February, 2010
The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the International Council of AIDS Services Organizations (ICASO) are conducting an online consultation for civil society and other interested parties to input into the draft community systems strengthening framework (CSS for short). Please feed into this consultation through the online survey by no later than 5th March 2010. It is crucial to get the views from harm reduction and drug user organisations.
On 23 February 2010, the first patients in Kabul, Afghanistan received methadone within the Médecins du Monde Harm Reduction Programme. More than two years after the National Consensus Conference on OST was held with the participation of the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, a comprehensive range of harm reduction services has now been made available in Afghanistan.
Human Rights Watch issued a 93-page report, "Skin on the Cable," on January 25, 2010, with reports of widespread beatings, whippings, and electric shock to detainees, including children and individuals with mental disabilities, in seven Cambodian drug detention centers. In response, several United Nations agencies, including the joint UN program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), have spoken out about the abuses. But the two UN agencies that work most closely with the government in detention centers and on drug policy, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), have been less vocal.
The UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) annual report released today pointedly criticizes Argentina, Brazil and Mexico for moving to decriminalize the possession of drugs for personal consumption, cautioning that such moves may "send the wrong message." The INCB report expresses concern over "the growing movement to decriminalize the possession of controlled drugs" and calls for this movement to be "resolutely countered" by the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and the United States. According to the Transnational Institute (TNI) and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the criticisms leveled today clearly overstep the INCB's mandate and constitute unwarranted intrusions into these countries' sovereign decision-making.
The book entitled "Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate", published on 25 January 2010 by the Beckley Foundation and Oxford University Press, was researched and written by a group of the world's leading drug policy analysts. It gives an overview of the latest scientific evidence surrounding cannabis and calls for an evidence-based approach to policy that seeks to minimise the harms associated with use of that drug.
The most significant review of New Zealand's drug law has begun. An independent law advisory body, the Law Commission, has released its issues paper - Controlling and Regulating Drugs - for public consultation until 30 April 2010. Their paper traces the history of drug policy and regulation in New Zealand, and reviews the current approach to drug control and regulation. It makes some preliminary proposals for how New Zealand’s drug laws can be updated to put in place a modern and evidence-based statute. The Commission said of current drug law: “no longer provides a coherent and effective legislative framework for responding to the misuse of psychoactive drugs… The Act is now outdated and does not reflect current knowledge and understanding about drug use and related health, social and economic harms.”
From November 12-14, over 1,000 participants came together at the 2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was the Reform Conference’s strongest, most diverse gathering of people, issues, co-hosts, and partner organizations yet. The conference focused on the rapidly changing political climate and forward-thinking issues, such as systems for marijuana regulation, supervised injection sites in the U.S., and shifting drug use from a criminal justice to a health issue. The conference reflected the diversity of our growing movement, with the largest contingent ever from outside the U.S. - more than 150 international participants representing 33 countries.
Mark your calendar! The next Reform Conference will be at the Westing Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles from November 2 to 5 2011.
Last month's decision by the British Columbia appeals court to allow North America’s only safe-injection site to stay open will be taken to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Insite facility that provides a space for drug users to safely inject themselves has caused tension between the local government and the Conservative federal government. The previous liberal government had granted the site exemption from federal drug laws but now the current government wants to shut the site down.