Drug Policy Archives - Page 5 of 6 - Drug Policy Network SEE

DPNSEE joined the International Drug Policy Consortium

Posted on 28/04/2017 by Milutin

A great news – Drug Policy Network South East Europe was formally recognised as the member organisation of the Member of The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)!

The IDPC membership opens opportunities for participating in a variety of projects. We have already been discussing assisting the IDPC to coordinate the “Support.Don’t Punish” campaign in South East Europe, having a training supported by the IDPC and working together on documenting the situation in the region related to transition from the Global Fund funded projects to local funding of the services. We hope that in the future there will be a lot of new chances for collaboration.

The DPNSEE Board meeting

Posted on 22/03/2017 by Milutin

The first meeting of the Board of the Drug Policy Network South East Europe was held on 20 and 21 March 2017 in the DPNSEE Office and the Library of the House of Human Rights in Belgrade, Serbia. It was an opportunity for the new start of the Board after the changes in the composition made at the last General Assembly held in November 2016. All the Board members participated, and Staff including two volunteers joined for some parts of the meeting.

The Board adopted the DPNSEE Annual statement, the minutes from the recent General Assembly and the Board meeting and the Report for period December 2016 – March 2017 proposed by the Staff. Board also discussed the Operational plan for 2017 and forthcoming events and activities.

The Board discussed the fundraising strategy, membership fees payments, reimbursement procedures, capacity building (training), volunteers’ work on resource pool and glossary, website, Expert committee and DPNSEE Strategy 2016 – 2019.

The Diamond CND Session

Posted on 19/03/2017 by Milutin

Sixtieth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs was held in Vienna, Austria from 13-17 March 2017. It has been a session with the record number of participants and side events. Around 100 side events and numerous exhibitions were held during the session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which was attended by more than 1,500 people representing Member States, civil society, academia and international organizations.

The main topic of the discussions at the CND was focused on the implementation of last year’s UNGASS outcome document and planning for the upcoming review of the 2009 Political Declaration and Plan of Action in 2019.

A resolution by countries in Eastern Europe directed to promote community, family and school-based prevention approaches and strategies was adopted. The resolution took an extensive standpoint on prevention, including the role of risk factors, the importance of families and communities in prevention and the need for culturally fitting, multi-component interventions to prevent drug use.

After the discussion at the plenary the Member States decided to schedule a number of New Psychoactive Substances and some precursors that are used in the production of the opioid Fentanyl, which caused a large number of overdoses in the USA and Eastern Europe in recent years.

Among other things discussed were a resolution to prevent HIV /AIDS and other blood borne diseases, principles for Alternative Development and the harms of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS).

Drug Policy Network South East Europe was first time present at the UN premises in Vienna, formally as part of the Diogenis delegation, supported by the EU project. It was a good opportunity to network with our peers from civil society organisations (including preparatory meeting organized by the IDPC and VNGOC meeting), to meet with representatives of the formal national delegations (Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, among others), and to hear a lot of good experiences at the side events.

Youth activists from member organizations of the DPNSEE, HOPS from Macedonia and Re Generation from Serbia, had presentations in the side event organized by the Youth Organisations for Drug Action (YODA) and Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe in the first year that YODA was present with the ECOSOC status. Side event was focused on the topic related to “Protecting the rights of young people in the areas related to drugs and drug policy, under international regulations” with aim of highlighting the real difficulties young people face under current drug policies.

A good insight in the Commission meeting can be found at the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) blog.

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.

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.

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.