Once a year we get a glimpse of how many people are using drugs such as heroin and cocaine in England and Wales. The Home Office conducts an annual household survey that asks people if they have used drugs and, if they have, to provide some details about which drugs and how often they have consumed them. For the fourth year in a row, overall drug use has risen. An interesting fact on its own, but as always, the devil is in the detail.

Class A drugs including cocaine are proving to be popular, second only to cannabis in popularity. Nearly a million people now report using the drug. Fewer people report using opiates, such as heroin – but this is largely due to limitations of the survey which, as a household exercise, will not pick up certain groups, such as the homeless or other transient populations. Equally, the survey will not capture the experience of students – another important cohort.

One of the most striking elements of the data is the ease with which people, especially young people, can obtain controlled drugs. In 2018-19, almost 19% of respondents to the survey reported that it was “very easy” to get drugs within 24 hours. This a significant increase on the previous year’s figure of 14.5%.

More than half of all young people, aged 16-24 years, said they could get drugs within 24 hours. This increased access to the drugs market could be as a result of more online availability through the dark web. Equally, the drugs market has developed in the way other legal markets have in the 21st century. Drugs can now be delivered straight to your door, often faster than pizza and there have been reports that suppliers are offering loyalty cards to customers.

Class A drugs such as cocaine carry the most severe penalties under current drug laws, so why are an increasing number of people willing to break the law? Perhaps recent high-profile political confessions of drug use have added to people’s perception that it’s acceptable – or at least not as frowned upon – to use drugs.

Drug use in England and Wales is up for the fourth year in a row

Night has fallen on Rio de Janeiro’s Albert Schweitzer hospital, and in its 11th-floor intensive care unit Enzo Coutinho dozes in his aunt’s lap.

“Sometimes it takes a mountain to trust and believe in you,” Merielle Ventura, a 24-year-old nursery teacher, sings gently into her nephew’s ear.

It has been five days since baby Enzo became one of the youngest victims of a new and deadly chapter in Rio de Janeiro’s intractable war on drugs – gunned down with his teenage mother, Margareth Teixeira, as she carried him to church. His mother was killed.

Doctors have placed a television beside the injured infant’s bed, hoping Tom and Jerry cartoons will distract Enzo as they sedate him to clean the bullet wound that nearly cost him his left foot.

When he cries out for his mother, family members still struggle to respond. Sometimes it is Enzo’s aunt he calls mum; sometimes his grandmother. Only 48 hours have passed since weeping relatives laid his mother to rest. She was 17 years old.

Margareth was one of at least four innocent teenagers shot dead during police operations between 9 and 13 August – an eruption of killing that was shocking even by Brazilian standards, where there were over 57,000 homicides last year.

'Caught defenseless in the crossfire': Rio families cope with deaths by police violence

For many years, evidence has shown the effectiveness of opioid maintenance therapy in the treatment of opioid dependence and the effectiveness of opioid maintenance therapy and needle syringe programmes in preventing HIV infection among people who inject drugs.

Recent evidence shows that both opioid maintenance therapy and needle syringe programmes can also prevent people who inject drugs from getting hepatitis C.

The spread of HIV/AIDS among people who inject drugs and their partners has been contained in Western Europe, Australia, Canada, China and other countries of Asia, because interventions such as clean needle exchange and opioid maintenance therapy programmes became mainstream government health policy sanctioned by the World Health Organisation.

Harm reduction is receiving increasing attention from policy makers across Sub-Saharan Africa. Unsafe drug injection is recognized as an underestimated component in preventing HIV and hepatitis C infection in vulnerable groups in high prevalence settings across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

However, in Eastern Europe and central Asia, harm reduction policies are conspicuous by their absence, even though there are high rates of HIV and hepatitis C infection.

Michel Kazatchkine: The time has come to implement harm reduction policies in Eastern Europe and central Asia

By Carla Boonkong & Son Nguyen / Thai Examiner

Thailand now imprisons its women more than any other country in the world. It is a stark and disturbing fact driven by little pink yaba bills of crystal meths. 82% of all Thai women imprisoned last year were arrested for drug related crime, 90% of which, related to metamfetamine. The plight of Thai women and the chronic and tormenting overcrowding in Thailand’s prisons is driving a discussion for reform behind closed doors on how Thailand handles its drugs problem long term.

The plight of Thai women, locked up in overcrowded cells for 15 hours at a time, serving stiff sentences, sometimes for years at a time, for possession of a few pink pills, is begin to gnaw at the conscience and sense of justice of many officials and those in authority.

Something significant is brewing in Thailand when it comes to the war on drugs. And the key focus for those who would like to see Thailand pursue a more progressive, softer and merciful approach, is the plight of Thai women in Thai prisons. In fact, Thailand is now the country in the world that incarcerates more of its women than any other, even more than the United States. Both countries are, in fact, imprisoning more and more of their women folk and the reason is clear. Drugs, more particularly metamfetamine, crystal ice or meths. Over 82% of women in Thailand’s prisons are there because of drugs and over 90% of these women are small time crystal meth or metamfetamine users.

Thailand jails more women than any other country in the world over pink yaba pills and ongoing drug arrests

Thousands of people with convictions for dagga possession could soon have their criminal records expunged.

This comes in the wake of last year’s Constitutional Court ruling, in which the court found that the ban on the use and possession of dagga in private was unconstitutional.

Government is now considering all legislative options to expunge the criminal records of people who never appeared in court but paid admission of guilt fines for the possession of dagga, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said on Friday.

Lamola was answering a question from Advocate Elphus Mulaudzi, the EFF’s spokesperson on justice, about the 1 041 prisoners currently serving sentences for possession of dagga, and the thousands of people who have criminal records.

Lamola said everyone would have to apply to have such a sentence or criminal record set aside.

Our law makes no provision for a general amnesty or for the scrapping of criminal convictions, Lamola said in a written reply to Mulaudzi’s parliamentary question on Friday.

South Africa ready to expunge dagga criminal records 

Call for reviewers for the Robert Carr Fund – Apply by 30 September

The Robert Carr Fund (RCF) is seeking expressions of interest from individuals who are available to volunteer time to review funding proposals in October and November 2019.

Anyone interested in serving as a reviewer should complete this online application form at any time before September 30th 2019.

RCF is looking for reviewers to read and critique funding proposals from regional and global networks responding to a 2019 Request for Proposals (RFP). Proposals will be received by September 30th, then assigned to external reviewers by mid-October, for reviews by mid-November 2019. As described in the RFP timeline and review process, the external reviews will be used first by grantees for providing clarifications to their proposals, and then by the RCF Program Advisory Panel to make funding recommendations to the RCF International Steering Committee.

The focus of this 2019 RFP is to invite current and past RCF grantees (and potential new grantees who would like to be part of a collaborative application) to propose new approaches to improve the health, wellbeing and social inclusion of inadequately served populations (ISPs), and to propose creative and novel approaches to overcome strategic challenges for civil society organizations in the HIV response. The three priorities of the 2019 RFP are movement leadership, financial health and resilience of ISP programs, and network innovation, learning and partnerships. This 2019 RFP is also specifically encouraging proposals from networks addressing the needs of people living with HIV; transgender people; youth who are ISP; and migrants who are ISP.

Accordingly, Robert Carr Fund is looking for a diverse pool of experts in the field of HIV, human rights, and inadequately served populations with a focus on civil society and community responses to the epidemic.

Please send your expression of interest to review proposals for the Robert Carr Fund via this online form. The deadline for expressions of interest is 

 The information you provide will help the RCF secretariat to assign proposals to you that best fit your field of expertise.

Please also feel free to send this call for Expressions of Interest to other experts within your network who might be interested to review proposals for the Robert Carr Fund.

Call for reviewers for the Robert Carr Fund

In the last weeks, the complicated access to Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST) in Romania has become even more unstable. Normally, from an estimated population 10.000 people who would need access to this service, a maximun of 2.000 places are covered. However, problems with delivery have put at risk this already difficult situation.

As a result, one Antidrug Agency Center has closed, and other organizations are experiencing already the effects of a lack of stock. For example, private organization ANIT has no pills anymore, and ARAS has been forced to halve the ratios of distribution.

Our colleagues of ARAS have launched an open call for support to ensure immediate methadone stock, either in donation, or to be bought, as deliveries are not expected to arrive at least for another month. If you or organization could be of support, please, contact ARAS or Romanian Harm Reduction Network.

Difficulty accessing OST in Romania: A call for international support

How Brazil’s overcrowded and underfunded penitentiary system contributes to the country’s public security crisis

On July 30, inmates killed nearly sixty fellow prisoners during a five-hour clash between rival gangs in Altamira prison in the northern state of Pará, an event that recalled the deaths of fifty-five inmates from different prisons in Amazonas state in May. Just two years earlier, in 2017, more than 120 inmates died over two days of fighting among rival gang members at prisons across Brazil’s northern states.

Outbreaks of deadly violence are not uncommon in Brazil’s prisons, which have struggled to accommodate the country’s steadily increasing prison population. In fact, the homicide rate for inmates is six times higher than the already-high national average. Yet voters and politicians have tended to view violence within prisons as separate from the public security crisis nationwide. When President Jair Bolsonaro and his Justice and Public Security Minister, Sergio Moro, promised voters that they would be tough on crime, much of their rhetoric focused on harsher penalties and jailing more criminals, rather than true penal system reform. However, the prevailing policy of mass incarceration may only exacerbate the existing violence and poor conditions that plague Brazil’s penitentiary system, while doing little to improve public security nationwide. Years of research and experience suggest policies targeting the inflow of inmates and recidivism—the likelihood of a convicted criminal to reoffend—are far more effective at reducing overall crime rates.

What Does Brazil’s Penitentiary System Look Like?

With over 811,000 inmates, Brazil registers the world’s third largest prison population, behind China (1.6 million) and the United States (2.1 million). Between 2000 and 2015, the United States’ prison population increased by 14 percent, while Brazil’s increased by a whopping 170 percent. Although the United States still incarcerates a larger percentage of its population than any other country in the world, incarceration trends are on a downward path: the country’s incarceration rate (which takes into account population change) peaked at 1,000 inmates per 100,000 adults during 2006 and 2008 and has declined every year thereafter. Experts attribute this to a decreasing crime rate and changes in prosecution and sentencing patterns. In contrast, Brazil’s trend shows that the incarceration rate is still increasing. According to Brazil’s Ministry of Public Security, the country’s prison population will surpass one million in 2021, and reach 1.5 million by 2025. Yet, Brazil has just half of the cell space needed to accommodate its inmates today.

Brazil's mass incarceration policy has not stopped crime 

The local community raised complaints to the city council about crime they associated with drug use in their neighbourhood. As a result, the council issued local organisation TB/HIV Care to seize services in one of the city’s major hot spots.

To avoid a complete shutdown, a series of roundtable talks are ongoing. The situation shows an urgent need of continuous advocacy in support of harm reduction as an effective approach to not only tackle HIV, but also reduce crime and public order problems.

People who use drugs in Durban have already seen their health deteriorate rapidly in the complete absence of clean gear. HIV is on the rise and people suffer from overdose and abscesses. Worse, people feel that they are being completely left behind. Mainline gives a shout out to our South African friends: continue the fight!

Needle and syringe programmes under pressure in South Africa

By Alfredo Pascual / Marijuana Business Daily

Paraguay plans to open up the application process next month for businesses seeking to secure a production license for the country’s new medical cannabis industry.

The nation’s health minister, Julio Mazzoleni, announced during a press conference on Thursday the approval of a resolution establishing the guidelines to apply for the first commercial production licenses.

Five vertically integrated licenses will be up for grabs. The licenses cover cultivation as well as the manufacture of medical cannabis products.

Separately, the Senate approved a bill that would allow home growing of cannabis for medical purposes.

Paraguay legalized medical cannabis in December 2007 and in August 2018 the regulatory decree that spells out how the law should be implemented was approved. But until now no business opportunities for domestic production were available.

Paraguay to open application process for medical cannabis production licenses in October

The Barbados government has given members of the Rastafarian movement the assurance that it has set aside at least 60 acres of land for its members to grow marijuana legally.

Agriculture Minister Indar Weir, speaking in parliament on Friday, is also promising the group that it would play a major role in establishing a medicinal cannabis industry.

But Weir told legislators that the proposed legislation spoke only to the use of medicinal cannabis.

“I feel the responsibility to make sure that we make it absolutely clear that what we are dealing with here is medicinal cannabis and we ought not to introduce the confusion that most people seem to be going through with regard to what is the decriminalisation of recreational cannabis.

In his presentation on the Medical Cannabis Bill 2019, Weir said that Barbadians would benefit from the establishment of a medical cannabis industry and that any foreign investors interested in becoming involved in the industry would have to allow Barbadians to own 30 per cent of its business.

“This is designed to make sure every last Barbadian is given a chance to participate. We're not just singling out one group, but that every group that has an interest will be part of this industry.

Barbados government promises Rastafarians 60 acres to grow marijuana 

New marijuana business licenses reserved for low-income demographics are set to launch in Colorado in 2020, but questions remain about who should receive these licenses and how they should be regulated.

Created by Senate Bill 224, a 2019 law that overhauls the state's medical and recreational marijuana regulations, the new licenses are intended to add more diversity to Colorado's cannabis space while providing opportunity to entrepreneurs who don't have traditional training or funding outlets. Also known as micro licenses, the new permits would require the new businesses to use the facilities of established pot companies as they research and create their own cannabis products.

Colorado cannabis regulators and industry members began addressing the upcoming accelerator licenses during a state Marijuana Enforcement Division stakeholder meeting Friday, September 13. But instead of the usual roundtable discussion, the group of cannabis organization leaders, business owners and regulators broke into working groups to discuss issues such as how long the agreements should last between the accelerator and endorsing businesses, how the state could incentivize potential endorsers, and what criteria should qualify the new licensees.

"People from around the world look to us as an example on how to do things right," MED director Jim Burack said during the meeting. "What exactly is this relationship between endorser and accelerator? How do we ensure this business relationship is mutually beneficial?"

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