Would anyone from Myanmar like to respond to this request for information?
[him] moderator
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Open Society Foundation’s International Harm Reduction Development Program is trying to learn more about use of drug testing in various countries across the world. We aren’t interested in testing of drivers, pilots or other employees, or in use of drug testing in schools or universities, but rather in those examples where police or security services perform widespread or indiscriminate testing, or use drug testing to target known drug users or those who work with them.
- For example, in China, police arrive to perform urine tests on those whose identity cards show them to be a methadone patient or someone with a history of drug use. People complain that they are publicly humiliated and drug tested when they go about routine activities like checking into a hotel in a new city or registering a child for school.
- In Georgia, police randomly test suspected drug users and outreach workers, and impose enormous fines for positive tests. If people can't pay, they go to prison.
We have heard stories of police setting up roadblocks and testing everyone (not just drivers), or going into nightclubs and testing everyone there. But this has not been carefully documented. We'd like to learn more about where this happens and how it works.
For example, in your country:
- Do police or other security services regularly perform drug tests? Are there laws that mandate such testing? Are police motivated by arrest quotas? By the desire to extract bribes?
- Are there certain venues where drug tests are usually conducted, or where police go to find people to test?
- Are police targeting everyone in a given area, or are they singling out people reported to be drug users, or who have been registered as drug users? Do they stake out harm reduction or health services for the purpose of testing?
- What kinds of drug tests are used (urine or blood)? Are there particular drugs that police are looking for?
- If people test positive, what are the consequences?
- What do you think are the effects of drug testing on drug users' health and wellbeing?
- Do you have any stories you can share about real-life experiences with drug testing?
Thank you so much for your willingness to document this issue. If you could email me at saucier.roxanne@gmail.com with any information or even suggestions of key contacts, that would be very helpful!
Roxanne Saucier for the International Harm Reduction Development Program
