Ideas into movement
Boost TNI's work
50 years. Hundreds of social struggles. Countless ideas turned into movement.
Support us as we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2024.
Across the hemisphere, frustration is grow- ing with the failure of the “war on drugs.” Many Latin American countries face rising rates of drug consumption, despite harsh drug laws that have left prisons bursting at the seams.
In Ecuador, the Correa government’s comprehensive justice sector reform project includes significant changes in drug legislation. The country has one of the most punitive drug laws in the hemisphere. In a perversion of justice, those accused of drug offenses are assumed guilty unless they can prove their innocence, mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines ensure excessively long sentences and arrest quotas have led to the imprisonment of growing numbers of those at the lowest end of the drug trafficking trade.
By 2008, Ecuador’s justice system had reached a breaking point, overwhelmed by huge caseloads of drug-related offenses, and prisons were bursting at the seams. The need for significant reforms was painfully clear. This brief explains why and how the Ecuadorian government arrived at its decision to undertake significant drug law reform and how, if implemented successfully, those reforms could result in more effective, just and humane national drug control policies, setting an example for the rest of the region.