The inaugural Global Drug Policy Index was released by the Harm Reduction Consortium, on November 7, 2021.

The index was developed by International Drug Policy Consortium with the the partners in the Harm Reduction Consortium.

A first of its kind global drug policy index 2021 that ranks 30 countries drawn from across regions on how humane and health-driven their drug laws and policies are, gives India a score of 46 out of 100 with Norway at the top with 74 and Brazil at the bottom scoring 26. In terms of ranking India is at 18.

Key Points
• In this Global Drug Policy Index, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, the UK and Australia are the five leading countries with respect to humane and health-driven drug policies.
• Brazil, Uganda, Indonesia, Kenya, and Mexico are the five lowest-ranking countries.

India’s rank
• India has been ranked at 18th position out of 30 countries.
• India got an overall score of 46/100.
• On “use of extreme sentencing and responses” criteria, India scored 63/100.
• On health & harm reduction, it scored 49/100.
• On proportionality of criminal justice response, it got 38/100.
• On availability & access of internationally controlled substances for relief of pain & suffering, India scored 33 /100.

The index highlights that the global dominance of drug policies based on repression and punishment has led to low scores overall, with a median score of just 48 out of 100 for all 30 countries which is assessed as a “drug policy failure” and a sign for urgent measures to deal with the situation. Reflecting a long-standing global trend towards the abolition of the death penalty, the report highlights that only three out of these 30 countries – India, Indonesia and Thailand retain capital punishment for certain drug offences.