While the current international drug control conventions establish a global consensus, alternatives are increasingly being adopted: there is decriminalisation in place in over 30 countries, and more and more nation-states are exploring the legal regulation of cannabis and other drugs. With this in mind, the HIV Legal Network, based in Canada but working worldwide, has recently published their “Model Law” for the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region. The report outlines an alternative model for drug regulation, providing guiding principles and recommendations for drug control, treatment and access, while prioritising people’s human dignity, rights and freedoms.
Published in English, Russian and Ukrainian, the law outlines:
- Principles for the regulation of drugs
- Rules for formulating drug lists in accordance with international drug control conventions
- Non-punitive measures to regulate and control the demand and supply of drugs
- How to ensure access to substances for medical and scientific purposes
- Regulation of non-commercial consumer unions and state-owned enterprises for drug production and distribution for recreational purposes
- Principles for harm reduction and prevention, including treatment and rehabilitation
TalkingDrugs spoke with Mikhail Golichenko, the lead author of the report, to understand its aims and ambitions.
Understanding the current EECA context
Russia has had a historically significant role in shaping drug policies within the EECA region. This influence was primarily exerted through the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – this intergovernmental organisation, formed after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, continued the political, economic and military legacy of the now-defunct USSR. While Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have left CIS as a response to Russian occupation, eight other nations remain as CIS member states.
As a result, many drug policies in this region are modelled after Russian drug policies, which are characterised by harsh punishments and over-incarceration. In 2006, the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, which was then chaired by a Russian representative, produced and adopted a model law on drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors, aiming to harmonise drug policies between CIS members. The model law outlines that the sale, use, distribution and production of drugs should be criminalised, encouraging member states to adopt this model law while internally determining fines and sentences for drug-related crimes.
“Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and to some extent Belarus used the model law [as legislative guidance]”, Golichenko told TalkingDrugs.
This approach to drug-related issues has had disastrous results for people who use drugs; the EECA region has the fastest-growing rate of HIV transmission in the world, with a 32% rise in AIDS-related deaths in the past 10 years. This public health crisis is compounded by the criminalisation of drugs and certain harm reduction interventions, as well as intense stigma surrounding drug use.
However, drug laws in the region are not immune to change. Ukraine legalised cannabis for medical purposes in February 2024, spurred by the pressures of an intense war with Russia and driven by the need to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in its military ranks. Decriminalisation has been suggested in multiple regional forums as a first step towards improving the health and human rights of people who use drugs, including by the United Nations, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, and others. With the global consensus fracturing on how best to reduce drug harms and control drug markets, there is a key opportunity to present the region with alternatives.
Capturing regional complexities
According to Golichenko, the new model law was created with the understanding of the dominant narratives around drug control in the region: punishment over rights, incarceration over access and Russian influence.
“We wanted to make a piece of legislation that reflects all modern perspectives, keeping in mind that our audience would be activists, progressive lawyers, and of course, government stakeholders.”
The document is purposefully sparse in detail; it aims to highlight guiding principles for drug control and how they would be legally implemented, enabling interested policy-makers and civil society organisations to adapt it to their context.
“We want to speak about [a new] approach: we want law enforcement to be less focused on possession offences, but more focused on commercial drug trafficking,” Golichenko said as an example.
The model law draws from global best practices. For example, it suggests removing criminal sanctions for the possession of drugs equal to or less than ten-days’ worth of supply, with daily doses determined according to individual’s own use and the substance’s purity.
The law also explicitly restricts police provocations, a common practice in Russia. This involves law enforcement influencing or provoking a suspect into committing an offence they otherwise would not have committed (such as encouraging people to sell drugs and subsequently arresting them).
The model law also suggests alternatives to abstinence-based treatment, where complete abstinence “is not a mandatory goal of treatment… nor is it a condition for continuing treatment in the case of substitution therapy.”
Establishing consumer unions
Interestingly, one section of the model law (article 10) covers the creation of non-commercial access to drugs through consumer unions. This model of access is particularly common as cannabis social clubs, or through compassion clubs, most famously seen in Canada.
Golichenko explained the reasoning behind this inclusion.
“We thought about the groups of people who use drugs asking, especially in the United States, ‘What about us, who used to run networks for [illegal] supply for many years? We know how the market works. And now all of a sudden you deprive us of our income, and you hand it over to commercial structures.’ Why are commercial structures [necessarily] better?”
A consumer union, composed of people who use drugs, could become a channel for local demand for a substance through a legal, safe and overseen pathway, whether that involves purchasing it themselves or putting in a request with a public body for access.
Slow-burning impact
For Golichenko, the model law’s ambitions will be fulfilled if it is digested, discussed and adapted by civil society for their local and national contexts.
“The idea is to have it in public domain, and make it ready for all future projects, which would be based on activism, future reform visions and dialogue,” Golichenko said. “It’s the pretext for new or continuous dialogue about reform. It’s an ongoing process.”
It will be particularly effective in discussions with policy-makers and legal advocates who may not be convinced about the legitimacy of change. A document with foundational principles and model legislation makes drug policy reform based on progress and human rights not just a wishful vision, but an achievable reality.
The EECA model law is available here in English, Russian and Ukrainian.
