Filmed in fall 2017, the video itself is a powerful advocacy tool for Montenegro, and even though the length of the video is just 13 minutes, we managed to send a strong message – that Harm reduction in Montenegro works, and that it should be funded.

Juventas as an NGO started its work in 1996, and managed to be at the centre of events related to specific categories of people in Montenegro and their rights. Since 2004, we started our work with PWID and SW, and during the “golden years” of getting the Global Fund to fund our services, we have done really well. Obstacles were there, for sure, everywhere we went, but we managed to somehow work despite them, and we still do.

We showed the desire and effort to keep the program running after the departure of the Global Fund, when we were no longer eligible for funding as Montenegro had become a middle-income country. At that time, we were faced with reality – without funding, we were forced to close almost all existing services within our Drop-in Centres apart from the needle and syringe exchange within the Drop-in centre for persons who inject drugs. Fortunately, after a number of difficult months, our efforts paid off, and all our services started working again. The support of the Global fund matched with domestic funding for the next three years is conditionally provided.

In the documentary, we speak about our daily work, how we run our Drop-in centres and outreach work, what problems we are facing even after all these years of work, and what are the good sides of trying to make a change by doing harm reduction programs. Our clients had the opportunity to explain how services are meeting their needs, especially when related to peer workers’ support. In addition, the documentary also included an overview of our cooperation with governmental institutions, which has proven to be a constant effort aimed at improving the quality of cooperation that our clients will eventually benefit from.

Harm reduction in Montenegro

More than 11 Canadians are dying every day on average because of opioids, according to new data from the federal government.

“The crisis is not abating,” Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said in an interview on Tuesday.

Canada is the world’s second highest per-capita consumer of opioids, after the United States, which has led to widespread misuse, dependence and addiction.

The report released on Tuesday from a special federal advisory committee shows that 1,036 people died from causes related to using opioids, mainly overdoses, from January to March. That brings the total number to more than 8,000 since the start of 2016. Most of the deaths were ruled to be unintentional.

The powerful painkiller fentanyl was involved in more than 70 per cent of the deaths, the report said. The rate of death is up 5 per cent from the same time period last year, and 44 per cent compared with the same time in 2016.

Prescription and illicit fentanyl were linked to 73 per cent of the deaths from January to March, an increase of 16 per cent from the same period last year and double the rate in 2016.

‘The crisis is not abating’: Opioids killing more than 11 Canadians daily

There was a time when we expected that the end of aggressive American interventionism would open the gates to drug policy reform. We are now at the dawning of a new multipolar world order, but it is not only the spirit of reform that has been released from the bottle

I remember when I was invited to a meeting organised by the US government in Budapest in 2004, just a few months after I got a job at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union to lead its drug policy program. The world was different then. A few years after 9/11, at the height of the war on terror and the war on drugs, the Bush administration behaved like the policeman of the world. Its actions were led by an arrogant neoconservative ideology, and a strong belief that American policies must be exported to other parts of the world, including Hungary. The meeting was a weird PR event, promoting the abstinence-based, zero-tolerance, US-style approach to drug policy that was dominating the global arena, including the UN drug forums and agencies. It was an eye-opening experience for me.

I came to believe that the greatest obstacle to drug policy reform was the USA’s dominance in drug policies, including the three UN drug control treaties (1961, 71, 88), forged by American narco-diplomacy. What we needed was more freedom for member states to move away from rigid compliance with these treaties, allowing governments to experiment with new policies and stopping the US from forcing its policies on other countries. People had to take back control from supranational bureaucrats and technocrats to pursue their own drug policies, protecting national sovereignty from international pressure.

Fourteen years later, I am wondering what could have changed more: America or the world around it. The war on drugs, although far from over, has lost its appeal to the American people. More and more US states are deciding to legalise marijuana, a move unimaginable back in 2004. The US is no longer the world’s policeman, on the contrary, it seems to be submerging itself in isolationism. The American hegemony is waning, its strong leadership in international processes, including the UN, is of the past. Multilateralism is decaying and international treaties and mechanisms are losing ground. Many emerging new powers are challenging the old system and the world is becoming a multipolar place, with growing emphasis on national sovereignty

News

Harm reduction in Montenegro

‘The crisis is not abating’: Opioids killing more than 11 Canadians daily

Drug policy reform in the post-American world order