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MARIJUANA MOMENT

WEALTHY COUNTRIES GAVE MORE THAN $1 BILLION TO ‘AID’ GLOBAL DRUG WAR, NEW REPORT
SHOWS


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POLITICS


WEALTHY COUNTRIES GAVE MORE THAN $1 BILLION TO ‘AID’ GLOBAL DRUG WAR, NEW REPORT
SHOWS

Published

1 week ago

on

September 18, 2023

By

Marijuana Moment

More foreign aid is spent on the drug war than on projects concerning school
feeding, food security, early childhood education, labor rights or mental
health.

By Alexander Lekhtman, Filter

The United States, Europe and other rich nations give hundreds of millions of
dollars in foreign “aid” to fund the devastating global drug war, details a new
report by Harm Reduction International (HRI). Rather than reducing poverty and
hunger, or improving health and education, this money is instead bankrolling
police and militaries that violate human rights and add to crises faced by poor
and marginalized communities.

HRI is urging the U.S. and other governments to “stop using money from their
limited aid budgets” to support policies that harm and kill people who use
drugs.



The report, “Aid for the War on Drugs,” finds that from 2012 to 2021, 30 donor
countries spent $974 million in international aid funding for “narcotics
control.” This includes at least $70 million spent in countries that have the
death penalty for drug charges.

Over 10 years, the U.S. was by far the biggest donor, providing over half of all
global drug-war funding at $550 million. Next came the European Union ($282
million), Japan ($78 million), the United Kingdom ($22 million), Germany ($12
million), Finland ($9 million) and South Korea ($8 million).





Some countries, like the U.K., are spending less money than previously on
foreign drug-war projects. But others are spending more. The U.S., for example,
hugely increased its drug-war aid funding early in President Joe Biden’s tenure.

A total of 92 countries received this aid for “narcotics control” in the period
covered by the report. The biggest recipients were Colombia ($109 million),
Afghanistan ($37 million), Peru ($27 million), Mexico ($21 million), Guatemala
and Panama ($10 million each). More foreign aid is spent on the drug war than on
projects concerning school feeding, food security, early childhood education,
labor rights or mental health.



The funding for 16 governments that execute people for drug convictions is
particularly grotesque. The report explains, for example, how U.S. aid money
went to Indonesia in 2021 to support a “counter narcotics training program”—the
same year the country issued a record 89 death sentences to people for drugs.
Japan, meanwhile, sent millions to Iran to fund drug-detection dog units—while
Iran executed at least 131 people for drugs in 2021.





“There is a long history of drug policy being used by world powers to strengthen
and enforce their control over other populations, and target specific
communities,” the report states. “Racist and colonial dynamics continue to this
day, with wealthier governments, led by the U.S., spending billions of taxpayer
dollars around the world to bolster or expand punitive drug control regimes and
related law enforcement.”

“These funding flows are out of pace with existing evidence, as well as
international development, health, and human rights commitments, including the
goal to end AIDS by 2030,” it continues. “They rely on and reinforce systems
that disproportionately harm Black, Brown and Indigenous people worldwide.”





Severe harms this funding inflicts on people who use drugs include transmission
of HIV and other bloodborne diseases when sterile syringes are unavailable; the
harms of incarceration, police violence and extrajudicial killings; and the
denial of health care and other services, to name a few.

The global racist impact is also clear—from Brazil’s grossly disproportionate
incarceration of Black people on drug charges, to “crop eradication” and police
violence targeting Indigenous farmers in coca growing regions of Colombia.

Catherine Cook, HRI’s sustainable financing lead, suggested some ways that
people in drug-war donor countries can take action.



“Voters and citizens can keep pressure on governments through local and
particularly through international processes,” she told Filter. “[With respect
to] the latter, for example, there is an opportunity to engage in the UN
Commission on Narcotic Drugs 2024 midterm review of the 2019 Ministerial
declaration.”

“In calling for decolonized drug policy,” she added, “it’s important to shine a
light on the funding flows for punitive policies. Voters and citizens can call
on their governments to be more transparent and accountable in their aid
spending and demand they do not act hypocritically.”

On that point, she noted how “some donor countries, including the U.S. and
several European countries, continue to support the war on drugs in
aid-recipient countries while pursuing more effective, non-punitive,
health-based policies domestically.”

While the U.S. is the world’s top drug-war donor, HRI’s report shows how the
numbers have fluctuated. In 2021 the country spent $301 million in aid for
“narcotics control” (though even that is less than a third of what it spends on
the global drug war through other initiatives). This aid figure was a massive
increase from the $31 million given the prior year. But we know little about how
the money was spent. Colombia was the biggest recipient, but the researchers
couldn’t find more details, because data were redacted to protect the “health
and security of implementing partners, and the national interest of the United
States.”

This article was originally published by Filter, an online magazine covering
drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. Follow
Filter on Facebook or Twitter, or sign up for its newsletter.

> Latin American And Caribbean Countries Agree To Rethink Failed War On Drugs,
> Saying It’s Not Achieving ‘Expected Results’



Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our
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pledge.
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