“It really is no coincidence that I’m here,” declared Michael Botticelli, the US drug czar, at the opening of the 10th National Harm Reduction Conference this morning in Baltimore. Although his speech, which won him a standing ovation from the hundreds of delegates, stuck to politically safer topics, his very involvement represents an unprecedented endorsement of the harm reduction movement by the federal government.

“I hope that my presence here reflects the Obama administration’s commitment to continuing drug policy reform,” said Botticelli, whose official title is acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). He spoke of a desire to ensure that “federal policy reflects the needs of people on the ground,” and also expressed the hope that his working relationship with the Harm Reduction Coalition will “continue to grow.”

The policy details of his speech, showcasing the government’s progressive credentials, covered improvements in the areas of sentencing reform (“behind a rap sheet there is a real person, often struggling with a substance abuse disorder, who needs treatment”); the prevention of nonmedical prescription drug use and overdose, including naloxone distribution and Good Samaritan laws; and medication-assisted treatment (MAT, including methadone and buprenorphine).

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

US drug czar opens national harm reduction conference in unprecedented move

Following the decisions by Colorado and Washington two years ago to legalise recreational cannabis, two more states and the nation's capital will be putting similar measures before voters in the coming weeks.

Alaska, Oregon and Washington D.C. each have ballot initiatives for the November 4 mid-term elections that propose the legalization of cannabis. Measure 91 (Oregon) and Measure 2 (Alaska) are aiming for a fully regulated market, while Initiative 71 (D.C.) only concerns the legalisation of possession and use.

Click here to view the infographic created by TalkingDrugs.

Infographic: US 2014 cannabis legalisation ballot initiatives

On September 10, 2014, the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF) and the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) presented a webinar on strategies for addressing harm reduction and human rights in the context of the Global Fund’s New Funding Model (NFM).

The Global Fund has historically been the largest multilateral donor to harm reduction programming and has committed to supporting programming for people who inject drugs. However, crucial funding decisions taken at the most recent Global Fund Board meeting have meant that most of the countries with the largest epidemics amongst people who inject drugs are no longer eligible for funding, being classified as middle income countries. In addition, the governments of most of these countries have shown a clear reluctance to pay for harm reduction programmes themselves. This poses serious risks for the global response to HIV amongst people who inject drugs. Given that one in three new infections outside of Sub-Saharan Africa take place within this community, this also jeopardises an effective response to the epidemic in general.

This webinar featured a discussion of INPUD's experiences conducting harm reduction and drug user organising work in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as information on connecting harm reduction efforts and human rights. The Global Fund’s NFM and the harm reduction information note produced by the Global Fund were also presented for discussion.


Recordings of this and past MSMGF webinars can be found on the

MSMGF website. Any questions can be directed tocontact@msmgf.org.

Harm reduction and human rights in the context of the Global Fund’s new funding model

Hepatitis C: Access to Prevention, Testing, Treatment and Care for People who Use Drugs

Hepatitis C is a Major Global Public Health Problem! THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW!

150 million people worldwide are living with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), of those infected, nine million are living in the European region.

The burden of HCV is concentrated among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Europe, with HCV antibody prevalence ranging from 80% in Finland to over 90% in Estonia. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified people who inject drugs as a key target group for HCV prevention and treatment.

In January 2014, the first all oral HCV treatments providing cure rates of up to 98% in clinical trials were approved by the European Commission.

In spite of European guidelines recommending treatment access people who use drugs still face considerable barriers to, and are frequently denied, access to the newly approved HCV treatment regimens.

The scale-up of HCV treatment access to people who inject drugs has the potential to significantly reduce the number of new infections and the prevalence in the population, acting as an effective preventative measure.

Major European and international agencies working in, or involved with health and drugs, such as WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS, EMCDDA and ECDC consider viral hepatitis, especially among people who inject drugs, a serious public health problem.

Hepatitis C: Access to prevention, testing, treatment and care for people who use drugs

The New York NGO Committee on Drugs (“NYNGOC”) is ready to accept new members from outside the New York area.

The NYNGOC aims to support civil society organizations in engaging with the UN system on international drug policy and practice, facilitating the exchange of information between civil society organizations and UN agencies, member states, and other relevant UN bodies. NYNGOC intends to continue its collaboration with other NGOs, especially Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs and the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, to ensure a strong NGO voice at the 2016 UNGASS on Drugs. The NYNGOC operates under the umbrella of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO).

To join the NYNGOC, please complete and submit the application form. Once approved, you will receive information about sending a payment of 20 USD per year for NYNGOC membership dues.

The NYNGOC invites organisations to participate in UNGASS 2016

With overdoses spiking recently in Vancouver due to a dangerous batch of heroin, it's worth considering the vital role that heroin assisted treatment could play in the future combating of these harms.

Between October 12 and 13, 31 overdoses were registered at Vancouver's supervised injection facility, Insite. The 16 overdoses recorded in one day was a record, reported The Province, and above the average 10 to 12 usually registered per week.

None of the 31 people who overdosed at Insite died, thanks to the medical staff on hand to assist them with oxygen and naloxone. Since it became North America's first ever legal supervised injection site in 2003, Insite has not registered a single death.

Speculation was rife initially that the significant uptick was attributable to a "bad batch" of heroin being sold in the area. Vancouver police confirmed this in the following days, stating that samples of the heroin responsible had tested positive for the synthetic opiate fentanyl, a drug that is approximately 100 times more potent than heroin.

The role of heroin assisted treatment in combating Vancouver overdoses

In the rugged Rif mountains, Abdelkhalek Benabdallah strode among towering marijuana plants, checking the buds for the telltale spots of white that indicate they are ready for harvest.

Much of the crop had been picked and left to dry on the roofs of stone-and-wood huts that dot the valley, the heart Morocco's pot-growing region.

Benabdallah says he openly grows the crop, while understanding the risk: "We are regularly subject to blackmail by the gendarmes", he said as he scythed through stalks and wrapped them into a bundle.

Morocco's marijuana farmers live in a strange limbo in which the brilliant green fields are left alone, while the growers themselves face constant police harassment. A new draft law may bring some reprieve: it aims to legalise marijuana growing for medical and industrial uses, a radical idea for a Muslim nation.

It could alleviate poverty and social unrest, but the proposal faces stiff opposition in this conservative country, as well as the suspicions of farmers themselves, who think politicians can do nothing help them.

Morocco mulls legal pot growing, breaking taboo

美国助理国务卿威廉·布朗菲尔德引用在科罗拉多州和华盛顿州大麻合法化来呼吁对上周联合国在纽约市通过的国际药物管制条约的“灵活”解释。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

随时掌握与药物政策发展相关的最新信息。

A high-ranking State Department official called for "flexible" interpretations of international drug control treaties at the United Nations in New York City last week, citing marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington.

Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield's Oct. 9 remarks were the third time this year he has made such a call. And the high-profile venue underscores the pressure that state legalization efforts have put on the U.S. to allow other countries to amend strict, decades-old international drug control treaties.

"How could I, a representative of the government of the United States of America, be intolerant of a government that permits any experimentation with legalization of marijuana if two of the 50 states of the United States of America have chosen to walk down that road?" said Brownfield.

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

国务院官员呼吁药物管制条约应该有“灵活性”

俄罗斯反毒品政策不但在阻止毒品的使用上没有效果，而且已经造成了许多可预防的死亡。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

There are 8 million drug users in Russia, half of whom are officially classified as addicts. These people spend at least 1.5 trillion rubles ($37 billion) on drugs including heroin, cocaine, marijuana and spice every year, Federal Drug Control Service head Viktor Ivanov told Ekho Moskvy radio last week. This is equivalent to the annual tax revenues of Moscow, a city of 12 million. Eighty percent of all deaths of Russians aged 18 to 34 are caused by drugs, Ivanov said.

At present, the Russian government is desperately trying to crush the drug market with force. At the same time, there is not a single government program to work with demand. Policymakers need to see drug use in a holistic way, to understand that social ills directly correspond to its proliferation. Russians must be able to resolve difficulties without resorting to repressing them with drugs. Drugs must become irrelevant in Russia.

压迫不会治愈俄罗斯的毒品成瘾问题

纽约关于毒品的非政府组织委员会为讨论毒品和与毒品有关的主题提供了一个平台，并且介入与联合国合作来找出应对国际毒品问题的解决办法。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

 (NYNGOC) provides a platform for discussion of drugs and drug-related subjects and interfaces with the United Nations (UN) to collaborate on solutions to global drug problems.

 It aims to support civil society organizations in engaging with the UN system 

on international drug policy and practice, facilitating the exchange of information between civil society organizations and UN agencies, member states, and other relevant UN bodies. NYNGOC collaborates with other NGO organizations, especially the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs (VNGOC) and the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, to ensure a strong NGO voice in UN processes, specifically the 2016 UNGASS on Drugs. The NYNGOC operates under the umbrella of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO).

Created in 1984, the NYNGOC has a long history of participation in high-level meetings around drugs.

 In June 1987, the NYNGOC organized an international forum with VNGOC in conjunction with the 1987 International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. In 1994, the NYNGOC participated in the organization of the NGO World Forum on Drug Demand Reduction held in Bangkok. In 1998, the NYNGOC, along with VNGOC, coordinated an “NGO Village” during the UNGASS on Drugs. The NGO Village was a diverse gathering of NGOs resulting in a vibrant exchange of ideas and from which six NGO representatives with diverse points of view were chosen to address the General Assembly. In the NGO forum known as “Beyond 2008” which preceded the High-Level Meeting on Drugs held in Vienna in 2009, the NYNGOC also played a role in both the July 2008 forum and the nine regional consultations leading up to it.

, the NYNGOC has been meeting regularly, with attendance by NGOs representing a broad cross-section of the community, including professionals from the human rights, public health, medical, treatment and prevention, drug courts, criminal justice, and law sectors. 

NYNGOC membership, while global in scope, is focused on the Americas – Canada, the US, Latin America and the Caribbean.

 NYNGOC elected the following new members of the Executive Committee at its Annual General Meeting held June 20, 2014:

Chairperson, NYC Bar Association Committee on Drugs & the Law

Secretary, Transform/Mexico United against Crime (Mexico)

Yale School of Public Health Global Health Justice Partnership

Recent activity by the NYNGOC includes organizing a panel discussion with the Permanent Missions of Benin, Mexico and Switzerland to the United Nations in collaboration with International Drug Policy Consortium, titled 

The 2016 UNGASS on Drugs: Ensuring a Successful Outcome.”

 The event focused on the necessary preparations for the 2016 UNGASS on Drugs, including the need to actively engage UN agencies and civil society. The event was well attended by member state delegates and civil society, therefore representing an important contribution from NYNGOC to preparations for the 2016 UNGASS on Drugs.

纽约关于毒品的非政府组织委员会支持民间社会工作队去为2016年的联合国大会关于毒品的特别会议做准备

专家们讨论了安全和有组织犯罪的影响，供给政策的有效性，以及大规模监禁和公众健康。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

After decades of orthodoxy and stringent enforcement of drug policies, the global counternarcotics regime is increasingly challenged. Some countries, particularly in the Americas and in Europe, are adopting liberalized approaches, and an array of drug policies is emerging. Policymakers are reviewing the effectiveness of existing policies and exploring alternatives, creating new directions for the global drug policy regime.

On September 22, the Latin America Initiative (LAI) at Brookings, the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Open Society Foundations hosted a discussion on global drug policy trends and effectiveness. Experts addressed among other issues the security and organized crime implications, the effectiveness of supply-side policies, as well as mass incarceration and the public health dimensions. Panelists included John Collins, international drug policy coordinator at LSE IDEAS; Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow with the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at Brookings; Daniel Mejia, associate professor and director of the Research Center on Drugs and Security at Universidad de los Andes; and Jasmine Tyler, senior policy analyst at the Open Society Foundations. LAI Director and Senior Fellow Harold Trinkunas provided introductory remarks and moderated the discussion.

改变药物政策的战略：比较的方法

Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury has released exposure draft legislation for consultation, and a discussion paper, to legalise medical cannabis. Mr Rattenbury says the legislation will allow people who are sick or dying to access treatment without risking criminal sanction.

“I have heard from people who are suffering from chronic pain, who are dying, or who are watching a friend or family member suffer without relief. This legislation is for them – it’s about showing them compassion, and removing the threat of criminal sanction.

“Almost seventy percent of Australians support legalising cannabis for medical purposes. As the community’s understanding of the medical evidence grows, so too has their support for legalising medical cannabis so that the sick and dying can have access to pain and symptom relief.

“Currently in the ACT, and in Australia, it is illegal to use cannabis for pain relief, and those who use it to cope with their symptoms risk criminal prosecution.

“I, and the Greens, don’t believe that we should punish the sick for trying to access treatment that makes their pain more bearable or the remainder of their lives more tolerable.

News