Two years on from its initial founding in Marseilles, the European Network of People who Use Drugs was relaunched last week during a side meeting held at the Correlation/Swedish Drug Users Union/INPUD organised peer workshop on drug use and HCV.

32 activists from 13 countries (UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Eire, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, Northern Ireland, and Italy) gathered to commit themselves to reaffirming the need for a European network. Representatives from most of the major European drug user unions were represented including France's ASUD, the Swedish Drug Users Union, Germany's JES, Norway's FHN, CASO from Portugal, Uisce from Eire, the Greek Drug Users' Union, the National Users' Network from the UK amongst others.

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Relaunch of the European Network of People who Use Drugs

Authorized medical patients in Romania may now use marijuana to allay their pain under new provisions in two of the country's narcotic laws. Romania legalized medical marijuana this week, becoming the 10th member of the European Union to do so, according to local reports.

Currently, possession of marijuana is outlawed throughout the country. Though recreational marijuana use is still be prohibited, derivatives of the plant can now be used to treat certain medical conditions, such as epilepsy, cancer and sclerosis.

Manufacturers will also be able to apply to the National Agency for Medicines for approval to market drugs that contain marijuana by-products like resins or plant fragments.

Romania legalises medical marijuana

The mass distribution of 65,000 crack cocaine smoking kits in the Downtown Eastside did not trigger more drug activity but reduced burns to crack smokers and decreased the reliance on used smoking equipment.

That’s the conclusion of Vancouver Coastal Health chief medical health officer Dr. Patricia Daly as she examined the results of a 13-month evaluation of 4,213 crack smokers.

“Their behaviour indicates that they’re involved in less high-risk behaviour and that might reduce some of their infection risks associated with crack smoking,” said Daly of the health agency’s evaluation released last week.

The project cost $118,000, with $43,000 spent on supplies, $35,000 on “peer support and education” and $25,000 on putting the kits together. An additional $15,000 was spent on the evaluation, which Vancouver Coastal Health did with the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C.

The evaluation period ran from December 2011 to November 2012 and had various organizations, including community health clinics and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, assemble and distribute 65,299 sterile kits that included glass stems, pipe screens, mouthpieces and alcohol swabs.

Downtown Eastside crack kits working in Vancouver, says health chief 

In most Polish schools, drug prevention fails to deal adequately with drugs and their associated risks, with instruction often provided by untrained staff - this is the conclusion reached in the latest report from the Supreme Audit Office.

The publication, focussing on how Polish schools deal with the subject of drugs and drug education, claims that efficient drug prevention is restrained by fear of damaging the reputation of institutions, and that this leads to an under-estimation of the problems and risks associated with the use of illicit substances.

According to the survey, headteacher often underestimate the drug problem in their institution, putting effective prevention and peer education at risk. Below the tip of the iceberg, more than half of all teachers and tutors responsible for holding the prevention sessions have never attended any training in order to acquire basic knowledge of the subject. Furthermore, school prevention programs are often superficial, and are prepared without properly considering the problems related to drug use.

Drugs and prevention in polish schools

An opinion poll in the Netherlands in August 2013 showed that 54% of the Dutch are in favour of legalising cannabis, while 38% opposes it. There is now a clear pro-legalisation majority among the voters on the parties that form the current government, the liberal conservative VVD (58% in favour) and the social-democrat labour party PvdA (55% in favour) and in the Dutch Parliament. A range of recent polls indicate that the majority of the Dutch strongly disagree with the government on current cannabis policies.

At the local level initiatives to somehow regulate supply to the coffee shops are mushrooming. In Utrecht, the city council announced on September 10 that it would support a local social cannabis cluband seek permission of the minister of Public Health to allow cultivation and distribution through an official exemption on the ban to cultivate and supply in the Opium Law. “The city of Utrecht wants to create the possibility for recreational users to use cannabis grown in a club. It is a small-scale initiative in which the members use cannabis recreationally that has been cultivated on a responsible and verifiable way by the club,” said the local alderman for Public Health, Victor Everhardt.

Majority of the Dutch favour cannabis legalisation

In 2012, you signed our first petition that asked donors to increase their 2013 contributions and to fully replenish the Global Fund. By the time of the UN General Assembly in September, we had over 1,700 signatures. Thank you!

As we get closer to the pledging conference late this year, this is a crucial moment to show donors how much we need the Global Fund and to persuade them to make a strong commitment to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

The new Global Fund call to action will be presented directly to the decision-makers at the Global Fund's 30th board meeting in November.

"Here I am" campaign update: Global Fund petition, cost of inaction report & videos

The Conservative government is launching a $1.3-billion free market in medical marijuana this Tuesday, eventually providing an expected 450,000 Canadians with quality weed.

Health Canada is phasing out an older system on Monday that mostly relied on small-scale, homegrown medical marijuana of varying quality, often diverted illegally to the black market.

In its place, large indoor marijuana farms certified by the RCMP and health inspectors will produce, package and distribute a range of standardized weed, all of it sold for whatever price the market will bear. The first sales are expected in the next few weeks, delivered directly by secure courier.

Medical cannabis: Canadian government launch billion-dollar free market

A change to the law in Switzerland has decriminalised marijuana, making possession of the drug a minor misdemeanour that will not go on a person’s criminal record.

From the start of this month, anyone found with up to 10 grams of the substance will be able to avoid all formal legal proceedings, instead paying an on-the-spot fine of CHF 100 (around £68).

The relaxation of the law comes after a lengthy process of debate and disagreement in the Swiss parliament, which finally approved the move a year ago.

It is also expected to save money, avoiding the average of 30,000 cases for smoking marijuana that appear before the courts each year.

Corine Kibora, a spokeswoman for Addiction Switzerland, told SBC: “Police resources should be freed up to pursue drug trafficking.”

Switzerland decriminalises cannabis 

In late August 2013 almost 100 people representing over 50 organisations gathered in Wellington help reshape New Zealand's alcohol and other drug policy.

Over the course of two days the people at the Drug Foundation-convened summit built a consensus on a way forward for New Zealand's national drug policy.

Consensus can be a tricky thing to build at the best of times, but over the course of two days we proved that New Zealand’s response to drugs does not have to be a divisive issue.

Drug policy directly affects many people, families and communities, yet traditionally groups outside policy makers and enforcement have been left out of its creation. Our ambitious plan was to bring some of the people most affected by drugs and drug policy, but who had never had a chance to talk about it, into the same room.

We had representatives from the addiction treatment sector, teachers and principals, and the lovely people from Grandparents Raising Grandchildren sitting next to people from NORML, the Police Association, and the Needle Exchange Programme.

This community-led approach culminated with a 10,000 word declaration that will hopefully shape New Zealand’s next national drug policy which is being updated by government later this year.

The declaration is not just a list of demands to government. The people at the summit also committed themselves to working together and with government to tackle New Zealand’s drug issues.

The collective wisdom, backed by a strong emphasis on evidence-based solutions allowed the group to find common ground on some really important issues, which fully implemented, will lead to huge health and societal gains.

The declaration was created with a spirit of good will and a desire for better cooperation and collaboration between everyone affected by drugs and drug policy. One of the best things about the summit was the way people were able to put aside their agendas to focus on the common good and agree on measures which will help everyone. We trust that the Government and any other organisation with an interest in an Aotearoa New Zealand free from drug harm, will accept it in the spirit it was created, and us all to make it a reality.

Reshaping New Zealand’s alcohol and other drug policy declaration

Since 2007, about 80,000 people have been killed in turf wars between drug cartels and their clashes with security forces, leading to calls for a change in policy in Mexico and elsewhere in the U.S.-led war on drugs.

This 26th of September's newspaper advertisement urging the decriminalization of cannabis brought together one of the most diverse coalitions pushing for change in Mexico. Those lobbying included a number of influential figures in public life.

Among the signatories were several former ministers from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, famous actors, media tycoon Ricardo Salinas Pliego, one of Mexico's richest men, and 1995 Nobel laureate for chemistry, Mario Molina.

The ad argued that criminalisation made narcotics more lucrative for cartels, noted that a number of U.S. states had liberalized marijuana laws and that Uruguay's Congress was taking steps to legalize the cultivation and sale of the drug.

Prominent Mexicans urge government to decriminalise cannabis

In January 2011, Dave Murray, a long time activist in Vancouver, BC, organized a group of former participants from the Vancouver site of the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) heroin-assisted treatment clinical trial in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. The NAOMI Patients Association has been at the forefront of demanding that future research projects on heroin-assisted treatment create a sound exit strategy for patients beyond the availability of methadone.

In response, researchers at Vancouver’s SALOME (Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness) research project recently called on the Canadian federal government to approve the use of diacetylmorphine for patients leaving the study. The SALOME study (Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness), is a clinical trial being conducted in Vancouver, BC. The study compares the effectiveness of six months of injectable diacetylmorphine (heroin) with six months of injectable hydromorphone (Dilaudid, a licensed medication) and the effects of switching from injectable to oral heroin or Dilaudid. In late September officials at Health Canada approved a number of patients in the SALOME study to receive diacetylmorphine after leaving the study which is the first time that Health Canada has approved this medication for addiction treatment outside of a clinical trial.

Heroin-assisted treatment in Canada 

The $2.5 million in interim applicant funding for the Russian Federation (see GFO article) will be used to extend an existing HIV grant, RUS-304-G01-H, for 12 more months through to 21 December 2014. The principal recipient (PR) is the Open Health Institute.

The grant is currently being implemented with funding from the Transitional Funding Mechanism (TFM). The grant originated from a non-CCM proposal in Round 3. The TFM funding, announced in 2012, was intended to ensure that essential prevention services for key affected populations would not be disrupted.

The $2.5 million investment under the new funding model will sustain HIV prevention interventions for 11,000 people who inject drugs in 16 cities and regions of the Russian Federation; 6,600 sex workers in seven regions; 5,000 men who have sex with men in seven regions; and 4,830 prisoners in seven regions.

The Russian Federation has a complicated history with the Global Fund. In the past, grants for HIV and TB emanating from CCM proposals have been funded. However, in October 2010, the government announced that the Russian Federation no longer wanted to receive Global Fund money. The government said that the country's economy had improved to the point where the Russian Federation could become a donor to the Global Fund instead of a recipient (see GFO commentary).

At the time, the Global Fund was getting ready to negotiate a TB grant. Approval for this grant was eventually rescinded. Meanwhile, in July 2013, the World Bank reclassified the Russian Federation as a high income country (see GFO article), which means the country will not be eligible to submit proposals starting in 2014 (under current eligibility rules).

However, for now at least, the Global Fund continues to fund grants emanating from non-CCM proposals, as the award of $2.5 million for grant RUS-304-G01-H attests. Just last month, the Global Fund approved another $2.5 million in interim applicant funding for another HIV grant, RUS-506-G05-H, for which the PR is the Russian Harm Reduction Network (see GFO article). This grant also emanated from a non-CCM proposal.

Finally, both the Open Health Institute grant and the Russian Harm Reduction Network grant received funding from the Global Fund in 2012 under a bridge funding arrangement adopted by the Board in November 2011 to avoid gaps in service provision caused by the cancellation of Round 11.

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