11 May 2015
Blog
Results 229 to 240 of 444
14 April 2015
“Is the War on drugs a war on race in France?”
Olivier Maguet, AFR Drug Policy Advocacy Officer highlights how the French political and judicial system disproportionately targets ethnic minorities.
10 April 2015
ECOSOC elects new INCB Member
Professor Mattick has conducted randomised control trials and published extensively on research into OST and the treatment of drug dependence. His is a psychologist by training.
2 April 2015
Kratom (Ketum) criminalisation successfully shelved in Malaysia
Reasons for opposing the amendment to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 included usage of kratom as a traditional medication, lack of socio-economic considerations, and the need for evidence-based rehabilitation.
31 March 2015
UK drugs charity DrugScope has closed
DrugScope is one of the founding members of IDPC, and has been one of our closest partners over the years.
30 March 2015
Interview with Dr Lochan Naidoo at the 2015 CND
Dr Naidoo reiterates some of the main positions that the INCB has taken in recent years, in particular during his own presidency which has been characterised by greater attention on access to essential medicines.
18 March 2015
Ketamine secured for medical and veterinary use!
On Friday 13th March, the Commision on Narcotic Drugs discussed the possible bringing of ketamine under international drug control, eventually deciding to differ the decision until more information was made available about the substance.
6 March 2015
HCLU open letter to the International Narcotics Control Board
In this open letter, HCLU, ENPUD and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine ask the president of the INCB to act in order to protect the core principle of the international drug conventions: public health.
4 March 2015
INCB focuses on access to pain medication in 2014 Annual Report
The overarching support for the availability of access to essential medicines that features in this year's Annual Report from the INCB is encouraging; but the INCB must direct its attention to what such support must mean on the ground, in those real places where pain is suffered.
3 March 2015
New UN report highlights ongoing conflicts on the death penalty for drugs: As countries ramp up executions, UN drugs meeting in Vienna to be scene of heightened debate
The death penalty for drug offences represents the sharp end of the world’s failed war on drugs, disproportionately punishing the vulnerable while failing to tackle entrenched forces of crime and corruption.
26 February 2015
Building a network in West Africa
The objectives of the workshop were to: build the capacity of key civil society partners from the region; strengthen their knowledge of drug policies and best practice; share experiences; showcase and discuss the ground-breaking report from the West Africa Commission; and further develop a West African Drug Policy Network.
25 February 2015
Auto-disable syringes are not for needle programmes
As you may have seen in the media recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has launched new guidelines on medical injections and a global campaign to switch all medical and vaccination injections to syringes that cannot be used more than once. These "safety-engineered syringes" may, for example, include a weak spot in the plunger that causes it to break if the user attempts to pull back on the plunger after the injection. Others have a metal clip that blocks the plunger so it cannot be moved back, while in others the needle retracts into the syringe barrel at the end of the injection. Using these syringes in medical settings will, according to WHO, protect millions of people from becoming infected with HIV, hepatitis and other diseases through the re-use of unsterile equipment by doctors and medical staff, especially in the poorest health systems in the world. Their ambitious aim is that every country should have transitioned to these new syringes by 2020.
However, these recommendations and this campaign explicitly do not apply to needle and syringe programmes for people who inject drugs (the population most impacted by HIV, hepatitis and other diseases transmitted through contaminated injecting equipment). It has been demonstrated and proven on many occasions that these auto-disable syringes are unsuitable, ineffective and undesirable in these programmes – clients simply do not like them, they are often harder to use, and they cost more. For example, drug preparation and injection amongst people who inject drugs routinely involves more than one retraction or depression of the syringe plunger, making auto-disable syringes inappropriate. Several peer-reviewed studies have also documented the inadequacy of auto-disable syringes for people who inject drugs – see this informative briefing from the USA's Harm Reduction Coalition for more information.
As a result, and after intensive lobbying by the NNEF and other civil society partners around the world, the WHO guidelines (available here) include the clear exemption that health systems must set "policies and standards for procurement, use and safe disposal of disposable [i.e. not auto-disable] syringes in situations where they remain necessary as described above, including in syringe programmes for people who inject drugs". Similar disclaimers appear in the accompanying leaflet and press release – but this has not been picked up in the media reporting, such as the recent BBC article.
So in short, auto-disable or auto-retract syringes remain unsuitable for needle and syringe programmes. Of course, the message must continue to be that every syringe is intended to be single use, and programmes should continue to use low dead space syringes as before. But these new guidelines from WHO should not change the way that we work.
Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to theIDPC Monthly Alert.