On December, 18th 2013, Rumah Cemara in collaboration with AFEW and HRI organized a round table meeting in Jakarta for 14 national stakeholders and organisations that work in a penal system to see the possibility of developing/scaling up harm reduction programme in prisons, particularly Needle and Syringe programme for prisoners who inject drugs.

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

NSP pilot in prisons discussed in Jakarta

Опиоидные передозировки по-прежнему убивают молодых людей по всему миру. В некоторых странах от передозировок стало погибать больше людей, чем от огнестрельного оружия, убийств или ВИЧ/СПИДа.

И мало кто знает, что большинство этих смертей могло бы быть попросту предотвращено при помощи правильной информации и недорогого антидота под названием налоксон, способного останавливать передозировку. Четырёхминутный мультфильм Венгерского союза гражданских свобод (HCLU) пошагово показывает, как можно спасти человеческую жизнь: рассказывает о снижении риска передозировки, о её признаках и симптомах и о том, какие действия предпринять, если у кого-то рядом случилась опиоидная передозировка. Этот ролик полезен не только для людей, употребляющих наркотики, но и для их родственников, друзей и тех, кто профессионально оказывает помощь наркопотребителям. Пожалуйста помогите нам распространить эту информацию, ставьте лайки, делайте перепосты, чтобы этот фильм увидело как можно больше людей!

Полный текст документа находится здесь.

Оставайтесь в курсе событий политики в отношении наркотиков, подписавшись на IDPC Ежемесячные Alert.

Профилактика передозировок: анимированное руководство

Opioid overdose continues to be a top killer of young people all over the world. In some countries, drug overdose deaths now outnumber those attributable to firearms, homicides or HIV/AIDS. Few people realise that most of these deaths are easily preventable with the right information, and an inexpensive antidote, Naloxone, which can reverse overdoses.

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

Bunny and wolf: An animated guide to prevent overdose deaths

Health stakeholders attending the 17th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) commended Tanzania for its decision to adopt methadone maintenance programme dubbed ‘Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT)’, saying the efforts are constructive in the reduction of HIV among people who inject drugs (PWID).

MAT was initially launched at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) in 2011, making it the first clinic in Sub-Saharan Africa mainland offering this treatment. The programme focuses on connecting people who inject drugs to a comprehensive health package of methadone and other care and treatment services.

Tanzania leads in addressing HIV/AIDs issues in Africa

A few privately funded studies of these compounds have yielded tantalizing hints that some of these ideas merit consideration. Yet doing this research through standard channels, as psychopharmacologist David J. Nutt of Imperial College London and his co-authors noted in a recent article in 

, requires traversing a daunting bureaucratic labyrinth that can dissuade even the most committed investigator. (

 is part of Nature Publishing Group.) It can take years to receive approval for a clinical trial from both regulators and hospital ethics committees, even while tallying thousands of dollars in licensing fees and tens of thousands to obtain drugs that are, of course, unavailable from a chemical supply catalogue.

End the ban on psychoactive drug research 

José Mujica has attempted to change the premises and conditions of the drugs wars through the legalisation of marijuana. Although even the people of Uruguay don’t really back their president’s initial reform, at least it’s a start.

When I travelled across Mexico, pictures of the missing were everywhere in the streets, like dystopian corporate advertising. Human Rights Watch says that more than 60,000 people have died in the drug war launched in 2006 by former president Felipe Calderón; the US pours money and arms into Mexico to suppress the drug trade, while rival drug gangs battle for control of supply routes. As Charles Bowden wrote, there is a war on drugs, and there is a war 

Uruguay surrenders to win

Legislation Will Reduce Number One Cause of Accidental Death in New York State by Increasing Access to Antidote, Naloxone

Bill Builds on Historic 911 Good Samaritan Law that Passed Nearly Unanimously in Both Houses

This week Senator Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau) and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx) introduced an opioid overdose prevention bill (S.6744/A.8637), legislation that would help prevent accidental opioid overdoses and save the lives of thousands of New Yorkers by expanding access to the opioid antidote naloxone. More than 2,000 New Yorkers die each year from opioid overdose, with heroin and prescription pain medications involved in most of those deaths. Naloxone, if administered during an overdose, effectively and safely reverses the overdose and saves lives. In fact, a 2010 CDC report credits overdose education and naloxone distribution programs with more than 10,000 documented overdose reversals since 1996.

Opioid overdose prevention bill introduced in New York

Colombia is one year into peace negotiations with the country’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (

Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, 

FARC). After reaching tentative agreements on the land and political participation agenda points, the parties are currently negotiating the issue of illicit drugs.

This WOLA article outlines 11 elements of a more effective and humane approach to drug policy. The first six propose immediate changes that can be agreed at the negotiating table with the FARC. The next five ideas take advantage of the peace talks as a springboard to commence a broader discussion on drug policy reform. Both at the negotiating table in Havana and in Bogota, policies must prioritize alternative development over forced eradication, public health over criminal prosecution, and the protection of human rights above all else.

Peace, drug policy, and an inclusive society

Twenty-three local mayors have drawn up plans to authorise and regulate the production of cannabis in the Netherlands.

The manifesto aims to resolve a long-standing anomaly in Dutch drugs policy. Small amounts of soft drugs can be purchased by individuals in licensed coffeeshops, but the wholesale trade remains illegal and criminals run the supply chain.

Municipal politicians say the current approach is “hamfisted” and are stepping up pressure on the justice department to allow them to license legal suppliers. Some councils have even contemplated cultivating cannabis themselves.

They say the current system is unworkable, dangerous and a burden on the criminal justice system. A quarter of all urban fires in the Netherlands are estimated to be “hemp related”.

Dutch town halls demand powers to decriminalise cannabis production

Self-defense forces in Michoacan, Mexico have signed an agreement with federal and regional authorities, a move that raises the specter of the paramilitary death squads in Colombia, Guatemala and Peru that flourished with state collaboration.

The eight-point agreement, signed by 30 vigilante leaders on January 27, stipulates that the self-defense forces will be incorporated into Rural Defense Units and will work to assist municipal security forces, reported Animal Politico. It also states that vigilantes must provide a list of their members and register all arms currently in their possession.

Additionally, it requires the Michoacan Commission for Security and Integral Development -- a body recently set up by President Enrique Peña Nieto to coordinate security efforts in the region -- to work closely with municipal governments and provide any needed assistance.

Alfredo Castillo, the federal commissioner for security and development, called the measure "a powerful step towards ensuring that security and development strategies see results," reported Milenio.

Earlier the same day, security forces arrested Dionisio Loya Plancarte, the alleged second-in-command of the Knights Templar criminal organization, in Morelia, Michoacan, reported Milenio. Plancarte has been linked with the murder of federal police officers and is thought to be responsible for drug trafficking operations in Morelia.

Mexico vigilante legalisation raises paramilitary concerns

Groups battling one of the world’s worst HIV/AIDS epidemics say their task may get “catastrophically” harder following the introduction of controversial laws in Ukraine in response to months of anti-government protests. Among legislation introduced this week – dubbed a “charter for oppression” by some international rights groups – is a new law forcing NGOs that receive foreign funding to register as “foreign agents” or face hefty fines and closure.

For many years Ukraine has had one of the world’s fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemics.
Copied almost exactly from similar legislation introduced recently in Russia, the law not only puts a label with derogatory Cold War connotations on civil society groups, but, crucially for many, also forces them to pay tax on foreign income.

For organisations in the front line of response to the country’s raging HIV/AIDS epidemic, this could spell disaster.

Pavel Skala, a senior policy manager at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine, the largest NGO in the country working on tackling the disease, told IPS: “The new law will be catastrophic for local NGOs, making things harder for organisations working with HIV/AIDS sufferers and providing harm reduction services. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine would only get worse.”

For many years Ukraine has had one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV/AIDS epidemics, according to United Nations figures, and currently has the highest rate of HIV infection in Europe.

Ukraine crackdown hits fight against AIDS

2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the identification of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). HCV infection continues to be a major global health problem. Unlike many chronic diseases, hepatitis C can be cured, but it is difficult to treat, not all patients are responsive, side-effects can be severe, and progression to end-stage liver disease and liver cancer is common.

Over the past few years, new medicines for HCV infection have begun to transform the treatment landscape, and, just in the past few months alone, the development of new regimens has been so successful that disease experts are heralding an era where all patients can be cured, even debating whether eradication is possible.

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