Introduction to the Regional Harm Reduction Advocacy in Asia project:

India HIV/AIDS Alliance is principal recipient of the 

Global Fund Regional Harm Reduction Advocacy in Asia

 project (2017-2019) that involves 7 countries in Asia (India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines). The project aims to maximize impact of investments that help break the cycle of transmission among people who inject drugs in concentrated epidemics by addressing legal, policy and health system barriers that hinder necessary outreach and coverage of core services.

What is the Harm Reduction & Drug Policy Advocacy Fellowship Programme?

Harm Reduction & Drug Policy Advocacy Fellowship Programme

 (the Programme), managed by the International Drug Policy Consortium, aims to support the development of policy advocacy champions through mentoring and capacity building in the project countries (India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines). Three fellows will be selected from the project countries to participate in the Programme each year, selected against criteria demonstrating passion and commitment to policy advocacy, and potential for stimulating policy change.

The Programme this year will run from 1 January 2019 to 30 September 2019

. Fellows will each be matched with a mentor possessing a strong record of advocacy in harm reduction and/or drug policy in Asia.

Fellows are expected to stay in their pre-existing roles or employment, and to work towards completion of the workplan on a part-time basis only. They will receive a modest amount of financial support for delivering workplan outputs, eg. publication and meeting costs, as agreed with their mentor. Fellows may also have opportunities to participate in country and/or regional capacity-building and advocacy activities during the Programme.

Fellows will develop and implement their own 9-month workplan for harm reduction and drug policy advocacy together with a mentor, which could involve activities such as a policy analysis or research paper on a priority issue, organizing a policy dialogue and preparing a presentation for a policy dialogue.

Throughout the Programme year, and under a Memorandum of Understanding with their mentor, fellows will commit to:

develop and implement their workplan, in consultation with their mentor

initiate a monthly call (eg. via skype), for maximum one hour duration, with their mentor to discuss progress and seek feedback on implementation of their workplan, and

connect and communicate with other fellows and civil society colleagues on a regular basis, including as facilitated by IDPC and through participation in capacity-building activities as opportunities arise, to support regional knowledge and capacity transfer.

This Programme aims to support fellows who wish to boost their policy advocacy capacity to bring about change in a region with some of the most punitive policies against people who use drugs in the world.

Fellows are expected to stay in their pre-existing roles or employment, and to work towards completion of the workplan on a part-time basis only. They will receive a modest amount of financial support (USD5,000) for delivering workplan outputs, eg. publication and meeting costs.

IDPC will also work to ensure that fellows can meet their mentor in person at least once during the year, and have opportunities to network with other fellows and civil society advocates in the region, eg. through participation in capacity-building and advocacy activities implemented under the 

The Programme is limited to applicants working in one of the project countries: India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines. As Fellows in the 2018 Programme came from India, the Philippines and Indonesia, fellowship applicants from Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam will be prioritized in the 2019 Programme.

If you wish to apply for a fellowship in this year’s programme, please send the following to Ms. Areeluck Phankhian (aphankhian@idpc.net) by 

Statement of purpose for applying for this Fellowship

Outline of your proposed workplan, including objectives, rationale, expected outcomes, workplan activities and timeline with milestones, to be implemented throughout the duration of the Programme from 1 January 2019 to 30 September 2019.

Call for fellows: Asia regional harm reduction & drug policy advocacy fellowship 2019 programme

While Congress and the Trump administration were promoting greater use of the addiction medication buprenorphine to quell the opioid epidemic, a handful of states were licensing new methadone clinics in dozens of the nation’s hardest-hit communities.

The methadone treatment industry, which began in the late 1960s, grew more in the past four years than it has in the past two decades, said Mark Parrino, president of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, which represents methadone treatment providers.

Between 2014 and 2018, the methadone industry added 254 new clinics, according to data from the Drug Enforcement Administration. In the two decades before that, increases in the number of programs were only incremental, Parrino said. “We haven’t seen such a dramatic increase in the industry since the 1970s.”

Despite a national drumbeat for more science-based treatment for people addicted to prescription painkillers, heroin and other illicit opioids, the expansion of methadone clinics has mostly gone unheralded.

US: Some states add more methadone clinics to fight opioid epidemic

Have you ever wondered why are some drugs illegal and others are not? Because illegal drugs are more dangerous, you may think. But you are wrong! Watch the next episode of our Just Say Know series and learn why:

Why are some drugs illegal?

Peter Sarosi from Rights Reporter Foundation spoke about the crisis of harm reduction in Central and Eastern Europe at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs intersessional meeting in Vienna on 8 November, 2018.

Good afternoon! I would like to thank you, Madame Chair, and the Civil Society Task Force, for giving me this opportunity to take stock of the drug-related crisis faced by society in my region, Central-Eastern Europe. This crisis is not caused by drug use itself. It is driven by bad drug policies, based on a faulty assumption that we can make our societies drug-free by punishing people who use drugs, instead of supporting them to stay healthy and alive.

In most of the countries of the region, the majority of injecting drug users belong to deprived and marginalised communities. It is important to understand that for them, harm reduction services, such as needle and syringe programs, are not only about reducing the negative consequences of drug use, such as infections and overdoses. For them, harm reduction is not just an extra option on the menu, not just the first step to recovery. For them, harm reduction programs offer the only opportunity to be treated as a human being – and sometimes the only chance to stay alive. During the early years of this century, thanks to international assistance from the Global Fund, Central-Eastern Europe made huge progress in building up a harm reduction system of care and support.

Rights Reporter Foundation speech at the UN about the harm reduction crisis in Central and Eastern Europe

Vienna, 2018 “Do you use drugs yourself?” – a representative of China teasingly asks me at the meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs. This drug control officer who is convinced of the “effectiveness” of the death penalty for the use and storage of substances. As a result, almost 4,000 people were executed for violations related to substances in 33 jurisdictions of the world. And about 27,000 people were killed without trial in the Philippines

I have been preparing to answer that question since 2004. Dnipro, Ukraine. Kestutis Butkus came from Lithuania to the meeting with drug control having OST medicine in his pocket. It was when our doctor Leonid Vlasenko and I were creating various opportunities for friendly judges and influential police officers to look at the life of drug users from the other, unusual, side. It’s important to consider the theory that harm reduction is valuable but this argument doesn’t make law enforcement think so. The “knowledge” about psychoactive substances and drug users is rooted in our society too deeply. Even the word “methadone” itself provoked aggression among security officers. Everything changed in the moment when Kestutis put on the table what looked like a bottle of water, saying: “Here is methadone, people, it’s like any common medicine”. That was the moment when Kestutis changed the negotiation rules in the hall of the Law Academy with his simple gesture.

EHRA: Our lives – our rules

We, the undersigned civil society and global key constituency-led organizations and networks, met as members of the Community, Rights and Gender (CRG) Advisory Group for the Global Fund CRG department, in Geneva on 1-2 November 2018. During our meeting, we received an update on the shocking developments that pose a direct threat to the health, safety and wellbeing of LGBT people, sex workers and other key and vulnerable populations in Tanzania.

We therefore urgently call on the heads of the UN and the multilateral health and development organizations, collaborating under the recently launched SDG3 Action Plan, to mobilize a coordinated response to the escalating crisis of state sanctioned violence facing the communities of LGBT people, sex workers and people who use drugs in Tanzania.

In an era of rising populism and heightened political repression around the world, communities most affected by HIV, TB and malaria, including people who use drugs, sex workers, LGBT people, with specific concern for transgender people, gay men and other men who have sex with men, are experiencing an escalation in state-sanctioned violence. Trends in state sanctioned violence, including gender-based violence, are fueled by pervasive levels of stigma, discrimination, and conservative populism. It has become all too common for political demagogues to use key populations as a political wedge to subjugate, oppress, debase, and belittle its citizens.

Civil society calls for rapid international response to the human rights crisis in Tanzania

The cabinet on Tuesday approved a draft amendment to the 1979 Narcotics Act to legalise cannabis for medical and research purposes. However, all use of the drug will be kept under strict control. Government spokesman Buddhipongse Punnakanta said the amended version of the act will "level up" marijuana to a Category 2 drug from its current Category 5 status. Mr Buddhipongse said this means the draft amendment to the law will allow the use, import and export, as well as possession of marijuana exclusively for medical purposes.


Thailand: Pot approved for research, medical use

Reforming New Zealand’s “punitive” drug laws - including the decriminalisation of all drugs and introduction of a legal market for cannabis - would benefit the country by at least $450 million a year, according to a cost-benefit analysis commissioned by the Drug Foundation.

The report, produced by economist Shamubeel Eaqub from consultancy Sense Partners, says there would be a net social benefit of at least $225 million from investing an extra $150m in addiction treatment, drug education, and harm reduction interventions.

It estimates there would be a net social benefit of $34m to $83m from replacing the Misuse of Drugs Act, passed in 1975, with a new law based on a health-based approach to the issue.

Creating a legal, regulated market for the purchase of cannabis would bring $185m to $240m in new tax revenue while also saving the justice sector $6m to $13m, the report says.

The release of the report comes as the Government carries out inquiries into New Zealand’s mental health and addiction services, while also preparing for a referendum on legalising the personal use of cannabis by the next election - a commitment in the Greens’ confidence and supply agreement with Labour.

A strong economic case for drug reform in New Zealand

Today is undoubtedly a landmark moment but - as foreshadowed in earlier posts - the regime will be more restrictive than many persons in the media, and certain commentators, had claimed a few months ago. The reason is that the medicines legislation (and not just the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971) was/is bound to set the ‘pace’ in relation to Cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs).

The Misuse of Drugs (Amendments) (Cannabis and Licence Fees) (E.W.&S) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018 No.1055)

A useful and comprehensive statement of the current position has been published by the MHRA, “The supply, manufacture, importation and distribution of unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use in humans ‘specials’”.

A letter dated 31st Oct 2018 from the DHSC and NHS England is informative but there are two statements within it that need to be treated with discretion:

“Moving cannabis based products for medicinal use to schedule 2 will mean those [products] can be prescribed medicinally where there is an unmet clinical need”

Prescribing cannabis-based medicinal products: Moving forward from the landmark

The oppression of people of colour in the name of the "war on drugs" has long been associated with mass incarceration and the overuse of stop-and-search.

Of those incarcerated for drug offences in US federal prisons, nearly 80 percent are black or Latino. In state prisons, these groups account for almost 60 percent of the prison population. Cannabis laws in the US also heavily fall on the black community, with African-Americans nearly four times more likely to be arrested for possession of the drug compared to the white population, despite using cannabis at roughly the same rate as the white population.

The issue of race and drugs is not just a problem in the United States. Around the world we see people of colour being subject to police harassment, arrest, imprisonment and even, in some countries, the use of extrajudicial killings – all under the guise of repressing the drugs trade. This is why there is a need for people of colour to come together to discuss the impact of drugs policy, policing and enforcement on themselves and their communities.

The UK needs to take a racial justice approach to drug policy

The world over, communities of people who use drugs experience endemic violence, abuse, stigmatisation, and discrimination. In the last year alone, tens of thousands of people who use drugs have died as a result of prohibition, as a result of criminalisation, and as a result of the social exclusion they suffer for nothing more than their status as drug users. All over the world, people who use drugs are incarcerated and imprisoned; they are incarcerated without due legal process in forced labour camps; they are tortured and executed; they are denied access to healthcare, service provision, and harm reduction; they are harassed and assaulted by the police. This is a time of humanitarian calamities for our communities. Huge numbers of people continue to die from avoidable opiate overdose as a result of using heroin that is contaminated or of unknown purity and strength, due to the unregulated black-market of prohibition. Overdose mortalities are rising exponentially globally. Overdose deaths are now the most prevalent cause of death of under 50s in the USA. Further to this tragic and unnecessary loss of life are the tens of thousands of drug users murdered in state-endorsed killings. Tens of thousands have been killed by the police in numerous contexts in only the last year.

INPUD: International drugs users' day 2018

Mexico’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that an absolute ban on recreational use of marijuana was unconstitutional, effectively leaving it to lawmakers to regulate consumption of the drug.

Announcing it had found in favor of two legal challenges filed against prohibition of recreational marijuana use, Mexico’s top court crossed the threshold needed to create jurisprudence: five similar rulings on the matter.

That creates a precedent other Mexican courts will have to follow.

“This is a historic day,” Fernando Belaunzaran, an advocate of drug reform and member of the opposition leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), said.

The Supreme Court made its first ruling to allow a group of people to grow marijuana for personal use in November 2015.

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