Hundreds of drug offenders are executed annually and the number likely tops 1,000 if figures from countries that don't disclose their death penalty data are included, according to this new IHRA report.
Although perhaps more conciliatory in tone than in previous years, the document receals the INCB as a body that maintains a very narrow and selective interpretation of the drug control conventions. As policy debates around the world grow richer and more diverse, the INCB is in danger of being left behind.
Women who use drugs are at exceptionally high risk of HIV infection. They share injecting equipment and typically use after their partner. They are also more likely to have sexual partners who inject drugs. This report examines six harm reduction programmes in Ukraine that provide gender sensitive services to women.
The ICSDP released its first report, Effect of drug law enforcement on drug-related violence: evidence from a scientific review in April 2010. The report revealed that rather than reducing drug related violence, drug law enforcement likely leads to more violence, gun offenses and homicide.
On the 19th and 20th March, 2010, the Andreas Papandreou Foundation (APF) and IDPC co-hosted the first informal policy dialogue for the South East European region. A report from the meeting's discussions is now available online.
This IHRA report "3 Cents a Day is Not Enough: Resourcing HIV-related Harm Reduction on a Global Basis" calls for more money to ensure that harm reduction services are provided to those in need around the world.
A new report released by the Nossal Institute for Global Health and the Open Society Institute documents the arbitrary detention of thousands of drug users, mostly young people, in controversial detention centers in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. While the detention is supposedly for treatment, children and adults are held in boot camp-like centers where they do not receive adequate medical care and are subjected to routine physical and sexual abuse.
Reporting in the journal Addiction, researchers say that based on their review of available literature on needle-exchange programmes - an analysis of five previous reviews of needle-exchange programmes - the evidence for the programmes' effectiveness is weaker than generally thought. On the other hand, there was "strong" evidence across the reviews that needle-exchange programmes reduce the sharing or reuse of dirty needles, and no evidence of harmful effects.
The report starts with the observation: “Had incarceration reduced addiction, this [criminal justice focus in India] could have been tolerated. But, year after year drug addiction has only increased, and so has drug trafficking.” The same comment applies to India, the US, Russia and most countries of the world. As for the experience in Portugal, where decriminalization was adopted in 2000: “…jails have emptied out, enforcement has more time to follow the main traffickers. … “ HIV infection as a result of needle sharing is said to have been reduced to zero in 2007, and the prevalence of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drug use has decreased. Deaths reportedly were reduced 60% by 2007. Treatment – including treatment with opiate agonists - is promptly available to all who seek it.
This document builds on two national guides to policymakers, the IDPC 'Drug Policy Guide' and the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission's 'How to develop a national drug policy: a guide for policy makers, practitioners and stakeholders', to provide detailed recommendations for Latin American government policy makers to adopt more efficient and humane drug policies.
This briefing paper examines the use of schools-based drug testing, analysing its underlying assumptions, its ethical dimensions and the research so far conducted into its practical application. It explores whether this tactic should have in prevention and harm reduction strategies.