The War on Drugs and Social Policy in Tanzania: Crackdowns, Prohibition and Control

• Main Author: Degenstein, Dane
• Other Authors: Brown, Stephen
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa 2020
• Subjects: African Politics; Drug Policy; Harm Reduction; Tanzania; Authoritarianism; War on Drugs; Heroin; Development; Aid; Sub-Saharan Africa
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/41209; http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-25433

In February 2017, Tanzanian President John Magufuli publicly declared a war on drugs, an unexpected change in policy in a country previously leading the way in harm reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. The war on drugs, a set of policies aimed at reducing drug supply and use through the punishment, forced treatment and criminalization of drug users, is a part of Magufuli’s strategy to ‘clean up’ Tanzanian society. Prior to his election, the Tanzanian government largely ignored treatment and drug policy, and foreign NGOs, in partnership with local activists, funded and implemented harm reduction interventions. This thesis seeks to understand a puzzling reversal from harm reduction to repression, posing the questions: 1) How did the Tanzanian government implement a war on drugs that went against the goals of a number of powerful foreign actors funding services for drug users? 2) What have been the outcomes for drug users in Tanzania as a result of the drug policies and programming implemented since the election of Magufuli? 3) How does Tanzania’s war on drugs shape international and domestic approaches to drug use and drug policy in the country? In the fall of 2018, I interviewed foreign and local NGO workers, officials from major international organizations and former drug users and activists in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Using interviews and observations during this fieldwork, I explore the realities on the ground underlying both the drug policy changes towards drug users implemented over 2016/17, and the more public crackdown on drug use in 2017. I rely on a constructivist methodology to challenge and interrogate the narratives being produced by the Tanzanian government, which echoed harsh, war on drugs ideology but also boasted about comprehensive harm reduction programming, a contradictory position I also explore in this thesis. In answer to my first research question, I argue that the Tanzanian government evaded donor pressure or interference in pursuing an anti-drug user agenda through strategies of appeasement, intimidation and the exploitation of a neglected policy area. The Tanzanian government touted its harm reduction program at the international level to produce a narrative of continued support for drug users, appeasing donors and foreign agencies while, in reality, narrowing the scope of treatment to the detriment of people who use drugs. The government also used intimidation tactics, threatening the work of foreign NGOs working with vulnerable population, which chose to stay and provide limited services rather than risk being kicked out of the country. The Tanzanian government, with limited resources, took advantage of donors’ focus on HIV/AIDS and lack of commitment to drug users, to maneuver and achieve a repressive policy agenda without interference. I build on this argument using the evidence I gathered during fieldwork to answer to my second research question. I argue that the outcomes of the Tanzanian drug war agenda were increased police harassment, higher drug prices and fear of punishment among drug users which led to riskier drug use, greater difficulty in accessing services and greater economic vulnerability. Drug users had to go farther, spend more money on drugs and face harassment as they tried to avoid dopesickness. Policy changes resulted in the closure of harm reduction centres frequented by drug users, limited access to needle exchange and limited the outreach efforts of local and international NGOs, making life much more difficult for people who use drugs. During my research, I found that, contrary to some of the literature I read which posited the war on drugs as a Western strategy of political control, the Tanzanian government was actually producing war on drugs narratives, and using these narratives to justify its repressive policies. This finding supports the answer to my third research question. I argue that the Tanzanian government produced narratives of drugs hindering development, causing corruption and threatening national unity. I also argue that donors such as the United Kingdom, and foreign agencies working in HIV/AIDS, are reproducing these narratives and are following an agenda, set by the Tanzanian government, that does not meet the needs of drug users and supports the centralization and repression of the Magufuli regime. Foreign agencies shifted from supporting drug users, to instead following an agenda that does not meet their goals in reaching drug users. Donors did not notice or prioritize the increased abuse of drug users’ human rights at all, accepting the provision of methadone as evidence of support for drug users and continuing to provide general budget support to the Tanzanian government and even providing specific funding to limit drug supply in the country. The effectiveness of Tanzania producing such narratives, and enacting the repressive policies war on drugs narratives justify, reveals global antipathy towards actually supporting people who use drugs and advancing the rights of people who use drugs. In upholding old war on drugs narratives and implementing policies that attack people who use drugs, Tanzania is contributing to an international consensus that the war on drugs is justified as long as basic treatment is provided. This thesis, using the voices of activists and advocates on the ground, deconstructs the Tanzanian war on drugs. I argue for the inclusion of those with lived experiences in shaping and changing the repressive drug policies and epistemologies that are being produced by the Tanzanian state and are being accepted by the international community.