On February 12th, the Italian Constitutional Court ruled that the 2006 Italian drug legislation (the so called Fini Giovanardi law) is unconstitutional. Consequently, the 1990 legislation, as amended by the 1993 popular referendum (which decriminalized possession for personal use), has been restored.

The legitimacy of the 2006 drug legislation was first challenged by Società della Ragione, an Italian NGO working in the field of justice and human rights, soon followed by many other NGOs. At the beginning of 2013, the Società della Ragione published a memorandum, drafted by the jurist and activist Luigi Saraceni, showing that the Fini Giovanardi drug legislation did not meet Italy’s strict constitutional requirements for laws by decrees, as previously affirmed by the Supreme Court. In fact, Italy’s 2006 antidrug law was surreptitiously introduced as a single article in a law by decree on an entirely different matter - the funding of 2006 Turin Olympics. One more question of legitimacy was raised with regards to the harsher penalties for cannabis introduced in the 2006 legislation, by upgrading cannabis to Schedule I, along heroin and cocaine, in spite of the different levels of risk: the memorandum claimed that this was in opposition to the constitutional principle of proportionality in penalties.

Following the publication of the memorandum, several judges took the initiative to suspend trials for drug crimes and called for a decision from the Constitutional Court about the legitimacy of the anti-drug legislation. A few days before the Court’s decision, an appeal by sixty jurists and academics advocated the abolition of the 2006 legislation. To the same purpose, a rally with thousands of citizens, mainly drug users, took place in Rome. In the final audience before the Supreme Court, on February 11th, Giovanni Maria Flick, the prominent jurist and former Minister for Justice in the nineties, represented the plaintiffs arguing for the unconstitutionality of the law.

The Supreme Court decision has wiped out a legislation which has been widely recognized as one of the main reasons for the overcrowding of Italian prisons. As for the anti-drug norms, as amended by the Court’s ruling, the main change concerns the reintroduced distinction between cannabis and “hard drugs”, with milder penalties for cannabis; the abolition of the “threshold” aimed at distinguishing between personal use and dealing; the decriminalization of drug possession (for personal use), to be punished with milder administrative sanctions (than in the abolished text); easier access to alternative therapeutic measures to incarceration.

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The Italian Supreme Court abolishes the 2006 antidrug legislation

The World Health Organization is developing guidelines on the management of overdoses due to drugs such as heroin and prescription opioids. The preferences of people who might be affected by the guidelines, such a people who use opioids, their friends and families, emergency care services and the health care staff who treat opioid opioid overdose are one factor being considered in the development of these guidelines. If you belong to one of these people we would greatly appreciate your input.

The issues covered by the guidelines include the management of opioid overdose with opioid antagonists such as naloxone - a specific antidote to opioid effects, including whether or not naloxone should be made available to people who are likely to witness an opioid overdose, even if they are not medically trained. Such people could include family members of people who use opioids, close friends, people who use opioids themselves and non medical emergency service workers. The guidelines also cover other aspects of managing an opioid overdose, including resuscitation techniques, and what to do after the person who overdosed has resumed consciousness, including whether or not transfer to hospital is necessary.

The survey will take about 5 minutes to complete.

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

WHO guidelines on the management of opioid overdose: Survey of the preferences of people affected by the guidelines

Le Nazioni unite dovrebbero congelare immediatamente l'assistenza anti-droga al Vietnam, dopo che il Paese ha condannato a morte 30 persone per accuse legate a stupefacenti. È l'appello di tre gruppi impegnati per l'abolizione della pena capitale nel mondo, Harm Reduction International, Reprieve e World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. La loro petizione chiede all'Ufficio delle Nazioni unite contro la droga e il crimine che i finanziamenti al Vietnam siano sospesi.

I fondi, affermano gli attivisti, potrebbero spingere il Paese a decidere altre esecuzioni legate alle droghe. "Le nostre organizzazioni hanno, per molti anni, sollevato preoccupazioni sull'assistenza Onu ai Paesi che continuano ad applicare la pena di morte per accuse di droga", si legge nella lettera inviata al coordinatore Onu in Vietnam e al manager locale dell'Agenzia contro le droghe.

Lo scorso mese in Vietnam 30 persone sono state condannate alla pena capitale per traffico di eroina, il numero più alto in un singolo processo nella storia del Paese. Nel braccio della morte ci sono circa 700 persone, molte delle quali a causa di processi per droga. Lo scorso anno le nazioni europee hanno smesso di finanziare i programmi anti-droga in Iran attraverso l'Onu, a causa dell'esecuzione di sospetti nel Paese.

Tienitiaggiornato congli sviluppi politicidi drogamediante la sottoscrizione diAlertIDPCmensile.

Condanne a morte per droga: basta fondi ONU 

The United Nations should immediately freeze anti-drug assistance to Vietnam after the communist country sentenced 30 people to die for drug-related offenses, three human rights groups working to get countries to abolish the death penalty said Wednesday.

The call from Harm Reduction International, Reprieve and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty cites the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s internal human rights guidance requiring the organization to stop funding for a country if it’s feared that such support may lead to people being executed.

Last month, a court in northern Vietnam sentenced 30 people to death last month for heroin trafficking, the largest number of defendants sentenced to death in a single trial in the country’s court history. The trial of each defendant lasted around a day. There are nearly 700 people on the death row in Vietnam, many of them for drugs.

UN urged to act on Vietnam over death penalty

Lawmakers in Puerto Rico are set to take up debate this year over two separate bills on cannabis policy, one which would decriminalize possession of small amounts of the drug and another which would authorize its use for medicinal purposes. The former actually passed the Senate last year, but has so far failed to make it through the House. Local paper El Nuevo Dia reported last week on the status of the debate, which received a boost from a visit by drug policy reform advocates from the Drug Policy Alliance and Open Society Foundations to a conference hosted by local harm reduction group Intercambios Puerto Rico. In a separate piece published on Sunday, the paper profiled remarks by Intercambios members and drug reformers in the U.S. which highlight the potential economic benefits of relaxing marijuana laws.

Puerto Rico considers cannabis drug-law reform

ITARDD is an Italian network of service providers, drug users, associations and local authorities which promotes harm reduction in Italy. The network issued a letter to the Italian president, the Parliament, the regions, city majors and the Anti-Drugs Policy Department (DPA), requesting a key role for harm reduction in local policies and programmes and urging to change the repressive drug laws in that country.

"The entire care sector for drug users is suffering and harm reduction services are paying the higher price, contrary to European pragmatic and inclusive approaches, where harm reduction plays a key role", the network states.

This letter highlights the little priority given to harm reduction by the Italian government.

Re-inventing harm reduction in Italy: A letter to the President 

A Canadian NGO has installed crack pipe vending machines in the city of Vancouver in a bid to curb the spread of HIV and hepatitis among users.

The polka-dot vending machines are operated by the Portland Hotel Society, a drug treatment centre, and dispense newly packaged crack pipes like snacks for $0.25 (13p).

Canada installs first ever crack-pipe vending machines 

The Organisation Against Drugs (ΟΚΑΝΑ) was established pursuant to Law 2161/93 which was passed unanimously by the Greek Parliament, and has been operational since 1995 as a legal person that is governed by private law and reports to the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity.

Its constituent instrument stipulates that OKANA shall:

plan, promote, coordinate and implement a national policy on prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts.

address the drug problem at a national level, provide valid and documented information, and raise public awareness.

establish and effectively manage prevention centres, treatment units and social and professional reintegration centres.

OKANA has always endeavoured to combine the roles of national coordinator and services and programmes provider in the fields of prevention, treatment and reintegration.

To hammer out and coordinate national drug policies, OKANA works together with national (ministries, treatment programmes, local government authorities, universities etc.), European and international organisations (the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations etc.). To look into the drug problem in Greece, OKANA works closely with the National Documentation and Information Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EKTEPN).

Our pilot program “Sub-project 3: organization and operation of supervised station in Athens for healthcare of active drug users, early intervention in overdose management and preparation for deug dependence treatment programs” operates since January 2013.

Odysseas: The first Greek drug consumption room 

UN Secretary General‘s Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Recently in Moldova visiting government officials, I was invited to visit the prison 15 in Cricovia which houses some 550 inmates.

A 30 minute ride from Chisinau, Moldova's capital, and set amongst gentle hills and vineyards, prison 15 was built by the Soviets in the fifties and is reasonably well kept, despite cracks in the walls. A small orthodox chapel opens up on to its courtyard.

My colleagues and I are greeted by Svetlana, a young and energetic woman who heads the national penitentiary health service. Passing through the iron gate to enter the prison is somewhat uneasy. The guards, wearing large high caps and in military uniform, greet us good morning while trying to work out just what it is that brings these new visitors to their prison.

Outside the temperature is around zero, and some snow still lines the prison's own mini courtyard. I notice t-shirts and towels are suspended to dry on lines hooked between the two-three story buildings surrounding the courtyard.

Is Moldova leading the world on harm reduction in prisons?

In an interview with CNN Friday, President Obama expanded on his remarks regarding marijuana made in a recent New Yorker interview. In that latter interview, Obama described marijuana as not being any worse than alcohol, and CNN interviewer Jake Tapper pressed him on those comments. When Tapper asked him about rescheduling marijuana out of Schedule I, the most restrictive classification, he declined to take a position, instead trying to pass the buck to Congress. "First of all, what is and isn't a Schedule I narcotics is a job for Congress," he said.

That comment was misleading. While Congress created the drug schedules and placed drugs in different schedules when it passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, the act gives the executive branch the power to reschedule drugs. In fact, the DEA has denied three separate petitions seeking to reschedule marijuana. "I stand by my belief based on the scientific evidence that marijuana for casual users, individual users, is subject to abuse, just like alcohol is and should be treated as a public health problem and challenge," he said.

The president added that his main concern was the criminalization of marijuana use.

Obama elaborates on marijuana policy

There are an estimated 16 million injecting drug users (IDUs) in the world - three million of them living with HIV/AIDS. Providing IDUs with clean needle and syringe saves lives. Help us to spread this message by sharing our infograph!

Needle and syringe programs save lives and money: Infograph

The vast majority of incarcerated women in Bolivia are in prison for drug-related offences. Watch here a video produced by Puente, Investigación y Enlace.

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