Milutin, Author at Drug Policy Network SEE

Legalize or not?

Posted on 26/12/2016 by Milutin

NGO “LEK lekalizuj, which has the mission is to launch initiatives for adoption of law on regulating medical cannabis, organised a public debate on medical cannabis on 24 December 2016 in Ruma, Serbia. The trigger for the debate was the forthcoming draft of the changes to the Law on psychoactive controlled substances.

The room was full of people who experienced different kind of progress in their health conditions claiming that it came from using medicaments based on cannabis oil.

DPNSEE representatives presented different experiences in regulating this item in countries of South East Europe.

Lively and active CSO scene in Macedonia

Posted on 24/12/2016 by Milutin

Delegation of the Drug Policy Network South East Europe visited Macedonia on 21 to 22 December 2016. It was one of the final visits in the region in this year in an attempt to understand the situation and meet with a variety of stakeholders in drug policy in the country.

The delegation of the Network included Chairperson Tijana Žegura and Executive Director Milutin Milošević. We were accompanied by Thanasis Apostolou, DPNSEE founding Chairman and Director of Diogenis who presented the drug law reform initiatives.

Creative workshop in the HOPS drop-in centre

DPNSEE member organisation HOPS was host for the visit. This very active and widely involved in social issues organisation presented their work, including the drop-in centre. The staff, both in the office and the drop-in, showed the variety of projects and support services.

The Methadone centre in the Karpoš municipality serves users in modern and fully equipped new premises. We had an informative and very open exchange with Dr Darko Kostovski.

Exchange in the NGO Coalition for health and sexual rights of marginalized community

Irena Cvetkovik of the NGO Coalition for health and sexual rights of marginalised community informed us about their activities, including their struggle to ensure fair and human treatment of police, especially the special Skopje brigade. The Coalition expressed their will to become DPNSEE member organisation!

Meeting with Dragi Celevski from the Office of the Ombudsman gave a quality insight into the work of this institution which for almost 20 years cares about respecting human rights in the country.

City of Skopje has an array of activities in supporting people affected by drugs which were presented during the meeting with Eleonora Nikolovska, the Coordinator of Office for Health, Social and Child protection.

An exchange with our good and lasting partner Dr Liljana Ignjatova, the National drug coordinator, completed the picture of the efforts taken in the country.

Finally, the delegation had an informative exchange with Hristijan Jankuloski, Chairman and Ana Filipovska, secretary of the Country Coordination Mechanism for Global Fund projects.

Even thought shortages in the proposed budget for 2017 and expected closing of the Global Fund projects are threatening future, we hope that lively and active CSO scene will fin their way in providing support to affected.

A challenge to connect and coordinate efforts in fighting HIV/AIDS

Posted on 09/12/2016 by Milutin

The FYRO Macedonia Country Coordinating Mechanism hosted the South East Europe High Level HIV
Regional Meeting on 1 and 2 December 2016 in Skopje in partnership with local NGOs H.E.R.A. and
Stronger Together and supported by AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

The objective of the meeting was to establish a regional platform in South East Europe from countries that
are receiving and transiting from Global Fund to advocate for HIV sustainability beyond Global Fund
projects both at national and regional level. Countries in the South East Europe expected to be part of the
regional platform are: Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bulgaria
and Romania. Representatives of all these countries participated except Albania.

Besides country representatives, participants at the meeting included Vice-Chair and two Board members
and Focal Points of the Global Fund, representatives of the Open Society Foundations from New York and
local, several international organisations operating in the country (UNFPS, USAID, WHO, UNICEF), HIV and tuberculosis unit in the national Ministry of Health and local NGOs.

This was the first regional meeting of the CCM representatives. It was initiated to coordinate actions in a
very difficult situation when South East Europe is the only region which haven’t EECA region didn’t meet the Millennium Development Goal 6 related to HIV/AIDS. Question hard to answer is: Is it possible to end the HIV epidemic in SEE countries with current domestic and international investments? That is why the
Government investments of in HIV response and funding CSOs programs for key populations are important but not enough.

The Global Fund has 272 million USD for multi-country actions and 50 million USD for fighting HIV in
countries in transition. The decision on funding the projects in the next three years will be announced on 15 December!

The Open Society Foundations created their Safety Net mechanism for safeguarding services for key
population in countries where Global Fund is not providing funds any more. From actions eligible for these
funds, advocacy and accreditation are especially interesting for DPNSEE.

The meeting once again emphasized involvement of community and civil society organization in the HIV
regional dialogue. Unfortunately, there were no high level governmental representatives although it was
the idea of the organisers.

Working part of the meeting was dedicated to formulating the SEE Regional Coordinating Mechanism
Governance Manuel: Mission, common goals, objectives and outcomes, members, regional meetings,
activities as part of the 2017 working plan. It is important to underline that the RCM does not seek to
duplicate or over-ride the national authority of any CCMs or similar national bodies. Rather, through good
coordination among different regional stakeholders, it can and will amplify the work of national CCMs.

The participants agreed to delegate to Macedonian CCM responsibility to confirm all the members of RCM,
and complete the full draft of the Governance Manual by 31 January 2017. Permanent RCM Secretariat
office will be established by the RCM on the basis of an open, transparent and competitive process.

Besides the Executive Director, DPNSEE had several member organisations in the national delegations:
Viktorija from Bosnia Herzegovina, HOPS from FYRO Macedonia, Cazas and Juventas from Montenegro and ARAS from Romania. We had a good exchange and cooperated well when discussing the proposals.

1st regular annual General Assembly in Belgrade

Posted on 06/12/2016 by Milutin

New enthusiasm for the future

The Drug Policy Network South East Europe held its 1st regular annual General Assembly in Belgrade, Serbia on 29 and 30 November 2016. It was the opportunity for the extended number of member organisations to meet, analyse the work on establishing the Network and decide about the future work.

Thanks to the generous support from the Office for combating drugs of the Republic of Serbia, the
Assembly was held in the Palace Serbia, the governmental representative building. Representatives of 16
out of 18 member organisations participated, including 10 newly recognised members.

The Assembly adopted the report about the work in 2016 and financial report presenting participation in
the UNGASS process and stabilisation and positioning of the Network as the main activities. The plans for
2017 were also adopted, based on the strategic priorities proposed by the Board and ideas for possible
projects. Interim results of the research on the harm reduction and treatment services were presented and
the plan for completing it in 2017 were supported.

Changes in the Board were introduced to ensure that this governing body is active in implementing the
action plan. Tijana Žegura (Juventas, Montenegro) is elected new Chairperson and Vlatko Dekov (HOPS,
FYRO Macedonia) new Vice-Chair. While Denis Dedajić (Margina, Bosnia Herzegovina) and Saša Mijović (4 Life, Montenegro) remain members of the Board as Secretary and Member, newly elected Board members are Erlind Plaku (Aksion Plus, Albania) which will serve as Deputy Secretary, Marios Atzemis (Positive Voice, Greece) Treasurer and Nebojša Đurasović (Prevent, Serbia) as Deputy Treasurer.

The Assembly thanked outgoing Chairman Thanasis Apostolou and Board members Tanja Mandić, Bogdan
Glodeanu and Dragoș Roșca for their contribution to the Network.

Changes to the Statutes which were adopted ensure availability for wider scope of actions to the Network,
better define internal processes and ensure that a representative of the community of persons who use
drugs is in the Board. The first version of the Code of Conduct is also agreed to be the basis for governance.

The Assembly welcomed one new member organisation – Prometheus from Athens, Greece. The Network
now has 19 member organisations from 9 countries of South East Europe. Plans for enlargement in 2017
were confirmed so it is expected that new members will come soon!

A new and exciting period started and we hope that it be a fruitful one!

Serbian Visions – where civil society meets business sector

Posted on 05/12/2016 by Milutin

German – Serbian Chamber of Commerce (Deutsch-Serbischen Wirtschaftskammer http://serbien.ahk.de/), in cooperation with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (http://www.pks.rs/) organised the second multi congress Serbian Visions on 26 and 27 November 2016 at the hotel Radisson Blu Old Mill in Belgrade. The aim of organizing the only multi was strengthening the role of civilian movements within the country as well as creating more favourable economic environment by emphasizing important country-development activities.

The event encompassed 60 two hour long sessions on a number of topics: human rights issues, economics,
education, culture, health care, environmental protection, the EU integrations, security, innovations and
other programs which represent a vision of better future for Serbia. Session hosts were NGOs, institutes,
associations, universities and faculties, groups of professionals and companies, using different types of
presentations: discussions, forums, presentations, workshops, seminars, movies, etc.

Drug Policy Network South East Europe hosted the session on “Sustainability of support services to drug
users”. DPNSEE Board members Denis Dedajić and Saša Mijović, together with the Executive Director
Milutin Milošević, presented the situation in Serbia and the region and also some ideas for action that can
help make the difference and ensure regular and comprehensive services.

Although not many people participated in the session due to extremely unpopular term (Sunday at 16:00),
the discussion was very interesting and fruitful.

European information network on drugs and drug addiction

Posted on 24/11/2016 by Milutin

Reitox – the European information network on drugs and drug addiction – was set up by the European
Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in 1993 and is composed of 30 national
monitoring centres or national focal points (NFPs) in the 28 EU Member States, Turkey and Norway, as well as a focal point at the European Commission. The NFPs, from which the agency draws the bulk of its data, collect and analyse national information on drugs, drawing on various sectors including health, justice and law enforcement.

Representatives of candidate, potential candidate and neighbouring countries of the EU joined members of
the EMCDDA’s Reitox network in Lisbon on Tuesday 22 November 2016 for the kick-off of the agency’s fifth Reitox week. The purpose of this annual event was to broaden the scope of regular Reitox meetings,
underline the importance of the EU drug monitoring model and add impetus to the agency’s technical
cooperation with countries outside the EU.

The 2016 Reitox week (21–25 November) united 38 nations including the current 30 members of the
network and a number of beneficiary countries of the European Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
(IPA) and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).

The Reitox week encompasses three events: international cooperation project-related meetings; a Reitox
‘extended network’ meeting (this year focusing on ‘Drugs and recreational settings’) and the regular Heads
of focal point meeting. During the extended meeting, experts and researchers from 10 countries (Belgium,
Denmark, Spain, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Serbia) shared available data on substance use in open-air music festivals and other recreational and nightlife settings. In particular, they looked at the experiences and challenges faced by festival organisers and at existing interventions targeting the consequences of substance use in this context. A special focus was placed on prevention strategies and on the evaluation of their effectiveness.

Alexis Goosdeel, EMCDDA Director, said: “With this meeting, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of the dimension of problems associated with substance use in specific recreational settings, such as open-air
music festivals and nightlife venues. Our discussions this week will help us shed light on the potential, yet
often underused, role of local regulators, party organisers and parents organisations in reducing
substance-use-related problems in these settings. They will also help EU and partner countries identify
possible steps towards implementing evidence-based interventions to tackle this issue”.

Irena Molnar, representative of Drug Policy Network South East Europe delivered the speech “The culture
of substance use: New Psychoactive Substances in Serbia and SEE region”, focusing on setting in which
psychoactive substances are use in recreational setting. She emphasised that the National and regional
wide researches and advocacy for nightlife outreach harm reduction programs and recreational setting in
general should be conducted, so we can be aware of the situation specifics we are dealing with in all of the
countries in the SEE region. Countries of SEE that are in period of accession to EU (and those already
involved) should look and learn from the examples of a good practices that exist around the Europe and
start supporting implementation of harm reduction programs for partygoers. Sharing information on safety, offering young people and partygoers information on health risks so that they can make an informed decisions regarding their drug and alcohol use should be essential.

Joint Statement from Romanian civil society urging Global Fund to maintain funding

Posted on 22/11/2016 by Milutin

In advance to the upcoming 36th Meeting of the Global Fund Board on the 16th and 17th of November, the representatives of Romanian civil society organizations, including people living with HIV and TB and key populations, published a joint statement to express their deep concern about the potential disconnect between a successful replenishment and the small or non-existent allocations that will be made available for countries like Romania and upper middle income countries with HIV epidemics that are still not controlled. They are afraid that there is a high risk that the allocation for the HIV component for Romania for the next three years could be zero – the same as it was the previous allocation period.

The last Global Fund HIV grant for Romania so far came to an end in 2010. Already in 2013, Romania’s HIV disease burden was increased to ‘high’. An alarm was issues and a targeted concept note was developed and submitted, but was not supported by the Global Fund. AT the same time, the key barrier to a sustainable HIV prevention program and HIV/AIDS sector in Romania is the lack of political will to fund the program by the Government. Results are devastating and organisations urge the Global Fund to introduce “a differentiated investment approach in which funding decisions are guided by considerations of need and impact.”

You can read the full joint statement following this link

http://rhrn.ro/en/joint-statement-romanian-civil-society-organizations-advance-thirty-sixth-meeting-global-fund-board/

What works in budget advocacy?

Posted on 15/11/2016 by Milutin

The Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) organised an interesting workshop on “What works: Budget advocacy for national investments in harm reduction” from 23 – 25 October 2016, in Budapest, Hungary.
The workshop was organized within the EC funded project “Harm reduction works! Improving funding for
harm reduction and HIV prevention in the EU” with co-funding from the Open Society Foundations.

The goal of the workshop was to provide a learning and planning space for national advocacy teams with
representatives of harm reduction NGOs from Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Bosnia, Macedonia,
Montenegro and Serbia for greater domestic investments in harm reduction in their countries.

Objectives of the workshop were:
●To build knowledge on how to influence budgets at national and municipal levels;
●To re-assess the funding situation and the vision of the future budget needs and sources;
●To advance skills on planning advocacy tactics, adapting evidence-based arguments and work with
politicians and media;
●To explore possibilities for advocacy cooperation with other health, human rights and transparency
movements in the country and other related processes;
●To develop advocacy plans with milestones for 2 years and detailed planning for the next 8 months;
●To assess the needs for continuous capacity building and support from political and technical
partners and communication after the meeting.

Harm reduction services and HIV-related community systems strengthening is underfunded from national
budgets in a number of EU member states in Central Europe and their South-East European neighbours that are EU candidate or potential candidate countries. Besides, as a rule, EU member states are not eligible for donor support or development assistance other than provided by the EU itself. South Eastern Europe is being rapidly left by its main remaining donor of harm reduction and other HIV interventions among key populations, the Global Fund, without adequate commitment from local authorities.

In order to strategically influence national and local authorities to secure funding for unmet needs of key
populations, NGOs need to conduct so called budget advocacy, so as to better understand how to influence
budget processes and policies, and increase accountability mechanisms.

9 Drug Policy Network South East Europe member organisations from member 5 countries participated in
the workshop, along with the Executive director of the Network. It was an excellent opportunity to get to
know more about on-going projects and plans for the future, present the Network and get contacts for
possible partnerships.

Early Warning System on new psychoactive substances

Posted on 11/11/2016 by Milutin

The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia, with the support of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) organised a seminar for representatives of partner institutions and agencies on 27 and 28 October in order to establish operational Early Warning System on new psychoactive substances.

The aim of this seminar was to introduce European rules and standards for early warning on new psychoactive substances, as well as the establishment of this system in the Republic of Serbia. This is one of the obligations requested for in the EU accession process.

The representatives from CSOs were invited to participate in the part of the agenda concerning “Possibilities for development of regional network of early warning systems”. Among issues discussed was a research on benefits of developing mechanisms of local early warning systems, responsibilities of the participants in the system, coordination of regional early warning systems and communication with the National Early Warning System, cooperation and protocols on exchange of information, requests for training, and more.

In the fruitful discussion at the meeting, DPNSEE Staff alongside with NGO Re Generation expressed clear and direct concerns regarding early warning system due to a lack of nightlife outreach and harm reduction programs in recreational setting. Drug testing was once more mentioned, in the context of the legal framework, with suggestion for signing the protocol that will allow CSOs to collect certain amount of NPS for further research and testing.

Since NGOs are listed as the one of the crucial partners in the early warning system, because of their outreach activities and closer connection to the users groups, in the close communication with the Cécile Martel, Coordinator external partners and Ilze Jekabsone, Capacity development officer of the Reitox and international cooperation (RTX) unit EMCDDA, DPNSEE Stuff was asked to collect data available from their Member Organisations.

Data collected will be sent to EMCDDA representatives and presented at the EMCDDA, Extended Reitox network meeting in Lisbon, in November 2016. The topic of the meeting will be “Drugs and recreational settings / open air music festivals”.

Albania is “going green”

Posted on 29/10/2016 by Milutin

The delegation of the Drug Policy Network South East Europe, including Board member Vlatko Dekov and Executive Director Milutin Milošević, visited Albania from 11 to 14 October 2016. Aim of the visit was to present DPNSEE to the Albanian society and build strong relationships with the authorities, institutions and services.

Methadone centre in organisation Aksion Plus

Our great hosts were Genci and Erlind, colleagues from the member organisation Aksion Plus. They welcomed us in the building they built themself, from the ground! It is an amazing place, providing great conditions for work and different kinds of activities.

The building hosts one of currently 6 methadone centres the organisation holds throughout the country – and two more are to be opened soon. Aksion Plus, an NGO, is the only institution that provides opioid substitution therapy in the country! No hospital, no ambulance, no other state institution. A unique case in the World.

The delegation met with Mr Ulsi Manja, Member of the Parliament active in the Justice System Reform Committee, who works on changes of legislation which would hopefully result in creating structures which will support people with special needs, including drug addicts, and bring more flexibility to the penal code. Special efforts are invested in changing the famous Article 289 to make difference between drug use and drug related criminal.

Open and informative talk with Mr Ulsi Manja, Member of the Parliament

Meetings with the officials from the Ministry of Interior were an exceptional opportunity to hear from people who organised the famous „Operation Lazarat“ which led to cleaning this centre for cannabis production in the country. Unfortunately, what followed is that cannabis production is now absolutely decentralised and it is cultivated on thousands of places all around the country. Jokes that describe the situations tell that „Albania is going green“ with cannabis fields all around and that „policemen are turned into agriculture workers“ destroying them.

The delegation also met the person which coordinates work of the prefectures which were introduced to enhance local governance and support provided from the national level.

Professionals from the Institute for Public Health gave valuable insight in their activities on fighting HIV/AIDS (Mr Roland Bani) and training and prevention (Ms Andia Meksi). Good news is that the Global Fund will extend their support for these programmes for two more years.

It was also of great value to meet with Dr Sokol Morina, the Drug issues coordinator in the Ministry of Health. He gave a good insight in the changes in the society after the democratisation, which haven’t so much changed the practice of drug use.

Good exchange with Dr Sokol Morina and Željko Tadić

The delegation also met with Željko Tadić, coordinator of the therapeutic community Pope John XXIII and exchanged about their approach and results. Unfortunately, there was no time to visit the community which is settled in a village near Shkoder.