The IDPC Law Enforcement project took a big step forward in December 2009 with the first seminar taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Royal Malaysia Police Force. The seminar was organised in partnership with the Malaysia AIDS Council (MAC).
In December 2009, the US finally lifted a 21-year long ban on the use of federal funds for needle exchange programmes. This policy change represents a major step forward and opens up many possibilities for advocacy and support for new programmes.
Human Rights Watch has noted that the conviction of eight police officers for crimes in anti-drug operations should be a catalyst for the Thai government to end police abuses. On December 8, 2009, the Talingchan district court in Bangkok found Police Captain Nat Chonnithiwanit and seven other members of the 41st Border Patrol Police (BPP) unit guilty of assault with weapons, illegal detention, and extortion. Each was sentenced to five years of imprisonment.
Recommendations for improving access to substitution treatment in Polish prisons have been signed. This step forward was made in early December at a conference co-hosted by the Penitentiary Service, the Social AIDS Committee and Open Society Institute’s Global Drug Policy program.
The Canadian federal government is again proposing mandatory sentences and stiff penalties for certain drug offences. But evidence shows that they only worsen an already dire situation. Incarcerating people who inject drugs or those who are vulnerable to such a practice contributes to Canada’s worsening HIV/HCV epidemic. Along with over 62 witnesses who made submissions or testified before the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network made its case before the Senate with this submission.
With the support of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the International AIDS Society (IAS) has established a research fellowship programme, with the goal of contributing to advances in the scientific understanding of drug use and HIV, while fostering multinational research. Applications from a wide range of disciplines including social, behavioral, political, clinical, biomedical, mathematical sciences or others are accepted.
Academic editorial contributors are being sought for the Encyclopedia of Drug Policy, a new 2-volume reference to be published in 2011 by SAGE Publications.
The Security Council, on 8 December, focused on the issue of drug trafficking as a threat to international peace and security. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned in his speech that "drug trafficking is evolving into an ever graver threat that is affecting all regions of the world".
Hungary is to adopt a progressive national drug strategy in December 2009, but the opposition is using the UN Political Declaration to prevent its adoption.
The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has urged Poland to scale up access to antiretroviral therapy for drug users living with HIV and to increase the availability of substitute drug dependence treatment, especially for people in detention.
The International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy was lauched on Human Rights Day 2009 (10th December). The Centre is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative and high quality legal and human rights scholarship on issues related to drug laws, policy and enforcement.