Four in every ten women who die a drug-related death have previously been reported as victims of domestic abuse, new figures have revealed.

A leading expert described the link as disturbing.

David Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) said addicts often endured abuse at home, but could miss out on proper support due to the stigma surrounding their drug use. He was speaking after official figures revealed that four out of every ten women who suffered a drug related death in 2012 also had a history of domestic abuse.

Mr Liddell said: "This figure should be disturbing to all of us. One of the challenges for a woman with a drug problem and on the receiving end of domestic abuse is where to go for help when they are doubly stigmatised."

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the 

'Disturbing' link between domestic violence and drug deaths in Scotland

The Uruguayan government has unveiled long-awaited regulations for its recreational marijuana market — a move that steers the tiny nation of 3.3 million people away from the prohibitionist war on drugs, with its disastrous consequences in Latin America, and toward a drug policy based on improving public health and security. Although Uruguay’s Congress approved the measure in December — becoming the first country in the world to legalize recreational pot use — it was just this week that the government of President José Mujica announced all the details.

The regulations allow three forms of access to marijuana. Uruguayans can purchase up to 40 grams per month – with a limit of 10 grams per week – from registered pharmacies. They can also choose to cultivate up to 6 homegrown plants, with a cap on annual production at 480 grams. Finally, as members of cannabis clubs, Uruguayans will be able to cultivate up to 99 plants per group, with a production cap of 480 grams per member. But smokers must choose one form of acquiring pot, and will be denied access to the drug by the other two means. The law officially takes effect on May 6, the government announced Friday.

Uruguay unveils marijuana regulation details

While the West carries on its steady course towards legalisation, piggybacking on the ever-increasing awareness of marijuana's medicinal properties, Japan's cannabis laws remain resolutely harsh. However, a recently discovered loophole allows for the non-psychoactive compound, CBD, to be imported and consumed within Japan. CBD, which has numerous health benefits, is extracted from the stalk of the plant, whereas Japanese law only forbids use of the plant's leaves and flowers.

Shirasaka, head member of Taima Houdou Centre, a legalisation group and advocate for medicinal cannabis – and the man who discovered the CBD loophole – is currently awaiting trial for marijuana possession but plans to fight his case on the basis of cannabis's remarkable therapeutic properties. VICE went to visit Shirasaka as he prepares for his trial.

VICE also visits terminally ill cancer patient POP – a woman who claims that CBD has helped her live years beyond her prognosis – and witness a family with a severely epileptic child try CBD for the first time, with incredible results.

Read the full article and watch the video here.

The battle for medical marijuana in Japan 

The authorities have moved to reclassify a list of so-called “legal highs” — which mimic the effects of drugs such as cocaine and Ecstasy — as Class A controlled drugs, making the abuse of such substances an offence punishable by imprisonment and caning.

Known as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), they are mainly produced by introducing slight modifications to the chemical structures of controlled drugs. They were listed in the Fifth Schedule of the Misuse of Drugs Act enacted last year, which allows the authorities to seize them, but the trafficking, manufacture, import, export, possession or consumption of them did not constitute an offence.

With the reclassification, anyone found guilty of trafficking any NPS will face at least five years in jail and five strokes of the cane. A person found abusing any NPS can be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to $20,000, or both.

New psychoactive drugs become illegal in Singapore

Last week, AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s newest HIV mobile testing unit (MTU) hit the streets of St. Petersburg, Russia to bring free and accessible testing to residents of the city and the surrounding Leningrad Oblast (county).

The MTU, adorned in the colors of the Russian flag and a slogan calling on people to get tested, is the first of its kind in the country, and is a part of the new global 20x20 campaign. The campaign aims to get 20 million HIV positive people around the world on antiretroviral treatment by 2020, and scaling up testing is an integral part of achieving that goal.

Services like this MTU are particularly needed in Russia. UNAIDS estimates that two-thirds of the region’s people living with HIV reside here, and together with Ukraine these two countries account for 90% of newly registered cases of HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

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

Testing hits the road in Russia, in style

Young Roma people in Serbia are particularly severely affected by the increase in use of traditional psychoactive substances, such as cannabis, inhalants (glue and solvents), heroin and alcohol. EDPI’s local partner, the NGO 'Re Generation', argues that these young people - a high proportion of whom live and work on the streets - are in need of special care.

A Roma girl, legally invisible, who may be a drug user/injecting drug user, a sex worker, a mother, HCV- and/or HIV-positive, isn't just on the margins of society - she's completely excluded from it. She bears the burden of stigma and discrimination, not only from the general population, but even from the Roma community. The culturally-embedded power imbalance exposes Roma girls to an increased risk of stigma, violence, and abuse - and in turn, these increase the likelihood that she will engage in behaviours which increase her vulnerability to HIV and other sexually-acquired conditions.

There is an essential need for gender-sensitive programs targeting the general population of young women, as well as Roma girls. The core activity of those programs should be outreach work with mobile teams. Experience of outreach work in Roma settlements confirms that education brings results - education about risk and risk-prevention filters through, across barriers of gender or age.

Roma girls, drug users in Serbia - locked into a repeating cycle of risks

International Doctors for Healthier Drug Policies writes to Governor Bill Haslam of Tennessee asking him to veto a new law that would allow pregnant women with addiction problems to be arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated.

International Doctors for Healthier Drug Policies writes to Governor Bill Haslam of Tennessee

April 2-4th marked the fourth annual Congress on the History and Use of Drugs held at the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH in Spanish). The topics during the conference were analyzed from a multidisciplinary perspective on the present, past and future uses of sacred plants. Lectures were given by Dr. Mercedes de la Garza on Sacred Plants in the Mayan world, Dr. Humberto Brocca on Altered Sobriety, Dr. Gady Zabicky on Cannabis and its Pharmacological Properties in Medicine, and anthropologist Julio Glockner gave a talk on From Deception to Cultural Misunderstanding.

In addition to lectures, panels were held on topics ranging from the Archaeology and History of Sacred Plants, Alternative Uses, Rituals and Therapy, and Economy and Tourism. Workshops were held to complement the lectures on issues of risk and harm reduction, the systematic history of drugs and a documentary on medical marijuana.

This is one of few conferences in the world that looks at the anthropological and historical uses of plants as a means to alter consciousness and compares that with our current reality. With high levels of participation, it is clear that there is a demand for spaces which welcome a multidisciplinary way of looking at the issues of drugs and drug use. A diverse group of organizations supported the event including IDPC members CuPIHD and Espolea.

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

IV Congress on the history and use of drugs: The past, present and future uses of sacred plants

Civil society organisations wrote an open letter toUNAIDS Executive Director, Mr. Sidibe, criticizing UNAIDS for supporting Russia's HIV policies.

On April 25, the Andrey Rylkov Foundation (ARF) published an open letter to UNAIDS Executive Director, Mr. Sidibe. The letter, signed by 21 international, regional and national level civil society organizations and networks, sharply criticizes the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS for their de-facto endorsement of Russia’s ineffective HIV policies through sponsoring the fourth Eastern European and Central Asian AIDS Conference (EECAAC).The upcoming EECAAC will be held on 12-14 May in Moscow, Russia. HIV advocates from around the world believe that holding the regional HIV conference organized by the Russian government will contribute to promoting ineffective approaches in HIV response in Russia and other countries of the region.

“Russian authorities openly reject human rights and evidence based approaches to HIV prevention and treatment among key affected populations (KAP) of people who use drugs, MSM, sex workers. Since UNAIDS being the co-chair and sponsor of EECAAC, never contradicted these statements, we can only state that UNAIDS is in the full agreement with them,” said Anya Sarang, president of the Andrey Rylkov Foundation.

As a result of the deadly national HIV policies, Russia remains one of the world’s few countries with rising HIV incidence and mortality: 77,896 people were diagnosed with HIV and 22,387 people with HIV died in 2013 alone, or, respectively, 10.1% and 9.1% more than in in 2012.

Because of the current Russian legislation KAP representatives will be almost prohibited from participating in the conference and directly speaking for themselves. At the same time, the conference organizers are inviting to the EECAAC opening Russian officials and politicians who actively discredit evidence-based health programs and promote a totalitarian state control over civil society.

“We still hope that UNAIDS will stand up for those whose interests are being ignored, and voices suppressed,” adds Anya. “But when will it happen?”

 Anya Sarang (+7 926 870 85 18) and Artem Chapaev (+ 7 915 349 19 55)

Follow the Andrey Rylkov Foundation (ARF) on Twitter @AndreyRylkov and on Facebook.

Civil society sharply criticises UNAIDS for supporting Russia’s deadly HIV policies

Mr. Anand Grover, Special Rapporteur on the right to health

Mr. Juan E. Méndez, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading

Prof. Michel Kazatchkine, UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Mr. Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS

Mr. Yuri Fedotov, Executive Director, UNODC

Mr. Mark Dybul, Executive Director, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Ms. Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

As networks of people who use drugs, harm reduction, drug law reform, HIV professionals, and human rights organisations we wish to call your attention to a largely overlooked aspect of the catastrophic situation currently unfolding in Crimea.

As has been widely reported, the Crimean peninsula, previously an autonomous region of Ukraine has been unilaterally annexed by the Russian Federation in defiance of international law.

The aspect of this crisis that most concerns us and that we would like to raise with you is the situation that will be faced by the more than eight hundred clients of Crimean opiate substitution programmes should the region become subject to the current legislative framework of the Russian Federation which includes the outlawing of opiate substitution therapy. Indeed, on 20th March 2014, Mr. Ivanov, the head of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, the ministry responsible for drug policy in the Russian Federation announced his intention to close the opiate substitution therapy programmes as his first priority. Carrying out this intention would be a presumptively illegal measure under Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and specifically would represent a retrogressive measure with regards to achieving the highest attainable standard of health, and in particular, access to essential medicines. This point is clarified in General Comment 14 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4).

According to the ICESCR, states have a legal obligation to take all measures, whether they be legislative, administrative, budgetary, to the maximum of their available resources, to realize progressively the rights in the covenant, including the right of all persons to the highest attainable standard of health. Following the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, it is presumptively illegal to take retrogressive measures that would undermine or move back from this progressive realization which is embodied in the provision of OST programmes.

We note that "there is a strong presumption that retrogressive measures taken in relation to the right to health are not permissible. If any deliberately retrogressive measures are taken, the State party has the burden of proving that they have been introduced after the most careful consideration of all alternatives and that they are duly justified by reference to the totality of the rights provided for in the Covenant in the context of the full use of the State party's maximum available resources" (UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4). Whilst it is possible for states to justify taking a step backward, the onus is on the state to make that case and to show that the measure in question has been taken after the most careful consideration of all alternatives and is duly justified by reference to the totality of the state's obligations under the Convention. We conclude from an examination of the facts and the Convention that not only is denying current recipients of OST presumptively illegal as a retrogressive measure but also that it cannot be justified by the Russian Federation.

Methadone and buprenorphine are commonly prescribed to opiate dependent people and both are included in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. The provision of opiate substitution therapy is recognised by WHO, UNAIDS and UNODC as an essential part of an effective response to HIV amongst people who use opiates and is a key element of the package of internationally recognised harm reduction interventions. In spite of this international guidance, the provision of opiate substitution therapy is illegal in the Russian Federation. Denial of access to such essential medicines - including abrupt "weaning" to a zero dose for those receiving this treatment - defies the internationally accepted scientific consensus and is a fundamental breach of human rights, principally that of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Denial of opiate substitution therapy has been described by the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Mr. Juan E. Méndez, as a "particular form of illtreatment and possibly torture of drug users" (A/HRC/10/44 and Corr.1, para. 57). The World Health Organisation has also noted that cutting opiate maintenance patients off abruptly and arbitrarily from their medicines ran be clinically harmful and constitutes inhuman treatment (cf WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS (2004), 

Substitution maintenance therapy in the management of opioid dependence and HIV/AIDS prevention: position paper

). Furthermore, this action would breach the human right to non-discrimination as the rights in the ICESCR, including that to the highest attainable standard of health, are to be enjoyed without discrimination, including on the basis of "other status." (ICESCR, Article 2.2). Depriving patients of access to methadone, an internationally recognized and recommended essential medicine, by criminalizing it is to effectively discriminate against people based on their health status, in this case, opiate dependence.

We also draw your attention to the fact that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has expressed its concerns over the legal ban on OST in Russia and strongly advised Russia to provide access to OST in order to fulfil its obligations under Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR. Concluding Observations. Russian Federation, June 2011, para 29).

Current supplies of methadone and buprenorphine in the Crimea are expected to last for at most another month, and in some cities, for only two weeks, and in preparation for the likelihood that the region will become subject to the legislative framework of the Russian Federation, doctors working in opiate substitution programmes have already begun reducing the doses of their clients, some of whom report that their doses have been cut by as much as 25%. Members of the drug using community, and in particular clients of the OST programmes are likely therefore to be amongst the first refugees from Crimea now that the territory has come under Russian control, and if they cannot leave they will experience immediate and wide ranging breaches of their human rights and a decline in their health. Closure of the OST programmes would in addition to being a retrogressive measure, subject the current clients to a treatment program that has been widely condemned as unscientific, ineffective and cruel (Human Rights Watch, November, 2007,

Rehabilitation Required: Russia's Human Rights Obligation to provide Evidence-based Drug Dependence Treatment

One further likely consequence of closure of the programs is a rise in both HIV and HCV prevalence rates, as well as overdose, as many of those currently in receipt of OST are almost certain to return to injecting drug use. Given the reluctance of the Russian authorities to provide needle and syringe programs, needle sharing is an inevitable consequence. The human rights and public health cost is therefore significant.

We are therefore calling upon you all to issue a public statement making clear the imminent risk that this population faces of losing access to essential medicines, we are requesting that you raise the issue with the Russian government urging them not to close down the currently running opiate substitution programmes; and we are calling upon you to raise the issue with utmost urgency with the Human Rights Council with a view to ensuring continued access to the programmes. We request that the Global Fund makes contingency plans to cater for the possible relocation of large numbers of Crimean OST patients, and ensures that provision is made for their uninterrupted access to the essential medicines that they are currently receiving. We call upon UNAIDS to consider withdrawing sponsorship from, and not to participate in, the upcoming Eastern Europe and Central Asian HIV/AIDS Conference (EECAC) in May in Moscow, and to make it clear that this is as a result of Russian actions in the Crimea as well as the ongoing human rights violation of denying access to an essential medicine for people who use drugs in the Russian Federation for whom it should be a therapeutic option (which means that members of one of the key populations most affected by the HIV epidemic in Russia and the region cannot safely attend the conference without risking their heath and/or their liberty).

Dr Eliot Ross Albers, Phd Executive Director, International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD)

Igor Kouzmenko Board Member, Eurasian Network of People who Use Drugs (ENPUD)

Olga Belyaeva Board Member, Association of Substitution Treatment Advocates of Ukraine (ASTAU)

Andrey Klepikov Executive Director, International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine

Sergey Votyagov Executive Director, Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN)

Richard Elliott Executive Director, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

Alvaro Bermejo Executive Director, International HIV/AIDS Alliance

Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi President, International AIDS Society & 2008 Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Medicine

Professor Chris Beyrer President Elect, International AIDS Society

Anya Sarang, Executive Director, Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice, Moscow

Rick Lines, Executive Director Harm Reduction International

Daniel Wolfe and Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch Open Society Foundations

Steve Rolles, Senior Policy Analyst, Transform Drug Policy Foundation

Ann Fordham, Executive Director, International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)

Annie Madden Executive Officer, Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL)

Berne Stalenkrantz Executive Director, Swedish Drug Users’ Union

Edo Agustian , National Coordinator, Indonesian Drug User Network (PKNI)

Ruth Morgan Thomas Global Coordinator, The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP)

Aliya Rakhmetova Executive Director, SWAN Foundation for the Human Rights of Sex Workers

Borche Bozhinov President, STAR-STAR, Macedonia

Pye Jakobsson, National Coordinator Rose Alliance

Ms. Anastacia Elle Ryan, MSc Chairperson, International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe – ICRSE

Morgane Merteuil General Secretary STRASS,

Licia Brussa Director, TAMPEP International Foundation

Anita Krug, Executive Director Youth RISE

Khugt Thi Hâi Oanh, MD, MSc Executive Director/Giâm clôc

Center for Supporting Community Development Initiatives (SCDI)

Sharon Stancliffe, MD Medical Director, Harm Reduction Coalition

Professor Chris Beyrer Director, Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins University

Luiz Paolo Guanabara Executive Director Psicotropicus

Katherine Irene Pettus Correspondent, Access to Opioid Medications Europe (ATOME)

Sebastian Saville Executive Director, International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies

Yusef Azad, Director of Policy and Campaigns NAT (National AIDS Trust)

Karyn Kaplan, Director, International Hepatitis/HIV Policy and Advocacy Treatment Action Group

Dr Alice Welbourn Founding Director Salamander Trust

R. Douglas Bruce, MD, MA, MSc, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology Yale AIDS Program

Mark Kinzly Board Member, National Harm Reduction Coalition

Glenn Backes, MSW, MPH, Public Policy Research & Consulting Sacramento, California, USA

Andrea Benzacar Editorial Director, Treatment Action Group

Jeremiah Johnson, HIV Prevention Research & Policy Coordinator Treatment Action Group

Robert Heimer Professor, Yale School of Public Health

Mike Selick, Policy and Participant Action Associate, New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE)

Matt Curtis Policy Director VOCAL New York

Jorge Hernández Tinajero Executive Director CuPIHD

Jan Stola Coordinator, Youth Organisations for Drug Action

Brian West Chair, European AIDS Treatment Group

Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute Mount Sinai Beth Israel

Dan Werb, PhD, Research Coordinator, International Centre for Science in Drug Policy

Saoirse Fitzpatrick Coordinator, Student Stop AIDS Campaign UK

Eberhard Schatz Executive Director Correlation Network

Dr Steve Brinksman Clinical Lead, Substance Misuse Management in General Practice (SMMGP)

Marie Debrus President, French Harm Reduction Association (AFR)

Hristijan Jankuloski Executive Director, HOPS-Healthy Options Project Skopje

Urgent appeal: Health and human rights crisis imminent for opiate substitution therapy clients in Crimea

The first International Conference on Drugs Policies in the Portuguese-Speaking African Countries (PALOP) took place on 15-16 January 2014 in Praia, Cape Verde, under the aegis of the Portuguese NGO 

 (APDES) [Piaget Agency for Development] and the 

Ministry of Justice of the Cape Verdean Government

The event was attended by several distinguished speakers, such as the former President of Portugal and Commissioner of the Global Commission on Drug Policy 

, former President of Cape Verde and Commissioner of the West African Commission on Drugs 

, several Ministers of the PALOP and representatives of international organizations associated with drugs, such as 

, Albany County District Attorney was also one of the important figures who attended this conference. Cape Verde Prime Minister, José Maria Neves, spoke at the opening ceremony.

The initiative’s goal was to promote and expand the strategic cooperation between governments, international bodies and civil society organizations in the ambit of drugs policies, as well as to heighten the opportunity to reflect upon the current state of those policies and the impact they’ve been causing in health care, social justice and economy.

During this conference, very important themes related with the drugs issue in the PALOP were discussed; also, experiences related to the fight against drugs carried out by participating countries were shared.

The most fundamental conclusion was the willingness of the PALOP governments to establish common policies on drugs based on shared responsibility, cooperation and concerted intervention so that Africa’s lusophone nations don’t become “free zone” for drugs and crimes connected with their trafficking and use.

Another important recommendation resultant of this meeting was the need of empowerment of civil society organizations, so they can develop an improved outreach work.

In addition to this, another key outcome was the signature of the “Declaração da Praia” by members of the International Union of Portuguese Language Judges, represented by judges from the PALOP, Portugal and Brazil. The declaration resulted in a memorandum on Drug Policies and Human Rights, thus committing themselves to act according to the principles that should guide the prevention and proper treatment of the “drug problem”.

Undoubtedly, the conference was able to reach its main goal, effectively creating a platform of conjoint action, being a very relevant meeting to the drug policy domain at the macro level.

http://www.conferenciadrogaspalop.org/en/

http://www.portalangop.co.ao/angola/en_us/noticias/sociedade/2014/0/2/Cabo-Verde-hosts-1st-international-Conference-PALOP-drugs-policies,a6caf82d-5332-43a7-9a4f-35a805c6ffd3.html

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/africa/2014-01/16/c_133050915.htm

http://asemana.publ.cv/spip.php?article95846&ak=1

1st International conference on drug policies in Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP)

On March 27-28, 2014, WHO Global partners’ meeting on hepatitis took place in Geneva, Switzerland. Around 80 participants, representing academic Institutions, civil society, professional organizations, country programmes attended the meeting. The main objective of the meeting was to exchange information and views among partners and to identify potential priorities for joint action over the next 2-5 years.

Eliot Albers, Executive Director of International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD) made a statement providing people who use drugs perspective in regard to current access to hepatitis diagnostics, treatment and care. E. Albers highlighted human rights agenda and systematic drug law reform as major issues in responding HCV epidemic.

News