VI. Conclusions

There is no doubt that illegal drug use raises complex and multifaceted challenges for public policy makers. Traditionally, states’ policies on drug use have focused on both supply and demand reduction of drugs. Increasingly, states are incorporating public health perspectives to reduce the immediate harms of drug use, such as the spread of HIV and other blood borne diseases among people who use drugs. Reducing the supply of, the demand for, and the immediate harms associated with drug use are all clearly elements of a state’s policies on drugs, wherever drug use poses a serious threat to public health. But great care must be taken to ensure that the nature and implementation of supply and demand reduction polices are consistent with states’ human rights obligations.

Drug dependence is a chronic, relapsing disease. Drug users, both in and out of detention, have a right to access drug dependence treatment that is medically appropriate and comports with international standards. According to UNODC and WHO, “[t]he human rights of people with drug dependence should never be restricted on the grounds of treatment and rehabilitation.”[262] However, in Cambodia, people who use drugs are treated as though they have lost their human rights.

As “rehabilitation” or “treatment” for drug dependence, such centers are failures. Compounding the therapeutic ineffectiveness of detention itself, detainees are forced to perform activities that have no scientific basis for treating drug dependence, such as forced physical exercises, forced labor and forced military drills. As one NGO staff member with considerable experience working on drug issues in Cambodia explained to Human Rights Watch, “[In the centers] there is a total lack of understanding of addiction as a psychological and social process.”[263] There are no indications that the existing system of compulsory drug detention centers is reducing the number of Cambodians who use drugs.

Rather, the drug treatment centers appear driven by motivations of social control, retribution for the perceived moral failure of drug use, and profit. From the moment they are arrested to when they are finally released from the centers, detainees are subjected to sadistic violence. Violence is perpetrated on detainees who are children or mentally ill, regardless. Staff of centers can use electric batons, whip and beat detainees with impunity and order fellow detainees to do the same. In many instances, center staff exploit the detainees for their own benefit, whether that be forcing detainees to labor or coercing them to donate their blood. The detention of people in these centers and their subjection to such treatment is in violation of all applicable international standards.