As growing numbers of women languish in Latin American jails on drug-trafficking charges, their role in organized crime is under the spotlight - as is the prison system that incarcerates them, and the patriarchal society that appears to be failing them.

Although women still represent the minority of prisoners in these countries, their rates of incarceration are increasing much faster than those of males. The number of female inmates, which has been rising since the 1980s, became more pronounced in the 1990s, when stricter drug laws were enacted. From 2006 to 2011, the number of women prisoners in Latin America nearly doubled from 40,000 to over 74,000, according to an October 2013 briefing paper by the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC).

This article highlights the alarming situation of women involved in drug trafficking and sex work in Latin America.

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Women paying price of Latin America drug wars

The Uganda Harm Reduction Network (UHRN) is a community-based organisation, established by former drug users to provide a national platform and reduce the health, social and economic harms associated with “drug use”. UHRN seek to develop a supportive environment for the implementation and expansion of harm reduction programmes for Drug Users in Uganda.

On 11th April 2014, UHRN and its partners around Kampala gathered at UHRN’s resource Centre to commemorate the International-day-for-maternal-health-and-rights. The event included a sensitisation forum for female drug users from the five Divisions of Kampala. This forum was aimed at educating female drug users on their right to sexual and reproductive health based on the theme of ‘Know your rights.’

Sensitisation programme on the rights to sexual and reproductive health for female drug users in Kampala, Uganda

An academic study has suggested that an unusual project to help the homeless is successful at getting people off the streets. Drug addicts and alcoholics are given flats to rent without having to give up drink and drugs first.

The idea behind Housing First has been borrowed from the US.

As BBC Scotland's health correspondent Eleanor Bradford reports, the project has been producing interesting results.

This video features the result of a project called Housing first which aimed at renting flats to people who use drugs or alcohol without having to give up their dependence.

Success story of US inspired housing project for homeless

Ensured human rights and access to healthcare for people who use drugs (PUD) is on the horizon, and we can get there together if we continue to exchange methodologies and develop joint strategies. This was one of the main conclusions of more than 40 professionals representing people who use drugs from 8 countries who came together in Amsterdam last week. The meeting involved all partners in the Bridging the Gaps PUD project, coordinated by AIDS Foundation East-West and Mainline. Various best practices from different countries were shared and discussed.

During the meeting, local partners from Georgia, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Ukraine exchanged their experiences with each other. Every organisation faces its own obstacles, in many cases depending on local policies. At the same time there are many similarities: the provision of quality services targeted to the needs of the target group has a priority in every country – as well as a continuous lobby towards the government. Aim of this lobby is the acknowledgement of right to health care for every citizen, also those who use drugs.

Linking and learning to bridge the health and rights gaps for people who use drugs

A new treatment for hepatitis C "cured" 90% of patients with the infection in 12 weeks, scientists said. The study is a "major breakthrough" and marks a "turning point" in hepatitis C treatment, said experts.More than 200,000 people are infected with hepatitis in the UK, and deaths from the infection have increased threefold since 1996.

Only 3% of patients in the UK currently opt for the existing treatment, which only works half of the time.

Hepatitis C: New drug treatment 'is a breakthrough' 

7 April 2014 - The Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, today launched the UNODC Regional Programme in support of the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) Crime and Security Strategy at an event held at the UN Headquarters in New York.

In his speech, Mr. Fedotov said: "The nexus between transnational organized criminal activities such as cocaine trafficking and illegal guns; gangs; cyber-crime; financial crime and corruption has been identified in the CARICOM Crime and Security Strategy as an immediate and significant threat."

Mr. Fedotov also echoed the concerns of regional Member States, noting that the Caribbean's geographical position provided the underpinning for some of the region's challenges due to its location "between major drug-producing countries in the south and major consumer markets in the north." For this reason, he said, the Caribbean "remained extremely vulnerable to the threats posed by illicit trafficking and organized crime."

UNODC chief launches new Caribbean regional programme

Although giving out naloxone to patients at high risk of overdose sounds like a good idea, researchers who work with the drug say the stigma surrounding its use may be a barrier to wider uptake among both patients and doctors.

Patients may feel they're being treated like addicts and that their opioid prescriptions will be tempered, while doctors worry that just talking about naloxone may scare patients away, said Caleb Banta-Green, PhD, MPH, of the University of Washington in Seattle.

Naloxone 'stigma' a barrier to prescribing?

Standing sentinel over one of Myanmar’s main border crossings to China, in the town of Mongla, is a lurid pink building, the Drug Eradication Museum. The sleazy frontier post, Chinese in all but name, is at the heart of the Golden Triangle, where the three South-East Asian countries of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos adjoin their giant northern neighbour. It is an area that has long been synonymous with one thing: drugs.

At the museum the authorities have chosen to portray how the cultivation of opium poppies and the production of heroin and other drugs shrivelled in the face of a determined eradication programme. Dog-eared black-and-white photos record all the diplomats and foreign journalists coming to witness the triumphant destruction of thousands of hectares of poppy fields. Here and there among the exhibits Myanmar’s then military dictator, Than Shwe, descends by helicopter to survey the good work. But the chronicle of relentless success ends in 2006. Beyond the museum walls since then, and particularly recently, it has been a different story.

Getting higher: Opium-growing is on the rise again, as is drug consumption in the region of Myanmar

The two weekend shootouts that killed nine drug traffickers near the Myanmar border are especially worrying because they are part of a trend. Just five weeks previously, a battle in the same region left six drug dealers dead. It is clear that trafficking in illicit drugs is once again increasing. Security forces, social workers and international experts all agree: Drug abuse is increasing and big-time organised crime and gangs are stepping up production and smuggling. Myanmar is facing an alarming situation with its increasing traffics in illicit drug.

The coming drugs boom in Myanmar

Over 120 German professors of criminal law are supporting an initiative to legalize cannabis. They have called on the Bundestag to discuss the issue. Merkel's coalition is skeptical.

Around 3 million Germans regularly smoke marijuana. Some 14 million are estimated to have tried the drug at least once. It's not punishable by law in Germany to use pot, but it is to sell and grow it.

Several legal experts believe that criminal prosecution of cannabis users doesn't serve the desired purpose. Lorenz Böllinger, emeritus professor of criminal law at Bremen University, founded the ‘Schildow Circle' two years ago. It now consists of 122 criminal law professors who are campaigning to legalize the sale and ownership of marijuana.

In November 2013, the group called on the lower house of parliament to set up a cross-party working group to look into Germany's narcotics laws and assess the efficacy of current drug policies. Now, two opposition groups in the Bundestag, the Greens and the Left party, have agreed to back the idea. Lorenz Böllinger hopes that some Social Democrats could follow suit. At least 120 parliamentarians are needed for the commission to be set up. The two opposition groups alone have 127 seats in the parliament.

German law professors demand cannabis legalisation

Today, the Healthy Options Project Skopje (HOPS) celebrates 

 It is an immense pleasure for us to be able to celebrate this jubilee. In the past years, HOPS has been building its credibility among the communities for which it exists and works, but also among all the concerned parties connected to the policies on respect, care and support for the marginalized communities in the Republic of Macedonia.

In 15 years, HOPS became an organization with a clear mission for promotion, respect and protection of the human rights and freedoms towards improvement of health and socioeconomic status of all people, especially drug users, sex workers and other marginalized groups, based on the principles of harm reduction, by equal access to services, community strengthening, capacity building, research, analyses and advocacy.

It is on days like this that we look back on our beginnings, we remember the previous years and the respective accomplishments, we remember the challenges we faced and the solutions we came up with. On days like this, we have a great opportunity to thank all those who were involved in this continuous, successful story, and also to give ourselves the proper recognition for all that we’ve accomplished.

In its working, HOPS was primarily focused on improving the status of the drug users and the sex workers, as well as the status of all the other marginalized groups in the society.

On the other hand, HOPS gave its full support in the formation of other civil organizations with mission similar to its own, both in Skopje and throughout Macedonia, who have the potential to work with similar communities. HOPS works as a mentor and assistant in the work that these organizations do and their access to the users.

In its efforts for advocacy, creation, modification and implementation of policies in favor of drug users and sex workers as well as other marginalized groups, HOPS collaborates with the public institutions, the decision makers, the policy makers, the donors and the international organizations both in and outside of Macedonia who operate in the same field of work.

In 2010, HOPS received the International Award for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, awarded by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and Human Rights Watch, as a recognition for the successful work in the respective fields of work.

The first 15 years of HOPS have been more than successful. The success poses a challenge for future accomplishments, for achieving the vision of the organization and the vision of a society in which everyone enjoys their human rights and freedoms, as well as social, health and economic welfare.

HOPS celebrates its 15 years of existence

Two doctors, with a senior researcher from Human Rights Watch, tell us that physicians all over the world must come together to demand the removal of unnecessary red tape blocking access to essential medicines.

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