Harm reduction: an effective and humane drug policy approach to drug use

Events

Harm reduction: an effective and humane drug policy approach to drug use

15 September 2016
Turkish Green Crescent Society

Brief information on the seminar

Harm reduction has been best defined by Harm Reduction International as 'policies, programmes and practices that aim primarily to reduce the adverse health, social and economic consequences of the use of legal and illegal psychoactive drugs without necessarily reducing drug consumption'. In some contexts, this approach is referred to as 'harm minimisation' or 'risk reduction'. Harm reduction has emerged as an evidence-based, effective response to drug use over the past 30 years. It is now a critical component of a health response to drug consumption.
This seminar will offer a definition of the concept of harm reduction, its key components and underlying principles. It will also provide an overview of harm reduction coverage across the world, examples of best practice, as well as evidence of effectiveness. The seminar will conclude with a series of recommendations on how to adopt and implement drug policies grounded in a harm reduction response.


Short biography of the trainer

Marie Nougier is the Senior Research and Communi-cations Officer at the International Drug Policy Con-sortium (IDPC) - a global network of more than 140 NGOs coming together to promote drug policies based on health, human rights, development, human security and civil society participation. Marie is responsible for the communications and publications work stream of IDPC, and supports the IDPC secre-tariat in networking and policy engagement activi-ties. She has been involved with IDPC since December 2008. Marie is also engaged in international-level advocacy, in particular at the CND, and in civil society capacity building activities. She is also engaged in regional advocacy, in particular in Latin America where she supports advocacy work focused on reducing the incarceration of women for drug offenc-es. Her language skills in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese have constituted a valuable asset for the development of a multilingual centre of expertise at IDPC. Marie has a Masters' Degree in international law, human rights and the law of armed conflicts. Before IDPC, she worked on issues related to compul-sory drug detention in South East Asia at the World Health Organisation, as well as immigration, racism and police brutality in Europe at Amnesty International.

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