Telling Numbers: A ranking of countries on drug policies and implementation

The inaugural Global Drug Policy Index, released on Sunday by the Harm Reduction Consortium, ranks Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, the UK and Australia as the five leading countries on humane and health-driven drug policies.

The five lowest-ranking countries are Brazil, Uganda, Indonesia, Kenya, and Mexico. India’s rank is 18 out of 30 countries

WHAT’S THIS INDEX: It is a data-driven global analysis of drug policies and their implementation. It is composed of 75 indicators running across five broad dimensions of drug policy: criminal justice, extreme responses, health and harm reduction, access to internationally controlled medicines, and development.

It is a project of the Harm Reduction Consortium, whose partners include: the European Network of People Who Use Drugs (EuroNPUD), the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA), the Eurasian Network of People who Use Drugs (ENPUD), the Global Drug Policy Observatory (GDPO) / Swansea University, Harm Reduction International (HRI), the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), the Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA), the West African Drug Policy Network (WADPN), the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN), and Youth RISE.

Rankings of selected countries

READING THE RANKINGS: Norway, despite topping the Index, only managed a score of 74/100. And the median score across all 30 countries and dimensions is just 48/100. “48 out of 100 is a drug policy fail in anyone’s book. None of the countries assessed should feel good about their score on drug policy, because no country has reached a perfect score. Or anywhere near it,” said Ann Fordham, Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Consortium which led on the development of the Index with the partners in the Harm Reduction Consortium.

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India has an overall score of 46/100. On the criteria of use of extreme sentencing and responses, it has a score of 63/100, on health and harm reduction, 49/100; on proportionality of criminal justice response, 38/100; on availability and access of internationally controlled substances for the relief of pain and suffering, 33 /100.

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