Filipinos arrested during a drug-buying operation wait to be brought to a police station for verification at a slum area in Manila in September 2016. According to the Philippine government, President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs had resulted in more than 5,000 deaths at the end of 2018, though opposition politicians and human rights groups place the toll as high as 20,000. Photo: EPA Filipinos arrested during a drug-buying operation wait to be brought to a police station for verification at a slum area in Manila in September 2016. According to the Philippine government, President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs had resulted in more than 5,000 deaths at the end of 2018, though opposition politicians and human rights groups place the toll as high as 20,000. Photo: EPA
Filipinos arrested during a drug-buying operation wait to be brought to a police station for verification at a slum area in Manila in September 2016. According to the Philippine government, President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs had resulted in more than 5,000 deaths at the end of 2018, though opposition politicians and human rights groups place the toll as high as 20,000. Photo: EPA
José Ramos-Horta
Opinion

Opinion

José Ramos-Horta

From the Philippines to Indonesia and Afghanistan, Asia’s brutal drug policies have failed

  • Ten years of heavy-handed drug policy has not lowered use but it has increased the misery for addicts and for those who enter the trade out of economic necessity. It’s time for a new strategy

José Ramos-Horta
José Ramos-Horta

Updated: 7:24pm, 20 Feb, 2019

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Filipinos arrested during a drug-buying operation wait to be brought to a police station for verification at a slum area in Manila in September 2016. According to the Philippine government, President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs had resulted in more than 5,000 deaths at the end of 2018, though opposition politicians and human rights groups place the toll as high as 20,000. Photo: EPA Filipinos arrested during a drug-buying operation wait to be brought to a police station for verification at a slum area in Manila in September 2016. According to the Philippine government, President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs had resulted in more than 5,000 deaths at the end of 2018, though opposition politicians and human rights groups place the toll as high as 20,000. Photo: EPA
Filipinos arrested during a drug-buying operation wait to be brought to a police station for verification at a slum area in Manila in September 2016. According to the Philippine government, President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs had resulted in more than 5,000 deaths at the end of 2018, though opposition politicians and human rights groups place the toll as high as 20,000. Photo: EPA
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José Ramos-Horta

José Ramos-Horta

José Ramos-Horta is former president of Timor-Leste, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.