The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy outlined on Thursday its top priorities for combating illicit drug abuse and distribution in the United States in the office's first National Drug Control Strategy.

The release of the report comes the same day that the drug control office's first permanent director since the Obama administration, Jim Carroll, was sworn-in by Vice President Mike Pence."Our No. 1 goal is to save American lives, and this comprehensive plan reaffirms President Trump's commitment to addressing the opioid crisis aggressively and in partnership with our partners across the nation," Carroll said in a statement regarding the strategy's release.

White House priorities opioid abuse in first national drug control strategy

Katie Tulley suffers from an incurable bladder disorder so painful that it feels “like tearing skin off your arm and pouring acid on it, 24/7,” she said. On scans, the organ looks like an open sore.

Ms. Tulley, a 37-year-old Louisianan who used to work with autistic children, manages her pain with a fentanyl patch. The opioid gives her a few precious hours out of bed to help her parents, do online volunteer work and occasionally leave home for something other than a medical visit. “I don’t get a euphoric feeling,” she said, noting that she has lowered her dose to avoid feeling woozy and impaired.

Now, because of legal concerns about overdose risk, her doctors have considered stopping her medication, even though she has never misused it. And so, when she recently discovered a suspicious lump in her belly, she found herself hoping it was cancer. “I shouldn’t ‘want’ cancer,” she said. “But at this point it’s the only way to be treated” for her pain.

As many as 18 million patients rely on opioids to treat long-term pain that is intractable but not necessarily associated with terminal illness. In 2016, seeking to curb opioid misuse, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced guidelines outlining a maximum safe dosage and strongly urging doctors to avoid prescribing for chronic pain unless death is imminent. The guidelines were supposed to be voluntary and apply only to chronic pain patients seeing general practitioners. Instead, they have been widely seen by doctors as mandatory.

As a result, thousands of pain medication recipients have had their doses reduced or eliminated. But this attempt to save people from addiction is leaving many patients in perpetual pain — and thus inadvertently ruining, or even ending, lives.

A Veterans Health Administration study found alarming rates of suicidal acts “following discontinuation of opioid therapy.” Human Rights Watch recently released a report detailing the struggles of chronic pain patients in the United States to find relief and care as a result of government efforts to reduce prescriptions.

When the cure is worse than the disease

Asia is characterised by some of the world’s harshest approaches to combating illicit use of drugs, an almost entirely one-dimensional security approach as opposed to a more integrated humane, political, social and security approach. The victims are mainly the urban and rural poor at the end of the chain, not the well-armed drug barons with the means to protect themselves. Have draconian measures such as extrajudicial killings, the death penalty for drug offences, compulsory detention for people who use drugs and, in some cases, corporal punishment meted out by caning, achieved the stated goal of reducing drug demand and supply in the region? Can countries in Asia claim progress is being made towards the goal of a “drug-free” region? These are important questions that governments must answer as the 10-year global drug strategy adopted at the United Nations in 2009 comes to its end. In March, governments are set to meet at a high-level UN meeting in Vienna to review progress made over the past decade and define future directions for global drug policy.

From the Philippines to Indonesia and Afghanistan, Asia's brutal drug policies have failed

Police tactics may disrupt drug supplies, but they cause more crime and even contribute to the use of children as a go-between in county lines, undermining Peel’s principles, says former Detective Sergeant and Chair of LEAP UK Neil Woods who argues it’s time for drugs laws to be reformed.

Skewed approach: UK drugs policy is undermining Peel’s principles of policing

By the EU Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and viral hepatitis; and the Civil Society Forum on Drugs

The EU Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and viral hepatitis and the Civil Society Forum on Drugs, expert groups to the European Commission which are comprised of leading civil society organisations at the national and regional level in the EU and neighbouring countries, are encouraged

 to note that the European Parliament has improved the Commission proposal on the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) by suggesting to increase the budget for Health Strand

 from EUR 413 000 000 to EUR 473 000 000.

Civil society groups had expressed strong concerns over the Commission’s original proposal to cut health funding by 8% compared to the 2014-2020 period in the new merged ESF+, noting that more ambitious funding is crucial for the next Health Programme as we work to tackle increasing health inequalities in Europe.

The forums also welcome the Parliament’s position on the need 

for more ambitious political leadership and adequate technical and financial means to provide a sustainable regional response to the fight against HIV/AIDS, TB and hepatitis in Europe

 through continuous investments in innovative community-based approaches in the Union and neighbouring countries.

Civil society has long been calling on the European Commission to take a leading role in the response to HIV/AIDS, TB and viral hepatitis in the EU by putting in place political strategies to effectively combat the three epidemics within the wider European region,as with the current approach the EU would not be able to fulfil its commitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets and to end the epidemics of AIDS, TB and combat viral hepatitis by 2030,

” noted Marine Ejuryan, co-chair of the Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and viral hepatitis.

The Chair of the Civil Society Forum on Drugs, Laurène Collard echoed support for the Parliament report, while also noting the need to ensure individual drug use is treated as a health and social issue more generally: 

“Drugs are an important health and social issue for people living in the European Union, and it is of crucial importance that both the Commission and the Parliament worked to recognise this in their respective positions. Adequately and specifically funded drug policy grants are paramount for implementing the EU drug strategy and action plan, adopted by member states. Currently, budget allocated to supply reduction far outweigh those for demand reduction. This needs to be balanced, as effective prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery interventions, as well as social reintegration have proven to be efficient in terms of health and cost-effective: these are all priorities which need to be further bolstered.”

Both forums are also encouraged to see some improvement in the area of 

addressing the existing obstacles to civil society participation

 in the programme, strong language on the 

SDGs as guiding framework for the implementation of the Union’s health policy

transition to people-centred integrated care

, and the Parliament’s support to the development of 

by establishing processes by which health implications can be considered and taken into account in all policies.

The forums urged the Parliament to continue to be a leader on prioritising health in the next EU budget during the inter-institutional negotiations and leave a healthy legacy for future generations by safeguarding a reinforced future Health Programme.

Civil society welcomes European Parliament push for a more ambitious EU health budget in 2021-2027 

Finland is debating the opening of its first drug consumption room to respond to high overdose death rates. Tuukka Tammi, a top researcher in the drug field in Finland, says restrictive drug laws should be reformed as well.

Drugreporter: The Finnish education system is celebrated as one of the best in the world. Does it apply to drug education too? I mean, do you think drug prevention is as good in Finland as public education in general?

Tuukka Tammi: It is true that Finnish teenagers have had excellent results in PISA studies, but on the other hand we have had one of the widest learning gaps between boys and girls in the same studies. So not everyone gets good results, and here we can see an analogy with the fact that some people are marginalised despite being a generally ‘good’ society, welfare state, or education system.

Talking specifically about our drug education system, I think its basic principle is right: we recommend that drug education is linked to normal classroom teaching and integrated into compulsory health education. Our national prevention programme also emphasises an integrated approach: drugs should be dealt with alongside alcohol, tobacco, and gambling issues. I don’t think we need separate, manualised, school-based drug prevention programmes. However, the schools may decide for themselves and they are not systematically monitored, so I am afraid all kinds of oddities may occur in reality. So to answer your question: unfortunately we are not perfect in this respect either.

Finland needs to relax its drug laws - An interview with Tuuka Tammi

Vienna, 26 February 2019 - Addressing the complex issues of drug abuse and crime and their harmful effects on society requires strong partnerships with civil society organizations at local, national, regional and global levels.

As part of its engagement with these important stakeholders, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today hosted a Global Civil Society Hearing in Vienna to update Member States on the results of a recent global civil society consultation on drugs. The Hearing was organized by the Civil Society Task Force (CSTF) and supported by the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations in Vienna.

The hearing, with the title 'Voices of Civil Society: Beyond 2019' also provided a space for civil society experts from around the world to present their work on the ground.

At the opening of the event, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said that "civil society is an indispensable partner in our efforts to promote the health and safety of individuals, their families and communities." He also thanked all the civil society organizations, and their dedicated staff, working with UNODC in the field to provide help to people in need, often in hardship conditions.

The hearing took place following the 2 nd intersessional meeting of the 62 nd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and featured voices from grassroot civil society organizations from Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Indonesia, Jordan, Nepal, the Russian Federation, South Africa and Sri Lanka, covering all aspects of the drug spectrum. Some 75 people attended the Hearing, including representatives from some 40 Permanent Missions.

News