaged Goal 16 Promote peaceful and inclusive
Our collective responsibility, as the global
justice and sustainable development sector,
with formally and meaningfully” societies for sustainable development,
provide access to justice for all and
is to ensure the process of transition is driven Philasande Mahlakata build effective, accountable and
with full participation and leadership from the Project Coordinator, Umzimvubu inclusive institutions at all levels
many impacted communities and stakeholders.
Farmers Support Network, South Africa Colour Greens: Social and environmental reform
Legal regulation designed with a social justice
(Panellist from the webinar series A World coding: Yellows: Justice Pinks: Economic
lens can reverse the harms of prohibition that
With Drugs) Blues: Governance
4 • Legal Regulation of drugs through a Social Justice Lens
Legal regulation of drugs through a social justice lens: 15 key priorities to be addressed
LENS 1 that will directly impact and strengthen sustainable development and global equity
Good Governance and Services Sustainable Livelihoods
Addressing state fragility: rebuilding accountable governance Communities and small scale actors engage and thrive in
and culturally appropriate and locally funded state services the new legal markets, free from criminal sanctions.
Peace and Reconciliation Cultural and traditional rights and knowledge
Ending armed conflict and violent crime. are prioritised, included and safeguarded.
Building trust and collaboration between
state and impacted communities.
Labour Rights
Regulating corporate behaviour, Ensuring workers have the right
influence and power to unionisation, fair pay, equal
al 16 Goa
go l1 opportunities and health and safety.
Prioritising small scale sustainable
15 g
production, distribution and retail. l
Just Transition
o
a
Commitment to social equity, due
go
al
diligence and tax contributions Ensuring a peaceful, well-planned and
2
equitable transition from ilicit to licit,
2
goal 1
and accountability for all stakeholders
goal 3
Trade Justice
with consideration for local contexts.
Transparent, accountable
and equitable terms of trade
Community and marginalised
throughout the supply chain
5
go
stakeholder participation
al
al
go
Ensuring early stage democratic
Tax Justice
11
and equitable inclusion in policy
go 8
Leveraging taxation from the al l development and new markets for
trade to provide funding for state 10 g oa communities impacted by prohibition.
services in health, education and goal 9
accountable governance
Public Health and Harm Reduction
Providing safe supply, product information,
Restorative Justice and facilities for drug consumption, with access
Expungement, decarceration to healthcare free from stigma and prejudice.
and reparations to repair
the harms of prohibition Gender Justice Environment Justice
for impacted communities,
Affirmative action to ensure Safeguarding ecological protection and
groups and individuals. Racial Justice
womxn participate in, and prioritising small scale farming that
shape, the transition to a Affirmative action to ensure BIPOC repairs biodiversity. Ensuring sustainable
legally regulated drugs market communities can participate in, and shape, the management of natural resources.
transition to a legally regulated drugs market.
Legal Regulation of drugs through a Social Justice Lens • 5Photo: Organigram via IRPP Photo: Tom Kramer
To prevent abuse and co-option by
powerful vested interests, it is essential
focused attention is given to the
regulation of large corporations.
Small scale producers and traders need
equitable access to the new markets and
governments must remove technical, legal
and financial barriers to enable this. Many
current legal trades, such as coffee, cotton,
tobacco, minerals and medicine, are by no
means blueprints to replicate. Historical
colonial legacies, which are rooted in these
trades, permit corporations to operate using
similar practices of unchecked extraction
and exploitation such as forced labour,
child labour and unsafe working conditions.
We must learn from the extractive models
of other commodity markets, where raw
materials are sourced cheaply from poorer
countries and the larger profits from processing
gravitate to the rich. Instead industrial
development strategies should be produced
by poorer countries to retain as many benefits
as possible in the country. The sector should
be taxed fairly and progressively.
Weak regulation, that benefits big business
and newly formed stakeholders and does
not privilege the communities impacted by
the war on drugs or recognise the trauma
inflicted upon them, risks causing more
harm than prohibition itself.
This lens demonstrates the consequences of poor
regulation, a landscape that gives free reign to
powerful vested interests to establish and ensure
neoliberal free market capitalism thrives. This has
already begun in many US states and Canada.
6 • Legal Regulation of drugs through a Social
Social Justice
Justice Lens
LensThe risks of weak legal regulation co-opted by large corporations
LENS 2 and other powerful elites could replicate similar harms to prohibition
Sustainable Livelihoods Cultural and traditional rights
Peace and Reconciliation Good Governance and Services
• Small producers barred from accessing legal • Loss of traditional land, rights
• Fragile states and conflict • Fragile States • Conflict and markets due to technical, legal and financial and knowledge • Traditional
• Corruption at all levels • Governments violence • Continued involvement of barriers • Global North companies and knowledge stolen without consent
unable to provide public services organised crime • Dysfunctional state wealthy investors monopolise market share
and compensation • Continued risk
• Non-state actors maintaining power, services due to corruption and lack of • Impacted communities excluded from the
of criminalisation and consequent
accountability • Underfunded services legal market, facing further criminalisation
such as banks and organised crime disenfranchisement from the state for
• Resources diverted from essential communities • Cultural appropriation
services to fight armed conflict in marketing and advertising
Labour Rights
Regulating corporate behaviour
• Child exploitation • Slave or indentured labour
• Corporate capture and dominance • Disenfranchised and disempowered workers
• Markets that prioritises profit over people • Low wages and exploitative working practices
6 goal
and planet • Exclusion of and exploitation al-1 1 • Continued criminalisation for individuals.
of small scale actors due to legal, technical go
go
and financial barriers • Tax avoidance 15
Just Transition
al
al
• Economic collapse/shock, especially in
go
Trade Justice
2
conflict-affected and fragile states • Loss of
• Global North exploitation of Global
goal 12
goal 3
livelihoods • Further criminalisation of excluded
South land and people • Trade deals
communities • Continued trauma • Community
that prioritise private corporations
needs ignored and overlooked • Harmful
• Existing unfair terms of trade upheld
disruption to established illicit trading routes
• Lack of transparency and accountability
goa
5
al
Community and marginalised
Tax Justice
l1
go
stakeholder participation
1
• Dysfunctional state and state services g
o 8 • Small scale actors excluded, marginalised, and/or
due to lack of revenue • Money laundering al l
• Tax evasion and avoidance • Tax havens 10 g oa exploited • Cultural appropriation • Criminalisation of
goal 9 individuals in the trade not working for the corporate
• Tax breaks for corporations
industry • Retrospective consultation at late stages
of policy design amounting to tokenistic policies
Restorative Justice
• Disenfranchisement from Public Health and
the state by impacted Harm Reduction
communities • Failure to
Gender Justice Environment Justice
• Provision of drugs with little
heal past trauma • Legacy • Exclusion, explotiation, • Industrial farming replaces
Racial Justice regulation • Global inequality
of past and present or discrimination in the small scale farming
of access to controlled drugs
criminalisation ignored legal market of Womxn • Exclusion, exploitation or discrimination in the legal market • Uncontrolled polluting and
• High price of products
• Impacted communities • No acknowledgement or of BIPOC communities • No reparations or pardons • No environmental destruction
• Erosion of harm reduction
not enabled to lead the privileging the contribution acknowledgement or privileging the contribution from • Traditional growers
services • Deaths from
design and delivery of from Womxn to the BIPOC to the development of the trade • No measures of losing connection to land
unsafe drug use
legal regulation development of the trade restorative justice for impacted communities • Increase of fossil fuels use
Legal Regulation of drugs through a Social Justice Lens • 7Legal Regulation of drugs
through a Social Justice Lens
Conclusion
Written and designed by Clemmie James
Drug policy is changing. This is
Edited by Martin Drewry and Natalie
a good thing, and long overdue. Sharples
We stand at a unique moment Inputs and research from Jess Hamer
in history. We have a once in a and Tess Woolfenden
lifetime opportunity to create an Acknowledgements: With thanks to all who
unprecedented legal framework that contributed to the 2020 webinar series
reconfigures one of the world’s major A World with Drugs: Legal Regulation
illegal trades – to make it work for through a Development Lens, coordinated
social justice rather than against in partnership with Health Poverty Action;
it – and potentially sets a powerful Ann Fordham and International Drug
precedent that could eventually be Policy Consortium; Steve Rolles and
used as a model for other sectors. Transform Drug Policy Foundation; Zara
Snapp and Instituto RIA, Dania Putri and
However this opportunity is time Transnational Institute; Scott Bernstein
limited. Large corporations and and Canadian Drug Policy Coalition; and
powerful elites are rapidly mobilising Vicki Hanson and Interdisciplinary Centre
and positioning to take us down a for Cannabis Research.
very different road. This paper was first presented at the
64th Session of the Commission on
Now is our time to pool our expertise
Narcotic Drugs in April 2021.
and our strengths – to mobilise and
unite across justice and rights based Health Poverty Action:
sectors and movements. Health for All in a just world
Kemp House, 152–160 City Road
Put drug policy firmly on your agenda.
London EC1V 2NX
healthpovertyaction.org
Registered charity no. 290535
Design and graphics: revangeldesigns.co.uk
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