L’Académie Américaine des Pédiatres a publié une déclaration politique en soutien à la dépénalisation du cannabis et promouvant la reclassification de la substance sous la loi fédérale afin de faciliter la recherche sur ses bienfaits médicaux. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

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A group of 62,000 pediatricians said that marijuana should be decriminalized and that the drug should be reclassified under federal law.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, in a new policy statement, “strongly supports the decriminalization of marijuana use” and “encourages pediatricians to advocate for laws that prevent harsh criminal penalties for possession or use of marijuana.”

The group also recommends “changing marijuana from a Drug Enforcement Administration schedule I to a schedule II drug” to facilitate more research on its medical benefits.

While the group remains opposed to legalizing and regulating marijuana, its call for an end to the criminalization of use is a significant shift from its last position statement on the topic, which was released in 2004.

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Des pédiatres appellent à la dépénalisation du cannabis 

INPUD appelle le président indonésien à arrêter toute exécution prévue des personnes actuellement condamnés à mort pour un délit lié à la drogue. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

 to President Joko Widodo-President of the Republic of Indonesia

We, the undersigned, write this open letter in request that you do not carry out the planned executions of those currently held on death row charged with drug-related offences in Indonesia, both Indonesian nationals, and foreign citizens. The death penalty is the ultimate denial of an individual’s human rights, and we urge you to focus on the human rights and health of those charged, and not on punitive policies that only exacerbate costs and harms.

On the 18th January 2015, six people who had been convicted of drug charges were executed in Indonesia, despite numerous pleas that the executions be called off. In addition to an Indonesian national, those killed included citizens of Brazil, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Vietnam and Malawi. International condemnation of these executions has been swift, and three of the states whose citizens were executed removed their ambassadors from Indonesia.

We stress that what you have referred to as ‘shock therapy’ as a means with which to deter drug trafficking categorically fails to work: such policies have demonstrably failed in their aim to decrease drug use the world over, and as noted in an open letter recently sent to you that was signed by in excess of 30 civil society organisations in Indonesia, these policies have failed to decrease drug use or drug trafficking in Indonesia.

Criminalisation and the death penalty, far from decreasing drug use and drug-related harm, drive people who use drugs into the margins of society, distancing them from harm reduction interventions, from healthcare and service provision, and significantly worsening their health and social exclusion. Indeed, those who are convicted of trafficking drugs in Indonesia are often incredibly marginalised and vulnerable to exploitation, manipulation, and coercion. In short, the incarceration and execution of people who use drugs most harm the most vulnerable in society and are incompatible with a prioritisation of human rights and of health.

Click here to read the rest of the letter.

Lettre ouverte demandant l’arrêt immédiat des exécutions d’infracteurs de la loi sur la drogue en Indonésie

Ce guide offre des informations sur les manières de réduire les risques associés à la consommation de la MDMA. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

One of the most important things when taking drugs of any sort is to be well educated on their possible risks and complications and to use that information to make your use as responsible and safe as possible. Unfortunately, much of what we’re taught about drugs from school or public education campaigns is fear-based or in support of abstinence rather than education and harm reduction, reducing the accessibility of credible information about drugs.

This week, I decided to share some important harm reduction information for MDMA usage. This substance is quite widely used among college and university students. I’ve written about its therapeutic benefits in the past, but it’s important to also talk about its risks.

One of the difficulties in discussing MDMA use is that, in many cases, people have no certainty that what they’re taking is in fact MDMA. For example, it’s not uncommon for methylone or MDA to be sold as MDMA or for other stimulants to be mixed with it. This is one of the things that makes purchasing drugs from someone at an event and taking it that night dangerous—you have no opportunity to verify the identity of what you’ve purchased.

To verify the identity of your drugs, it’s recommended that you purchase a testing kit. This is a collection of solvents that can be dripped onto a small sample, and the resulting colour change will help you in identifying the substance. You can purchase testing kits from DanceSafe, a harm reduction organization made up of members of the electronic music community.

Before taking a full dose for the first time, it’s recommended that you first take a quarter dose (approximately 20-30 mg), sometimes called an “allergy test.” The reason for this is that a portion of the population has a deficiency in a liver enzyme involved in processing MDMA and other drugs. This is called “fatty liver disease” and often goes undiagnosed. The impaired metabolism of MDMA results in far stronger effects at dosages that are normal for others and the likelihood of overheating or overdose is increased.

Pure MDMA is a rather safe substance with a significantly better safety profile. than alcohol, tobacco, or cannabis. Nonetheless, important points to discuss surrounding the risks of MDMA include overheating, dehydration and overhydration. Deaths and serious harm resulting from MDMA use are quite rare in proportion to how much it is used. Overdoses can and do occur, but many complications of MDMA use are often due to preventable situational factors such as not having taken breaks to cool off or drinking too little (or too much) water.

Un guide sur la réduction des risques pour la MDMA

L’OMS a fortement recommandé à l’ONU et aux Etats de ne pas contrôler internationalement la kétamine, par crainte que cela conduirait à une crise sanitaire dans les pays où il n’existe pas d’alternative viable à l’usage de ce médicament. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

The 58th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in March 2015 has been asked to consider a Chinese proposal to place ketamine – an essential medicine used for anaesthesia – in Schedule I of the 1971 Convention (E/CN.7/2015/7 and E/CN.7/2015/81). Ketamine is the only available anaesthetic for essential surgery in most rural areas of developing countries, home to more than 2 billion of the world’s people. Scheduling ketamine under any of the 1971 treaty schedules will reduce its availability and further deepen the already acute crisis of global surgery.

The WHO has strongly and repeatedly recommended against international control, warning it would constitute a public health crisis in countries where no alternatives are available. The CND is taking place in Vienna on 9-17 March 2015.

On the UNODC website, in the CND section, appears a page under the title "Scheduling procedures" containing incomplete – and therefore misleading – information with regard to the options available to the CND in the case of a decision on ketamine. It says that the Commission “may decide - contrary to a recommendation of WHO - to add a substance to a schedule of the 1971 Convention or refuse to do so, to add a substance to a different schedule than recommended, or to remove a substance from the schedule in which it is listed or refuse to do so. However, the CND has to take into account the assessment from the WHO, which shall be determinative as to medical and scientific matters, and to bear in mind the economic, social, legal, administrative and other factors communicated to it by the Parties.”

The footnote to the paragraph references the Commentary on the 1971 Convention, which indeed talks about the Commission’s "very wide discretionary powers" but it adds that this “does not mean that it may act arbitrarily”. The key procedural question on the table in the case of ketamine is whether the CND "may decide - contrary to a recommendation of WHO - to add a substance to a schedule of the 1971 Convention", a correct direct quote from the Commentary. However, the Commentary also specifies that "there are cases in which the Commission would be bound to act in accordance with recommendations of WHO", cases that unequivocally apply to the current case of ketamine.

See also: Fact Sheet on the Proposal to Discuss International Scheduling of Ketamine at the 58th CND

La décision de la CND de classifier la kétamine remettrait en question le rôle de l’OMS 

L’usage de substances que les consommateurs pensaient être du MDMA mais qui étaient en fait des substances toxiques a conduit à plusieurs décès. L’analyse de ces substances pourrait aider à réduire de tels risques. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

Every year in England and Wales around half-a-million people aged 16 to 59 years take ecstasy, and every year there are 30 to 40 fatalities where MDMA is mentioned on the death certificate. Despite the plethora of new psychoactive substances, nearly all of which occur as loose powders, most tablets sold as ecstasy contain MDMA. They may also contain other substances, but few are of serious toxicological concern. Two principal exceptions to this rule, however, are 

There have recently been a number of deaths from users who ingested the ‘Superman’ pill, which contained the toxic substance, 

-methoxymethylamphetamine (PMMA). We can assume that the users did not know what was in the pills before they ingested them, although they probably thought they were taking 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), a popular recreational drug widely known as ‘ecstasy’.

Providing a service where users can have their drugs tested before they take them is one way to help reduce hospital admissions and deaths.

Actualités

Des pédiatres appellent à la dépénalisation du cannabis

Lettre ouverte demandant l’arrêt immédiat des exécutions d’infracteurs de la loi sur la drogue en Indonésie

Un guide sur la réduction des risques pour la MDMA

La décision de la CND de classifier la kétamine remettrait en question le rôle de l’OMS

Faciliter l’analyse de drogues récréatives pour aider à sauver des vies