Author: Milutin

Executive Director, Drug Policy Network Youth East Europe

A Global Initiative for the Prevention of Drug Use

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From the Dianova news

Addiction prevention is one of the pillars of drug demand reduction policies. At present, however, this area has not received the attention it requires, in terms of drug policies, public investment, research, etc.

In June 2023, some twenty international experts met at a consultation organized by the Proyecto Hombre association in the Spanish city of Oviedo. The consultation focused on the various addiction prevention strategies (including drugs and non-substance related addictions) and the challenges to be met in this area. The consultation led to the notion of promoting an initiative aimed at raising the profile of these initiatives and putting forward concrete recommendations to strengthen the field of prevention worldwide.

Following the creation of an ad hoc working group, a draft declaration was produced, with the collaboration of over 150 experts participating on a voluntary basis.

The “Declaration of Oviedo” has recently been published, and civil society organizations have been given the opportunity to sign and support the initiative. The declaration will be officially presented at the next annual session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March 2024. It should be emphasized that the greater the number of signatures in support of the declaration, the greater its impact will be. We therefore encourage civil society organizations to read and sign the Oviedo Declaration and disseminate it to their contacts and networks.

You may find all the information, the declaration in several languages, as well as the endorsement form, on the Declaration’s official website: https://www.oviedodeclaration.org/

Together, let’s support more effective drug prevention that reaches as many people as possible!

Download the Oviedo Declaration (.pdf document) in: English, Castellano, Français.

 

World Drug Report 2023 analysis

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The World Drug Report 2023 presents – as ever – an impressive array of largely accessible and user-friendly data and analysis of what the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC or Office) continues to refer to as the ‘world drug problem’. In so doing, readers can identify many familiar and predominantly alarming trends regarding the growing scale and increasing complexity of the illegal drug market.

Sylvia Kay (Transnational Institute) with contributions from Marie Nougier (IDPC), prepared an independent analysis of the World Drug Report. It is available following this link>>>.

 

Global HCV elimination efforts through point-of-care testing

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The International Network on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU), in collaboration with the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination (CGHE), FIND, The Kirby Institute, UNSW, and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), announced the release of a comprehensive report stemming from the INHSU Hepatitis C Point-of-Care Testing Forum, held during the Global Hepatitis Summit in Paris in April 2023.

Despite advances in treatment, an estimated 57 million people are living with chronic hepatitis C infection globally, with 290,000 people dying from HCV-related cirrhosis and liver cancer each year. Scaling up testing and utilising innovative testing methods are integral if the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2030 elimination targets are to be met.

The Barriers and solutions to increasing access to point-of-care HCV testing report, developed in response to the urgent need for effective strategies to combat the global burden of HCV, explores the underutilised promise of point-of-care testing in simplifying diagnosis, improving access to treatment, and ultimately reducing the prevalence of HCV.

The report underscores the urgent need for action to address challenges in these five key areas and provides practical solutions for implementation alongside real-world examples of successful Point-of-Care programs from Catalonia, Iran, Denmark and more.  It is a valuable resource for policymakers, healthcare professionals, and organisations committed to advancing global HCV elimination goals.

 

By youth for youth

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The safety of young people in the nightlife, a topic of extreme importance for most young people, is often neglected. NGO Re Generacija, which has been putting this topic in the focus of its projects and programs aimed at a systemic approach to this topic for many years, invites to the event to promote the report on the results of the research and the Handbook for participation in public policies for organizations working with youth involved in nightlife and marginalized youth.

The event will be held on 25 January 2024 at the premises of the Office of Combating drugs, Palata Srbija, starting at 10:00. The event is organized with project partners Terra from Croatia and HOPS from North Macedonia and with the support of DPNSEE.

More about the event is available (in Serbian) following this link>>>.

 

European civil society consultations

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To facilitate meaningful civil society contributions to the 2024 high-level segment of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the Vienna & New York NGO Committees on Drugs (VNGOC & NYNGOC) in cooperation with the UNODC Civil Society Unit organised a series of regional civil society consultations in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. In addition, a global online survey was launched in November 2023 to further solicit broad input. The outcomes of the regional consultations in preparation of the 2024 mid-term review will feed into the global civil society contributions towards the 2024 mid-term review and will be presented to Member States in February 2024.

The European Civil Society consultations were conducted in partnership with the Civil Society Forum on Drugs in the EU (CSFD). They consisted of a series of online consultations as well as a hybrid consultation held on 16 January in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

DPNSEE Executive Director Milutin Milošević participated and contributed to this event in person.

Mental health, human rights and legislation

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Mental health is growing as a public health priority and human rights imperative, and an increasing number of countries are wishing to adopt or reform legislation related to mental health. However, laws on mental health, currently often fail to address discrimination and human rights violations including in mental health care settings. In order to support countries in this area, the World Health Organization and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have jointly developed the publication entitled “Mental health, human rights and legislation: guidance and practice”.

The Guidance proposes new objectives for law, including setting a clear mandate for mental health systems to adopt a rights-based approach. It outlines legal provisions required to promote deinstitutionalization and access to good quality, person-centred community mental health services. It highlights how laws can address stigma and discrimination and provides concrete measures on how to eliminate coercion in mental health services in favour of practices that respect people’s rights and dignity.

The Guidance also provides key information on how to adopt a human rights-based approach when reviewing, adopting, implementing and evaluating mental health related laws, and includes a practical checklist enabling countries to assess whether their laws align with current human rights standards.

The Guidance is available following this link>>>.

 

Digital Skills Training Course

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As part of the BOOST project (where DPSNEE is an associate partner), a Digital Skills Training Course for harm reduction organisations working in the area of HIV and viral hepatitis will be held over the course of 4 weeks, between February 26th and March 23rd, 2024. This course has been conceptualised by the organisations involved in the Working Package 3 of BOOST, and will be implemented by NGO Re Generation, our member organisation.

This training course is aimed at building the capacity of community-based & community-led harm reduction organisations to use digital tools in the area of HIV and viral hepatitis services to improve the quality and accessibility of communicable disease prevention, testing, linkage to care and treatment, as well as the monitoring of these services.

The call is open for applications from representatives of community-based & community-led harm reduction organizations working in the area of HIV and viral hepatitis which are members of the networks C-EHRN, EHRA, EuroNPUD and DPNSEE. Please note that trainees are required to commit to the entire process and actively participate in the training course and the follow-up sessions. Additionally, they should be motivated to implement the training skills & content in their work.

Applications are welcome by January 19th following this link>>>! Successful applicants will receive more detailed information about the training program and agenda during the last week of January.

 

Drug consumption rooms in Europe

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From the Correlation website

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN) have published the latest overview on the situation of drug consumption rooms (DCRs) in Europe. The purpose of the report is to encourage evidence-based discussions around DCRs and the implementation of varied DCR models in Europe.

The report is based on a mixed-methods approach, including a review of documents published by EMCDDA and C-EHRN up to 2020, together with a structured literature search for new peer-reviewed (MEDLINE) and grey publications, including relevant health and public-order outcomes of drug consumption rooms and covering the most recent years (2020 and 2021).

DCRs are a fundamental health and social response that fosters the well-being of people who use drugs by providing hygienic and safer spaces where to use substances in the presence of trained social workers and/or healthcare professionals. DCRs are usually located in areas where there is an open drug scene and where injecting in public places is common. The primary target group for DCR services are people who engage in drug use patterns that can result in dangerous health outcomes.

According to the report, in 2022, there were over 100 DCRs operating globally, with services in several EU countries such as Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain, as well as in Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Mexico and the USA.

Primarily, DCRs aim to prevent drug-related overdose deaths, reduce the risks of disease transmission through the use of unhygienic supplies and/or their sharing, and connect people who use drugs with support, health and social services. Besides this, they can also aim to minimise public nuisance.

In the report, two main operational models of DCRs in Europe are described: integrated DCRs, operating within low-threshold facilities, where the supervision of drug use is just one of the services offered, and specialised DCRs, offering a narrower range of services directly related to supervised consumption.

As frontline, low-threshold services, DCRs can support the monitoring of new and emerging local trends. For example, it has been found that in Europe, injecting heroin is less common in recent years, while the use of synthetic opioids and stimulants has increased in some countries. Over the years, following a dynamic drug landscape, many harm reduction services, including DCRs, have adapted to the needs of local clients. For example, some DCRs have started providing services for smoking as well as injecting and allowing the consumption of a wider range of substances within the facility.

DCR evaluation presents specific challenges, but currently available evidence support the positive impact of DCRs on the access to healthcare and harm reduction services among people who use drugs, and especially groups that are not reached enough by these services. DCRs do not increase crime in the areas where they are located and, instead, contribute to decrease of public drug use. Evidence also shows how DCRs contribute to reducing drug-related deaths.

In addition, an expert panel recently concluded that DCRs foster safer injecting practices and therefore can contribute to reduce the transmission rate of communicable diseases among people who inject drugs.

Among other measures to reduce cases of fatal and non-fatal overdose, the EU Drugs Action Plan 2021–2025 calls for DCRs to be introduced, maintained or enhanced ‘where appropriate and in accordance with national legislation’.

The report concludes that, despite the challenges encountered in conducting research in this setting, more studies are needed to support the work of DCRs by showing their contributions to reducing both individual and community harms.

Read the joint EMCDDA and C-EHRN Report on DCRs in Europe following this link>>>.

 

A very successful regional campaign

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The Drug Policy Network South East Europe (DPNSEE) coordinated the „Eliminate Violence Against Women Who Use Drugs – EVAWUD“ campaign in South East Europe, together with its 25 member organisations from 11 countries of the region. The campaign lasted from 25 November and lasted until 10 December 2023.

The campaign started in early November with informing the member organisations and inviting them to participate. The press release, originally prepared by the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN) and adjusted by DPNSEE, was translated into local languages of the region and distributes to media and institutions >>>. DPNSEE also prepared and distributed a document with key facts related to women and drug use.

From more than 30 social networks accounts (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) of partners in the region, 70+ posts, stories and photos were shared. They reached arounf half a million users who interacted seeing reacting, commenting and reposting. Most of these posts were at the DPNSEE Instagram account.

DPNSEE organised a meeting dedicated to eliminating violence against women who use drugs on Friday 8 December 2023 in the Palace of Serbia, in Belgrade, with the support from the Office for Combating Drugs of the Government of Serbia. It was the opportunty to share thoughts and experiences in working on this important issue.

Participants came from several intitutions, including ministries on human and minority rights and social dialogue and health, the Institute for Public Health and UNODC representatives for South East Europe, and civil society organisations.

The meeting was very well covered by the media in Serbia (N1 >>>, Beta >>>, Danas >>>, Radio 021 >>>, NasloviNet >>>).

Other media from the region also reported about the issue of women who use drugs: Vijesti (MNE) >>>, TRN (RNM) >>>, Telma (RNM) >>> , SMK (RNM) >>>, CIN (MNE) >>>, IMA (RNM) >>>.

Thanks to media and social networks, we estimate that we reached out to more than half a million people. We regret that we didn’t have funds to pay te adverts at the social networks. With them, we should have had 10 times wider reach.