Even as human rights groups around the world decry the reign of terror unleashed in the name of drug enforcement in the Philippines, some countries in South and Southeast Asia are emulating Manila\u2019s crackdown as a model. The latest to embark down this path is the island nation of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka\u2019s President Maithripala Sirisena told his cabinet last week that he is \u201cready to sign the death warrants\u201d of repeat drug offenders, according to a spokesperson. \u201cFrom now on, we will hang drug offenders without commuting their death sentences,\u201d the representative told\u00a0The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sri Lanka declared a moratorium on executions in 1976, and since then, has been commuting death sentences to life in prison. There are now 19 drug convicts whose commuted death sentences are about be carried out \u2014 and that appears just to be the beginning.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were told that the Philippines has been successful in deploying the army and dealing with this problem,\u201d the presidential representative said. \u201cWe will try to replicate their success.\u201d<\/p>\n This quickly elicited protest. The European Union and other diplomatic missions immediately expressed their concern. In a joint statement, the EU delegation and the embassies of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada said they had written to Sirisena seeking urgent clarification on the matter.<\/p>\n The letter said the diplomats \u201cstrongly and unequivocally oppose capital punishment in all circumstances and in all cases,\u201d according to the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cThe death penalty is incompatible with human dignity, does not have any proven deterrent effect and allows judicial errors to become fatal and irreversible.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Sri Lanka\u2019s\u00a0Poisons, Opium, and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance<\/a>\u00a0of 1984, only opiates and cocaine are punishable by death. But penalties for possession of cannabis, even in small quantities, are harsh \u2014 with judges having wide discretion to impose prison terms.<\/p>\n And the move to resume executions comes amid growing cannabis busts and much official hyperventilation about the threat posed by \u201cKerala ganja.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s the name for cannabis coming across the Palk Strait from the southern Indian state of Kerala,\u00a0which has in recent years emerged as a major cannabis producer. India\u2019s\u00a0Deccan Chronicle reported<\/a>\u00a0in November of a wave of major seizures (up to 150 kilograms, or some 330 pounds) by Sri Lankan authorities, mostly along the island\u2019s northern coast. There\u2019s been\u00a0much sensationalism<\/a>\u00a0in Sri Lanka\u2019s media about the Kerala cannabis trade being under the control of Maoist guerillas.<\/p>\n In the latest haul, Sri Lankan naval forces arrested four Indian nationals bringing in a load of Kerala cannabis on July 16. Local news portal\u00a0Colombo Page<\/a>\u00a0said the haul of 36 kilos was seized from an Indian\u00a0ship west of Analathivu Island, off the northern coast.<\/p>\n There are also some signs of progress on the question of cannabis in Sri Lanka, even amid the big busts and media hype. The 1984 ordinance does make an exception for the cultivation of cannabis and production of extracts or tinctures \u2014 under tight government control. At present, there is little of that going on.<\/p>\n However, in 2013, the country\u2019s minister of indigenous medicine\u00a0submitted<\/a>\u00a0a bill to allow cultivation for medicinal purposes. Plus, the Ayurveda Act, the country\u2019s principal law on medicine, does allow prescription of cannabis, which has a centuries-old tradition of medicinal use on the island.<\/p>\n Finally, a proposal for commercial cultivation for export to the international medical market\u00a0was unveiled last September<\/a>. The idea,\u00a0reported by the AFP<\/a>\u00a0wire service, was announced by parliamentarian Rajitha Senaratne. He\u2019s calling for a 40-hectare (100-acre) plantation to produce some 25 metric tons of cannabis a year \u2014 under military supervision. In pitching the idea,\u00a0Senaratne noted Sri Lanka\u2019s long history of medicinal use.<\/p>\n \u201cGood cannabis is a vital ingredient in the preparation of traditional medicine,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n He noted that medical users in Sri Lanka now rely on handouts of seized contraband cannabis from judicial authorities. \u201cBy the time our native doctors get this cannabis, it is about four to five years old and it has lost its effectiveness,\u201d Senaratne said. His proposed farm would assure quality for the domestic market as well as generate foreign exchange.<\/p>\n In short, Sri Lanka\u2019s political establishment seems divided on the cannabis question \u2014 going simultaneously in contradictory directions.<\/p>\n With President Sirisena openly emulating the Philippines\u2019 ultra-hardline Rodrigo Duterte,\u00a0it is clear that the stakes are high.\u00a0In March 2017, when Philippine opposition lawmakers\u00a0launched impeachment proceedings<\/a>\u00a0against Duterte, they charged that his murderous police and paramilitary forces had killed 800,000 drug suspects since he took office in June 2016. The figure is likely now much higher, as the \u201cshoot-to-kill\u201d policy has continued \u2014 while the strongman\u2019s parliamentary bloc has held up the impeachment proceedings.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Sri Lanka\u2019s security forces already have plenty of experience in brutality. From the mid-1980s, the state fought a long and increasingly bloody war with ethnic Tamil guerrillas in the country\u2019s north, until they were finally crushed in 2009. The Sri Lankan government is now\u00a0rejecting calls for an international war crimes investigation<\/a>\u00a0into the conflict.<\/p>\n Nor is Sri Lanka alone in seeking to follow the Philippines\u2019 bloody example. Last year, Indonesia\u00a0imposed a \u201cstate of emergency<\/a>\u201d in response to a supposed crisis of illegal drug use, and announced a \u201cshoot-to-kill<\/a>\u201d policy modeled on Duterte\u2019s. This is already bearing grim fruit.\u00a0Human Rights Watch<\/a>\u00a0this week issued a new report accusing Indonesian police of a \u201ckilling spree,\u201d with many drug suspects shot while already in detention.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>,\u00a0do you support the death penalty?<\/p>\n The post Sri Lanka to \u2018Replicate\u2019 the Philippines\u2019 Drug-War Police State<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Even as human rights groups around the world decry the reign of terror unleashed in the name of drug enforcement in the Philippines, some countries in South and Southeast Asia are emulating Manila\u2019s crackdown as a model. The latest to embark down this path is the island nation of SriContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,5005,5006,5007,1973,35,5008,5009,731,81,1677],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27958,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27957\/revisions\/27958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cannabis Crackdown, Media \u2018Ganja Madness\u2019<\/h4>\n
Sri Lanka\u2019s Cannabis Contradiction<\/h4>\n
Duterte\u2019s Draconian Model<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Sri Lanka to \u2018Replicate\u2019 the Philippines\u2019 Drug-War Police State<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"