Category: General News

Amendments to the Law on the Production and Trafficking of Illicit Drugs without sufficient support

Posted on by Milutin

The legislative procedure for the proposal for an amendment to the Law on the Production and Trafficking of Illicit Drugs, which was submitted by part of the opposition, is coming to an end. The proposal was supported on the meeting of the parliamentary Health Committee on 17 February by eight members of the parliamentary committee on health, while one more was against.

The amendment was submitted to the legislative process by the parliamentary groups SD, Levica, LMŠ, SAB and NP. On behalf of the proponents, Dejan Židan (SD) and Violeta Tomić (PS Levica) explained today that they want to clearly define that the cannabis plant is a cultivated plant, which should be separated from cannabis as an illicit drug. According to them, this would correct the error resulting from the incorrect translation of the European Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which also led to the stigmatization and criminalization of the plant.

According to the proponents, the convention clearly defines the difference between cannabis and the cultivated cannabis plant, which is crucial for defining legal economic and amateur activities that do not require a drug control system, but only define the conditions of legal activities (agriculture, industry, horticulture, etc.).

The proposal would define the conditions under which the cannabis plant can be legally grown for industrial, food and horticultural purposes. As they explained, the goal is also to avoid monopolistic, especially French pressure on the Slovenian market, which eliminates old Slovenian varieties by setting 0.2 percent THC.

Although they emphasized that the proposal did not interfere in the field of medical or recreational use, and the proponents, following the opinion of the parliamentary legislative and legal service, also submitted several amendments, a number of concerns were heard at the meeting. State Secretary at the Ministry of Health Franc Vindišar explained that the proposal was not appropriate in the government’s opinion. They estimate that “the regulation does not only concern the agricultural production of industrial hemp, but also means deregulation, sometimes legalization, which will contribute to greater use of cannabis for recreational purposes”.

As he said, such important changes require an in-depth analysis in terms of potential benefits and, above all, negative health, social, security, financial and other consequences, which the proposal does not include. He assured that the terminology in Slovenian legislation is regulated in accordance with all conventions and European regulations, but at the level of the Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs they will harmonize and ensure the translation of the convention, which was already proposed by the Health Committee. The Ministry of Health has also prepared a bill on the cultivation and trade of cannabis for medical purposes, which is currently in interdepartmental coordination.

He also criticized the proposal discussed today for being partial and for the new solutions not to be followed by a change in control and penal provisions. From the point of view of public health protection, according to him, the proposed limit of one percent THC in cannabis plants, which can be grown for seeds and fiber for industrial, food and horticultural purposes, is not particularly acceptable.

Several representatives of non-governmental organizations and institutions working in the field of health and addiction then presented their views. The proposal was largely opposed, described as ill-conceived and warned that it means liberalization in this area and leads to greater availability of cannabis, which means greater use and harmful consequences for public health, especially for children and adolescents.

The director of the National Institute of Public Health, Milan Krek, pointed out that “cannabis is the most commonly used drug in Slovenia today, ten times more used than other drugs”. However, the experience of other countries with cannabis liberalization is poor in terms of public health. According to him, the bill also “seriously interferes in the field of state security”, as it facilitates the work of organized crime in the production and trafficking of drugs in certain segments.

Robert Pavšič (LMŠ) pointed out that there are many plants whose use can have harmful consequences if misused, mentioning, among others, pears, plums, barley and poppies, as they can all be made into drugs – legally or illegally. Alcohol abuse can have dire consequences, but wine and beer are categorized as food, he added.

Like Tomić, he pointed out that today industrial hemp products sold in Slovenia mostly come from abroad. According to Tomić, Slovenian farmers are not competitive. Matjaž Grkman from the Ministry of Agriculture, on the other hand, said that Slovenian farmers, like others in the EU, could grow industrial hemp, but the problem was in the farmers’ organization itself.

 

Police roll out Naloxone in Scotland

Posted on by Milutin

From the Scottish Drugs Forum website

Police officers across Scotland will be able to carry and use naloxone and so contribute to The National Mission to Reduce Drug Deaths.

Police officers in local areas in Glasgow, Dundee, Falkirk, Stirling and Caithness had taken part in a pilot in 2021.  That pilot has now been evaluated after naloxone was administered on 51 occasions.  It has now been agreed that there should be a national rollout of the initiative.

Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said: “I know the terrible toll of drugs deaths in Scotland and policing is committed to playing our part in reducing the harm caused to individuals, families and communities.”

During the test of change, 808 officers were trained to use naloxone, and 656 (81 per cent) volunteered to carry the nasal spray kits.

An independent academic review conducted between March and October 2021, during which naloxone was used 51 times, recommended a national roll-out.

Kirsten Horsburgh, Strategy Co-ordinator (drug death prevention) at SDF, welcomed the news:

“Police officers are often first on the scene of a suspected overdose and are well-placed to act quickly and potentially save a life –  the pilot has shown this. It is no surprise that there were 51 administrations of naloxone over the 6 months, which also sadly highlights the scale of the problem. Expanding naloxone carriage by police to cover the whole of Scotland is significant, and an obvious next step. It has been positive to hear frontline police recognising that this is part of key policing duties to preserve life, and be able to intervene effectively.”

Work is under way to secure stock of naloxone and a national programme of training and equipping over 12.000 officers, will be undertaken in the coming months.

 

Marijuana Referendum blocked

Posted on by Milutin

From the Marijuana Moment webpage

Italian Constitutional Court on Tuesday blocked voters from being able to decide on a referendum to legalize marijuana in the country, despite the fact that activists turned in hundreds of thousands of signatures that were validated by a separate court last month.

Late last year, activists turned in about 630,000 signatures for the measure – which would have also legalized personal cultivation of other psychoactive plants and fungi like psilocybin mushrooms – to the Supreme Court of Cassation.

While the proposal as drafted would have legalized the cultivation of several plant-based drugs, it would leave in place the prohibition on processing them. Marijuana and certain entheogenic substances like psilocybin don’t require additional manufacturing, and thus would effectively be made legal. By contrast, even hashish would be banned because it does require processing raw marijuana to some extent. Meanwhile, a current decriminalized fine on possessing and using cannabis would have also remained in place if the referendum were approved.

That court announced last month that there were enough valid signatures for ballot placement, but the referendum still needed to be reviewed by the separate Constitutional Court, which was tasked with determining the legality of the proposal’s provisions.

On Wednesday 16 February, the Constitutional Court announced that the cannabis and psilocybin initiative did not meet constitutional standards and, therefore, will not be placed on a ballot for voters to decide. It also rejected a separate measure related to the right to euthanasia.

The Constitutional Court is charged with looking into whether referendums will conflict with the Constitution, the country’s fiscal system or international treaties to which Italy is a party. While advocates were confident that the limited the scope of the proposed reform would satisfy the legal standard, the 15-judge court disagreed.

Montenegro: Benchmarking sustainability of the HIV response among Key Populations in the context of transition from Global Fund support to domestic funding

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The Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) published document “Benchmarking sustainability of the HIV response among Key Populations in the context of transition from Global Fund support to domestic funding” within the framework of the regional project ‘Sustainability of Services for Key Populations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia’. This publication was prepared by Mr. Vladan Golubović, EHRA Consultant

The aim of this analysis is to assess the fulfillment of the commitments given by the Government of Montenegro aimed to ensure the sustainability of the HIV response among KPs in the context of the country’s transition from Global Fund support to national funding. The results of the assessment are expected to be used to assist CSO’s, key affected communities and partners to remain more informed and engaged in the monitoring of the transition process from donor to domestic funding and to thereby advocate for the implementation of activities that will lead to the sustainability of the national HIV response.

This assessment was conducted using the Methodological Guide and Transition Monitoring Tool (TMT) developed by EHRA. A number of national commitments contributing to ensuring sustainability of the HIV response were identified and prioritised and subsequently analysed based on available data, as well as information from key informants. The assessment was conducted and led by two national reviewers with the support of local HIV experts and representatives of affected communities from organisations involved in advocacy and service delivery for KAPs and PLHIV (the national reference group).

The analysis is available following this link>>>.

 

New resources to strengthen advocacy for decriminalisation

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From the IDPC webpage

Around the world, governments use criminal justice systems to respond to complex issues in society that often have roots in poverty, trauma, racism and other forms of discrimination and inequality. In most countries, drug laws stand out for their strict enforcement, imposition of harsh punishment, disproportionate sentences, and stigmatising and discriminatory impacts.

The criminalisation of people who use drugs is often driven by the goal of a ‘society free of drugs’, and has been central to the policies and rhetoric of the ‘war on drugs’. Yet governments that have adopted punitive drug policies and campaigns have failed to eradicate drug use and dependence, and such policies have had disastrous consequences. The results are seen in overcrowded prisons; the continued existence of detention centres (including those in the guise of ‘drug rehabilitation’); the exacerbation of poverty for affected communities; inadequate and underfunded health and social support services as resources flow to punishment and policing; stigma, marginalisation and demonisation of people who use drugs, which poses obstacles to accessing the support and services they might need, including healthcare, education, housing and employment; and increased incidence of preventable adverse health consequences, including overdose deaths and high prevalence of HIV, viral hepatitis and tuberculosis.

 The ‘war on drugs’ has disproportionately impacted people who are already marginalised, including people living in poverty, women, people of African descent, Indigenous peoples, young people, and other communities who are marginalised because of immigration status, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity or race.

 In this Guide, decriminalisation is defined as the removal of all sanctions for drug use and activities relating to personal use: possession, acquisition, purchase, cultivation and possession of drug use paraphernalia. Governments, civil society groups, networks of people who use drugs and academics around the world increasingly acknowledge the need to reform drug policies to decriminalise drug use and the possession of drugs for personal use. The entire UN system has now come together to recommend decriminalisation, with many positive statements also made by other international bodies.

 This Guide for Advocacy, published by the International Drug Policy Consortium (available following this link>>>) is intended to be a user-friendly resource for people from all sectors who wish to understand the key objectives, principles and concepts relating to decriminalisation of drug use and how to advocate for it. Through three stages – Know it, Show it, Grow it – it outlines practical steps for developing strategies to advocate for decriminalisation, and offers tools that can be adapted and applied to plant the seeds for cultivating healthy, safe and inclusive communities.

Seeking to accelerate the growing momentum toward achieving the ‘gold standard’ of decriminalisation, IDPC are delighted to share a suite of other new knowledge and advocacy resources that we trust will be useful to you and your colleagues:

·                Module 5 of the #DrugDecrim [e]Course

·                Decriminalisation: Building a future without punishment for people who use drug

·                Building communities of care: The Support. Don’t Punish 2021 Global Day of Action

 

Taking stock of budget advocacy efforts in EECA

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The Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) presented the mapping report „Taking stock of budget advocacy efforts in Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe and Central Asiа“ summarising budget advocacy efforts, funding and impact during the period 2018-2021 in CEECA countries. The focus of the assessment is on the role of civil society in budget advocacy, while acknowledging that government leaders, UN and technical partners play important roles as well. The assessment describes key budget advocacy initiatives and HIV donor support for them.

The report zooms in the four result areas of advocacy: civil society capacity to advocate; influencing HIV funding levels from national and local public sources; increasing efficiencies in spending; and contracting and funding for NGOs to deliver services. Without offering a comprehensive review, one of the final sections of the report shines light on efforts to influence budgets beyond HIV including in the fields of TB and health systems.

Regional overview is based on eight country case studies (including three fro Sout East Europe) exploring national experiences with budget advocacy, emerging challenges, and best practices. Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Ukraine (lower middle-income countries), Georgia, Kazakhstan and Montenegro (upper middle income countries receiving donor support), and Bulgaria and North Macedonia (post-Global Fund countries) were selected for analysis.

To keep the mapping manageable and focused, this assessment has not attempted to assess neither the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on HIV budget advocacy and fiscal space for health financing nor potential savings from reducing criminalization of population behaviours.

Analytical report «Taking stock of budget advocacy efforts in Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe and Central Asiа» has been prepared by EHRA in partnership with Open Society Foundations, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Sustainability, Transition and Efficiency Strategic Initiative and EECA regional team in cooperation with ECOM – Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity and Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS (EWNA) as partners in the Eurasian Regional Consortium withing project “Thinking outside the box: overcoming challenges in community advocacy for sustainable and high-quality HIV services” supported by the Robert Carr Fund for civil society networks. Information was provided by country, regional and international partners. We are grateful to all our partners, members of Regional Advisory Group on Sustainability, interviewees and reviewers for their time and effort in work on this report.

To read the report, follow this link>>>.

 

Open Letter: Elect an UN Committee on NGOs that stands up for civil society

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The International Service for Human Rights are calling for sign-ons to an open letter to members of the UN General Assembly, asking that the new membership of the UN Committee on NGOs is selected through a competitive process that elects States with a record of standing up for civil society.

The ECOSOC Committee is the UN body that recommends NGOs for ECOSOC accreditation, a necessary document for NGOs to be able to intervene in many UN processes.

In recent years, the ECOSOC Committee has been denying accreditation to many human rights and progressive NGOs. DPNSEE’s application have been deferred for 5 times so far! In part, this is due to the current composition of the Committee, which is very conservative.

As elections are due in April, It is important that in the next mandate the Committee is comprised of states that are more favourable to civil society, so that it stops acting as an impediment to NGO access to the UN.

We also strongly encourage you to sign on the letter using this link>>>.

 

Plans for the elimination of HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs

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From the WHO European Region website

The WHO European Region has made some progress towards the goals outlined in the regional action plans for the health sector response to HIV and viral hepatitis. However, the Region is not on track to end the HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infection (STI) epidemics. Following on from the end of the previous action plans for health sector response to HIV and viral hepatitis, the WHO Regional Office for Europe is in the process of developing the 2022–2030 action plans for the elimination of HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs in the WHO European Region. For the first time these plans will be presented in a single document to promote a unified vision built around integrated, people-centred care within a health system approach focused on universal health care.

In June 2021 a virtual regional consultation was conducted on the global health sector strategies in this regard. At this meeting the foundational principles and approach to the plans were endorsed.

Subsequently, on 16 and 17 November 2021 WHO/Europe conducted a technical expert consultation with a range of stakeholders to provide technical feedback on the country targets as well as WHO and partner agency actions.

From these earlier consultations a revised full draft of the new 2022–2030 regional action plans has been made available for reference and feedback. Feedback can be provided via email to eurohiv@who.int, with copy to Nicole Seguy (seguyn@who.int) and Rachel Katterl (rachel.katterl@gmail.com), or via the PleaseReview platform, access to which will be granted to officially delegated focal points from health authorities in the respective Member States.

Key future dates:

  • 27 January 2022 – Broad online consultation opens for the 2022–2030 action plans for the elimination of HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs in the WHO European Region;
  • 3 February 2022 – Virtual regional consultation for reviewing the draft 2022–2030 action plans for ending the HIV, viral hepatitis and STI epidemics in the WHO European Region;
  • 10 May 2022 – Penultimate drafts of the action plans and associated documents presented to the 29th Standing Committee of the Regional Committee; and
  • 12 September 2022 – Final action plans and associated documents presented to the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe.

The 2022–2030 action plans for the elimination of HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs in the WHO European Region are available (in English and Russian) following this link>>>.

 

Increasing linkage to care and adherence to treatment for hepatitis C among people who inject drugs

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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health threat due to disease burden and risk of complications and death. Injecting drug use is the most likely mode of HCV transmission reported in the EU/EEA and accounted for 49% of acute and 61% of chronic infections in 2018. Compared to other drug-associated blood-borne viral infections, HCV is the most prevalent one among people who inject drugs (PWID) across Europe. Prevalence of HCV antibody among PWID estimated from nationally representative samples ranged between 15% and 86% during 2018–2019. The prevalence of current infections measured by HCV-RNA (or antigen) tests ranged from 15% to 64% between 2013 and 2019 in six countries with available data. PWID are therefore considered as a priority population in prevention, testing, linkage to care and treatment, and prevention of re-infections to achieve HCV elimination.

Following advances in treatment for hepatitis C (HCV), optimizing linkage to care and adherence to treatment of people who inject drugs became of pivotal importance. An ECDC/EMCDDA stakeholders survey in 2018 indicated that two components of the cascade of care, linkage to care and adherence to treatment, were priority areas for inclusion in the updated guidance, planned for publication in 2022. The systematic review Interventions to increase linkage to care and adherence to treatment for hepatitis C among people who inject drugs: A systematic review and practical considerations from an expert panel consultation was commissioned with the aim to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions on HCV linkage to care and adherence to treatment among people who inject drugs.

Available evidence suggests that integrated, people-centered approaches may improve engagement throughout the continuum of HCV care among people who inject drugs. For progressing HCV elimination efforts, interventions should be implemented in colocation with harm reduction and counselling activities and in combination with additional services, including opioid substitution treatment, directly observed therapy, peer support and/or contingency management.

Highlights of the review include:

  • Integrated care and cooperation between service providers optimize the HCV care continuum among people who inject drugs.
  • Results suggest that people who inject drugs with HCV infection can be effectively linked and treated with direct-acting antivirals regimens in settings outside of hospital.
  • Interventions that facilitate HCV care must be implemented at settings where people who inject drugs are already accessing services.
  • The experts’ reflections complement the findings of the literature review and inform public health practice by considering the heterogeneity of health systems and national regulatory frameworks.
  • Higher quality studies investigating interventions addressing the entire care cascade from testing to cure and prevention of reinfections among highly vulnerable populations are urgently needed.

To read the full article, follow this link>>>.

 

The number of NPS stagnated

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New psychoactive substances remain a global phenomenon with 134 countries and territories from all regions of the world having reported one or more NPS to the UNODC Early Warning Advisory on NPS from 2009 up to December 2021. Within this time period, 1,124 substances were reported to the UNODC Early Warning Advisory on NPS by governments, forensic laboratories and partner organisations worldwide.

The global NPS market continues to be characterized by the emergence of large numbers of new substances belonging to diverse chemical groups. Until 2015, the number of different NPS reported each year increased year on year, but has since shown signs of stabilization, albeit at a high level (see figure below).

New psychoactive substances reported to UNODC each year, by substance group, 2009-2021

The last decade has been characterised by a growing diversity of new psychoactive substances (NPS) offered on illicit drug markets and a high level of innovation with dozens of new substances being detected year after year. In recent years, however, the number of NPS reported globally each year has stagnated, albeit at high levels.

Early warning at the national, regional and international levels has enabled the international community to identify NPS soon after their emergence on illicit drug markets as well as to monitor their persistence and regional spread. This allows the analysis of trends in diversity and innovation across effect groups and regions, an understanding of which is relevant to informing future drug policy measures. The potential impact of international scheduling decisions on these trends will be discussed with a focus on the first set of NPS placed under international control in 2015.