Bulgarian society seems to be in a state of apathy when it comes to decriminalisation of drug use. Neither a so-called “reform” of the drugs law (making it harsher than ever), nor an outrageous fine for the pro-legalisation Green party, was a loud enough wake-up call for Bulgaria to distance itself from the current punishment-based approach. Read the guest article from human rights expert journalist Krassen Nikolov.

Recent parliamentary elections in Bulgaria have deepened the country's political crisis. Eight parties received enough votes to take seats in Parliament, and analysts anticipate a weak coalition government, which will not be able to conduct serious reforms in the most important public sectors – education, healthcare, and the judicial system.

The previous government put out a draft new Penal Code for public consultation. The draft was harshly criticised by NGOs and the Supreme Court of Cassation. According to the Supreme Court judges, the new code would do more harm than good. One of the reasons for their criticism was that the draft is very restrictive on the question of the supply and use of drugs.

If the parliament passes the new code, anyone caught smoking, or even possessing, a single marijuana cigarette is liable to a term of 1 to 6 years' imprisonment. The current punishment for somebody caught with a small amount of drugs for personal use, is a fine. This issue was widely discussed earlier this year; even so, government authorities refused to withdraw and rewrite the draft. The opinion of senior magistrates, such as Evgeni Dikov, director of the National Investigation Service, was unable to sway them. Dikov said that it was "ridiculous for a marijuana cigarette to spin the entire judicial machinery."

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Legalisation of marijuana is a political taboo in Bulgaria

A delegation of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) conducted a field visit to Indonesia from 22 to 24 October to see how the country has implemented an integrated and decentralized response to AIDS that has accelerated the strategic use of HIV treatment, increased testing and counselling and strengthened HIV prevention services for key populations.

Indonesia demonstrates how a multisectoral approach to HIV, combined with consistent leadership at all levels, is helping the country to stabilize the epidemic, accelerate treatment and provide innovative and comprehensive HIV services. The country’s AIDS response is guided by an investment strategy, developed with support from UNAIDS, which focuses resources and efforts where they are most needed.

According to national estimates, 638 000 people are living with HIV across Indonesia, and latest national data show that new infections are stabilizing, although there are increases among men who have sex with men. Indonesia’s epidemic is largely concentrated among key populations, including sex workers and their clients, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs and transgender people. While national HIV prevalence is low, a higher burden of HIV is found among key populations and in certain geographic areas, such as urban settings and in the Papua provinces.

Leadership and focus on key affected populations frame Indonesia’s response to HIV

In most countries in the world, if you asked the local authorities for permission to grow 750 cannabis plants in a residential area of the capital city, you would probably end up in trouble.

But in Chile, the state has just agreed to such a project. The cannabis will be planted on 29 October in La Florida, a district of Santiago. It will be harvested next April and turned into an oil which will be used as a painkiller for 200 cancer patients.

It is the first project of its kind with state backing anywhere in Latin America. Much of the recent debate in the region over cannabis use has centred on Uruguay, which this year became the first country in the world to legalize the cultivation, sale and consumption of the drug.

But in Chile, the authorities have taken a different approach, permitting the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes only.

Chile plants cannabis for medicinal use

This plenary session from the 10th National Harm Reduction Conference, Baltimore, features Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, Director of the Global Drug Policy Program, Open Society Foundations. In this presentation, Kasia poses the question "Is the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Drugs an Opportunity to Change the World?".

UN General Assembly on Drugs (UNGASS): An Opportunity to Change the World?

In a surprise twist that defies all of last week’s projections and opinion polls, 

Uruguay’s ruling Frente Amplio (FA) is poised to maintain effective control over both legislative houses for the next five years

the country’s historic marijuana law is safe for now

, as are other progressive measures passed by the FA majority in recent years.

Although a runoff between the FA’s Tabare Vazquez and National Party’s Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou will take place on

, Sunday’s vote determined the breakdown of congressional seats by proportional representation. In Uruguay the number of seats a party wins in the Senate is calculated by its share of the popular vote, while the lower house’s makeup is weighted according to the population of its 19 departments.

Last week’s polls predicted that the ruling coalition would win just 43-44 percent of the vote, but 

with 99.6 percent of ballots counted the FA actually obtained 47.9 percent

. Not only is this result well outside the margins of error in the recent Cifra, Factum and Equipos Mori surveys, it is also above the roughly 47 percent threshold that most analysts identified as the cutoff point for keeping a majority.

has yet to release the final distribution of seats

, and will not do so until it finishes the current “provisional” vote count and confirms it with a second one. So far there has been no indication of when that process will be completed. Still, El Observador, Radio Espectador andRadio 180 have all reported that the 

FA is guaranteed 15 seats in the Senate and sure to keep its 50 seats in the lower house

. El Pais claims that a source in the Electoral Court told the paper that it would take a “catastrophe” for this not to be the final result.

The most likely breakdown of Uruguay's 2015-2020 Congress, as reported in local press (Image credit: Montevideo Portal)

With the 50 seats, the FA will control the lower house just as it does now: with

that will require each of its lawmakers to adhere to the party line to pass or block legislation.

In the Senate, where the FA currently has 16 seats, the results show that its new 15-member majority will be 

. However, no other political grouping comes close to that number of lawmakers. Barring an unprecedented mix-up in the polling system, the National Party (PN) is expected to have 10 seats, the Colorado Party (PC) will have 4 and the Independent Party (PI) will pick up its first-ever senator, party leader Pablo Mieres.

Fortunately for the Frente, the Vice President also has a vote in the 30-member body. So if Vazquez wins, his running mate 

Raul Sendic will have the deciding vote in the Senate

. And if he loses, Lacalle Pou will need every single non-FA vote to pass legislation, a tall order for a political grouping consisting of three very different parties.

FA’s unexpected success is a major victory

. Lacalle Pou’s plan to present a bill to restrict the marijuana regulation law to home-growing and cannabis clubs (as well as to abolish the state registries of these) now 

. And the fact that the Frente won far more votes than expected also means that Vazquez, who has promised to see that the law is implemented as written, has a better shot at reaching the presidency.

The other important result of Sunday's vote is that, due in a large part to the campaign efforts of the civil society-led "No a la Baja" campaign, the ballot measure to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 has failed. 

Some 53 percent of Uruguayans effectively voted against the measure 

by not including the reform in with their chosen ballot lists, while 46.99 percent supported it.

Uruguay's Frente Amplio likely to keep majority

On October 5-8, 2014, the 2nd International Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health (LEPH) took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The event was organized byMelbourne Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health andInstitute at VU University Amsterdam in partnership with Dutch Police and Public Health Service of Amsterdam (GGD Amsterdam), and it brought together around 300 police officers, public health practitioners, academics and policy makers to examine, review, assess, share and learn from each other how to best build effective law enforcement and public health partnerships.

Within the framework of the conference Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) together with The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) held an informal session “The law enforcement and civil society partnership in combating violence against women who use drugs“. The session was aimed at presenting regional advocacy campaign “Women against Violence“ and its results in Moldova, one of the partner countries, as well as at discussing with the session participants such as representatives of civil society, law enforcement from Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, UNODC and international donors possible solutions in addressing police violence against women who use drugs.

“Women against Violence” campaign received vivid discussions at the 2nd International Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health

On 30th September, the First National Conference on Drug Policies organised by HOPS - Healthy Options Project was held in Skopje.

Besides domestic experts, parliamentarians, representatives of political parties, speakers of the conference included: Jindrih Voboril, the National Anti-Drug Coordinator of the Czech Republic, Jaka Bitenc of the Cannabis Social Club Slovenia and Ivan Varentcov from the Andrey Rylkov Foundation, Russia.

The conference aimed to create a space for reflection, debate and analysis of the existing drug policy in Macedonia and the impact that it has on the health system, social policy, the economy, security, but primarily on the lives of our citizens. Because only a policy that is constantly reviewed and supplemented in accordance with existing good practices can be successful.

The conference therefore aimed to stimulate debate on issues critical to the success of solving the problems associated with drug use in the country. Resolving these issues requires cooperation at all levels among the legislative, judicial and executive power and civil society.

First national conference on drug policy in Macedonia

More than 80 social organizations from various regions of the world condemned the enforced disappearance of 43 Mexican students in the context of that country’s “War on Drugs” and failed security policies, which only serve to spawn more violence and institutional corruption. We urge the Mexican State to investigate the disappearances and punish these crimes.

The consequences of the ‘War on Drugs’ in Mexico: executions and enforced disappearances of students

For a month now, 43 Mexican students—ages 17 to 25, from the teacher training college Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa—have been missing after a series of violent episodes that allegedly involved, among others, Iguala’s municipal police in the state of Guerrero, Mexico.

These tragic events, in which 6 people were killed and 20 injured, once again reveal the social cost of the so-called War on Drugs in Mexico and its failed security policy. Both have resulted in more violence, grave human rights violations committed by the security forces themselves, and increasing levels of state corruption.

On September 26th, about 80 students from the Escuela Normal in Ayotzinapa were held up by local police while travelling in three buses. Without notice, police blocked the road and opened fire indiscriminately, killing and wounding 26 people. The surviving students witnessed how municipal police made their classmates get into cars. However, they were never taken before any judicial authority.

Various Mexican State forces have been looking for the missing 43 students, discovering clandestine graves with unidentified corpses in the vicinity of Iguala. Victims’ relatives are waiting for the result of tests by independent experts to identify the bodies. However, as additional clandestine graves are found, more questions emerge in this already dramatic scenario regarding the quantity of bodies surreptitiously buried in that area of the country.

It is essential that a paradigm shift be effected in drug and security policies to avoid similar cases of institutional violence and corruption in the future.

Social organizations elsewhere echo the demand of victims’ relatives and Mexican human rights groups that a search-and-rescue mission be carried out for the 43 students. We also urge the Mexican State to investigate and punish these crimes, as well as determine all the political responsibilities involved.

‘They took them alive, we want them back alive!’

Abogadas y Abogados del Noroeste Argentino en Derechos Humanos y Estudios Sociales- ANDHES, Argentina

Abogadas y Abogados para la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos, Mexico

AIDS Foundation East-West- AFEW, The Netherlands

Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos- APDH, Argentina

Asistencia Legal por los Derechos Humanos- ASILEGAL, Mexico

Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia – ACIJ, Argentina

Asociación de Reporteros Gráficos de la Republica Argentina- ARGRA, Argentina

Asociación Lucha por la Identidad Travesti – Transexual- ALITT, Argentina

Asociación para la Prevención de la Tortura- APT

Asociación para la Unidad de Nuestra América- AUNA, Argentina

Asociación Para Una Vida Mejor de Personas Infectadas/Afectadas por el VIH-Sida en Honduras- APUVIMEH, Honduras

Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos- APRODEH, Peru

Associação Juízes para a Democracia- AJD, Brazil

Brazilian Harm Reduction Network- REDUC, Brazil

Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir- CDD, Argentina

Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, Spain

Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan, Mexico

Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Venezuela

Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, AC, Mexico

Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos “Segundo Montes Mozo S.J.”- CSMM, Ecuador

Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales- CELS, Argentina

Centro de Investigación Drogas y Derechos Humanos- CIDDH, Peru

Centro de Políticas Públicas y Derechos Humanos, Peru

Centro de Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos- Promsex, Peru

Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos, Nicaragua

Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional- CEJIL

Colectiva Mujer y Salud de República Dominicana, Dominican Republic

Comisión de Justicia y Paz de Colombia, Colombia

Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos- CEDHU, Ecuador

Comisión Mexicana para la Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos- CMDPDH, Mexico

Comité de América y Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de las Mujeres- CLADEM

Comité de Familiares de las Víctimas- COFAVIC, Venezuela

Coordinadora de Trabajo Carcelario (Rosario - Santa Fe), Argentina

Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Peru

Defensa de Niñas y Niños Internacional- DNI, Costa Rica

Derechos Humanos Integrales en Acción, A.C.

Documenta, análisis y acción para la justicia social, Mexico

Drug Policy Project, Institute for Policy Studies, United States

Due Process of Law Foundation- DPLF, United States

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights- EIPR, Egypt

Equipo de Reflexión, Invetigación y Comunicación de la Compañía de Jesús, Honduras.

Escuela de Derechos Humanos de la Defensoria del Pueblo, Venezuela

Fundación Memoria Histórica y Social, Argentina

Fundar Centro de Análisis e Investigación, Mexico

Grupo Interdisciplinario por los Derechos Humanos- GIDH, Colombia

Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas- IBASE, Brazil

Instituto de Estudios Comparados en Ciencias Penales de Guatemala –ICCPG, Guatemala

Instituto de Estudios Legales y Sociales- IELSUR, Uruguay

Instituto de Género, Derecho y Desarrollo- INSGENAR, Argentina

International Drug Policy Consortium- IDPC

Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Línea fundadora, Argentina

Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres, Nicaragua

Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad, Mexico

Oficina Jurídica para la Mujer de Cochabamba – OJM, Bolivia

Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo- PIDHDD Regional

Programa de Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos de la Facultad de derecho y Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina

Sinergia, Asociación Venezolana de Organizaciones de Sociedad Civil, Venezuela

Students for Sensible Drug Policy, United States

Unidad de Protección a Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos – UDEFEGUA, Guatemala

Washington Office on Latin America- WOLA, United States

Instituto Lationamericano de Seguridad y Democracia- ILSED

One month after 43 Mexican students disappeared

随着一批危险的海洛因的进入，温哥华的毒品过量使用迅速增长。海洛因辅助治疗能够在减少伤害中所扮演的关键角色非常值得考虑。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

随时掌握与药物政策发展相关的最新信息。

With overdoses spiking recently in Vancouver due to a dangerous batch of heroin, it's worth considering the vital role that heroin assisted treatment could play in the future combating of these harms.

Between October 12 and 13, 31 overdoses were registered at Vancouver's supervised injection facility, Insite. The 16 overdoses recorded in one day was a record, reported The Province, and above the average 10 to 12 usually registered per week.

None of the 31 people who overdosed at Insite died, thanks to the medical staff on hand to assist them with oxygen and naloxone. Since it became North America's first ever legal supervised injection site in 2003, Insite has not registered a single death.

Speculation was rife initially that the significant uptick was attributable to a "bad batch" of heroin being sold in the area. Vancouver police confirmed this in the following days, stating that samples of the heroin responsible had tested positive for the synthetic opiate fentanyl, a drug that is approximately 100 times more potent than heroin.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

海洛因辅助治疗在防治温哥华毒品过量使用中的作用

10月17号，布鲁金斯与拉丁美洲华盛顿办公室合作主持了一个论坛，讨论美国对于大麻处理途径的改变所引起的国际反响。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

For decades, the United States has been a champion of the global drug control treaty system, which limits the use of marijuana exclusively to medical and scientific purposes, and obligates governments to punish and even criminalize recreational marijuana activity. But American attitudes toward marijuana policy are shifting: voters in Colorado and Washington approved ballot initiatives to legalize regulated recreational marijuana in 2012, and recent polls suggest that the majority of Americans think marijuana use should be legalized. How might a shift in American marijuana policies affect the prohibitionist drug treaty system? What debates are taking place in other countries over marijuana policy? Wells Bennett and John Walsh tackle these questions and more in their latest report, "Marijuana Legalization is an Opportunity to Modernize International Drug Treaties."

On October 17, in collaboration with the Washington Office on Latin America, Governance Studies at Brookings hosted a forum to discuss the international repercussions of the United States’ changing approach towards marijuana. A panel of experts considered the possible ramifications for other countries and the international drug control regime.

美国的影响力：向大麻合法化的趋势

这个听证会的举行是为了提高以健康为基础的毒品政策，保障必要药物的获得和在未来的毒品政策中尊重个体的尊严。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

To promote health approaches towards drug policies, guarantee access to essential medicines and respect the dignity of individuals must guide the future drug policies.

Click the image above to watch the High-level Civil Society Hearing on “Addressing Drug Use together through a Health Based Approach as part of the International Drug Control Conventions” organised by the Vienna NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs (VNGOC) on Friday 10th October.

通过以健康为基础的方法来共同处理毒品的使用：高层次的民间社会听证会

Colombia’s jail system is overpopulated by 53.3 percent, according to a report released on October 1 by the National Institute for Jail and Prison Studies (INPEC). At present, the nation houses 117,037 inmates — 108,845 men and 8,192 women — 35.6 percent of whom have yet to be sentenced.

The problem of overcrowding in Colombian jails has been growing more visible, now backed up by the report’s data. On September 29, for example, more than 500 inmates were part of a hunger protest in El Pedregal, a prison in Medellín, to demand better sanitation facilities and more respect for their fundamental rights.

Rodrigo Ardila, a delegate and comptroller for Medellín has acknowledged the poor jail conditions, with one facility intended for 140 prisoners now holding 513: “There are not sufficient sanitation services. Halls with 250 people and only one bathroom. Other halls have only one or two bathrooms with one or two showers.”

Drug-trafficking crimes represent 15 percent of the incarcerated population in Colombia.Daniel Raisbeck, an historian and classics professor at Our Lady of the Rosary University in Bogotá, believes this presents an opportunity, since an end to drug prohibition would drastically reduce the number of crimes, and thus the number of people incarcerated.

News