Fentanyl, shabu and Duterte: how do you solve a drug problem?
Legalization, decriminalization or extermination?
Politicians, drug users, doctors and revolutionaries converged in downtown Montreal last week at the annual Harm Reduction International Conference. Their message: treat drug addiction as a health problem, not a criminal offense.
On the agenda was a discussion attended by dozens of the world’s foremost drug harm reduction experts about how to deal with the opioid crisis in Canada and the United States. It’s a conversation that isn’t happening in the Philippines, where a violent war on drug users is raging.
In Toronto and Vancouver it’s fentanyl. In Buffalo, New York it’s heroin. In Columbia it’s cocaine. Tens of thousands have died in Mexico as a result of drug trafficking in the past decade. In the Philippines, the drug of choice is crystal meth, known to the locals as Shabu.
The drug “problem” is a global one.
Canada
The problem: Fentanyl, heroin and other opiates. Metropolitan areas like Vancouver and Toronto are being hit hardest but experts say the opioid crisis is spreading.
At the Harm Reduction International Conference on May 17, in a small space outside one of the main auditoriums, people sat in a circle, some on the floor, some on chairs and some on colorful beanbags. In attendance were drug consumers, social workers, scientists and doctors. Most of them referred to themselves as harm reductionists.
Harm reduction is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. Harm Reduction is also a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs. — The Harm Reduction Coalition
The group of about 30 people passed around one microphone, exchanging ideas about how to address a drug that is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin:
Fentanyl.
To pharmacists it’s known as Actiq®, Duragesic® or Sublimaze®.
To users it could be “Apache,” “China Girl” or “Friend.”
“People are dying with fentanyl, but people are also living with fentanyl, it’s what users want,” said Allan Clear, the New York State director for drug user health and narrator of the fentanyl discussion.
The rhetoric surrounding fentanyl use and abuse tends to be filled with statistics and death tolls. Clear noted that there’s still not enough known about the fentanyl crisis to address it properly.
“We don’t know what people are putting into their bodies,” said Clear. “we only know what comes out of the bodies of people who have died.”
Harm reductionists who seek the legalization and decriminalization of drugs often work at odds with law enforcement agencies.
Kris Nyrop is the director of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program (LEAD) in Seattle Washington; a program meant to guide police officers towards using community rehabilitation methods to deal with drug offences rather than arrest and imprisonment. He thinks that law enforcement will have to be part of any solution to solve the opioid crisis.
“Police officers are coming to see that harm reduction actually helps them and makes their job easier and gives them better results than putting people in jail,” said Nyrop.
“I think that bringing law enforcement into this conversation in a much more proactive way and making them believe that they can be a part of the solution without using criminal justice tools but using harm reduction is something that we should be exploring a lot more.”
His comments drew cheers from the crowd.
The Philippines:
The problem: In 2009, a US government report Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is waging a war on drug addicts. 8000 people have been killed since he began his crusade last year.
Senator Risa Hontiveros from the Philippines appeared via Skype at the Harm Reduction Conference, speaking to a packed auditorium. She is one of the few politicians in the Philippines pushing back against Duterte.
Duterte won the presidency in May, 2016 on a platform that included a promise to rid the Philippines of it’s drug users.
“Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now there is 3 million, what is it? 3 million drug addicts (in the Philippines),” he said in a speech in his hometown of Davao City. “I’d be happy to slaughter them. At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have (me).”
Hontiveros wants to change the narrative.
“The most important thing is to provide a counterpoint,” said Hontiveros. “To tell the people affected that they are human.”
Hontiveros fights back against Duterte’s campaign by speaking out. She recognizes that Duterte was democratically elected and that she needs to change the minds of those who voted for him in order to see progress.
“There is a stigma against drug use that gives political control to leaders like Duterte,” she said. “I want drug use to be considered a public health issue, not something to be solved by despots who play god.”
First Degree is a crime column written by Matt Lapierre published every Tuesday by The Pitchwriter. Follow us to receive our stories every day in your inbox.
