Phu Son Prison in Thai Nguyen province, with support from UNODC Viet Nam, has launched the first methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) service unit for prisoners in Viet Nam.

The August 2015 launch of the pilot MMT service in Phu Son prison marks a significant milestone for UNODC and the Viet Nam government. This pilot program was the result of long-term, dedicated efforts to improve HIV prevention, treatment and care in Vietnamese prison settings.

"Since 2009, UNODC has worked with the Government of Viet Nam to provide opioid substitution therapy as part of the comprehensive HIV service package for people who are living and working in prisons," said Christopher Batt, UNODC Officer-In-Charge.

The MMT service is an evidence-based therapy for opioid dependence. It reduces opioid use by eliminating withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings, decreasing the risk of HIV and the transmission of other blood-borne diseases, and reducing the likelihood of criminal behaviour. In addition, it integrates the patient into a continuum of care during and after their prison stay.

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Viet Nam opens the first methadone maintenance therapy service unit for prisoners

In recognition of the 13th World Day against the Death Penalty and ahead of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs, the Open Society Foundations and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty hosted an event looking at capital punishment in the context of international law and global drug control on the 7th of October.

An international panel of experts discussed the death penalty as it relates to drug offenses in their countries and on a global level and launched a brief report outlining key recommendations on the topic for UN member states to consider leading up to the UNGASS. The event's podcast is now available from this link.

There are currently thousands of people on death row for drug-related offenses in Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. The international drug control system must share the blame, as treaties promoting strict and severe punishments for drug offenses have opened the door to such responses. UN human rights and drug control bodies now recognize that the death penalty for drugs violates international law, but a number of states parties to the drug control treaties argue that capital drug laws are a permissible sanction.

Drugs and the death penalty: Capital punishment and global drug control  podcast

On 8-10 September Mainline, AFEW, and INPUD hosted the 2nd Partner Meeting of non-governmental organisations that implement the People who Use Drugs (PUD) project within the Bridging the Gaps: Health and Rights for the Key Populations programme.

During the partner meeting in Georgia, harm reduction organisations from ten countries formulated a shared vision on harm reduction. Discussions between the organisations resulted in a lobby document that promotes a broad perspective on harm reduction, to be implemented on top of the 9 harm reduction interventions as defined by the WHO and the UN. The petition was offered to Mr. Lambert Grijns, the Dutch Special Ambassador on HIV and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights.

10 point harm reduction declaration

On 1 November, 2015, the “International Drug Users Day,” the Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA) urges governments and policy makers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to reconsider legislation which criminalize people who use drugs and to consider him/her as a patient, not a criminal.

MENAHRA also call for the inclusion of these policies in the upcoming 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Drugs, where is it considered as an opportunity to develop, enhance, or change the current general health policies to reflect the scientific realities of people who use drugs.

According to recent estimates there are between five hundred thousand and one million injecting drug users in the MENA region, and this may lead to high prevalence of infections, viruses (especially HIV and Hepatitis B and C), and a higher death rate due to overdose.

“International Drug Users' Day” - MENAHRA position statement

The World Hepatitis Alliance launched an open letter calling for immediate action to vastly improve access to life-saving drugs for viral hepatitis. Signed by over 120 organisations from 55 countries, the letter highlights that more people die each year from hepatitis B and C than from HIV/AIDS, TB or malaria and that “the single most important reason for this is that they do not have access to life-saving drugs for hepatitis B and hepatitis C“.

The open letter has been signed on behalf of the 400 million people worldwide living with hepatitis B and C and makes specific requests to governments and pharmaceutical companies.

Signatures were collected from delegates during the inaugural World Hepatitis Summit, a joint World Health Organization and World Hepatitis Alliance event that took place 2-4 September 2015 in Glasgow, UK. The letter has been sent to all pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies working in the field of hepatitis and the World Hepatitis Alliance will encourage its 220 member organisations to use the letter to lobby their national governments.

The global hepatitis community unites to demand access to life-saving hepatitis treatment

Germany plans to set up a state cannabis agency to regulate the drug's cultivation and distribution to treat seriously-ill patients, according to a draft bill.

More pain sufferers would be given regulated access to the drug on prescription and paid for by their health insurance under measures outlined in a draft bill from the ministry of health and seen by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. However, patients would still be prohibited from growing the drug themselves.

So far almost 400 pain sufferers in Germany have been legally authorised to obtain cannabis at their own expense, almost exclusively those suffering from terminal cancer, with the demand met through imports from the Netherlands, the newspaper reported.

Thumbnail: Sonya Yruel/Drug Policy Alliance

Germany could create state cannabis agency for treating seriously-ill patients

Drug users will be able to use supervised injecting rooms in Dublin next year, followed shortly afterwards by Cork, Galway and Limerick, according to the Minister in charge of the National Drugs Strategy.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, who is set to announce the radical move in a speech to the London School of Economics on Monday, told The Irish Times that medically supervised injection rooms “will happen next year”.

In his address he will also outline plans to decriminalise the possession of small amounts of drugs, including heroin, cocaine and cannabis, for personal use, as part of a “radical cultural shift” in the approach to drug addiction.

Ireland: Injection rooms for people who use drugs to open next year, says Minister 

A reverend from Kenya, a doctor from Senegal, a psychiatrist from Tanzania, and a pharmacist from Malawi sip a cup of coca tea and munch on coca leaf cookies. This was the scene at the recent South–South Drug Policy Exchange in Bogota, a gathering of African and Latin American officials and civil society representatives to discuss the pressing issue of drug policy reform.

At the center of the war on drugs, Latin America is leading a growing international movement toward alternative drug policies based on promoting health, human rights, and proportional punishment. With a wealth of experience and innovation in the realm of drug policy reform, the region is well positioned to advise other Global South nations struggling with similar issues.

The South–South Drug Policy Exchange, part of a series of Africa–Latin America discussions organized by the Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad (Dejusticia), aimed to blaze a new path forward for the movement. Participants surveyed the results of alternative drug policies and visited a small shop that legally sells coca-based products through an economic project created by a local indigenous community.

All too familiar with the war on drugs, Latin America offers advice to Africa

With the year 2016 fast approaching, players in the drug sector including non-governmental organizations, stakeholders, civil society organizations, governmental organizations, and public health workers are holding series of meetings to ensure that no stone is left unturned in working to meet the United Nation’s General Assembly’s Special Session (UNGASS) 2016 view on drug policy formation.

It is in this vein that the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) in partnership with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), have organized a 2-day multi-sectoral meeting on drug policy reform to brainstorm on how best West African countries can seize the opportunity offered by the UNGASS World Drug Problem to evaluate and adjust existing drug policies to ensure that they respond to national and region realities.

The 2-day meeting was dubbed: The Road to UNGASS 2016, and was started on Tuesday October 27, and expected to end on Wednesday October 28.

In an address, the Executive Director of WACSI, Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, the meeting was a crucial one which aims at assessing current drug policies and the impact of the international conventions on national drug policies; while interrogating the measures put in place at the national levels to deal with drug trafficking, production and consumption.

She said the two-day meeting will also identify and highlight best practices in tackling drugs, security and organised crime at country levels, and to foster collaboration among key government and civil society in the fight against drug trafficking in the West Africa sub-region.

Nana Afadzinu quoted a famous quote by Kofi Annan on drug policy, and she lamented on the rate at which bad drug policy is having a toll on the socio-economic development on West African countries.

“We are not unaware of the socio-economic problems that drug causes. But how are we dealing with the drug issues in terms of policies and the treatment meted out to people who are caught using drugs. Are they treated like the traffickers who are making the money?” Nana lamented.

She advocated that the current drug policy in which drug users are criminalized must be checked and rather, drug abuse must be considered as a public health concern.

The WACSI Executive Director said government must channel resources in providing health centres and rehabilitation places to cater for drug users, as a better option over the resources used in building more prisons to house drug users.

The prisons, she said, does not transform the drug abusers but rather make their condition worse when they come out, and added that over avenues like the prayer camp offer no help in transforming drug users.

Key stakeholders in West Africa meet to discuss drug policy reform

The launch of a new Senegalese drug harm reduction network has solidified the traditionally conservative country’s reputation as a regional leader amid fears that increased exposure to drug trafficking routes could see a rise in national drug use.

The new National Network of Civil Society Drug Organisations (Réseau national des intervenants de la société civile sur les drogues) has been formed by non-governmental organisations hoping to promote cooperation in order to better support people who use drugs problematically.

Civil society groups met 4 October to strategize how the network could identify relevant groups working on issues as diverse as gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS & TB prevention and drug education reports Senegalese newspaper Le Soleil. The network hopes to encourage mutual dialogue and the establishment of common positions on drug issues between these groups.

The Executive Secretary of the National Council to Fight AIDs who presided over the meeting, and with whose organisation the new network will be working closely, told Le Soleil that “we can no longer obscure the issue content with saying that Senegal is merely a transit country for drugs, because our country is also a place of drug consumption”.

Senegal has a relatively low rate of HIV infection in the general population (0.7%) reports the West African Commission on Drugs (WACD), the rate among people who inject drugs is significantly higher (10.2%) and Hepatitis C prevalence is as high as 23 percent among this demographic according the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Effective action by the Senegalese government such as including drug users as a target group in their 2011-2015 National AIDS programme and the establishment of a community-based needle exchange programmes in 2013 has made Senegal a regional bright spot; the only country where such provision exists report Harm Reduction International (HRI).

These programmes allow educational outreach on safer drug injection practices as well as the distribution of sterile equipment.

UNODC reports that since the 1990s the West African region has become a key trafficking route for heroin, cocaine and amphetamine-type stimulants. Senegal’s increasing consumer purchasing power combined with already established availability of drugs entering through its extensive coastline makes the country vulnerable to an increase in problem drug use.

New harm reduction network launched in Senegal faces uphill battle

Under investigation was what sort of harm-reduction interventions can be developed with a view to reducing the risk of a GHB-related (Gamma-hydroxybutyrate) overdose and the associated health damage. The study’s conclusion is that the harm reduction measures to be developed are strongly dependent on the subgroup based on the GHB experience, their information needs and their level of knowledge on the topic of overdosing.

Within this study, three distinct groups were identified:

1. People with modest GHB experience
(lifetime use: 1 – 50 times)

are the ones most eager to avoid passing out. This group is interested in hearing stories of other people who use, harm-reduction tips and the long-term effects of GHB.

 befitting this often higher educated audience are informative online / offline articles about sex, drugs and health where experiential stories are supplemented with expert knowledge. This group often cites sexual arousal as a motivation for using GHB. Other possibilities include: strengthening bonds within peer groups, such as appointing someone to keep track of time and dosages, and developing a GHB helpline where people can seek advice anonymously.

2. People with considerable GHB experience
(lifetime use: 50 to 200 times)

say they pass out occasionally due to their frequency of use. They are interested in tools that facilitate safer use. Under the influence you lose your inhibitions, your vision and sense of time.

 is to distribute syringes with which the dosage can be measured more precisely in millilitres. The use of a timer can also be encouraged. These tools can be integrated with a 'G-app': an application on smartphones with information about GHB and passing out. An added value of an app can be a monitoring function that makes your substance use within the time period visible. With the help of self-control tips, periods of non-use can subsequently be strengthened.

Overdose prevention among hard-to-reach people who use GHB at home

Outreach workers armed with sterile needles, condoms, and screw caps patrol the narrow river that marks Malaysia's northern border with Thailand, looking for men from both countries who gather there to take drugs.

Even though punishments for drug use in the Southeast Asian nation are severe, none of the users they meet are likely to be arrested. The police know what's going on but stay away.

The workers are the front line in Malaysia's 10-year-old harm reduction programme that has helped curb a disturbing rise in HIV infections among injecting drug users. Cooperation between health officials, civil society groups, and the police has also eased widespread scepticism about needle exchanges and the provision of methadone treatment for people addicted to drugs.

"We needed this programme, and we needed it to be quick," said Dr Ilias Adam Yee, executive director of the Malaysian AIDS Council. "The epidemic was blowing up."

In Kelantan, the site of the Golok River, the HIV infection rate was running at four times the national average before harm reduction was introduced.

"The reality is that we cannot stop them from getting involved in drugs, so we make sure when they do, they can use a clean syringe and have safe sex," explained Dr Ahmad Razin Ahmad Mahir from the Ministry of Health in Kelantan.

"That is the crux of the programme. Our interest is to control HIV, and we have managed to do that."

Yet, despite growing evidence that the programme reduces the risk of HIV and helps wean users off hard drugs, global funding for such initiatives - already only seven percent of the $2.3bn UNAIDS estimates is needed in 2015 - is under threat as donor priorities shift.

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