Decriminalize people who use drugs and fully fund harm reduction

Thursday, 26 June 2025

Every year, 26th June is a reminder that people who use drugs are criminalized, that our lives are regarded as less valuable, that our basic human rights are simply denied, and that moral grounds still overrule scientific evidence.

Globally, almost 292 million, or 1 in 18, people used drugs in 2022, which is 20% more than a decade earlier. Over half of the estimated 60 million people who use opioids are in Asia, and East and Southeast Asia regions account for a significant portion of people who use Methamphetamine. UNODC reported that drug use or possession of drugs for personal use is the type of drug offence with the highest share of people arrested, prosecuted, and convicted globally.[1]

Asian countries have some of the harshest forms of criminalization of people who use drugs, including the death penalty and extrajudicial killings. Compared to other regions, more punitive measures are imposed for drug use or possession for personal use in Asia.[2] Of the 34 countries and territories that retain the death penalty for drug offences, the majority are in the Asia region, which accounts for over 90% of the 615 people executed for drug offences in 2024. This figure does not include executions from China, North Korea, and Vietnam, where hundreds of people may have been killed for drug offences.[3]

Criminalization of drug use or possession of drugs for personal use, systemic violence, harmful gender norms, and stigma and discrimination remain significant barriers to achieving social justice and realizing human rights for people who use drugs. They are also barriers to the provision and access of harm reduction and other health/social services, and to the ability of people who use drugs to protect their health and well-being. Criminalization (punitive drug laws) undermines progress towards the global targets of HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis related to people who use drugs.[4]

The United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs have all recognized the importance of harm reduction in addressing public health challenges, realizing the right to health, and have called for countries to consider alternatives to incarceration, conviction, and punishment.[5],[6],[7]

Essential harm reduction programs, such as needle and syringe programs (NSP) and opioid agonist treatment (OAT), face significant funding gaps despite their proven cost-effectiveness and effectiveness in improving the health and well-being of people who use drugs. Since the beginning of 2025, existing harm reduction programs have been facing a greater level of threat with the US government’s decision to stop its investment in the global HIV response. To make it worse, since April 2025, the Global Fund has started its slowdown and reprioritization and revision processes that pose an even greater threat to community/peer-led harm reduction and the ability of networks of people who use drugs to continue their advocacy for the expansion of harm reduction and the removal of criminal sanctions for drug use and possession.

Therefore, the Network of Asian People who Use Drugs (NAPUD), as the only regional network in Asia, calls on Asian governments and UN agencies (especially UNODC) to:

Remove all forms of criminalization, violence, and inhumane treatment and detention of people who use drugs for drug use and possession for personal use.
Continue to fully fund and scale up comprehensive harm reduction services for people who use drugs, including by increasing domestic financing and integrating drug dependence treatment and opioid agonist treatment under universal health coverage or national health insurance schemes.
Implement the ‘International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy‘ and the ‘UN Common Position on Drugs‘.
Recognize community expertise and meaningfully engage networks of people who use drugs at all levels, especially in decisions that directly affect our lives.

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References:

[1] UNODC, World Drug Report 2024 (United Nations publication, 2024).

[2] ibid.

[3] Harm Reduction International, The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2024.

[4] UNAIDS, 2024 Global AIDS Update Thematic briefing note: HIV and people who inject drugs.

[5] Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Sixty-seventh session. Implementation of the international drug control treaties: other matters arising from the international drug control treaties. (https://www.unodc.org/documents/commissions/CND/CND_Sessions/CND_67/Documents/ECN72024L5Rev2_unedited_revised.pdf)

[6] International guidelines on human rights and drug policy 2019. (https://www.humanrights-drugpolicy.org/site/assets/files/1/hrdp_guidelines_2019_v19.pdf)

[7] United Nations system common position supporting the implementation of the international drug control policy through effective inter-agency collaboration – 2018. (https://www.unodc.org/res/un-common-position-drugs/index_html/2315371E-eBook.pdf)