La sociedad civil expresa su preocupación por el Plan de acción de la UE en materia de drogas

El Foro de la sociedad civil sobre las drogas debatió la falta de atención a las intervenciones de reducción de daños en el Plan de acción en materia de drogas adoptado recientemente por la UE (2013-16). Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

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Many members of the expert Civil Society Forum on Drugs (inlcuding the outgoing chair, Eberhard Schatz) expressed their concern about the Action Plan on Drugs (2013-16), failure to adequately cover, and give clear indicators in regard to, harm reduction inteventions. Harm reduction objectives are subordinated to treatment and recovery objectives. This is a step back from the political commitment of the previous Action Plan, which had more specific objectives and indicators to ensure that harm reduction programs are scaled up. For instance, the previous Action Plan had specific objectives to scale up opiate substitution treatment in prisons – this is missing from the current plan.

The Civil Society Forum on Drugs is an expert group of the European Commission. It serves as a platform for dialogue between the EC and civil society. In 2013, 40 NGOs (including our own Drug Policy Program) were selected to be members of the Forum for a two-year period. A rich diversity of groups are represented at the Forum, covering most regions, professional fields and ideological approaches. Some NGOs focus on harm reduction, others on primary prevention. There are representatives of drug user communities and those who self-identify as recovered addicts. There are members who support drug prohibition, while others speak out for drug regulation. This diversity gives the Forum an advantage, because it enables it to express the complexity of the drug phenomenon.

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