YouthRISE Nigeria invites you to be a part of a thought-provoking conservation on Tuesday, 4th May 2021, as we unveil the realities of adolescent girls and young women, including those who use drugs, as impacted by the dynamics of social policies. This platform will unveil the advocacy tool - Untold Gender Stories of Young Women and those Who Use Drugs", that captures real life stories and probes for humane actions.



Untold gender stories of adolescent girls and young women

April 29th through May 2nd, hundreds of Students for Sensible Drug Policy members, alumni, community members, and allies will come together from around the globe for our second virtual drug policy conference.

Registration is live! Click here to register

#Sensible2021: The Virtual Drug Policy Conference, Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s annual international conference made by and for young grassroots advocates, will bring hundreds of activists and allies together online April 29th through May 2nd.

 The cutting-edge core conference program includes prominent keynote speakers and panels addressing urgent and emerging subjects in drug policy reform, harm reduction, leadership, organizing, and advocacy.

Ample opportunities for virtual networking will be available throughout the week.

Panel: Law Reforms for Effective Response to Drugs and Related issues

Sunday, May 2nd at 1:15pm-2:15pm / 5:15-6:15 GMT

Maria-Goretti Ane Loglo *15, Africa Consultant for International Drug Policy Consortium

Wilson Box, Executive Director, Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drug Network

Charity Monareng, PhD Candidate at UCT and Parliamentary and Policy Research Officer, TB HIV Care

The theme of this topic will be purely related to the law Reforms in different country in Africa Sierra Leone to be specific, especially laws that are related to incarceration of people who use drug with no alternative for rehabilitation. This topic will help highlight some of these sections and clauses in some of our law books in some Africa countries that are unfriendly to drug user and humanity. This will prepare us for our advocacy for law reforms with specific references in the various law books.

#Sensible2021: The virtual drug policy conference

: To raise awareness on, and interest in, the role of the European Prevention Curriculum (EUPC) in advocating for the application of science-based strategies in policy- and decision-making at local level.

: Prevention practice in Europe does not always keep pace with advances in prevention science, and available guidance, standards and registries of evidence-based interventions are not always sufficient to change policymakers’ funding decisions. This webinar aims to raise awareness on the role of the EUPC in advocating for the application of science-based strategies in decision-making at local level. The EUPC includes training for Decision-, Opinion-, and Policy-makers (DOPs) on how to prioritise evidence-based interventions and policies and on how to advocate for them. This represents a paradigm shift from offering guidance (‘let things happen’) to actively promoting change in decision-making (‘make things happen’). Speakers and stakeholders from Belgium, Germany, Estonia and Croatia will gather in conversation around this topic.

: This event is the third in a new wave of EMCDDA webinars being offered in 2021. EMCDDA webinars are designed to give a voice to professionals working in the drugs field and are conceived as conversations around key topics of interest and emerging challenges, as well as a means to build relations with potential or future stakeholders. The 2021 programme of webinars follows a testing phase in 2020, which saw seven COVID-19-related webinars rolled out between May and December. Chaired by EMCDDA staff members, the webinars are open to professionals working in the drugs field and other individuals with an interest in the topic.

Maximilian von Heyden: Finder Institute for Prevention Research, Germany

Triin Vilms: National Institute for Health Development, TAI, Estonia

Law enforcement — Ivan Paksic: Ministry of Internal Affairs, Croatia

Education system — Cynthia Deman: Centre for Mental Health Care Waas en Dender, Belgium

Local policymaking — Frederick Groeger-Roth: Lower-Saxony Ministry of Justice, Germany

: Marica Ferri and Gregor Burkhart, EMCDDA

: EMCDDA opening remarks, two presentations (20 minutes in total), three panellists (question-guided discussion), Q&A from attendees.

: The webinar is open to EMCDDA staff members, NFP network, and external individuals.

Participation is possible upon registration, after which the person will receive a link to connect.

: 28.04.2021 — 12.00–13.30 (Lisbon time), 13.00–14.30 (CET)

Advocacy for science-based prevention: the evidence doesn’t speak for itself

There are many sides to any story. Things are not always what they seem.

What if our drug policies, programs, and services can be more responsive, more impactful, more engaging, and support a greater number of people in more long-lasting and sustainable ways?

is a 4-day interactive online experience that gathers Philippine and international experts from multiple disciplines to discuss drugs the way we’ve never done before. We put together a wide range of expertise and experience in one big summit to fit your needs wherever you’re coming from and whatever it is you’re doing. Topics range from:

 - Ziff Professor of Psychology (in Psychiatry), Columbia University

 - Chairman, Malaysian AIDS Foundation; President, International AIDS Society

 - Executive Director and Founder, Gadejuristen - The Danish Street Lawyers

 - Founder and Director, Center for Optimal Living

 - Executive Director, Harm Reduction International

 - Founder and Executive Director, SCDI, Vietnam

 - Freelance Journalist and Researcher: Public Health, Criminal Legal System

 - Co-Founder and Director, Harm Reduction Therapy Center

 - Co-Founder and Executive Director, Harm Reduction Therapy Center

 - Executive Director, Rumah Singgah PEKA

 - Independent Consultant, Public Health and Public Safety

 - Regional Director: Asia, International Drug Policy Consortium

 - Consultant, Coact: Expertise in Drug Use and HIV

 - Women’s Program Coordinator, AKSI Keadilan Indonesia

 - Professor, Family and Community Medicine: University of California, San Francisco

 - Vice President, Malaysian Alliance for Drug Policy Reform

 - Addiction Counselor and Family Systems: Developer, Life Process Program

Philippine harm reduction summit

By Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines,

This global virtual summit will bring together Indigenous leaders from throughout North, Central and South America as well as researchers, practitioners, community builders and other experts from around the world. We will discuss the potential benefits and harms of the globalization of psychedelic plant medicines and explore how we can offer reciprocity to honor the Indigenous cultures and traditions that these medicines come from. It is vital that members of the psychedelic community help support Indigenous groups and the traditional spiritual and ecological knowledge they preserve and practice. This gathering is a follow-up to our conference, Plantas Sagradas en las Américas, held in Mexico in 2018. Like our previous conferences, this event reflects the mission of Chacruna by applying a multidisciplinary approach for creating intercultural dialogues and building bridges between Indigenous traditions and mainstream psychedelic science and policy. Indigenous voices have often been marginalized in the contemporary psychedelic conversation, and this event seeks to spotlight these voices and the invaluable wisdom they carry. We will explore how psychoactive plants have been used throughout history and in different geographical areas, as well as their use and active compounds in multiple contexts; including scientific research, empirical experience, cultural manifestations and the ways in which the state has administered these practices. Presentations will address the traditional and modern uses of various psychoactive plants and include a diverse range of perspectives and fields of knowledge. In doing so, this conference invites us to rethink dichotomies such as sacred vs. profane, modern vs. traditional, legal vs. illegal, and natural vs. artificial, thus bringing much-needed complexity and nuance to the mainstream conversation.

In parallel with this event, Chacruna will launch its new Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas, a comprehensive online resource that will allow people to connect with and donate to grassroots Indigenous nonprofits and community initiatives at the local level.

Sacred Plants in the Americas II

A global consultation on peer work with people who use drugs and sex workers, led by MDM and supported by INPUD, ICRSE, EuroNPUD and Coact, took place on 23 March 2021. Against the backdrop of this consultation, EuroNPUD is organising Peer Works! webinar series and showcasing three examples of meaningful peer work focusing on peer-led harm reduction and OST literacy and rights.

Global Peer Work Consultation Feedback webinar will include a summary from the focus groups with peer workers and presentations about research into peer work and the model of the Global Peer Work Consultations. The webinar will include a cartoon video recording of the ndings of the Global Peer Work Consultation.

 Judy Chang (Australia), Mat Southwell (UK), Ernst Wisse (Netherlands).

Peer Works! Global peer work consultation feedback

This webinar is for specialist doctors involved in the treatment of hepatitis C (hepatologists, infectious disease specialists, doctors, other specialties who are eligible to deal with the treatment of hepatitis C); medical specialists working with people who use drugs (narcologists, doctors of various specialties who work in the penitentiary system) from the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The webinar is for clinicians treating patients with hepatitis C (eg hepatologists and infectious disease specialists) and clinicians working with people who inject drugs (eg addiction specialist, narcologists and prison doctors) on the situation with hepatitis C among people who inject drugs, including barriers in access to treatment and care in EECA;

, Specialist of infectious diseases and internal medicine. University Medical Centre Ljubljana and Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Member of EASL PPHC

, medical officer, regional focal point for hepatitis. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe

, MD, PhD, Director of the Health Research Union, Georgia

, Director of the AGEP'C", Almaty. Kazakhstan.

, Executive Director of the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association


• provide up-to-date information on the hepatitis C situation among people who inject drugs, including barriers to access to treatment and care);
• present the latest WHO and EASL recommendations, including the EASL policy statement on drug use in the context of the global goal of eliminating hepatitis C;
• Share best practices for responding to hepatitis C among people who inject drugs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Language: English and Russian with simultaneous translation.

Elimination of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs

In conversation with Kasia Malinowska, director of the Open Society Global Drug Policy Program, Carl Hart, one of the world’s foremost experts on drugs, argues that the greatest damage from drugs flows from their being illegal.

Dr. Hart is open about the fact that he uses drugs himself, in a happy balance with the rest of his full and productive life as a colleague, husband, father, and friend. In 

 he draws on decades of research and his own personal experience to argue definitively that the criminalization and demonization of drug use—not drugs themselves—have been a tremendous scourge on America, not least in reinforcing enduring structural racism.

This conversation is the first in a series of ongoing panel discussions and events Open Society Foundations will host to spotlight the 50th anniversary of the unjust and racist “war on drugs,” initiated by President Richard Nixon. The United States has spent billions of dollars on expanding its criminal justice infrastructure to accommodate increasingly aggressive policing, encouraged other countries to adopt oppressive drug policies, and has devastated Black and brown communities, even as levels of drug dependence and overdose deaths have spiraled out of control. Join us in holding our leaders accountable and promoting drug policies guided by social justice, public health, and human rights.

Drug use for grown-ups: A conversation with Carl Hart

As the world grows older, drug use among people over 65 years of age has also grown. In order to successfully address drug use by older people, we must first acknowledge that use has no age limits.

In the recent “Hidden epidemic of drug use among older people highlighted by International Narcotics Control Board's Annual Report”, Mr Cornelis P. de Joncheere mentioned that the pandemic has caused great harm to the health and the well-being of older people. However, there is also a hidden epidemic of drug use affecting this population group. Drug use and drug-related deaths among older people have been on the rise, as has the number of older people in treatment for drug use problems.

This Global Cafe takes place at 07:00 am (Eastern Standard Time) on Friday 16 April 2021 (additional time zones below):

Geneva, Switzerland: 12:00
Lagos, Nigeria: 12:00
New Delhi, India: 16:30
Perth, Australia: 19:00

This Global Cafe will be recorded and streamed live on Facebook. Should you be unable to participate, a recording will be available on the IFA Facebook page

IFA global cafe: In conversation with Mr Cornelis P. de Joncheere "The hidden epidemic of drug use among older people"

Secondary NSP and Safer Injecting webinar will introduce the new EuroNPUD Safer Injecting course. There will be presentations about peer-led NSP pilots in the UK, Portugal and Spain. The peer needle patrol from Denmark will be described.

 Aura Roig Forteza (Spain), Mat Southwell (UK), Emilia Piermartini (Italy), Tom Linnert Jensen (Denmark).

Peer Works! Secondary needle and syringe programmes

The dates for the Sixty-fourth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Vienna are: 12 - 16 April 2020. The 64th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs is expected to follow a hybrid format (online / offline).

The Vienna NGO Committee (VNGOC) has drafted a Guide for NGOs participating in the CND, available here. VNGOC has also compiled a list of recommendations aimed at protecting the role of civil society engagement in the CND, available here. Finally, the Committee organises a civil society briefing this Friday, at 14:00 (CET). You can register for it here.

The CND Blog will also provide near real-time updates on the plenary session, Committee of the Whole and selected side events. You can also follow IDPC twitter which will provide live updates on key events, or follow the hashtags #CND64.

Survey on civil society participation in the 64th CND

The CND App aims to facilitate navigating and engaging with the debates at the CND. This mobile application will help you track, in real time, what is happening and where, receive notifications on key events, resolutions and speakers, and access CND resolutions as well as UN-agreed language on specific drug policy issues. This will be all the more important for this virtual session.

For an optimal experience, please download the app from the Apple or Android store. Alternatively, you can access most of the app's functionalities with your browser online. The CND App was developed by IDPC, as part of the Global Partnership on Drug Policies and Development (GPDPD) project.

The CND 64: Key issues and opportunities webinar series sheds light on the key issues that are likely to structure the debates, tabled resolutions and opportunities for engagement, and showcases the experience of IDPC network members in navigating and leveraging this forum for political advocacy. This multilingual webinar series is available in English, Spanish and French.

A video introduction to the Commission's functioning and mechanisms of engagement is also available.

110 side events are taking place during the 64th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

Over 20 of these events are organised by IDPC members and allies, check them out in the document below.

The IDPC Secretariat co-organises a number of them that we warmly invite you to register to:

Legal Regulation of Drugs through a development Lens

 | Flyer | 13:10-14:00 | Health Poverty Action, Instituto RIA, IDPC

Shifting the needle: The impact of global drug policy on women

 | Flyer | 14:10-15:00 | PRI, CELS, Dejusticia, IDPC, TIJ, WOLA

Protecting civil society space at times of COVID-19: Lessons learned for advocacy

 | Flyer | 10:00-10:50 | Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, YODA, CDPE, Frontline AIDS, IDPC

Promoting evidence-based drug policies and interventions enshrined in human rights in Europe

 | Flyer | 9:00-9:50 | Association Proyecto Hombre, Portugal, Spain, Council of Europe, European Union, European Union Civil Society Forum on Drugs

Addressing the harms of criminalisation and policing with criminal justice and drug policy reform

 | Flyer | 10:00-10:50 | Norway, Norwegian Association for Humane Drug Policies, DPA, IDPC, NoBox Philippines, Release





Celebrating the five-year anniversary of the UNGASS: Progress made, ongoing challenges

 | Flyer | 13:10-14:00 | Portugal, European Union, UNAIDS, WHO, IDPC

A series of informal dialogues between high-level UN representatives and civil society are scheduled to take place during the 64th Session.

As in previous years, the VNGOC has organised several informal NGO dialogues with representatives from UN bodies:

A declaration and four resolutions have been tabled and will be negotiated by Member States. The drafts are available here. 

Given the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the VNGOC will hold its 

as two online events (on 8 April and 15 April 2021). To find out more about how to pay your VNGOC membership fees, attend the AGM, please check this page.

The Committee is also holding 

. Only members who have paid their fees can vote. To learn more about the candidates and voting procedure, please check this page.

64th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND)

This webinar will review EuroNPUD’s Technical Briefing on P2PN and introduce EuroNPUD’s new Naloxone Saves Lives Course toolkit. Presentations will cover the peer championing of P2PN in the UK, a Slovenian guerrilla P2PN project, and Naloxone in a peer-led drug consumption room in Spain.

 Rui Coimbra (Portugal), George Charlton (UK), Janko Belin (Slovenia), Aura Roig Forteza (Spain) Guest appearance from Naloxone Man.

Past Events