By Lenny Roth, Tom Gotsis, Christine Lamerton, Ali Rabbani

Government policy to address the use of illicit drugs is a topic of ongoing debate. 

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update on key policy developments since the report of the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug Ice in January 2020. The paper summarises the former government's response to the inquiry recommendations and notes progress that has been made since then. Significant reforms in other states and territories are outlined and the decriminalisation of personal drug use in three overseas jurisdictions is also discussed.

Key points

• The NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug Ice was established in 2018 to investigate and advise on how best to tackle use of amphetamine-type stimulants. Its report was released in January 2020 and made 109 recommendations.

• The former government’s response to the inquiry supported 86 of these recommendations. The government announced a $500 million funding package over 4 years including $358 million for health-related programs and $140 million to expand justice initiatives. 

• Recommendations that the government rejected included decriminalising the personal use of illicit drugs, introducing pill testing, and expanding supervised drug consumption facilities.

• In February 2024 NSW Health provided an update on progress in implementing the recommendations that the government had supported. 

• A new police diversion program for possessing small quantities of illicit drugs commenced in February 2024 (the Early Drug Diversion Initiative). Critics have argued that police are diverting only a small proportion of those who are eligible for the program. 

• In 2023 the ACT enacted laws to decriminalise personal use of small amounts of various illicit drugs. Pill testing services have continued in the ACT, were introduced in 2024 in Queensland, and will commence in Victoria in the summer of 2024–25. 

• Oregon decriminalised the personal use of illicit drugs in 2021 and British Columbia also did so in 2023. In 2024 Oregon reinstated criminal penalties while recent changes in British Columbia have restricted the public places where personal drug use is legal. 

• In 2022–23 most respondents to Australia’s Drug Strategy Household Survey did not support legalising the personal use of illicit drugs but most respondents did support pill testing and regulated injecting centres.

NSW Parliamentary Research Service, 2024

By Romain Le Cour Grandmaison

This article explores the construction – or reconstruction – of brokerage channels by violent actors in Mexico. It focuses on the construction of the Autodefensas de Michoacán (Self Defense Groups of Michoacán) and studies the process that put illegal armed leaders in active dialogue with the Mexican federal government, but also how they became brokers capable of controlling access to strategic political resources, economic markets, and the connections that tie local citizens and the central state. Through the concept of political inter-mediation, I investigate how coercion, as a skill and resource, has become central to governance in Mexico; and how this leads to consolidating intermediaries that participate in reproducing local, violent political order. This article shall contribute to the understanding of brokerage in contexts of violence, and shed new light on the political logic fueling the dynamics of violence in Mexico’s war on drugs. Keywords: drug cartels, brokerage, Mexico, war on drugs, state, violence.   

European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe, No. 112 (July-December 2021), pp. 137-158  

By María Calderón 

Mexican cartels represent a multifaceted and complex problem with significant implications for Mexico and the United States. These criminal organizations have long been a U.S. national security concern, which has become more severe with an increase of lethal drugs smuggled into the U.S., impacting millions of lives in North America. There are debates between governments and organizations on the most impactful way to combat these illicit groups. These have included the question of whether designating Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) would debilitate transnational criminal organizations and reduce the amount of drugs entering the United States. An FTO is a legal designation the United States government uses to identify foreign organizations that engage in premeditated, politically motivated acts of terrorism against noncombatant targets. Designating a group as an FTO carries legal and financial implications aimed at protecting national security. In the past, when Mexican cartels have harmed American citizens, members of Congress and other experts have been quick to propose an FTO designation for these organizations. However, designating a group as an FTO requires completing a specific and multi-faceted legal process and meeting certain criteria. The potential designation of Mexican cartels as FTOs is complex and contentious as it involves considering various implications, including security concerns, legal issues, and human rights impacts. This paper aims to explain the stages of an FTO designation and the roles of the various government stakeholders involved. Clarifying the complexities and technicalities of this process may prove beneficial when engaging in debates and weighing the potential impact of an eventual FTO designation for Mexican cartels.

Washington, DC:  Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2024. 16p.

By Arjun Punaji

India has risen as a global attraction, captivating audiences with its vibrant cinematic innovations, rich artistic heritage, and profound literary works. These very expressions, however, sometimes clash with the state's desire to follow expected moral codes. The government, wary of "immoral activities" within these creative mediums, prescribes certain norms and imposes penalties for non-compliance. One such contested area is "obscenity," a concept with criminal law repercussions. This paper delves into Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the concept of obscenity. I will analyse the current legal tests and thresholds for obscenity in light of a rapidly changing world that demands more liberal legislation. Since "obscenity" often aligns with "socially immoral codes," I will examine obscene material through the lens of legal moralism. This paper's main focus is to examine the sanctity and clarity of ‘contemporary community standard’ and also examine that does morality and decency have static meanings or changes over time. Though the ‘Contemporary Community Standard’ is a good law at present, and invoked this standard repeatedly, courts were unable to define and clarify what the contemporary community standard constitutes. My argument is that this standard is problematic and unconvincing since the ‘Contemporary community standard’ itself is highly subjective because within the same community, both conservative and liberal ideas meet and one’s ugliness may become another’s creativity and freedom of expression. Also, morality does not uniformly apply in the same society. What I ‘like’ and approve of material or content may be ‘disgusting’ to others and the ‘contemporary community’ belongs to all sections of society such as rich and poor, readers and illiterates, old and adult, conservatives, and liberals. Therefore, I examine this standard through a ‘legal moralism’ perspective. This includes exploring the famous arguments of Lord Devlin in his "The Enforcement of Morals" lecture, along with the counter-arguments presented by H.L.A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin. Furthermore, we will investigate some of India's landmark (or controversial) obscenity cases. These cases often rely heavily on Western legal interpretations like the Hicklin Test, Miller Test, and the Contemporary Community Standard Test, without providing clear explanations for their application in the Indian context. This analysis aims to demonstrate why India needs to reevaluate its current legal tests in light of societal changes. Then I will propose the "harm principle" as a framework for regulating obscenity, advocating for a higher threshold for punishment. By taking a critical look at existing legal frameworks and advocating for a harm based approach, we can ensure that India's vibrant artistic expressions can flourish while upholding a sense of community decency.

National Law School of Indian University

By InfoAmazonia, Armando.Info and La Liga Contra el Silencio), Amazon Watch and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC).

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, covering some 7 million square kilometres and linking nine countries, has become one of the main sources and transit points for criminal economies in Latin America. From shipments of cocaine, gold and timber moving down its hundreds of rivers, to the makeshift airstrips that facilitate the nightly movement of small contraband planes, the Amazon is now home to a complex underground economy that feeds growing global demand but also fuels violence and deforestation. The unchecked actions of increasingly powerful criminal organizations pose an existential threat to the planet’s most biodiverse region and the communities it shelters. Over the past decade, the Amazon has become one of the most dangerous regions in Latin America, with marginalized communities bearing the brunt of the violence. In Brazil, for example, indigenous communities have been systematically subjected to violent invasions by armed garimpeiros (miners), while in Colombia’s nine Amazon departments, where 43 massacres have been documented since 2020, non-state armed groups terrorize rural communities. In Peru, drug traffickers are increasingly recruiting indigenous children to work on coca plantations, and guerrilla groups are sending entire families to work in illegal gold mines in Venezuela. In 2022, one in five killings of land and environmental defenders worldwide occurred in the Amazon.As demand for illicit goods, particularly cocaine, has risen to historically high levels and the price of gold has increased dramatically since the early 2000s, so have criminal opportunities.4 This, combined with a low state presence, high levels of corruption, decades of faltering security strategies and a lack of coordination between states, has created the perfect environment for some of Latin America’s most prolific criminal groups to reorganize and take over. The reshuffling of the local criminal ecosystem – which includes Colombian guerrilla groups, Brazilian gangs, Peruvian criminal groups (including drug and human traffickers) and Venezuelan crime syndicates – has resulted in some groups being wiped off the map, leaving room for others to emerge or expand. Through field research and data analysis, Amazon Underworld found that non-state armed groups or crime syndicates are active in 70 per cent of the municipalities investigated in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela (see the methodology section below), and that all of the Amazon’s borders have at least one armed actor on one side of the divide.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.2023. 40p.