Puerto Rico’s legislature is taking another stab at decriminalizing weed. The island’s lower house is making preparations to begin debate mid-month on a bill that would eliminate jail penalties for possession of up to 14 grams of marijuana, Puerto Rican daily El Nuevo Día reports. The measure was passed by the Puerto Rican Senate last year, but failed to make it through the House.

Rep. Luis Vega Ramos of the governing Popular Democratic Party, who heads the House Judiciary Committee where the proposal will be considered, said Gov. Alejandro García Padilla is open to the proposal.

“There’s some factors that are forcing us to rethink this issue,” Vega Ramos told El Nuevo Día. “There’s the problem of jail overcrowding, and we have to evaluate whether jail sentences are the right way to treat people who consume marijuana.”

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

Puerto Rico marijuana reform gets a second life 

On 27-28 November, TNI, in collaboration with GIZ and the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), organized the 5th Southeast Asia Informal Drug Policy Dialogue on ‘Drugs and Development in Southeast Asia’ in Bangkok.

Specific attention was paid on how to implement alternative development programmes in conflict areas, and how to involve affected communities in policy making and implementation. There was also a discussion on the state of drug law reform efforts in the region and the scaling up of harm reduction, and recent developments in international drug policy. This included key drug policy issues relevant for the region related to the mid-term review of the 2009 Political Declaration at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in March 2014, preparations for which started in September 2013, and the UNGASS on drugs which will take place in 2016.

The meeting was attended by government officials, NGO representatives and drug policy and rural development experts from Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, China, Malaysia, India, Cambodia and Vietnam and from international agencies.

TNI organised 5th Southeast Asia Informal Drug Policy Dialogue 

As Bolivia assumed the presidency of the United Nations Group of 77 (G-77), President Evo Morales used this opportunity to push his pro-coca agenda, likely hoping to capitalize on the international attention surrounding moves towards drug reform elsewhere in the region.

On January 8, Morales marked the beginning of Bolivia's one year term chairing the United Nations (UN) coalition of developing nations with a speech promoting the use of coca leaf and calling for its removal from the UN list of banned drugs.

Morales also highlighted Bolivia's success in obtaining recognition of the legitimate use of coca leaf within the country from the UN after it rejoined the UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which it had left in protest over coca's banned status. In a press conference following the speech, Morales also spoke about the country's successes following the "nationalization" of Bolivia's counter-narcotics efforts, referring to the severing of ties with US anti-drug bodies.

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

Bolivia uses G77 post to put coca legalisation on international agenda

Despite an aggressive crackdown on drugs, Thailand’s fight against methamphetamines is failing, activists say. With supply and demand rising, these highly addictive substances, commonly known as “meth”, are now the drug of choice.

“The punitive measures never work,” Bijay Pandey, chair of the Asian Network of People who Use Drugs, told IRIN. “I really don’t think the strategy addresses anything to promote the health and rights of those who use drugs.”

Thai authorities, under pressure by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - a 10-member economic bloc - to achieve a drug-free region by 2015, stepped up efforts in 2011 to stem the upward trend of usage of meth and other amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS).

Advocates warn that the drug trade has not been deterred by strict tactics that have led to staggering arrest figures, stiffer penalties for drug offences, heightened stigma for drug users, and an upsurge in compulsory drug treatment. The United Nations has criticized this as ineffective, with high relapse rates and a threat to detainee health and human rights.

Rethinking Thailand’s war on methamphetamines

Britain is to opt out of a European Union regime for regulating legal highs that would result in only the most harmful new psychoactive substances being subject to full criminalisation.

Announcing the decision – which could attract sanctions from Brussels –the Home Office crime prevention minister, Norman Baker, said he "strongly disputes"' the EU claim that 20% of legal highs have "legitimate commercial and industrial uses". The issue could presage a fresh clash between London and Brussels as the proposed EU drugs directive does not include provision for a UK opt-out.

Legal highs: UK to opt out of new EU regulation regime

The critically acclaimed documentary about hepatitis C in Sweden is now available online with english subtitles. 'The Hidden and Forgotten Plague - A film about hepatitis C' is produced by The Swedish Drug Users Union and have already been viewed and downloaded thousands of times. The film is 46 minutes long and part of an educational project started by the SDUU called The Hepatitis Portal.

Subscribe here to the weekly newsletter from the SDUU -

 The weekly newsletter from the Swedish Drug Users Union have been a great success. If you want to find out whats going on at the Swedish Drug Users Union, you can now subscribe to their e-mails. They usually contain activities at the Stockholm office, news from their local user unions and links to interesting news stories. Published only in swedish, but you could always use Google Translate.

The hidden and forgotten plague - A film about hepatitis C in Sweden

The Swedish Drug Users Union have launched a new project that collects and gather data about the side effects from the substitution medication Suboxone in swedish patients. The goal is to collect the data from different sources, including Facebook and a online survey, and make a final report that shows the many side effects their members have reported during the last couple of years.

Subscribe here to the weekly newsletter from the SDUU -

 The weekly newsletter from the Swedish Drug Users Union have been a great success. If you want to find out whats going on at the Swedish Drug Users Union, you can now subscribe to their e-mails. They usually contain activities at the Stockholm office, news from their local user unions and links to interesting news stories. Published only in swedish, but you could always use Google Translate.

Side effects from Suboxone in Sweden

Drug courts are promoted as a more humane alternative to incarceration for people who use drugs in the United States. But in our recent study, we found judges in New York were ordering patients to stop treatment with methadone or buprenorphine as a condition of participation in, or graduation from the drug court. This practice is unjust, ungrounded in medical evidence, and bad for patients and the public.

Methadone and buprenorphine are medicines prescribed to reduce cravings for and injection of heroin and other opioids. Medical evidence on opioid dependency shows that relapse to opioid use is generally the rule, rather than the exception, when people who are dependent on opioids stop taking them. This is especially true when they stop abruptly.

Drug courts and drug treatment: Dismissing science and patients’ rights

For the past two years, NGO 4 Life has led an intensive public campaign to enable the same rights to women dependent on drugs as those enjoyed by men, for which there is a Center for rehabilitation and re-socialization. For this purpose, in two occasions we have called on ministers in charge, as well as the previous and current Prime Minister, to resolve this issue as soon as possible. We also informed the representatives of the Embassy of Montenegro, the EU Delegation in Montenegro and other relevant stakeholders in our country who are dealing with the protection of human rights, and at the same time ran a strong media campaign.

The municipality of Podgorica, the Union of Municipalities, the Municipality of Tivat, the Municipality of Niksic and NGO 4 Life then worked in partnership to apply for funding to IPA in order to build a rehabilitation and re-socialization center for women dependent on drugs in Montenegro. The project was approved and the construction of the center will begin in January 2014, next to the institution for the treatment of men dependent on drugs “Kakaricka gora” in Podgorica.

NGO 4 Life appreciate their partnership with the city, which has been helpful in giving prominence to, and making efforts towards resolving, the issue. The representatives of Podgorica also participated in the writing of the project proposal, and provided logistical and technical support to ensure that the project could be fully implemented.

Centre for rehabilitation and social reintegration of women dependent on drugs to open in Montenegro

Ask any female inmate in Latin America how they ended up in prison and there’s a good chance they will reply “drugs”. That’s what most women at Colombia’s largest women's jail in Bogota, known as the Good Shepherd prison, told me when I visited the jail in 2011 and 2013 to see the prison’s annual beauty pageant and interview women who live with their children behind bars.

“Drug dealing seemed the only way out of my money problems at the time,” Sandra Martinez, told me last September, as a toddler chasing a balloon ran across the prison courtyard.

“It's one of those mistakes in life that I’m paying a very high price for," the 23 year old said.

Women imprisoned for drug-related offenses, like Martinez, are behind the surge in the numbers of women in Latin America's overcrowded jails.

Between 2006 and 2011, the region’s female prison population almost doubled – rising from 40,000 to more than 74,000 inmates - according to figures cited by the Open Society Global Drug Policy Programme.

While rights groups say more research is needed, it’s a trend that began in the 1990s following the introduction across most of Latin America of stiffer laws for drug offenses, which have affected women more than men.

Why is there a rise of women behind bars in Latin America?

“Opioid substitution treatment in prison” 

have been launched in the framework of the CARE project. The modules will run between the end of March and mid-May 2014.

All information about the training, its content and structure and required timeframe are available here.

The harm reduction course is primarily addressed to professionals in health and social services working either within the prison or outside. They may be employed as civil servants within state agencies or in NGOs. The opiate substitution therapy in prisons training wants to support prison doctors, contracted doctors, prison health care workers, prison administration, NGOs and others in delivering or supporting substitution treatment. Preference will be given to participants from European Union and neighbouring countries.

Colleagues interested in taking part in the training, should fill in the attached registration form and send it back to Ms. Cinzia Brentari before the 9 March.

, so the only expectation from trainees is a sufficient knowledge of English, as well as a specific interest and possibly some expertise on drugs, infections and the prison setting.

Please advertise this opportunity widely among your contacts and colleagues at the prison administration and other health and social care structures in your area and through your website and newsletters.

For any further information please contact Ms. Cinzia Brentari.

Project CARE: e-learning course on Harm Reduction in Prisons and OST in Prisons

The call for nominations for the 2014 Red Ribbon Award is now open. As in the past, the award honors and recognizes exceptional grassroots leadership in responding to the AIDS epidemic. Nominations are accepted from 1 December 2013 until 31 January 2014.

Ten community-based organizations will be selected through a community-led process and invited to attend the XX International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia from 20 to 25 July 2014 where they will have the opportunity to showcase their work. All ten organizations will receive US$10,000 each.