IDPC’s Drug decriminalisation [e]Course is a free-to-access online learning course that is open to anyone interested in this important topic.

When done properly, the decriminalisation of drug use and personal possession can have significant benefits for the health, wellbeing and rights of people who use drugs - yet this approach can sometimes be difficult to advocate for as it runs counter to decades of public and political messaging from a global ‘war on drugs’. To support and equip partners from around the world, the Drug Decriminalisation [e]Course was created in 2021 by IDPC in partnership with Mainline, Health[e]Foundation and Frontline AIDS includes seven modules:

Introduction, definitions and support for decriminalisation

Thresholds and defining drug possession for personal use

Designing decriminalisation: sanctions and intrusiveness

The ‘gold standard’ for decriminalisation 

It has been designed so that participants can take just one module, or all seven, and in any order they prefer. The [e]Course host, Marie Nougier, provides guidance throughout the modules – each of which should take between 1 and 2 hours to complete, including videos and activities – and participants receive a certificate at the end of each Module.

Click here to register and access the free course!

Introducing the Drug Decriminalisation [e]Course

Since 2009, the Andrey Rylkov Foundation has been on the streets of Moscow, offering clean syringes so people can inject addictive drugs without the added risk of HIV. The Russian government isn’t a fan of this type of initiative, known as harm reduction — even though it’s recommended by the World Health Organization. Moscow prefers to take a harder line on drug use and prevent HIV by pushing traditional moral values.

That approach isn’t working. Initially fueled by injection drug use, lately the epidemic has been spreading beyond drug users to the general population, affecting well more than one in 100 Russians. (Diagnoses dropped in 2020, but according to the federal HIV monitoring center, that’s likely because testing decreased during the pandemic.) Pre-COVID, cases were on the rise in Russia.

So the Andrey Rylkov Foundation’s work isn’t just about distributing needles and the opiate overdose treatment Naloxone. They’re campaigning against Russia’s war on drugs — a mission that’s gotten much more difficult since they were forced to register under Russia’s “foreign agent” rules in 2016, which requires political organizations that receive assistance from abroad to jump through a bunch of extra hoops.

The new AIDS epidemic: Pushing past Putin

Overdose deaths soared to a record 93,000 last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States government reported on Wednesday.

That estimate far eclipses the high of about 72,000 drug overdose deaths reached the previous year and amounts to a 29 percent increase.

“This is a staggering loss of human life,” Brandon Marshall, a Brown University public health researcher who tracks overdose trends, told the Associated Press.

The nation was already struggling with its worst overdose epidemic but clearly “COVID has greatly exacerbated the crisis,” he added.

Lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions isolated those with drug addictions and made treatment harder to get, experts have said.

‘Staggering loss’: Overdose deaths spike in US during pandemic

Nat Gombos hesitated before participating in a new campaign encouraging young professionals to speak openly about their illicit recreational drug use.

“I still struggle with it, thinking through the potential ramifications” the 28-year-old says. “I ask myself if it’s smart. But nothing happens without people agitating for change. By not speaking up, I contribute to the wall of silence harming people.”

The solicitor from Sydney, who takes drugs such as MDMA, ketamine, cocaine and cannabis every few months, says this silence presents a false narrative of what drug-taking looks like.

Gombos is participating in a campaign by registered charity Unharm called 

 One of the major tactics Unharm is employing to achieve their “legal and safe” drug use goal is mimicking the strategy of gay equality law reform movements: by persuading people to “come out” about their use – especially those who dispel stereotypes. Unharm’s ultimate goal is to decriminalise all drug use in Australia by 2030.

This has been done to varying degrees by other countries: Canada and 18 US states have legalised cannabis use and supply, and Portugal decriminalised all illicit drug use in 2001 and it has been regarded as a success, with fewer drug-related deaths and less drug-related crime. Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and the US state of Oregon have also all decriminalised drug use in one way or another.

Coming out about illicit drug use: ‘The hush-hush attitude has to end’

Ruth Birgin coordinates the Women and Harm Reduction International Network according to which drug policy presents the single greatest threat to the health and well-being of women who use drugs

Can you introduce yourself and explain the work of the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN)?

 Certainly. My name is Ruth Birgin and I work as WHRIN Coordinator. Women who use drugs along with members of the international harm reduction community recognized the need to establish a mechanism to focus on gender responsive harm reduction services, leading to the development of the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN), formed in 2009 and led by women who use drugs. The goal of WHRIN is to improve the availability, quality, relevance and accessibility of health, social and legal services for women who use drugs.

Women who use drugs face specific problems as compared to men… Can you explain what they are?

 Without a doubt the challenges faced by women who use drugs are overwhelmingly linked with and exacerbated by prohibition rather than the substances themselves. When combined with the social and structural impacts of gender inequality it is little wonder that, for example, rates of HIV prevalence are higher among women who use drugs than their male counterparts. (I list more women-specific challenges in other questions)

Could you explain why and in what ways women who use drugs are stigmatized, and what messages would you like to convey in this regard?

Women who use drugs face compounded stigma where gender inequality and punitive drug policy converge to mete out unique punishments and risks. Women who use drugs are doubly demonised for challenging gender stereotypes of women as conventional, demure mothers/daughters/sisters etc., simply by using drugs, with criminalization and media sensationalism and misinformation further exacerbating gendered stigma and discrimination.

This places women who use drugs in a unique situation, restricting access to health services while elevating the risk of violence and BBV transmission. Our key messages include that drug use does not equate with bad parenting, it is part of the human condition and that the world is in dire need of humane drug policy where women who use drugs are no longer criminalised, pathologized or infantilised – but instead enjoy the same human rights as other people.

News

Introducing the Drug Decriminalisation [e]Course

The new AIDS epidemic: Pushing past Putin

‘Staggering loss’: Overdose deaths spike in US during pandemic

Coming out about illicit drug use: ‘The hush-hush attitude has to end’

Support, don't punish women who use drugs!