Support don't punish!

Karen Mamo is a harm reduction expert and drug researcher

Joana Canedo is a human rights advocate

Every year since 1987, the United Nations established the 26th of June as the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Governments have used this date to reconfirm their unwavering commitment to levy a "War on Drugs" and the promotion of harsh and militarised approaches to address the demand and supply of drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, ketamine, and others. Such examples include the death penalty, disproportionate criminal consequences for possession and gifting, and morally driven prevention campaigns based on 'Just say No!'

As attested for the past twenty years by the UN Special Rapporteur for Health and civil society networks representing the voice of people who use drugs, drug laws and policies criminalising drug use, possession and small-scale dealing cause more harm than the actual substance.

In over 60 years of international drug control and prohibition, thousands of people across the world were locked up for drug-related charges. Others had their human rights breached by being given an ultimatum to go abstinent or else be sent to prison. Today, thousands continue to have their health, economic, social, cultural and political rights denied and thwarted by experts, institutions and society. 

In the late 1980’s calls for people-centred drug policies and harm reduction emerged as a response to the negative ancillary unintended consequences of criminalisation, such as increased levels of incarceration, fatal overdoses and spread of HIV.

Harm reduction challenges the conventional view that addiction is a moral, strictly biological or criminal issue. Harm Reduction recognises the importance of adopting pragmatic, health and social justice-centred solutions respecting agency, autonomy and empowerment. Over time, the approach expanded to include also the responsible regulation of drugs, such as cannabis, and the possibility to access other services such as drug checking, drug consumption rooms, and specific educational tools, such as for those attending chemsex parties.

Nonetheless, the annual report on the Global State of Harm Reduction by Harm Reduction International highlights that despite recognition that harm reduction is the only evidence-based approach to address drug use, punitive approaches and dehumanising language are still dominating national and regional discourse and responses. 

Furthermore, harm reduction principles, practices and funding have been in recent years threatened by morally driven perceptions on human behaviour and the rekindling of extremist politics of division. The most negatively impacted are those already on the margins of society, such as youths, women, LGBTQI+ people, indigenous people, migrants and people in prison.

So why Support don't Punish!?

This international civil and social rights movement has been for over ten years facilitating advocacy and dialogue across a network of professionals, peers, researchers, policy makers, families and more stakeholders pushing for more just, and human rights-based drug policies.

Furthermore, the Support don’t Punish platform prioritises the meaningful participation of people with living experiences of drug use and considers inclusive participation by different voices as a cornerstone for effective and long-term policies. Promoting meaningful participation requires addressing power imbalances, reducing barriers to involvement (such as stigma or criminalization), and creating platforms where marginalized voices are not only heard but also respected and acted upon.

This participatory approach ensures that policies are not just for communities but co-created with them, fostering empowerment and ultimately improving outcome.

Peer-led organisations advocating for drug-users rights have been active across Europe since the mid-80s. The Junkiebond in Rotterdam is probably one of the most famous as it launched the world’s first needle and syringe programme in response to Hepatitis B among people who inject drugs. Since 2011, the European Network of People Who Use Drugs (EuroNPUD) has been acting as the regional drug user rights network in the European Union, and forms part of the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD).

On the occasion of the Support Don't Punish campaign for 2025, Harm Reduction Malta joins EuroNPUD’s call for;

• Increased drug user rights, including urgent meaningful representation of living experiences in drugs policy design and implementation
• Legal frameworks allowing self-determination, autonomy and free from coercive and/or abstinence only treatment
• Comprehensive harm reduction tools and safer drug use educational opportunities, including the responsible regulation of drugs
• Increased policy structures ensuring equality, and the establishment of restorative justice tools for groups most negatively impacted by criminalisation and prohibition.