The drug war consumes more foreign aid than projects involving school feeding, food safety, early childhood education or mental health.
by Alexander Lekhtman – Filter
Harm Reduction International’s (HRI) new report reveals that the United States, Europe, and other wealthy nations are giving hundreds of millions in foreign “aid” for funding the global drug war. Instead of reducing poverty, hunger and improving health and education this money funds police and militaries who violate human rights, and add to the crises faced poor and marginalized community.
HRI urges the U.S. government and other governments “to stop using money from their limited budgets for aid” to support policies which harm and kill drug users.
According to the report “Aid for the War on Drugs”, 30 countries have spent $974 millions in international aid funding for the “narcotics Control” from 2012-2021. This includes at least $70 million spent in countries where drug crimes are punishable by death.
Over the past 10 years, over half of the global funding for the drug war came from the United States, at $550 millions. The European Union was next ($282 millions), followed by Japan ($78million), the United Kingdom ($22million), Germany ($12million), Finland ($9million) and South Korea ($8million).
We know that programmes of public health that place a priority on community and justice are efficient and save money for the public purse. Governments and donors continue to waste huge amounts of money funding punitive measures against drugs. https://t.co/zumPT5s8cc #investinjustice pic.twitter.com/eLObjJPf9w
Harm Reduction International 14 September 2023
Some countries, such as the U.K. spend less than before on projects to combat foreign drug trafficking. Others spend more. Early in the tenure of President Joe Biden, for instance, the U.S. increased funding for drug-war assistance by a large amount.
The report shows that 92 countries in total received aid to “control drugs” during the time period covered. Colombia ($109 millions), Afghanistan ($37millions), Peru ($27millions), Mexico ($21millions), Guatemala, and Panama ($10millions each) were the biggest recipients. The drug war receives more foreign aid than projects addressing school feeding, food safety, early childhood education or mental health.
It is a grotesque fact that 16 governments fund executions of drug convicts. The report, for instance, explains how U.S. Aid money was sent to Indonesia in the year 2021 to fund a “counter-narcotics program.” That same year, Indonesia handed out 89 record-breaking death sentences for drug offenses. Japan sent millions of dollars to Iran in order to fund dog teams that detect drugs, while Iran executed 131 people over drug offenses in 2021.
Did you know wealthy countries have used international aid to fund the global drug war?
More money is spent on drug control than on school feeding and labour rights. https://t.co/RUv9sqccsc #investinjustice pic.twitter.com/tvWHajmh4M
Harm Reduction International 15 September 2023
The report says that “there is a history of world powers using drug policies to enforce and strengthen their control over populations and target specific groups.” The racial and colonial dynamics persist to this day. Wealthier governments around the globe, including the U.S. spend billions of dollars on punitive drug controls and related law enforcement.
It continues: “These funding flow are out of step with the existing evidence as well as international commitments in development, health and human rights, including the goal of ending AIDS by 2030.” They rely on systems that harm Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in the world disproportionately.
The funding causes serious harm to people who use drugs. These include the transmission of HIV, other bloodborne illnesses, and extrajudicial killings when sterile needles are not available.
Global racism is evident in many ways, from the disproportionate imprisonment of Blacks on drug charges in Brazil to “crop-eradication” or police violence against Indigenous farmers living near coca-growing regions of Colombia.
Catherine Cook, HRI’s Sustainable Financing Lead, suggests ways in which people from drug-war donors countries can act.
She told filter that “voters and citizens” can exert pressure on governments by participating in local and international processes. “[With regard to] the latter for example, [there is] an opportunity to participate in the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs midterm Review the 2019 Ministerial Declaration.”
In calling for a decolonized policy on drugs, she continued, “it is important to shed light on funding sources for punitive measures.” Voters and citizens should call for their governments to spend their aid money in a more transparent, accountable manner and insist that they don’t act hypocritically.
She noted that “some donor nations, such as the U.S., and several European countries continue to support the drug war in aid-recipients countries while pursuing effective, nonpunitive health-based domestic policies.”
HRI’s latest report shows that the U.S. has been the top donor in the global drug war, but the numbers have changed over time. In 2021, the U.S. spent $301 millions in aid on “narcotics controls” (even though that’s less than a quarter of what they spend on the global war against drugs through other initiatives). The aid figure for 2021 was a huge increase over the $31 millions given in the previous year. We know very little about the way in which this money was spent. The researchers could not find out more about Colombia, as the data was redacted in order to protect “the health and security of implementing partner, and the United States’ national interest.”
This article was first published by Filter. A magazine online that covers drug use, drug policies, and human rights from a harm-reduction perspective. Subscribe to Filter’s newsletter or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
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Photo by Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
The post Wealthy countries Gave More than $1 Billion to ‘Aid” Global Drug War, A New Report Shows first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
