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It demonstrates the racist and xenophobic impact of drug control policy and proposes a path to move beyond oppressive systems and structures.

This paper reviews evidence of how drug control has been used to uphold colonial power structures in select countries. Footnote 3 This failed policy approach has created tools for, and served to sustain, the legacy of colonization. Countries have been colonized by the insistence that they must combat the drugs trade and use of drugs through "universal action that calls for international cooperation”. Countries in the global south have been encouraged, coerced or obliged to criminalize (sometimes in the form of militarized interventions) responses to the drug trade and people who use drugs. Drug harms and drug-related deaths have increased the demand for unregulated drugs, Footnote 2 and the high economic cost of punitive drug law enforcement has yet to show any return on investment.ĭespite the failures of the war on drugs, a minority of countries has used their economic, political and military power to export their drug policies. Drug law enforcement has led to mass incarceration, Footnote 1 arbitrary arrests and detention and devastating police brutality. Globally, it is people of color and other marginalized communities who have faced the harshest impact. Instead, it has resulted in a devastating trail of trauma, pain and suffering for families and communities.

The war on drugs has failed in its stated goal of reducing drug use. Colin Kaepernick, American civil rights activist and former footballer “Only by dismantling unjust systems can we imagine a future that is safe, healthy, and truly free.” It outlines a three-pillared approach to rebuilding drug policy in a way that supports health, dignity and human rights, consisting of: (1) the decriminalization of drugs and their use (2) an end to the mass incarceration of people who use drugs (3) the redirection of funding away from ineffective and punitive drug control and toward health and social programs. This review provides further evidence of the need to reform the current system. Current drug policies have contributed to an increase in drug-related deaths, overdoses and sustained transnational criminal enterprises at the expense of the lives of people who use drugs, their families and greater society. These communities face higher arrest, prosecution and incarceration rates for drug offenses than other communities, such as majority populations, despite similar rates of drug use and selling among (and between) different races. Globally, Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples are disproportionately targeted for drug law enforcement and face discrimination across the criminal system.

The ‘colonization of drug control’ refers to the use of drug control by states in Europe and America to advance and sustain the systematic exploitation of people, land and resources and the racialized hierarchies, which were established under colonial control and continue to dominate today.