Are our drug policies really working?

18 September 2012

Michel Kazatchkine and Jon Ungphakorn

As the Thai police announce their war on drugs a success, the Ministry of Justice, alongside the TNI and the IDPC hold their high level meeting to review the country's response to drug use. With the alarming rise of HIV-positive drug injectors, again comes the question, how to measure ‘‘success’’ when it comes to drug policies?

On Monday, the Ministry of Justice, alongside the Transnational Institute and the International Drug Policy Consortium, is holding a high-level meeting to review the country’s legal response to drug use. The latest government announcement raises, once again, a fundamental question: how to measure ‘‘success’’ when it comes to drug policies?

The results quoted by Thai officials — and by many governments around the world — focus on amounts of drugs seized and numbers of people arrested. These represent the immediate results of specific law enforcement actions, and are easy to measure — which is why they are bandied about freely by politicians and government agencies looking to justify the huge investments made in this area.

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