Author: Milutin

Executive Director, Drug Policy Network Youth East Europe

A momentous day in US drug policy reform

Posted on by Milutin

Tuesday 3 November 2020 was the Election Day in the United States of America. The tensions of this important election threw into a shade some important decisions that were at the vote in several federal states. Important state-level votes took place on decriminalising all drugs, legalising cannabis and decriminalising psychedelics.

ALL of the key votes have passed, including:

  • Oregon decriminalisation of all drugs. The measures outlined would see people found in possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use given the option of paying a $100 fine or attending a free “drug addiction treatment and recovery program”, which would be funded in part out of the state’s cannabis tax revenue fund.
  • Arizona, South Dakota, Montana, New Jersey legalising cannabis. Cannabis is already legally regulated for non-medical purposes in 11 US states, although it remains illegal at a federal level.
  • Mississippi, South Dakota legalising medical cannabis. Medical cannabis is already legal in 33 US states, with many medical markets now well established.
  • Oregon legalising medical use of psilocybin. The measure allow Oregonians over the age of 21 to purchase and consume psilocybin at a ‘psilocybin service centre’ under the supervision and guidance of trained facilitators. It would be the first-of-its-kind in the US, and hopefully move the debate forward on psychedelic treatment worldwide.
  • Washington, DC decriminalising psychedelics. While not technically fully decriminalising psychedelics, the measure would clearly drastically reduce the scope for the criminal law to intervene in personal activities. Criminal laws would nominally remain on the books, but be unlikely to be used, effectively a form of de facto decriminalisation.

These developments are part of a broader effort to scale back the war on drugs. The new measures may be the beginning of a broader push in the next few years, similar to what the US has already seen with marijuana.

 

Use of new psychoactive substances in WB/SEE – challenges, needs and opportunities

Posted on by Milutin

Our member organisation NGO Re Generation, with support of Eurasian Harm Reduction Association, ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for Western Balkans and Turkey and DPNSEE, invite you to participate in an online meeting “Use of new psychoactive substances in WB/SEE – challenges, needs and opportunities”.

This year, EHRA and the School of Law, Swansea University undertook the project “New Psychoactive Substance Use in Moldova, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and Serbia” aiming to generate a more accurate picture of the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS) and to assess harm reduction and law enforcement responses to the emerging issues related to use of NPS. In addition, EHRA funded project #DAZNAMŠTARADIM implemented by NGO Re Generation. Both of the actions generated a more detailed picture on what are the specific issues related to NPS in Serbia. We believe that these issues should be communicated and discussed among CSOs in the Western Balkan/SEE region that work with and represent affected communities.

The meeting will be held via Zoom on Friday 06 November 2020 starting at 11:00 CET. The meeting will last approximately two hours. You can access it by following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86130730814.

The invitation for the meeting with more details is available following this link>>>.

Drug user representation in United Nations drug policy settings

Posted on by Milutin

Recent commitments to greater involvement of people who use drugs in UN drug policy processes is a positive development but little research attention has been paid to ‘drug user representation’ in this context.

Authors Annie Madden, Kari Lancaster and Carla Treloara from Centre for Social Research in Health and Alison Ritterb from Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia produced the paper Making legitimacy: Drug user representation in United Nations drug policy settings. This paper examines ‘drug user representation’ in the UNGASS on drugs and associated CND processes over three decades.

Findings show that dominant UN drug policy discourses and other practices can have delimiting effects for the political legitimacy of drug user representatives.

The importance of engaging people who use drugs in drug policy development is increasingly acknowledged including in recent UN documents. Little scholarly attention has been paid to ‘drug user representation’ in the global drug policy setting of the UN such as the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). This paper examines ‘drug user representation’ in key UN drug policy processes over three decades.

The mapping process was undertaken using a corpus of publicly available documents from the UNGASS on Drugs and associated CND processes to identify relevant policy processes from 1987 to 2019.

The analysis shows that despite calls for greater involvement, dominant UN drug policy discourses and other practices delimit both the political subjectivities available to people who use/have used drugs and their capacity to bring their voices to bear in this context. The analysis also highlights that human rights-based discourses, employed by ‘drug user representatives’, have emerged as an important practice of resistance against the problematic and delimiting power effects of existing UN discourses, governing practices and modes of engagement.

In addition to the practices of resistance being undertaken by ‘drug user representatives’, authors suggest there is a need to improve how ‘drug user representation’ is being made possible and done in the sites of UN drug policy deliberation and, that these sites should be opened for questioning. This will not only have a positive impact on political legitimacy for ‘drug user representation’, but on the health and human rights of people who use/have used drugs.

The document is available following this link>>>.

 

Global Fund COVID-19 Response Mechanism allocations in SEE

Posted on by Milutin

The Global Fund is providing immediate funding to help countries fight COVID-19, mitigate the impacts on lifesaving HIV, TB and malaria programs, and prevent fragile health systems from being overwhelmed, through grant flexibilities and the COVID-19 Response Mechanism.

Grant flexibilities allow countries with current grants to use up to 5% of their current grant value if there are savings, and/ reprogram up to 5% of the value of a grant to meet immediate COVID-19 response requirements. The COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM) can be used across the three diseases and the health system, even if a country only has a single Global Fund grant for one component.

The Global Fund published the information about allocations so far on 27 October 2020. From the COVID-19 Response Mechanism a total of 592,493,744 USD was allocated for mitigating COVID-19 impact on HIV, TB and malaria programs, reinforcing national COVID-19 response (other response and COVID-19 diagnostic tests) and urgent improvements in health and community systems.

Out of this amount, four SEE countries and the Multi-country HIV East Europe and Central Asia #SOS_project received

In addition, from the Grant Flexibilities 216,092,754 USD was approved to 107 countries and multicountries out of which three countries and the Multi-country project received:

 

 

See better in the document we created following this link>>>.

 

Global State of Harm Reduction 2020

Posted on by Milutin

Harm Reduction International, an NGO dedicated to reducing the negative health, social and legal impacts of drug use and drug policy, publishes report that provides an independent analysis of harm reduction in the world. Now in it’s the seventh edition, the Global State of Harm Reduction 2020 is the most comprehensive global mapping of harm reduction responses to drug use, HIV and viral hepatitis.

The 2020 report includes:

  • A chapter which looks at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns on the provision of harm reduction services worldwide
  • Additional thematic chapters on hepatitis C and tuberculosis
  • Examples of progress in harm reduction from across the world
  • Examples of legal and policy changes which impact harm reduction service provision
  • Foreword by Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
  • Data on the number of people who inject drugs and the number of people in prison for drug use globally

The report can be downloaded and read in full or by chapter following this link>>>.

DPNSEE have prepared a table with information on Epidemiology of HIV and viral hepatitis, and harm reduction response in South East Europe.

The document is available in PDF format following this link>>>.

 

ECOM is looking for consultants

Posted on by Milutin

Eurasian Coalition on Male Health (ECOM) is one of the pre-qualified providers of the Global Fund’s CRG program and provides technical assistance to communities and key populations of Albania for conducting budget advocacy, and cost–effectiveness and efficiency analyses of HIV and STI services for gay men, men who have sex with men and trans* people in Albania. More details are available following this link>>>.

Additionally, ECOM is looking for the consultant to conduct mapping of HIV and STI services for MSM and trans* people and organizing local meetings with stakeholders in the Republic of Albania>>>.

Application deadline: November 1, 2020, 23:59 (GMT +3).

All these activities are to be implemented as a part of the technical assistance within the Global Fund’s CRG TA Program.

North Macedonia readopted the Anti-Discrimination Law

Posted on by Milutin

North Macedonia’s parliament adopted the Anti-Discrimination Law, which among other things guarantees protection from gender-based discrimination.

The previous governments led by the conservative right-wing VMRO DPMNE from 2006 to 2017 refused to include sexual orientation in the law. It was then originally passed by the Social Democrat-led majority in 2019. However, the Constitutional Court struck down the law in May this year, to the dismay of LGBT organisations and human rights groups, ruling that it was not passed with a proper quorum in parliament. The Law now passed in parliament with 69 out of 120 members of the parliament supporting it, from both ruling and opposition parties. No MPs voted against it.

Prior to the vote in parliament, the Network Against Discrimination, which comprises many prominent North Macedonian NGOs, criticised the government’s recent decision to dismiss its proposal to add stricter rules for a more transparent and inclusive procedure to elect members of the Anti-Discrimination Commission, which the government said is already part of the law.

Support to children and young people using drugs

Posted on by Milutin

As part of the project ′′Living with addiction – improving the mental health and quality of life of children and young people using drugs during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis′′ supported by the OSCE Mission to Skopje, HOPS (Healthy Options Project Skopje) shared hygiene and food packages to persons using their services. At the same time they shared information about the services available in their organization.

Children and young people up to 25 years old using drugs and their families in need for psychological support and counselling about COVID-19, can contact HOPS every working day from 10:00 to 15:00 pm on their phone number.

Registration opens for European Drugs Winter and Summer Schools 2021

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From the EMCDDA news

The EMCDDA and the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL) opened registration for two upcoming joint events in 2021: the European Drugs Winter School (EDWS) and the European Drugs Summer School (EDSS).

EDWS 1–12 March 2021 (online): Following the success of the EDSS in 2020, taught remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisers have decided to deliver the first virtual EDWS in 2021. The theme of the event will be Responses to, and preparedness for, health-related threats (COVID-19 lessons learned). Following a similar structure to the 2020 edition, the two-week course will feature live lunchtime lectures with experts and practitioners, followed by afternoon exercises. Virtual fieldwork tours will also be offered. Completion of exercises and an exam are compulsory for those wishing to obtain credits. The sessions will be recorded and available for subsequent viewing. Increasing the offer of online training is in line with the EMCDDA’s digital transformation objectives. Registration EDWS Phase 1: 19 October 2020–8 February 2021 (notification of acceptance on 12 February 2021).

EDSS 28 June–9 July 2021 (Lisbon): This year, the two-week course will focus on Vulnerable groups. Sessions will include lectures on the prevention of drug-related problems; social determinants of drug use and interventions for vulnerable groups (homeless, prisoners, migrants). Study visits will be organised to one of the Portuguese commissions for dissuasion as well as a local harm reduction centre. During the course, students will participate in interactive workshops to discuss their own projects and views. The course will conclude with an open debate with guest speakers, followed by an exam for those wishing to obtain credits. All recommended COVID-19 safety measures will be put in place, if applicable. Deposits and fees will be reimbursed if the summer school is cancelled in case of force majeure, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Registration EDSS Phase 1: 19 October 2020–28 February 2021 (notification of acceptance on 5 March 2021). Phase 2: 1 March 2021–7 June 2021 (notification of acceptance on 11 June 2021).

The target audiences for the two events are: university students, researchers, professionals and administrators interested in working on drug issues. The previous rounds of the EDSS brought together students from the EU Member States as well as from Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas. Profiles of former alumni and their testimonials can be found on the official summer school website and their statements viewed in a promotional video.

The courses prepare professionals and students to meet the complex policy challenges that face Europe in the field of drugs. Involving scientific experts from the EMCDDA, university professors and policymakers, they provide a multi-disciplinary and inclusive approach to the study of the drugs problem in Europe and beyond.

In 2021, students will again be able to apply for scholarships. Agreements with the IPA7 and EU4MD projects will also be sought for bursaries targeting key national experts. ‘Early-bird’ reductions will be available. The EDSS will be run in English.

For more on the EDWS and EDSS, see here >>.

Contacts:
Catherine Moury, EDSS Scientific Director – drugsummerschool.cies@iscte.pt.
Marica Ferri, Scientific programme – Marica.Ferri@emcdda.europa.eu.

 

A glossary of contested terms in substance use

Posted on by Milutin

The Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) has launched a new resource entitled ‘Moving Beyond ‘People-First’ Language: A glossary of contested terms in substance use.

This resource describes the issues around some language and key concepts that often cause contention and some that evolve from or perpetuate stigma and the prejudice it fosters.

The glossary offers a resource that makes explicit the connection between language and power. The resource will hopefully raise awareness of how power and language can contribute to problem substance use and can also help Scotland and wider improve its response to problem substance use.

To access this useful publication, follow this link>>>.