The International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy is currently seeking submissions for the second edition of the International Journal on Human Rights and Drug Policy. The Journal is the first and only international peer reviewed law journal focusing exclusively on human rights and drug policy issues.

Established in 2009, the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative and high quality legal and human rights scholarship on issues related to drug laws, policy and enforcement. It pursues this mandate by publishing original, peer reviewed research on drug issues as they relate to international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law and public international law.

Submissions will be considered under the following categories:

– research and analysis on drug policy issues as they intersect with international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law and/or public international law.

 – these submissions are designed to allow author(s) a forum to explore new and innovative thinking, promote debate and highlight emerging areas of interest.

 – these are intended to highlight and summarise new court decisions and other jurisprudence related to the Centre’s mandate.

– these are short comments on previously published papers.

Author’s guidelines, as well as volume 1 of the Journal, may be found here. For more information email info@humanrightsanddrugs.org.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Call for submissions: International Journal on Human Rights and Drug Policy, volume 2

GPs across the UK will soon be able to prescribe life-saving injecting kits pioneered nationally by Scotland’s ground-breaking Take Home Naloxone programme.

Scottish Drugs Forum has learned that the UK Medicines and Health Care Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has agreed to licence the programme’s customised naloxone emergency injecting kits – a move essential for GPs to be able to prescribe them.

The move - actively supported by Scottish Drugs Forum – should mean more patients being able to access these kits, with the ultimate aim of reducing the number of drug deaths.

Scotland’s drug-related deaths are reducing - dropping to 485 in 2010 - but it still has among the highest rate per head of population in Europe.

The Scottish Take Home Naloxone Kit consists of:

A yellow plastic box (due to change to a white opaque box soon)

Nurses and pharmacists in Scotland can already prescribe and dispense the Scottish Naloxone Programme’s kits if they are supplying them under area health board regulations, called Patient Group Directions.

Scottish Drugs Forum – which delivers training for the Scottish Government-funded Scottish Naloxone Programme - has been at the forefront of talks which led to Martindale Pharma, a naloxone manufacturer, applying to the MHRA for permission to produce the complete Scottish THN kits.

UK GPs to prescribe Scottish Take Home Naloxone kits

Since coming to power in 2006, the current Canadian government has persisted in attempting to push its tough-on-crime agenda, including the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug crimes—despite the proven failure of such measures in the U.S. context.

The now-majority government has introduced a new Omnibus Crime Bill—Bill C-10, The Safe Streets and Communities Act—and is expediting its passage, contrary to available evidence and in defiance of the objections of opposition parliamentarians, justice experts, the editorial boards of most leading newspapers and concerned civil society.

Regrettably, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network’s 2006 briefing paper on the dangers of such measures is still all-too-relevant, as is the Network's 2009 submission to a Senate Standing Committee considering an earlier iteration of this bill.

On October 18, the Legal Network and a group of likeminded NGOs held an important public event, “Thrown under the omnibus: What you need to know about The Safe Streets and Communities Act", to demonstrate opposition for Bill C-10 and explore its multifaceted impacts on Canadian society. Please click here for more information about the event.

Canadian government determined to pass mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug crimes

When Insite—North America’s first legally-sanctioned safe-injection facility in Vancouver, British Columbia—opened its doors in 2003, it did so with a government exemption from federal drug laws.

When the government changed hands in 2006 and decided to remove harm reduction as one of the pillars of its drug strategy, Insite began a long, legal fight to defend its ability to continue providing life-saving services to people vulnerable to infection and overdose.

That fight ended triumphantly on September 30, 2011, with the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark decision allowing Insite to remain open, and opening the door to more such facilities in other Canadian jurisdictions. (Already, since the decision, the Province of Quebec has shown interest in opening safe-injection facilities of its own.) The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, which intervened in the case as part of an international coalition, applauded the decision in the joint statement available below.

Canadian Supreme Court green-lights safe-injection facility

Despite presiding over one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the world, Russia continues to reject proven harm reduction measures, imperilling the lives of one of its most vulnerable populations: injection drug users.

At the recent Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6 International Forum in Moscow, an international campaign—organized by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Harm Reduction International and the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network—called on the Russian government to support critical programming for those most at risk of infection, and urged all countries of the region to reaffirm a health-centred approach to drug use.

Prior to the Forum, Canadian NGOs sent a letter to key Canadian parliamentarians urging them to put pressure on the Russian government in this important matter; this same letter was delivered to Russian officials on the occasion of the Forum. This action followed on the Legal Network’s July 2011 letter to the Russian Ambassador in Canada, commemorating the victims of Russia’s War on Drugs.

Targeting Russia’s neglect of drug users

Novo curso “Diminuir para somar: capacitação em redução de danos sobre álcool e outras drogas” visa a ajudar os agentes comunitários de saúde a melhorar a abordagem de usuários de drogas e o prosseguimento dos casos.

No seu trabalho cotidiano, os agentes comunitários de saúde (ACS), componentes das equipes de Saúde da Família, têm percebido que o uso abusivo de álcool, maconha, cocaína e crack faz parte do cotidiano de muitos moradores das comunidades atendidas. Na realidade, as drogas estão presentes no dia-a-dia das famílias assim como outros problemas de saúde, como a diabetes, a tuberculose, a dengue e as doenças cardíacas. Só que, por ser um tema tabu, as pessoas não tratam do assunto.

Segundo Fabiana Lustosa, Coordenadora Psicossocial do Viva Rio, o tema do uso de drogas precisa de mais atenção nas comunidades. “As pessoas que usam álcool e outras drogas estão aí e os ACS muitas vezes até as cadastram como pacientes, mas a problemática das drogas acaba sendo colocada de lado. Os ACS abordam as outras patologias, mas não perguntam sobre o problema de álcool”, explica a psicóloga.

Diante deste contexto, surge a questão: será que os ACS estão preparados para lidar com o tema da dependência química e as dificuldades e impasses aí envolvidos? A resposta é não. Mas por pouco tempo. A organização social de saúde Viva Comunidade, em parceria com a Coordenação de Saúde Mental da Secretaria Municipal de Saúde e Defesa Civil (SMSDC) do Rio de Janeiro, desenvolveu o curso “Diminuir para somar: capacitação em redução de danos sobre álcool e outras drogas”, especificamente pensado para os ACS.

A Coordenadora de Saúde Mental do município do Rio, Pilar Belmonte, explica que o objetivo é capacitar todos os ACS como redutores de danos, fornecendo as ferramentas necessárias para que eles consigam lidar com os múltiplos casos de abuso de álcool e outras drogas nas comunidades. “Em uma primeira fase capacitaremos 50% dos agentes, mas a idéia é que com o tempo todos eles virem redutores de danos”, frisa Pilar.

O primeiro passo para fornecer aos ACS as ferramentas para lidar com essa questão foi a cartilha de redução de danos “Diminuir para somar”, lançada em abril desse ano. A segunda ação é este curso, cuja primeira turma teve início neste mês de agosto, que busca ajudar os ACS a internalizar os princípios básicos da redução de danos.

Neste primeiro momento, 210 agentes participarão do curso. Estes profissionais pertencem à área 3.3 do Rio de Janeiro, que possui o maior número de bairros na cidade (29 no total) e uma população de 965.000 habitantes, de acordo com o censo de 2006. “A gente pensou em começar com a área 3.3 justamente por ser a área com menos recursos com relação ao tema de álcool e drogas e também a mais carente sob o ponto de vista socioeconômico – possui o segundo IDH mais baixo da cidade”.

Dos três Centros de Atenção Psicosocial de Álcool e Outras Drogas (CAPS-AD) que existem no município do Rio de Janeiro, nenhum se encontra na área 3.3. “É claro que a área precisa de equipamentos especializados, porém, um dos aspectos que almejamos é estimular atitudes mais proativas pelo ACS. À medida que eles começam a discutir estas questões nas suas reuniões de equipe e, consequentemente, passam a levar as necessidades identificadas aos fóruns, eles fomentam a discussão bem como a criação de estratégias para lidar com os problemas. Mas não é só isso o que procuramos. Queremos que os ACS ampliem sua visão e tenham melhores ferramentas para atender os problemas de álcool e outras drogas dentro das suas equipes, sem necessariamente precisar referir os casos aos especialistas”, frisa Fabiana.

Registe-se para recever as Alertas mensais do IDPC e obter informação sobre questões relacionadas com as políticas de drogas.

Como melhorar a abordagem dos usuários de drogas? 

The 6th Civil Society Forum on Drugs gathered in Brussels, Belgium, from 10th to 12th October 2011. The Forum is a platform for informal exchanges of views and information between the Commission and civil society organisations.

The main objective of this meeting was to put together a set of recommendations to feed into the debates that will be taking place in the coming months among European Union Member States around the new EU Drug Strategy.

The discussions were structured around three draft papers, “General principles and civil society involvement”, “An integrated approach to EU drug policy” and “Proposal of a model for an objective debate about current drug policies”. The first two documents offered a series of recommendations related to drug policy, whereas the last one called for a structured and objective debate on drug policy to review current drug strategies. These papers were first discussed in small working groups and were then presented and discussed in the entire Forum. The challenge was to propose a unified and balanced position between an approach based on prevention and abstinence, and one based on harm reduction.

At the end of the meeting, the Forum had agreed on a set of recommendations and a drafting committee was established to compile a new report on the basis of what was agreed upon by the participants. The report will then be submitted to the Civil Society Forum for comments and suggestions.

Another highlight of the meeting was the election of a Core Group, which is now composed of six individuals: Eliot Albert from the International Network of People Who Use Drugs, Amador Calafat from the European Institute of Studies on Prevention, Jeffrey Lee from the Mentor Foundation, Matej Košir from the Institute for Research and Development ‘Utrip’, Frederik Polak from the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies and Eberhard Schatz from De Regenboog Groep and the Correlation Network.

Finally, a representative from the European Commission announced that the Civil Society Forum on Drugs would now have the status of a European Commission Expert Group. These expert groups are consultative entities that provide advice and expertise to the Commission and its services. Although this will not change the functioning of the Forum, it formalises the holding of the Forum’s meetings as a key forum for discussion and sharing of information among experts in the drugs field.

IDPC participates in the 6th EC Civil Society Forum on Drugs

InSight, 24 October, 2011, by Jeanna Cullinan

Proposed changes to Ecuador's penal code would decriminalise possession of drugs for personal use, including up to 10 grams of marijuana and hashish, four grams of opium, five grams of cocaine, and 100 milligrams of heroin.

Ecuador's National Assembly is scheduled to begin debate on the reforms within 90 days, reports La Hora newspaper. The proposed legislation distinguishes between types of drug trafficking offenses and defines penalties accordingly. Individuals who participate in large-scale drug trafficking and production, which is defined as 1000 times the quantity permitted for personal use, will be more harshly penalised than those participating in domestic production and distribution.

The legislation also targets individuals participating in international trafficking networks with longer prison sentences than those who produce and distribute drugs for domestic consumption only. The proposal will also punish the production, transportation or distribution of precursor chemicals and the cultivation of illegal crops.

In addition to targeting drug production and trafficking, the proposed legislation lays out harsh penalties for murder and kidnapping for ransom. According to Justice Minister Johana Pesantez, modernisation of the penal code is necessary to address the threat from organised crime, which has increasingly affected Ecuador. While proponents of decriminalisation highlight the various benefits of the proposed reform, which will also allow limited resources be targeted for abuse prevention, others have voiced concern that decriminalising possession of small amounts will increase drug use among young people who will no longer fear imprisonment.

Ecuador to debate decriminalisation

Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian president, has called for the global legalisation of marijuana to help combat the trafficking of harder drugs and related violence.

Mr Santos added his voice to a growing list of influential figures in Latin America demanding a rethink of the policies that have been used for decades to fight the drugs trade.

He said legalising softer drugs such as marijuana worldwide could help improve international efforts to deal with harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

"The world needs to discuss new approaches ... we are basically still thinking within the same framework as we have done for the last 40 years," he said.

Asked if making marijuana legal could offer a way forward, Mr Santos said it could and that he would support it "provided everyone does it at the same time". But he emphasised that other countries needed to take the lead, saying the issue was "a matter of national security" for Colombia, whereas "in other countries this is mainly a health and crime issue".

"Drug trafficking is what finances the violence and the irregular groups in our country. I would be crucified if I took the first step," he said in an interview with Metro, the global free daily newspaper chain.

Colombian president calls for legalisation of marijuana

The International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies (IDHDP) believes that doctors are in a strong position to help close the gap between evidence based practice and drug policy. We provide the voice of medical experts in advocating for healthy drug policies and support to individual doctors.

IDHDP has just launched a new website with two discussion forums, one for members only and a public one.

Doctors are welcome to join IDHDP's membership in advocating for healthy drug policies based on scientific evidence, human rights and compassion. All are welcome and encouraged to participate in our public forums on the website.

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