The criminalisation of drug use and drug possession for personal use, in the context of repressive drug policies, leads to the arbitrary detention of people who use drugs, and to forced detention and treatment. There are credible and systematic reports of violence and human rights violations committed in criminal and administrative detention against people who use drugs.

This report – submitted jointly to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network – focuses on forms of violence in situations of deprivation of liberty for drug-related offences.

Accordingly, it provides information on (1) Withdrawal symptoms in detention, and (2) Violence in the context of administrative drug detention.