A gender perspective on the impact of drug use, the drug trade, and drug control regimes

UN Women shares the main messages of the task force and the UN system’s approach to the world drug problem: that an emphasis on security, criminal justice, and law enforcement have only yielded mixed results at substantial human security and financial cost; that a greater emphasis on the public health dimensions and the socioeconomic consequences of the problem is preferable; that member states should avoid militarizing counter trafficking measures and criminalizing the most vulnerable in the chain of drug production and drug trafficking, including the possibility of decriminalizing drug use and low-level, non-violent drug offenses; that eradication efforts will not succeed without alternative economic incentives for affected populations; that the world drug problem needs to be addressed, in sum, in a more balanced and humane way, prioritizing evidence-based, health centered approaches focused on prevention, treatment, and social rehabilitation and integration, and addressing both supply and demand.

Therefore, apart from a more humane and balanced approach to international drug control efforts, centered on human rights and emphasizing the public health dimensions of this crisis, this approach must also be gender responsive. (…) We need more country-specific information about how the drug trade affects women’ security, why women become involved in drug use and drug trafficking –including through coercion-, and about women’s experience of accessing justice for drug-related crimes or social and medical services for drug use. We need legal systems to take into account the differentiated needs and circumstances of women and men. For example, Costa Rica has recently reformed its laws on prison sentences to make them more gender-sensitive. As of 2013, sentences were reduced from a minimum of 8 years and maximum of 20, to a minimum of 3 years and maximum of 8 years for women who meet one of the following conditions: they live in poverty; are head of an economically vulnerable household; they care for minor children, senior citizens or persons with disabilities; or are senior citizens living in vulnerable situations. All assessments of transnational organized crime, and all actions planned to address it, should take into account indicators of gender-based discrimination or violence. Women’s greater representation in the frontline of justice, police systems, and drug treatment facilities would go a long way towards better protecting women’s rights. Women’s empowerment in all facets of life would be the first line of defense at the family and community levels against the destructive effects of this crisis.