For almost half a century, governments throughout Asia have invested millions of dollars in costly counter-narcotics strategies, and yet every year — in every Asian country — the total number of drug users and drug seizures just keeps growing.
Policemen guard bags containing methamphetamines, marijuana, heroin and opium worth more than 7.4 billion baht before the substances were destroyed to mark International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. SUKREE SUKPLANG
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in the past seven years seizures of methamphetamine in the Asia-Pacific region have almost quadrupled: From 11 tonnes in 2008, to more than 40 tonnes in 2013.
Despite being home to some of the world's toughest drug laws, illegal drugs in Asia are now cheaper and more readily available than ever before. In Vietnam, a methamphetamine pill can be bought for as little as US$1.50 (50 baht); in Laos, the going rate is just $2. Even in Thailand — recently reclassified as an "upper-middle-income country", according to the World Bank — methamphetamine pills come and go for as little as $5 to $6 each.
Asia's drug war has demonstrably failed to reduce either drug supply or drug demand; its utopian vision of becoming "drug free" grows more farcical with each passing year.
Worse still, decades of punitive anti-drug strategies have produced nothing but fear, violence, corruption, disease proliferation, needless drug fatalities, countless human rights abuses and incarceration of non-violent offenders on an unprecedented scale.
Thanks to the so-called war on drugs, Thailand is now home to the world's 10th largest prison population, and the world's highest rate of female incarceration. At present, more than 70% of Thailand's 330,000 prisoners are behind bars for drug offences, and about 82% of Thailand's female inmates are mothers, many of whom are incarcerated for minor drug offences.
Thailand's ill-conceived drug policy is fuelling a growing pandemic of one-parent families, punishing innocent children for their mother or father's involvement with drugs.
In Indonesia, meanwhile, incarceration rates look set to catch up with Thailand. As of April 2014, 40% of Indonesia's 170,617 prisoners were behind bars for drug offences, with at least sixty drug offenders awaiting execution on death row. So far this year, Indonesia has already executed 14 non-violent drug convicts, and plans to execute at least 50 more by the end of 2015. All this, without a single shred of evidence to show that the death penalty reduces drug crime, and despite repeated calls from the United Nations and foreign governments for Indonesia to abolish capital punishment.
Asian governments excel in issuing tough punishment for drugs, but fail miserably at saving the lives of people who use them.
Asia is home to some of the world's highest rates of HIV and viral hepatitis among people who use drugs, with hotspots such as Cebu province in the Philippines, where more than 50% of people who inject drugs are HIV-positive.
And throughout Asia, almost a quarter of a million people are imprisoned without trial in abusive compulsory drug detention centres, undergoing bogus "treatment" that has no basis in scientific evidence.
In 2012, the United Nations called on all "states to close compulsory drug detention centres and implement voluntary, evidence-informed and rights-based health and social services [for drug users]". However, not a single Asian country has heeded the United Nations' injunction.
As a region, Asia is becoming increasingly isolated in its repressive approach.
In Western Europe, many governments have adopted life-saving harm reduction measures — such as needle and syringe exchange programmes — which prioritise the health and wellbeing of people who use drugs. And even the United States — traditionally the world's pre-eminent drug warrior — is taking steps to address the disproportionate sentencing of drug offences, recognising that incarceration offers no solution.
In 2014, Attorney-General Eric Holder announced a policy shift to reduce the imposition of draconian mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offences, stating that the financial, human and moral costs of incarcerating such vast numbers of non-violent offenders are just too high.
It is time for Asia's governments to take note of these developments, and stop investing in wasteful schemes that criminalise and punish people who use drugs.
Every year, on June 26, the United Nations celebrates its "International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking". In many Asian countries, June 26 is traditionally marked by nationwide anti-drug crackdowns and mass executions of convicted drug offenders.
In 2010, for example, China executed 79 drug offenders in the week leading up to June 26, in an unprecedented frenzy of capital punishment.
Today, however, activists in 150 cities worldwide will come together as part of "Support. Don't Punish", to call for an end to policies that criminalise and punish people who use drugs. In Asia, advocates in cities from Delhi to Bangkok to Jakarta will demand better drug laws that prioritise public health and human rights.
After half a century of a failed drug war, it is time for us all to call for change.
Ann Fordham is executive director of the International Drug Policy Consortium.