On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The ensuing war has entailed dramatic costs with an incalculable and growing human toll. Sustaining the health and harm reduction responses serving people who use drugs in Ukraine and those fleeing the war must be a priority for all stakeholders. Below, you will find a list of links that we will continue to update in the coming weeks to provide reliable information, analysis and support resources on this ongoing emergency.

News articles & interviews (most recent first)

The volunteers risking their lives to help drug users in Ukraine
Delaney Nolan, Al Jazeera (1 June 2022)

US-backed group gets lifesaving meds to Ukrainians amid war
AP news wire, The Independent (27 March 2022)

Ukrainians displaced by Russian invasion struggling to access HIV and drug dependence treatment
Rosalie Hayes, Aidsmap (21 March 2022)

War deepens suffering for Ukraine’s drug users
Niko Vorobyov, Al Jazeera (16 March 2022)

War in Ukraine risks reversing gains in fight against HIV, tuberculosis
Carlo Martuscelli & Lily Hyde, Politico (15 March 2022)

Harm reduction during wartime in Ukraine
Peter Sarosi & Anton Basenko, DrugReporter (11 March 2022)

Ukraine’s opiate users: Russian invasion has severely disrupted access to drug-treatment services
Ian Hamilton & Julia Boxton, The Conversation (9 March 2022)

Organisational statements (most recent first)

UNAIDS warns that the war in Ukraine risks a humanitarian catastrophe for people living with and affected by HIV
UNAIDS (13 April 2022)

Fast-Track Cities Europe Mayors Declaration of Support for Ukrainian People Affected by HIV, TB, and Viral Hepatitis
Mayors of Fast-Track Cities from across Europe (4 April 2022)

A humanitarian corridor for Ukraine - Joint open letter
EHRA, HRI & 40+ CSOs (6 March 2022)

Global Call for Solidarity with People who Use Drugs in Ukraine
INPUD, PUD.UA/VOLNA, UNWUD/VONA (3 March 2022)

INCB statement on ensuring availability of and access to controlled medicines in Ukraine and neighbouring countries
International Narcotics Control Board (28 February 2022)

Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) & Convictus Ukraine
Focus on the community of people who use drugs and harm reduction activists.

100% LIFE
Focus on medical equipment and emergency supplies.

Alliance for Public Health
Focus on supporting beneficiaries of existing programmes, refugees and sourcing medical supplies.

EMCDDA 4 Ukraine – Health Preparedness Hub
On this page, the EMCDDA has compiled resources for health professionals who provide services for people displaced from Ukraine to the European Union or other European Neighbourhood Area countries and Ukrainians who are displaced.

This portal by the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) provides practical information to refugees fleeing Ukraine as well as other resources on the ongoing humanitarian crisis more generally.

Response to challenges caused by the Russian aggression against Ukraine
Alliance for Public Health provides weekly ‘situation reports’ on a wide range of issues related to health provision, including the state of the harm reduction response.

Humanitarian crisis and harm reduction in Ukraine: Resources and information

A consortium of organisations is pushing for drug policy reforms for the country to have a more humane and health-based response approach to negative consequences of the war against drugs.

The Drug Policy and Harm Reduction Platform (DPHRP) says as drug debates evolve, more countries are realising that penalising people who use drugs (Pwuds) is an excessive approach, as such, there is need for alternative approaches.

DPHRP board chairperson Undule Mwakasungula observed that Malawi has not been spared from negative consequences of the war on drugs that have proven ineffective in reducing the scale of the drug market.

“These consequences have negatively impacted on Inadequately Served Populations [ISPs] such as Pwuds with severe human rights violations directly related to criminalisation and stigmatisation targeted at even women mostly sex workers and prisoners,” he said.

Malawi: Platform pushes for drug policy reforms

Watch and listen to womxn who are sharing their stories about pregnancy, parenting and drug use. These stories represent truth and courage and act as a testament to the power of the Narco Feminism story share model. Drugreporter produced this short documentary film together with the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) and the North Carolina Urban Survivors Union (NCUSU). Available in video and podcast format as well!

The story share model is an important tool for deconstructing the internalized narratives around the drug war. Traditional storyshare models often reinforce tropes and stigma we find in existing cultural narrative projects. Reproductive Harm Reduction is an inclusive powerful new paradigm focused on pregnant and parenting people who use drugs, and it was born from the Narco Feminism storyshare experience.

If you’d like to learn more about the Narcofeminism Storyshare project, contact narcofeminism@ncsunion.org

Conception and coordination: Louise Vincent | North Carolina Urban Survivors Union (NCUSU)
Camera: Glasbear LLC
Editing: István Gábor Takács | Rights Reporter Foundation | Drugreporter
Music: Julie & Gent – A Song for Frida

The narcofeminism storyshare model

Students for Sensible Drug Policy Foundation and Students for Sensible Drug Policy International, alongside 64 NGOs, call on the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to provide transparency on youth involvement in decision making and ensure their meaningful participation in the development and implementation of drug policies and programs. Signatories include 19 youth organizations, 13 international organizations, and organizations from 23 countries.

The international community has outlined in the UNGASS 2016 Outcome Document and in the 2019 Ministerial Declaration the need to ensure active and meaningful youth engagement in the drug policy space. While some significant progress has been made by UNODC with the Youth Forum and the Listen First program, there are some key concerns that young people and civil society would like to get addressed.

This includes the lack of transparency surrounding the purpose, selection process and methods used by the Youth Forum, as well as reduced opportunities for youth-led organizations to engage with its delegates.

In this context, we call on the UNODC to take action in this sense and provide clear guidelines for Member States that wish to engage with the Youth Forum. Alongside this, we emphasize the importance of having the Youth Forum as a youth-led space, run by youth for youth. In tandem, there is a need for country delegations to lead by example and actively include youth representatives in their work at national and international level.

The challenges we collectively face today in the drug policy realm cannot be addressed in an effective and sustainable way without bringing youth to the forefront of international and national policy making mechanisms. We cannot create a better, safer society for young people whilst leaving their voices behind. It is our hope that this letter can lead the international community in the right direction.

To read our recommendations in full, please access the letter here.

For non-governmental organisations that want to add their signature, you can still do this by completing the following form.

We look forward to working closely with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and related bodies in order to advance youth representation at all levels of decision making.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy: Open letter on youth engagement to Ms. Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime

Baden Hicks battled drug addiction for 20 years, during which he says he survived 18 overdoses, five by the “skin of his teeth”.

He has experienced homelessness, been in and out of psychiatric wards and jail. But the 36-year-old wants to be known as more than “just a drug addict”.

“I’m a father, I’m a brother, I’m a son, I’m a grandson, I’m an uncle. Through my functional addict years, I got a boilermaker apprenticeship, I went to night school and did further studies in that. I worked in the dive industry for eight years. I’m a scuba diver and a spear fisher,” he tells Guardian Australia.

“People don’t choose to become drug addicts. There’s a reason why people generally use drugs. For me, I used drugs to deal with a lot of pain in my life, which really felt unbearable.”

Australia: The push to end Victoria’s war on drugs

A so-called 'zero tolerance' crackdown on the illegal drugs trade in northeastern India is causing controversy. Government leaders in Assam state say they're acting lawfully. But police are accused of dozens of killings and injuries since the anti-drugs campaign started last year.

India police accused of brutal killings in ‘zero tolerance’ drug crackdown

An interview with Anton Basenko, chair of the Ukrainian Network of People Who Use Drugs

The Russian aggression against Ukraine causes tremendous suffering for the Ukrainian people in general - and especially for vulnerable groups with special needs, such as people who use drugs. In this video interview Anton Basenko explains how their communities struggle to survive, how brave harm reduction workers save lives amid destruction of the war and how people in other countries can help them.

Harm reduction during wartime in Ukraine

By Adam Holland, Magdalena Harris, Matthew Hickman, Dan Lewer, Gillian W Shorter, Jason Horsley, Martin Powell, Maggie Rae / The Lancet

In response to the drug related death crisis in the UK, more than 80 prominent medical, academic, and third sector organisations have called for the introduction of pilot overdose prevention centres (also called drug consumption rooms).

The government, however, has repeatedly indicated it has no plans to introduce them, and overdose prevention centres are not mentioned in it's 10-year drug strategy. Here, we question the arguments used to defend this position with relevance for other countries debating the introduction of overdose prevention centres.

First, regarding the argument that there is insufficient evidence to show that overdose prevention centres are beneficial. These centres have been introduced in at least 14 countries across more than 130 sites (with an unsanctioned mobile site operating in Scotland between 2020–21).

They provide a safe environment for the most vulnerable to use drugs under the supervision of trained professionals, who intervene in the event of an overdose; and an opportunity to provide evidence-based interventions, including naloxone, oxygen, psychosocial support, and needle and syringe programmes. Observational evidence shows fatal overdoses decreased in areas where overdose prevention centres were introduced alongside other beneficial outcomes, including reductions in self-reported high-risk injecting practices and increased engagement with drug treatment services.

There are no randomised controlled trials (RCTs) showing that overdose prevention centres reduce drug-related deaths.

As overdose prevention centres are complex community level interventions, and deaths are a relatively rare outcome, a fully powered RCT would be very large and expensive. Given the observational evidence in favour of overdose prevention centres and the clear understanding of the mechanisms by which they would prevent drug-related deaths, it is not justifiable to oppose their introduction until RCTs, which might never be conducted, are available.

Many public health interventions have been introduced without RCTs when their mechanism of action is clearly understood. The inconsistent requirement for more rigorous evidence in the case of overdose prevention centres might relate to moral perceptions of illicit drug use. However, RCTs did not show the effectiveness of opioid agonist therapy to reduce mortality or blood borne virus transmission, which is recommended on the basis of observational evidence and clinical experience.

Overdose prevention centres in the United Kingdom

Oral statement on ending the violence of law enforcement on people who use drugs

Statement delivered on 10 March 2022 by the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) and AfriLaw

This statement is delivered on behalf of the International Drug Policy Consortium and the African Law Foundation.

Research we carried out in September 2021 reveals that people who use drugs in Nigeria are routinely subject to horrifying acts of physical, mental and sexual violence at hands of law enforcement agencies.

Also we found a great number of abuses in drug rehab centres, where people who use drugs are detained against their will, and torture is delivered under the guise of discipline and healing. Accountability and remedy for these violations are extremely rare.

In all cases, violence and abuses are disproportionately inflicted on people who are marginalised on the basis of their gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, or drug use.

In order to reduce the extent of torture against people who use drugs, States must establish robust mechanisms to oversee the actions of law enforcement agencies, and of entities that provide drug rehabilitation.

States must also take immediate action to reverse the dehumanisation and marginalisation of people who use drugs, which has been brought about by the war on drugs.

To do so, we call on all governments to take three urgent steps. First, decriminalise drug use and drug possession for personal use. Two, establish evidence-based and rights-based drug treatment and harm reduction services that are always voluntary. Three, take action to remove the stigma and discrimination experienced by people who use drugs in their daily lives. It is only through these actions that we will begin to address torture and ill-treatment against people who use drugs.

Statement at the Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture - 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council

The Moroccan government ratified the draft law pertaining to the legalization and framing of cannabis production in the country this Thursday, on its weekly government council.

Government spokesperson Mustapha Baitas made the announcement in a press conference today, saying “the government ratified numerous provisions relating to the implementation of the law, ” first introduced nearly a year ago.

The legislation falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior and lists the regions in which it is permissible to license the cultivation and production of cannabis and the establishment and exploitation of its cultivation and storage facilities have been identified.

The law lists the provinces of Al Hoceima, Chefchaouen, and Taounate, but the spokesperson specified the possibility of adding other regions according to the demand of national and international investors for activities related to the production chain of cannabis in possible.

It also provides for the creation of an advisory committee to study licensing applications and express its opinion thereon, to be chaired by the Agency’s Director-General or his representative, and composed of representatives of the concerned sectors.

Moroccan government ratifies cannabis bill for medical and industrial purposes

United Nations Secretary-General
President of the United Nations Human Rights Council
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

President of the European Commission
European Commissioner for Crisis Management
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety

Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

We, the undersigned organisations, call on the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to jointly support and set up, as a matter of urgency, an uninterrupted supply chain of humanitarian assistance to the affected populations within the country, and to establish safe humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from Ukraine.

On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, targeting several large cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Meriupol and Zhitomir, and bombing neighbourhoods within those areas, inevitably resulting in countless civilian deaths. The escalating war actions are causing tremendous humanitarian crises affecting millions of people. Those staying in cities and villages in Ukraine are in urgent need of warm shelter, food, water, basic medicine and other essential supplies. Additionally, more than 100,000 people have been internally displaced since the invasion began, and the number of displaced people will continue to grow. At the moment, meeting the essential needs of internally displaced people is extremely difficult in Ukraine due to martial law, curfews and threats to the lives of volunteers.

UNHCR estimates that due to the war, up to five million people will flee Ukraine. As of 3 March 2022, one million refugees were estimated to have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries —including Moldova, Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. As the situation worsens, an estimated four million people may flee Ukraine in the coming weeks and months. We highly appreciate the efforts thus far of governments, international institutions and millions of citizens in European countries — especially those in Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary and Lithuania — in organising comprehensive support for all refugees from Ukraine.

What is now urgently needed is the provision of basic, essential health supplies and medication for people in Ukraine, including those internally displaced, by means of revised importation rules and distribution networks. People who belong to vulnerable and discriminated groups — such as people who use drugs, people in prison, gay and other men who have sex with other men, sex workers and trans people — must not be overlooked in these efforts. Notably, Ukraine has the second largest population of people living with HIV, people with tuberculosis and drug-resistant tuberculosis and opioid dependency in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the country has developed successful and progressive harm reduction and treatment programmes, supported by the global community. To sustain those achievements and preserve human life, we ask you to ensure essential provisions including opioid agonist therapy, ARV therapy, and tuberculosis diagnostics and treatments.

Ukraine urgently needs humanitarian corridors supported by intergovernmental and multilateral organisations. On 1 March, the UN General Assembly adopted with overwhelming support (including by the European Union) a resolution demanding “all parties to allow safe and unfettered passage to destinations outside of Ukraine and to facilitate the rapid, safe and unhindered access to humanitarian assistance for those in need in Ukraine, to protect civilians, including humanitarian personnel (...) and to respect human rights.”

Following negotiations between the two sides on 3 March, Ukraine and Russia have agreed tentatively to create humanitarian corridors7 in the worst-affected areas of Ukraine, where civilians are most at risk from the war. But in reality, there is no clarity on how these passages could be implemented.

In line with this, we call on your organisations to:

Urgently establish safe, open and uninterrupted corridors for humanitarian workers and supplies, including essential food and medicine, to reach people in need throughout Ukraine (particularly in cities in eastern, southern and central Ukraine currently under attack).

Create a coordinated and agile system for assessing needs and tracking available services and supplies’ shortages and organising coordinated international response to address it.

Urgently support the establishment of inter-agency safe corridors for the evacuation of all people wishing to leave Ukraine, regardless of nationality, to neighbouring countries.

Organise transport of lifesaving cargo both for internally displaced people in Ukraine and refugees outside the country.

Engage in a sustained and coordinated manner with local and national authorities of neighbouring countries, and of expected destination countries, to ensure:
+ Continued safe entry and passage of people fleeing Ukraine (without the need for visas or other burdensome administrative requirements).
+ Distribution of food, COVID-19 personal protective equipment and medicine, including antiretroviral therapy (ARV) and/or opioid agonist treatment, without discrimination.
+ Safe and uninterrupted circulation of essential food and medicines — including utilisation of the simplified control procedures for the export, transportation and provision of medicinal products containing controlled substances, as recommended by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

Help to ensure the parties to the conflict take the necessary measures to account for protected people, including prisoners of war and detainees.

Apply all efforts to negotiate this issue with both Russian and Ukrainian authorities through all possible channels, to ensure safe and effective humanitarian corridors are established as quickly as possible.

A humanitarian corridor for Ukraine - Joint open letter

The Jude Byrne Emerging Female Leader Award has been developed by INHSU and INPUD (The International Network of People Who Use Drugs) in remembrance of Jude Byrne, a globally recognised, powerful advocate who fought to advance the health and human rights of people who use drugs.

Jude served as an INHSU board member and made countless valuable contributions to our network and community.

We are proud to honour Jude’s memory via this new award, which aims to help foster expertise and resilience in the next generation of female leaders.