Malaui: Plataforma impulsa reforma de políticas sobre drogas

La coalición de la sociedad civil enfatiza que los retos relacionados con las drogas tienen un carácter social, y requieren enfoques de reducción de daño antes que criminalización. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

By Lucky Mkandawire, The Nation

A consortium of organisations is pushing for drug policy reforms for the country to have a more humane and health-based response approach to negative consequences of the war against drugs.

The Drug Policy and Harm Reduction Platform (DPHRP) says as drug debates evolve, more countries are realising that penalising people who use drugs (Pwuds) is an excessive approach, as such, there is need for alternative approaches.

DPHRP board chairperson Undule Mwakasungula observed that Malawi has not been spared from negative consequences of the war on drugs that have proven ineffective in reducing the scale of the drug market.

“These consequences have negatively impacted on Inadequately Served Populations [ISPs] such as Pwuds with severe human rights violations directly related to criminalisation and stigmatisation targeted at even women mostly sex workers and prisoners,” he said.