The HIT Hot Topics Conference, held annually in Liverpool since 2011, continues HIT’s legacy of running cutting edge, high quality harm reduction and drug policy convenings. Whilst primarily UK-focused, HIT’s connection to activists and advocates around the world brings some of the most interesting and exciting speakers to our ‘family gatherings’, with side events almost as unmissable as the conference itself!

 HIT Hot Topics 2024

ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a conference organised by the Justice Project of Pakistan urged the government to introduce a drug policy that focuses on harm reduction, education, and medication to prevent deaths due to overdose and incentivise rehabilitation for substance use disorders.

Speaking at a plenary session ‘Effective Health and Harm Reduction Responses to Drug Use’, Syed Zulfiqar Hussain, a narcotics policy campaigner, said there were almost 6.7 million drug users in Pakistan and the country did not have an effective “harm reduction treatment” policy. In Lahore alone, there were over 7,000 homeless drug users with as many as 120 “hotspots”.

“There is no specialised treatment centre for women with drug dependence in Pakistan. People who use drugs deserve dignity, respect, and stigma-free care,” said Mr Hussain.

Amir Munir, additional district and sessions judge, said there was a need to develop a consensus regarding drug policy, particularly its legal aspect which treated substance users as pariahs.

Pakistan: Drug policy needs to focus on ‘harm reduction’ for effective response

The updated Guidance "Preventing and Responding to an HIV-Related Human Rights Crisis", jointly released by UNDP and the UNAIDS Secretariat, addresses the escalating challenges posed by HIV-related human rights crises worldwide. Drawing from established resources, it provides recommendations for United Nations Country Teams and partners, facilitating efficient coordination within the Resident Coordinator system. The Guidance aims to promote understanding, assist in preparing for crises, provide direction on principles and actions, strengthen coordinated responses, and advocate for long-lasting initiatives to prevent future crises. The Guidance's applicability extends not only to UN personnel but also to other international bodies, donors, development partners, diplomatic missions, communities, and civil society organizations. This Guidance should be used in conjunction with existing United Nations documents on HIV and human rights, alongside the human rights guidance for Resident Coordinators and United Nations Country Teams.

Preventing and responding to an HIV-related human rights crisis: Guidance for United Nations agencies and programmes

Mr Wilson Box, director of an organisation that seeks to alleviate drug abuse Zimbabwe, Civil Liberties and Drug Network (ZCLDN), advocates for harm reduction for drug and injecting users. His mantra is “Support, Don’t Punish”.

His organisation is a member of the Southern Africa Drug Policy and Harm Reduction Network.

“In harm reduction, we are looking at public policies, programmes and interventions. Programming entails compassion, fighting stigma and drug use education.

“It involves drug users’ communities being at the centre, with stakeholders helping in alleviating the scourge.

“In harm reduction, you don’t have to force anyone to stop using drugs, but to educate them. Highlighting the risks and dangers is pivotal to the success of harm reduction. Criminalisation drives drug users into hiding.

“Principles applied should encourage a user to come forward. Very few drug users are coming out.


“The punishing requires softening and reforming policies and laws to be non-criminalising. The users fear being arrested, and policy reform is needed urgently. As organisations working in harm reduction, we don’t judge, we don’t use coercion, we don’t stigmatise and discriminate, and we don’t use force anyone to stop using drugs. Rather, we educate by giving the benefits. We put justice and human rights as pillars in harm reduction.

“The access to anti-retroviral therapy, (ART) is important if we are to end AIDS. Access is one of the co pillars of harm reduction. The WHO approves 12 interventions, access to ART services, sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), agonistic therapy, sexual transmitted infections (STI) testing services, treatment, care and support, education, among many important others.

“Nurses and peer-led outreach programmes are important to harm reduction. Overdose management is effective, too. Harm reduction has proved effective in lessening the negative impacts of drug misuse. It’s high time we assist those using and injecting drugs in a compassionate manner,” he added.

Mr Box emphasised the unity of purpose being a cog in the wheel.

Drug users come from families and communities. Therefore, everyone should come on board.

“Everyone, families, the teachers, churches, community leaders and everyone influential needs to be aware of this important intervention. Our current policy, where drug users are arrested, will result in them hiding and continuing underground. It’s a no win-win for everyone if we continue on that route,” said Mr Box.

Harm reduction is a strategy meant to raise awareness.

With the internal organs being the most ravished if harm reduction is not drummed up, we stand to lose a sizeable number of our youths to substance and drug misuse.

Zimbabwe: Harm reduction strategy key in curbing liver damage from drug, substance use

 of settler colonialism by Canada, while their prohibition and attached criminalization have been used to 

Collective prohibitionist policies are key to the interlocking social relations of colonial control and capitalism under Canada. The carceral apparatus, which includes courts, prisons and provincial-level 

 systems, is largely powered by drug war-related charges, either through direct drug-related events, or the indirect violence generated by an unregulated drug market.

, Canada is overseeing a crisis of mass death due to the unregulated drug market now producing a contaminated and unpredictable supply in response to a century of shifting forms of 

 by drug opioid and stimulant drug poisonings between January 2016 and September 2023 in Canada (and 

 people died in the province of British Columbia alone from April 2016 to January 2024).

In Palestine, restrictions on substances have been employed as a tool of war by the settler state of Israel.


Undoing colonial carcerality everywhere: Palestine & the global drug war

Use of deadly nitazines is on the rise in Australia and a suite of measures is needed to prevent more fatalities, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark says.

Health experts are warning of the looming threat of strong synthetic opioids called nitazenes among Australian drug users, as former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said there was an urgent need for a second safe-injecting room in 

Referring to the long-mooted facility, Clark, who is the chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, said: “The bottom line is that people that are using drugs need to be safe.

“And that’s why a centre is so important … I hope it will go ahead. The first one is clearly 

Speaking at the World Health Summit regional meeting, Clark said there was a need for drug decriminalisation, public drug-testing facilities and safe-injecting sites to get ahead of what was described as the imminent threat posed by synthetic opioids, which are already 

causing an epidemic of drug fatalities in North America

 which is also a powerful synthetic opioid.

Australia: Experts warn of influx of synthetic opioids amid calls for second Melbourne injecting room

Hotel President Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland / Online

On the occasion of the 77th World Health Assembly, we would like to warmly invite you to the second edition of the WHA Inter-Ministerial Dialogue, co-organized by the Global Commission on Drug Policy and the World Health Organization (WHO).

This year, the event - "Charting Paths, Strengthening the Present and Navigating the Future of Harm Reduction" - will take place on Monday, 27 May at 13:00-14:30, at the Hotel President Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland. A light buffet lunch will be served.

Please confirm your attendance by 21 May. 

Kindly specify your preferred format of participation (in person or online), along with your name, title, and affiliation, by email to secretariat @ globalcommissionondrugs.org.

For remote participation, the Zoom link is in the attached flyer (via short link and QR code), and can be found here.

Please feel free to share this link with interested colleagues and stakeholders, particularly those working on drug policy and related matters in Vienna and in your capitals.

We look forward to your participation and valuable contributions.

Charting paths, strengthening the present and navigating the future of harm reduction

Please join us on Monday 13 May at 12.00 CET for the launch of the 

2024 Manifesto for a Progressive EU Drug Policy

 through a conversation on the future of European drug policy that will feature Members of the European Parliament and keynote European civil society speakers.

Please kindly register for the event through 

More than 260 European drug policy NGOs and 130 drug policy experts from 25 EU Member States have already signed the 2024 Manifesto for a progressive EU drug policy. We are coming together to call for a pragmatic and innovative EU drug policy that makes Europe safer, healthier, and more just.

If you want to support the manifesto, please make sure to:

Encourage your drug policy networks and colleagues to sign the manifesto.

Share the manifesto on social media with the hashtag #FutureDrugPolicyEU24.

If you want to get more involved in the campaign by translating the manifesto to your language or organizing a local launch event, please reach out to arogialli@correlation-net.org and kschiffer@correlation-net.org.

You can find the manifesto in Czech, English, Estonian, French, German, Italian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Romanian, and Spanish, and the list of signatories, 

Thank you very much for your support, and we are looking forward to seeing you on Monday 13 for the launch of the manifesto.

Manifesto for a Progressive EU Drug Policy 2024 - Launch event

There are ongoing concerns among policymakers, law enforcement, and civil society organisations (CSOs) about the emergence of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) in general (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), 2023; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 2023a), about the appearance of NPS in more traditional illicit substances available in global and European markets, and about the emergence of new drug trends in general. International agencies continue to warn about the potential health risks (such as overdose) associated with illicit substances, including synthetic opioids. CSOs, particularly those working closely with people who use drugs, play a pivotal role in notifying signals of change with respect to the use of new substances, changing patterns of drug use, or in changes in local drug markets. This calls for new approaches to rapidly update data on drug trends that include qualitative data provided by people who use drugs and by experts who are in contact with people who use drugs. Data from CSOs are considered complementary to other sources, providing useful intelligence on emerging drug trends. This report aims to explore the latest insights with respect to the emergence of new illicit substances in cities where Focal Points (FPs) of Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN)1are located, as well as other developments in drug use patterns, including polydrug use, routes of administration, and changes in local drug markets.The focus extends beyond NPS to allow for afull understanding of current local drug market developments.

New drug trends: Insights from focus group discussions

To monitor new drug trends in Europe and complement the information gained through focus group discussions, C-EHRN’s 2023 Civil Society-led Monitoring of Harm Reduction in Europe includes two reports via the Trans European Drug Information Network (TEDI), drawing from data collected from drug checking services.

Drug checking observations and European drug checking trends via TEDI

: To inform the Special Rapporteur's thematic report to the General Assembly in October 2024.

Within the framework of Human Rights Council resolution 51/21, the 

Special Rapporteur on the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

 has identified health equity as a strategic priority, ranging from the underlying determinants of health to the need to eliminate structural and systemic barriers in accessing health care services, goods, and facilities, particularly among persons living under vulnerable or marginalised circumstances. In compliance with her mandate, in line with these priorities and to build on the report she will be presenting to the 56th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2024 on “Drug policies and responses: a right to health framework on harm reduction.”, the Special Rapporteur on the right to health has decided to devote her next thematic report to the 79th session of the General Assembly, in October 2024 to the theme of “Harm reduction for sustainable peace and development”.

The Special Rapporteur stresses that all individuals are entitled to the enjoyment of the right to health, which includes the underlying determinants of health and timely and appropriate health care. In the present report and building on the report she will be presenting in June 2024 during the 56th session of the Human Rights Council[

], the Special Rapporteur intends to explore the ways in which harm reduction intersects with the right to health and related human rights. Relying on the frameworks of the social, commercial[

] determinants of health, the Special Rapporteur will examine harm reduction legislations, policies and programmes linked with sustainable peace and development, as well as universal health coverage, harm reduction in situations of vulnerability.

In the forthcoming report, the Special Rapporteur intends to focus on harm reduction as key public health interventions for populations that are often stigmatised and discriminated against. The Special Rapporteur will use an intersectional, anti-racist and anti-colonial approach in her analysis related to drug use, harm reduction and the right to health and will thus examine the underlying power structures that perpetuate systems of disadvantage that determines who have acceptable, accessible, affordable, and quality services, goods and facilities.

The achievement of Universal Health Coverage is challenged by the lack of health equity and the Special Rapporteur will also examine gaps in adopting a rights-based approach to public health and harm reduction, including in contexts in which it fails to meet the needs of those who bear the brunt of punitive drug laws and policies and inadequate comprehensive support over decades.

The Special Rapporteur will explore how harm reduction is a part of reparative approaches through evidence based, stigma-free, decriminalised legislations, policies and programmes linked with universal health coverage, sustainable peace and development.

Most commonly, harm reduction refers to policies, programmes and practices that aim to minimise the negative health, social and legal impacts associated with drug use, drug policies and drug laws[

]. For the purposes of this report, the Special Rapporteur defines harm reduction in a broader sense, including the policies, programmes, and practices that aim to minimise the negative health, social, and legal impacts associated with various behaviours and related policies and laws, as exemplified above.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

Please provide the specific challenges, or positive developments and examples of harm reduction interventions in communities, countries, or regions. If possible, please provide examples of how harm reduction support programmes in your community, country, or region were impacted by war, conflict, crisis or humanitarian settings and steps, if any, that were taken to mitigate the impact.

Please share the impact of criminalisation, discrimination, stereotypes and stigma in your community, country, or region on the accessibility, availability, affordability, and quality of essential medicines (e.g., pain medication or abortion pills), palliative care, comprehensive drug prevention and education, and drug treatment?

Please provide examples of initiatives undertaken to provide access to controlled medicines to specific groups of the population requiring them.

Are there resource or budgetary requirements or constraints for adopting or implementing sound harm reduction policies, programmes, and practices in your community, country, or region? How do the resources allocated to harm reduction compare to those allocated to law enforcement or the criminalisation of drug use or other behaviours? How do universal health coverage plans/implementation in your region take harm reduction resourcing into account?

What role do private actors (e.g., the pharmaceutical, tobacco, alcohol, food industries) play in real or apparent harm reduction policies, programmes, and practices that are available in your community, country, or region? What are the positive or negative impacts to public health, sustainable peace and development?

In your opinion, what constitutes comprehensive clinical guidelines/procedures? Please provide good practices in this regard implemented in your community, country, or region. Does universal health coverage implementation reflect these good practices?

Please provide examples of good initiatives or practice undertaken to provide comprehensive harm reduction interventions for populations that are often criminalized, stigmatized and discriminated against in the context of drug use and drug laws and policy.

Please provide details about the type of continuous professional training related to international human rights norms and standards provided or offered to staff working in the judiciary, law enforcement, community safety, medical practitioners, and educators.

Please share the redress mechanisms in place, if any, to ensure that the right to health of people who use drugs are protected.

In view of anti-colonial and anti-racist approaches to harm reduction related to drugs, please provide some examples of reparative approaches that protect and promoted the dignity of people.

Please note that all responses will be published on the official webpage of the Special Rapporteur by default.

Inputs may be sent via e-mail by 27 May 2024.


Contribution to GA report - SR right to health

Harm reduction for sustainable peace and development - Call for inputs

The ongoing overdose and drug toxicity crisis in North America has contributed momentum to the emergence of safer supply prescribing and programs in Canada as a means of providing an alternative to the highly volatile unregulated drug supply. The implementation and scale-up of safer supply have been met with a vocal reaction on the part of news media commentators, conservative politicians, recovery industry representatives, and some prominent addiction medicine physicians. This reaction has largely converged around several narratives, based on unsubstantiated claims and anecdotal evidence, alleging that safer supply programs are generating a "new opioid epidemic", reflecting an emerging alignment among key institutional and political actors. Employing situational analysis method, and drawing on the policy studies and social science scholarship on moral panics, this essay examines news media coverage from January to July 2023, bringing this into dialogue with other existing empirical sources on safer supply (e.g. Coroner's reports, program evaluations, debates among experts in medical journals). We employ eight previously established criteria delineating moral panics to critically appraise public dialogue regarding safer supply, diverted medication, and claims of increased youth initiation to drug use and youth overdose. In detailing the emergence of a moral panic regarding safer supply, we trace historic continuities with earlier drug scares in Canadian history mobilized as tools of racialized poverty governance, as well as previous backlashes towards healthcare interventions for people who use drugs (PWUD). The essay assesses the claims of moral entrepreneurs against the current landscape of opioid use, diversion, and overdose among youth, notes the key role played by medical expertise in this and previous moral panics, and identifies what the convergence of these narratives materialize for PWUD and healthcare access, as well as the broader policy responses such narratives activate.