The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a statement from Dr. Jonathan Mermin, Director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, on December 21st, 2015.

Congress has given states and local communities, under limited circumstances, the opportunity to use federal funds to support certain components of syringe services programs. These programs provide sterile injection equipment and may also link individuals to services including HIV and hepatitis C testing and care for those infected, substance abuse treatment, and overdose prevention.

Outbreaks in Indiana and elsewhere have been powerful reminders that people who inject drugs can be at very high risk for HIV and hepatitis C, and studies have shown that syringe services programs are cost saving, and can reduce the risk of infection without increasing drug use. CDC has historically recommended that states ensure people who inject drugs have access to integrated prevention services from a reliable source, including sterile injection equipment, opioid therapy, and HIV and hepatitis testing. Congress’s decision makes that job easier.

Overall, unsafe injection drug use accounts for approximately 8 percent of new HIV infections in the United States, and in recent years it has contributed to a 150 percent increase in acute cases of hepatitis C infections. Because these infections can spread from drug users to others, syringe services programs can help protect whole communities.

CDC is committed to helping communities use all effective tools to stop the spread of HIV and hepatitis. Along with other tools proven to reduce the risk of infection and strategies to prevent and treat substance abuse itself, syringe services programs can be a valuable component of a comprehensive prevention strategy for people who inject drugs and their partners.

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CDC statement on syringe services programmes

Os tremendos custos do atual regime de controle de drogas são óbvios agora. As últimas décadas viram centenas de milhares de atrocidades cometidas em nome das políticas proibicionistas: pessoas sendo sequestradas e desaparecidas, marginalizadas, relocadas à força, e mortas. Mais milhões foram infectados com doenças transmitidas pelo sangue, como HIV e HCV, por falta de acesso a agulhas limpas ou tratamentos de substituição, ou sofrem desnecessariamente porque burocracias retêm medicações analgésicas opióides eficazes e baratas. Claramente, as políticas existentes de controle de drogas estão falhando.

No entanto, há razões para se ter esperança. Ao longo dos últimos anos, os Países Baixos, Suíça, Portugal, Catalunha, Bolívia e a República Tcheca têm respondido às necessidades locais com soluções inovadoras de reforma de política de drogas, e providenciado uma muito necessária liderança global. Em 2015, o movimento global de reforma na política de drogas fez grandes avanços e expandiu o número de vozes reformistas, incluindo países do Sul Global.

Estou esperançosa que o ímpeto continuará enquanto seguimos para a Sessão Especial da Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas (SEAGNU) sobre o problema de drogas mundial em 2016 e além, até que haja um consenso para uma abordagem global mais sensata.

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

Onde acertamos em política de drogas em 2015

Algeria is committed to implement the new vision recommended by the UN to end AIDS pandemic, said Monday in Algiers Minister of Health, Population and Hospital Reform Abdelmalek Boudiaf.

At the opening of a regional meeting North Africa and Middle East (Mena) on AIDS pandemic, Boudiaf underlined that this commitment stems from a "political willingness which has been repeatedly reaffirmed" at the national and international stages.

"This political willingness is reflected by a full mobilization of the government and all the players, notably the civil society as part of a multi-sectoral framework supported by an executive decree of the Prime Minister. It will also receive substantial funding with over 95% of the budget is granted by the State so to ensure all the free services like screening and antiretroviral treatment," he added.

Algeria committed to apply new UN vision against Aids

The President of the United Nations General Assembly (PGA) has requested the UNAIDS Secretariat to help convene a Stakeholder Task Force to support effective and active participation of civil society, the private sector, and other relevant stakeholders in the High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS to be held in New York from 8-10 June 2016.

The Task Force will report to the Office of the President of the General Assembly (OPGA) and provide an important link for civil society and all relevant stakeholders interested in participating in the High Level Meeting. Task Force representatives will work with UNAIDS and the OPGA in developing key aspects of the High Level Meeting. The role of representatives will be unpaid but expenses and travel will be met by UNAIDS.

Different constituency networks are being requested to use their own networks and selection processes to nominate individuals to be considered for the Task Force. An international civil society support group made up of different constituencies and regional representation, established to provide support to civil society and relevant stakeholder involvement, will use the overall criteria set out below to propose individuals for each of the nine categories of members and submit these names to the OPGA.

One person openly living with HIV representing organizations or networks of people living with HIV

One representatives from each of the key affected communities (people who use drugs, sex workers, transgender and men who have sex with men)

One member of the UNAIDS PCB NGO delegation

A representative from a women’s organization, particularly working on sexual and reproductive health and rights

A representative from a youth organization

A representative from a faith-based organization

The selected nominations will then be sent as recommendations to the UNAIDS Secretariat and the OPGA who will be responsible for the final decision.

Deadline for nominations is January 13th 2016. Find more information below.

Call for nominations for the Stakeholder Task Force for the 2016 High Level Meeting on AIDS

Afghan officials have opened a new drug treatment center in an abandoned NATO military base in Kabul, in the latest attempt to stamp out the country's massive problem of drug abuse.

Afghanistan is one of the world's biggest sources of opium, producing around 3,300 tonnes last year, despite a drop of 48 percent in output.

With the economy in ruins after decades of war and unable to provide jobs for young Afghans, demand for the temporary relief provided by drugs is high.

Camp Phoenix, a former training camp on the edges of Kabul set up by the U.S. army in 2003, will take in around 1,000 homeless drug addicts who will receive food, medical attention and treatment, said Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz.

"We give them a proper shave, they will take a shower, winter clothing and treatment will follow," he said, showing reporters around the facility, which offers a 45-day course of treatment for homeless addicts.

In May, a U.S.-funded report said around 1.9 million to 2.4 million Afghan adults may be drug users, from among a population of about 30 million, with drugs found in more than 30 percent of homes.

To counter this situation, the country has just 123 treatment centers, sufficient to treat just over 10 percent of opium and heroin users. But even addicts who go through the centers often fall back into drug use.

Afghanistan turns disused NATO camp into drug treatment base

In booming Seattle, where daydreams typically take the shape of mega-mansions and supersize yachts, street activist Shilo Murphy has managed to lower his expectations.

The techies at Amazon, Microsoft and other millionaire-minting factories can have their Lexuses and Lamborghinis. He'd be happy with a used van filled with heroin addicts, needles loaded and ready to fire.

Traveling neighborhood to neighborhood, with a nurse attendant aboard, the drug mobile would be the equivalent of a narcotics shooting gallery delivered to your doorstep. Let Jeff Bezos' Amazon drones top that.

"It's going to happen," Murphy, 40, insisted, sitting at his desk in the basement of a church in Seattle's University District, across the street from an entrance to the University of Washington. "We're in the design stage. Maybe in a few months we'll be rolling." On cluttered shelves and in boxes stacked around him are some of the tools of his trade: new meth pipes, alcohol swabs and needles, needles, needles, all to be handed out free and, in some cases, against state law.

Inspired by Insite, a government-supported supervised drug facility in Vancouver, Canada, where addicts go to safely shoot up and obtain support services, Murphy and others planned to open a similar operation

Thumbnail: Public domain image, Debora Cartagena

Seattle activist plans mobile drug haven to encourage safe use

A plan backed by Silicon Valley billionaire Sean Parker to legalize recreational use of marijuana in California is on the path to the November ballot, potentially bringing more than $1bn a year in tax revenue, according to legislative analysts.

The proposal, which would allow for the retail sale of marijuana to adults aged 21 and older, is one of the most highly anticipated initiatives, in no small part because California is the country’s largest economy and the eighth largest in the world.

But some industry insiders are unhappy with the proposal – which is backed by Parker, the founder of Napster, and Justin Hartfield, the founder of WeedMaps – and are withholding support.

“This skews towards big marijuana,” said Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association, an industry trade and lobbying group.

The state’s attorney general cleared the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) on Wednesday, allowing the campaign for the measure to begin. The first hurdle will be gathering 365,880 signatures to qualify for this year’s general election – an effort that will start “in a handful of days”, according to AUMA spokesman Jason Kinney. Signature gathering could cost as much as $2m, with the overall campaign reaching $10m, according to industry sources.

Marijuana plan backed by billionaire Sean Parker on path to California ballot

Last week, Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was captured in the town of Los Michos, possibly because of an interview he conducted with Sean Penn for Rolling Stone. The Sinaloa cartel, however, will carry on business as usual: “It’s not even going to skip a beat,” one analyst told AFP.

“The capture won’t have a significant impact other than a moral victory,” a former international operations chief at the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mike Vigil, told Agence France-Presse. El Chapo, who faces extradition to the U.S., will probably be succeeded by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. “It’s going to continue to function.”

In the interview with Penn, El Chapo himself is seemingly aware of his diminished significance in the context of his business. “The day I don’t exist, it’s not going to decrease in any way at all,” he said.

El Chapo's capture will likely have little to no effect on Sinaloa cartel's business

The Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA) and the Regional Arab/Network Against Aids (RANAA) conducted Regional Dialogue Focus Meeting to consult on the development of the MENAHRA/RANAA Global Fund Regional Concept Note.

The dialogue took place in Crown Plaza Hotel in Beirut, Lebanon, from 8 till 10 December 2015 in the attendance of national AIDS programs managers, representatives of United Nations organizations, civil society organizations, key populations (KPs), related parties and other experts in this field from the MENA region.

This dialogue aimed to discuss major challenges in the field of harm reduction and AIDS, to ensure that strategies and suggested plans in the proposal reflect the multi-stakeholder response, in addition to the participation of KPs and community social organizations in the joint regional project proposal.

MENAHRA and RANAA regional dialogue focus meeting

There's a growing consensus in the U.S. that drug addiction is a public health issue, and sufferers need treatment, not prison time. But good luck if you are pregnant.

A short film released Monday shines a light on a recent trend among states to criminally prosecute women for using drugs while pregnant. The video, created by Brave New Films, investigates the effect of "feticide laws" across the country. Originally passed to protect pregnant women from violence, women's health advocates say these laws are now being used to prosecute pregnant women themselves.

In 2014, Tennessee became the first state in the nation to pass a law allowing women to be charged with a crime if their babies are born with symptoms of drug withdrawal.

The state was responding to a dramatic rise in the number of babies born with "neonatal abstinence syndrome," a group of symptoms that can occur when babies are in withdrawal from exposure to narcotics. Medical professional stress that while babies with NAS may be irritable, the condition is treatable and has not been associated with long-term negative consequences.

Yet the same cannot be said of Tennessee's law.

Health advocates have reported that women are avoiding critical prenatal care and even leaving the state to give birth because they are afraid of facing arrest and losing custody of their children. While it's not clear exactly how many women have been arrested under the new law, in Shelby County alone, at least 22 women have been prosecuted.

"This policy has resulted in separating mothers from their children and incarcerating people struggling with drug use instead of ensuring access to effective options for recovery," Allison Glass, state director of Healthy and Free Tennessee, a nonprofit women's advocacy group, said in a press release. "This law is hurting far more people than it could ever help."

Watch the short film by Brave New Films here.

Please, stop locking up pregnant women for using drugs

The german government has finally published the draft for the new bill “Cannabis as medicine” on the website of the Federal Ministry of Health on January 7th.

After much speculation on the details of the bill in the last couple of months, now the draft for the law is public. Allthough there still might be some changes in the process of implementing the law, it looks quite positive. Here are the main cornerstones:

- There will be no further need for exemption licences to use legal medical cannabis.

- Any Doctor will be able to prescribe Cannabis flowers for patients on a special receipt, just like any other prescription drug available in german pharmacies.

- In addition, the costs for the flowers will"in certain cases" be covered by the regular health insurance.

- In order to secure the supply for german patients a cannabis agency will be established. The cannabis agency will issue licenses for commercial cultivation of cannabis and distribute it to the regular pharmacies.

If the draft bill passes into law, cannabis flowers will be prescribable as a controlled substance with medical use and listed in Schedule III of the german Narcotics Act (BtMG). It will be deleted from Schedule I and II, which list the narcotics that are non-prescribable and those controlled substances which are not marketable. With these changes patients will not need any special permits to use the narcotic prescription. Any doctor will be able to hand out these prescriptions.

Medical marihuana to become a medicine like any other in Germany

The world's governments used to agree on tackling the use of cocaine, cannabis and other narcotics. Policies, such as locking up dealers, traffickers and even users, were underpinned by global treaties from the 1960s onwards as the US led a war on drugs.

That system is crumbling as ever-more Western nations, from Portugal to the United States, rewrite rules on whether cannabis and other drugs should be available to sufferers of multiple sclerosis and other maladies, decriminalised or even legalised, so that people can use them for recreation.

Experts warn of a polarised world in which reformers, such as Switzerland and some Latin American countries that have borne the brunt of narco-gang violence, clash with Russia, China and many Asian and Middle Eastern states that hold tougher lines against drugs.

James Cockayne, a scholar at United Nations University, the world body's think-tank, warned that the consensus on drugs is fragmenting, creating headaches for policymakers and a vacuum of leadership that could be exploited by drug cartels.

"We're concerned about policy fragmentation and worsening coordination between states, making it harder to safeguard global public health and throwing up a range of unexpected trans-border spillover effects," Cockayne told Al Jazeera.

"Countries that wish to legalise cannabis and trade it with others will run into treaties designed with prohibition in mind, undermining a system that helps governments collectively combat criminal networks and other bad actors."

"Efforts to create a drug-free world have clearly failed," Cleia Noia, an analyst at the Social Science Research Council, a think-tank, told Al Jazeera.

"A blanket prohibition policy has been hugely negative, criminalising people for low-level activities and drug use, often women and ethnic minorities. And has any of it made it harder for teenagers to buy drugs?"

In the US, ever-harsher drugs sentences saw the prison population quadruple to 2.3 million people from 1980 to 2008, with blacks behind bars at six times the rate of whites, according to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, a social equality campaign group.

In Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Ecuador, more than 60 percent of women prisoners were jailed for drug offences - often poverty-racked mothers who became drug mules for quick cash, according to the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC).

"It's time to change the metrics by which we measure success," Heather Haase, an IDPC expert, told Al Jazeera.

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