The Central Drug Agency is recommending that illicit drug use to be decriminalised – and for the first time ever consulted drug users.
The CDA is part of a statutory body in the department of social development that is developing a national drug master plan.
“There [is] consensus that we need to be looking at decriminalisation based on the fact we want to reduce the stigma and instead of incarcerating people‚ we would rather treat people‚” said David Bayever‚ chairperson of the CDA.
He was talking at the 2017 Nation Drug Policy Week in Woodstock‚ Cape Town‚ where data of the consultation was made available.
The results were published on Thursday. The event focused on human rights violations and abuses suffered by users of illicit drugs‚ as well as on findings influencing the drug plan.
Bayever said the simple reason for involving drug users was to find out what they had as an expectation and what they would see as essential for their recovery or treatment.
“The only people who could explain that best is people who are or were using‚” he said. “The first draft is complete but more consultations still have to take place and [we’re] hoping to table the plan in Parliament by the end of this year.”
One of the reports found that in major cities such as Durban and Pretoria the Metro Police were responsible for 45% and 35% of human rights violations respectively. In Cape Town‚ police were responsible for 65% of all reported violations‚ followed by private sector security forces (including improvement districts) at 25%.
The programme manager for the Step-Up report‚ Nelson Medreiros‚ said it was the constitutional right of users to be consulted.
“Users can say how policies inflict on them and have better access to care‚” said Medreiros.
by Farren Collins
http://therep.co.za/2017/08/01/dagga-legalisati…an-live-streamed/
