International drug users' day 2014

International Drug Users' Day is the one day of the year where people who use drugs can celebrate the strength and diversity of our community, our solidarity and our empowerment.

To mark this day, INPUD is launching a statement, which asserts that to end the 'war on drugs’, we must move away from the ideas that drive prohibition and criminalisation. We are calling for an end to the 'war on drugs' on the terms of people who use drugs. And we are affirming and celebrating who we are as a community of people who use drugs.

This 2014 International Drug Users’ Day, we assert that to end the war on drugs – the war on people who use drugs – we must move away from the ideas that drive prohibition and criminalisation: we must challenge and reject stigma and drug-userphobia in all of its forms. We reject infantilising, patronising, and demonising preconceptions. We reject blanket pathologisation of people who use drugs, reject the assumption that to use drugs is to be sick or dangerous or immoral. It is time to discard cruel, pejorative, and discriminatory language and labels. It is time, once and for all, to reject crude generalisations and stereotypes of people who use drugs, and to acknowledge the variability and diversity of our community.

Click here to read the full report in English.

Click here to read the full report in Russian.

Click here to read the full report in French.

Click here to read the full report in Spanish.

Click here to read the full report in German.

Click here to read the full report in Portuguese.

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