There are an estimated 60,255 people in Brighton & Hove who have used illegal drugs. This represents 36% of all adults. The figures are extrapolated from the nationwide British Crime Survey – last conducted in 2011/12 - that reports on the percentage of adults (aged 16-59). Around a quarter of these ‘lifetime users’ report using in the last year, and one eighth report using in the last month". These are some data included in the Independent Drugs Commission for Brighton & Hove report.

The aim of this report, conducted by the Safe In The City Partnership, is to take a fresh look at the city’s response to the problems associated with drug markets and drug use, and to suggest ways in which the local agencies could be more successful in reducing the drug related problems that mattered to the citizens of Brighton & Hove.

This aim answers to some key questions as if the current strategies to prevent drug related deaths are sufficient to achieve a significant reduction in the coming years of the policing, prosecution and sentencing strategies currently pursued are effective in reducing drug related harm.

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Independent Drugs Commission for Brighton & Hove

The guide provides tips on how to do outreach work among communities of people who use drugs, in particular among injecting drug users. It includes suggestions on how to optimise the number of clients served by each outreach worker, in order to ensure cost effectiveness.

The publication was developed in the framework of the Community Action on Harm Reduction (CAHR) project.

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Reaching drug users: A toolkit for outreach services

The UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez has prepared a report focusing on forms of abuses in health-care settings that may cross a threshold of mistreatment that is tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The report will be presented at the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council (25 February to 22 March 2013).

The report addresses issues of criminalization, lack of access to health care and essential medicines, compulsory drug treatment. The report states that criminalization and restriction of access to health care constitutes abusive treatment based on unjustified discrimination solely related to health status.

Please click here to get more information about the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council.

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture: non-provision of opioid substitution treatment is ill-treatment and torture

In this special issue of the Bulletin, Zunyou Wu & Nicolas Clark (82) introduce the theme of opioid substitution therapy. Sheena Sullivan explains why methadone maintenance programmes are needed. Fiona Fleck interviews Robin Room about harm reduction and prohibition of illicit substances. Gary Humphreys reports on progress and obstacles to effective opioid substitution therapy in Ukraine. Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala describes how the United Republic of Tanzania has launched a national methadone programme to counter heroin use and HIV transmission.

Please click here to read the full bulletin

Bulletin of the World Health Organization 

During the 1980s, Spain had very strict laws limiting access to opioid agonist maintenance treatment (OAMT). Because of this, mortality among people who used illicit opioids and other illicit drugs was high. Spain was also the European country with the highest number of cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome transmitted through illicit drug injection.

Legal changes facilitated the expansion of OAMT, which has achieved a coverage of 60%. A parallel reduction in the annual incidence of HIV infection has been reported. Reductions in morbidity and mortality and improved health-related quality of life have been described in patients undergoing OAMT.

Methadone maintenance treatment in Spain: the success of a harm reduction approach

The distribution of land and its unjust use are the major causes of violence in Colombia. For this reason land issues are the starting point of current peace talks between the Santos government and the FARC guerrillas. Remedying these structural problems at the heart of rural Colombia is the best guarantee of progress of the current peace negotiations that could bring an end to a half-century-old violent conflict.

The illicit drugs market in Colombia has flourished in the traditional context of inequality, exclusion and poverty that have characterised the Colombia countryside. While serving as a refugee survival economy and safety net for many, the illicit market dynamic and the war on drugs against it have also increased these problems, stimulating conflict, violence, dispossession, displacement and social unrest.

This briefing presents some recommendations and policy proposals on alternative development.

The illicit drugs market in the Colombian agrarian context

At the end of September 2012, the EMCDDA and Europol examined the available information on a new psychoactive substance 5-(2-aminopropyl)indole (commonly known by the abbreviation ‘5-IT’), through a joint assessment.

According to reports provided to Europol there is no information available to suggest the involvement of organised crime, or criminal groups, in the production, distribution and trafficking of 5-(2-aminopropyl)indole. The substance has been seized at the border of four EU Member States and Norway. In one case this involved a seizure of 20.5 kilograms.

5-(2-Aminopropyl)indole is currently not under assessment and has not been under assessment by the United Nations system.

The health and social risks caused by the manufacture, trafficking and use of 5-(2-aminopropyl) indole, as well as the involvement of organised crime and possible consequences of control measures, could be thoroughly assessed through a risk assessment procedure as foreseen by Article 6 of Council Decision 2005/387/JHA.

EMCDDA–Europol joint teport on 5-(2-aminopropyl)indole

This is the first of the three annual work programmes required to implement the activities and commitments set out in the EMCDDA’s new strategy for the 2013–15 period. The central challenge for the EMCDDA is to continue to deliver high-quality analyses on established topics at the same time as extending its work in less developed but strategically important areas. As the European drug problem evolves, the EMCDDA must also ensure that its tools and approaches keep pace with developments and remain fit for purpose.

EMCDDA Work programme 2013

The global “war on drugs” has been fought for 50 years, without preventing the long-term trend of increasing drug supply and use. Beyond this failure, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has identified many serious negative “unintended consequences” of the drug war – including the creation of a lucrative criminal market.

This criminal market has a range of economic implications, and stems from taking a punitive, enforcement-led approach that, by its nature, criminalises many users and places organised crime in control of the trade.

The war on drugs: Wasting billions and undermining economies

This study ensued from clinical observations based on spontaneous accounts by crack abusers undergoing their first psychiatric assessment, where they reported using cannabis in an attempt to ease their own withdrawal symptoms.

Throughout a period of nine months, the researchers followed up on 25 male patients aged 16 to 28 who were strongly addicted to crack. Most of the subjects (68%, or 17 individuals) ceased to use crack and reported that the use of cannabis had reduced their craving symptoms, and produced subjective and concrete changes in their behavior, helping them to overcome crack addiction. The authors discuss some psychological, pharmacological and cultural aspects of these findings.

Therapeutic use of cannabis by crack addicts in Brazil

The aim of this report is to provide a summary of approaches for the election process of CCM members representing the non-governmental sector. It also highlights related problems in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) whilst reviewing potentially effective practices of non-governmental constituencies (NGC) engagement in CCM activities and offering recommendations for improvement.

The information in this report could help civil society groups to better understand their rights in relation to effective participation in CCM activities and procedures. It will also outline rules for new members representing various non-governmental constituencies so as they can be legitimately selected to CCMs, and act in a transparent and accountable manner which is clear for those who voted for them.

The report may also be a useful tool for current CCM members, including those from international and governmental agencies, as well as the staff of the Global Fund Secretariat. Existing CCM NGC members could become more aware of their own rights and responsibilities, including those towards the constituencies that they represent in CCMs.

The report ends with a tangible set of recommendations for CCMs, non-governmental actors and staff of the Global Fund Secretariat.

The recommendations and practices discussed in the report could also be useful in future when building a country dialogue process in order to develop a proposal concept note within NFM.

Theory and practice of involving NGOs in CCM activities

The EU drug markets report is the first comprehensive overview of illicit drug markets in the European Union. It covers issues such as production, consumer markets, trafficking, organised crime and policy responses, along with a review of the markets for heroin, cocaine, cannabis, amphetamine, methamphetamine, ecstasy and new psychoactive substances. It concludes with concrete action points for the areas where the current EU response to the drug market and its consequent harms may be improved.

An essential reference tool for law enforcement professionals, policymakers, the academic community and the general public, the report combines Europol’s strategic and operational understanding of trends and developments in organised crime with the EMCDDA’s ongoing monitoring and analysis of the drug phenomenon in Europe and beyond.

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