by Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch, US Program

Nearly every country in the world plays a part—as producer, consumer, or transit point—in the multibillion-dollar illicit drug trade that supplies more than 150 million people every year and keeps on growing.

To combat this trade, many countries over recent decades have launched so-called “wars on drugs” that entail crackdowns on participants large and small in the drug business, including harsh penalties for users.

Human Rights Watch has long documented the widespread human rights abuses resulting from this approach: in the United States, the devastation that disproportionate prison sentences for drug offenses have wrought on individuals and their families and disturbing racial disparities in drug law enforcement; in Mexico, the killings committed in the name of combatting drugs; in Canada, the US, and Russia, how fear of criminal law enforcement deters people who use drugs from accessing necessary health services, exposing them to violence, discrimination, and illness; in Afghanistan and Colombia, how narcotics production has fueled armed groups opposed or allied to the government; in India, Ukraine, and Senegal, how cancer patients suffer severe pain due to drug control regulations that render morphine inaccessible; and in China, Vietnam, and Cambodia, the “drug rehabilitation centers” where people are subjected to torture, forced labor, and sexual abuse.

But there was a growing sense within Human Rights Watch that this approach did not go far enough—that the problem did not lie merely with ill-considered policies or their abusive execution. Rather, the criminalization of drugs itself seemed to be inherently problematic. Especially when it came to personal possession and use, imposing the full force of the criminal justice system to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate appeared contrary to the human rights to privacy and personal autonomy that underlie many rights.

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

The human rights case for drug reform

Il 12 feb­braio arriva davanti alla Corte costi­tu­zio­nale la legge Fini-Giovanardi per molte ecce­zioni di costi­tu­zio­na­lità che sono state sol­le­vate nei mesi e nelle set­ti­mane scorse dai giu­dici di merito e finan­che dalla Corte di Cas­sa­zione. Mar­tedì 21 gen­naio, a Roma (Sala Colonne, via Poli, ore 9,30), nel con­ve­gno pro­mosso da La Società della Ragione sulla «Fini-Giovanardi a giu­di­zio» saranno appro­fon­dite le moti­va­zioni che hanno por­tato la attuale legge anti­droga davanti alla Corte.

Tienitiaggiornato congli sviluppi politicidi drogamediante la sottoscrizione diAlertIDPCmensile.

La costituzionalità della legge Fini-Giovanardi esaminata davanti alla Corte costituzionale

On February 12th, the Italian Constitutional Court will rule about the legitimacy of the 2006 drug legislation. On January 21st, in a seminar of jurists promoted by Forum Droghe, Società della Ragione and other NGOs working in the field of justice and human rights, an appeal was launched by 60 academics from the most important Italian universities to the Supreme Court, drawing attention to the many legal flaws in this piece of legislation.

First and foremost, the 2006 drug legislation was surreptitiously introduced in a single article in a law by decree on a totally different matter (the funding of the 2006 Turin Olympics), so as to prevent the Parliament to discuss and emend the government’s text. Secondly, by upgrading cannabis to Schedule I, with heroine and cocaine, the same penalties were introduced for all drugs, in spite of their different levels of risk. “This is in opposition to the principle of proportionality in penalties – the jurists write- as established in the EU Chart of Fundamental Rights (art.49, c.3) and confirmed in the EU Council Framework Decision 2004/75”.

Finally, the jurists underline the link between the present drug legislation and the crisis of prisons. “Reintroducing a less punitive drug legislation- they claim- would substantially contribute to solve the problem of prison overcrowding, which led the European Court to condemn Italy for the degrading and inhumane living conditions in Italian prisons”.

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

"The Italian drug legislation is blatantly illegitimate": An appeal to the Supreme Court from 60 prominent Italian jurists

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization has adopted a resolution on palliative care that will be useful for palliative care advocates in their home countries to advocate for palliative care.

For the first time, a stand-alone resolution on palliative care was on the agenda of the World Health Organization’s Executive Board. The Board considered a report by the WHO secretariat on palliative care, before adopting the resolution: ‘Strengthening of palliative care as a component of integrated treatment within the continuum of care’ to be referred to the World Health Assembly in May.

The resolution urges countries to integrate palliative care into healthcare systems, to improve training for healthcare workers, and to ensure that relevant medicines, including strong pain medicines, are available to patients. It also urges WHO to increase its technical assistance to member countries on the development of palliative care services.

World Health Organization Executive Board adopts resolution on palliative care

A Georgia-based NGO has launched an online petition it hopes will attract regional support for a greater push by governments to fill the anticipated vacuum that will be left once the Global Fund no longer commits significant financial support to a majority of EECA countries.

The regional initiative spearheaded by the Georgia Union of People Livin with HIV “Real People, Real Vision” group will also include advocacy targeting governments in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, The Russian Federation and Ukraine. The campaign, ‘

Health can be purchased, put the price in the budget’ 

seeks to ensure that government provides stable, quality and free treatment for all people living with HIV.

EECA remains the only region where generalized HIV prevalence is rising, according to a 2012 report from UNAIDS. However, because of a shift in the Global Fund’s approach towards high impact, low income countries, many of the states in the region that are classified by the World Bank as middle-income may see a precipitous drop in the amount of financial support they get from the Fund, from 2015. And while governments have committed to provide funding for treatment and care programming, it is prevention and harm reduction activities, specifically targeting key populations, that are especially vulnerable.

Civil society urges increase in domestic spending on HIV across Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Mainline Foundation in the Netherlands started a project in January 2014 among hard-to-reach groups of people who use non-opioid substances. The main goal of the project is to prevent overdose. In the Netherlands and in Belgium there has been an increase of people who have grown dependent on GHB. This group is not reached by traditional harm reduction services, while they face considerable health risks. Their drug use is not visible in society since they use drugs at home and by themselves. What can be considered an overdose in this case is a grey area between briefly losing consciousness and death. In addition to developing an overdose prevention tool, Mainline uses the project to find creative ways to reach out to new groups of drug users with harm reduction services. The outcomes of the project can therefore be relevant in a broader European context and for people who use non-opioid substances such as Chrystal-Methaphetamine, Mephedrone or New Psychoactive Substances (NPS). The project consists of a study among GHB users, the broad dissemination of the research results, and debates on the way forward.

The Centre for Addiction Studies (CVO) is a partner in the project, along with a number of European organisations. The project is funded by the European Union and the Netherlands Foundation for Mental Health.

Overdose prevention in the Netherlands – A new project by Mainline 

Набор кандидатур для 2014 Red награда ленты в настоящее время открыт. Как и в прошлом, премия отличием и признает исключительную лидерские инициативы в борьбе с эпидемией СПИДа. Номинации принимаются с 1 декабря 2013 до 31 января 2014 года.

Десять общественных организаций будут выбраны посредством процесса сообщества под руководством и пригласил принять участие в XX Международной конференции по СПИДу в Мельбурне, Австралия с 20 по 25 июля 2014, где они будут иметь возможность продемонстрировать свою работу. Все десять организации получат US $ 10 000 каждый.

Щелкните здесь, чтобы получить более подробную информацию.

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

2014 Красная награда ленты

The call for nominations for the 2014 Red Ribbon Award is now open. As in the past, the award honors and recognizes exceptional grassroots leadership in responding to the AIDS epidemic. Nominations are accepted from 1 December 2013 until 31 January 2014.

Ten community-based organizations will be selected through a community-led process and invited to attend the XX International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia from 20 to 25 July 2014 where they will have the opportunity to showcase their work. All ten organizations will receive US$10,000 each.

2014 Red Ribbon Award

“Opioid substitution treatment in prison” 

have been launched in the framework of the CARE project. The modules will run between the end of March and mid-May 2014.

All information about the training, its content and structure and required timeframe are available here.

The harm reduction course is primarily addressed to professionals in health and social services working either within the prison or outside. They may be employed as civil servants within state agencies or in NGOs. The opiate substitution therapy in prisons training wants to support prison doctors, contracted doctors, prison health care workers, prison administration, NGOs and others in delivering or supporting substitution treatment. Preference will be given to participants from European Union and neighbouring countries.

Colleagues interested in taking part in the training, should fill in the attached registration form and send it back to Ms. Cinzia Brentari before the 9 March.

, so the only expectation from trainees is a sufficient knowledge of English, as well as a specific interest and possibly some expertise on drugs, infections and the prison setting.

Please advertise this opportunity widely among your contacts and colleagues at the prison administration and other health and social care structures in your area and through your website and newsletters.

For any further information please contact Ms. Cinzia Brentari.

Project CARE: e-learning course on Harm Reduction in Prisons and OST in Prisons

Ask any female inmate in Latin America how they ended up in prison and there’s a good chance they will reply “drugs”. That’s what most women at Colombia’s largest women's jail in Bogota, known as the Good Shepherd prison, told me when I visited the jail in 2011 and 2013 to see the prison’s annual beauty pageant and interview women who live with their children behind bars.

“Drug dealing seemed the only way out of my money problems at the time,” Sandra Martinez, told me last September, as a toddler chasing a balloon ran across the prison courtyard.

“It's one of those mistakes in life that I’m paying a very high price for," the 23 year old said.

Women imprisoned for drug-related offenses, like Martinez, are behind the surge in the numbers of women in Latin America's overcrowded jails.

Between 2006 and 2011, the region’s female prison population almost doubled – rising from 40,000 to more than 74,000 inmates - according to figures cited by the Open Society Global Drug Policy Programme.

While rights groups say more research is needed, it’s a trend that began in the 1990s following the introduction across most of Latin America of stiffer laws for drug offenses, which have affected women more than men.

Why is there a rise of women behind bars in Latin America?

For the past two years, NGO 4 Life has led an intensive public campaign to enable the same rights to women dependent on drugs as those enjoyed by men, for which there is a Center for rehabilitation and re-socialization. For this purpose, in two occasions we have called on ministers in charge, as well as the previous and current Prime Minister, to resolve this issue as soon as possible. We also informed the representatives of the Embassy of Montenegro, the EU Delegation in Montenegro and other relevant stakeholders in our country who are dealing with the protection of human rights, and at the same time ran a strong media campaign.

The municipality of Podgorica, the Union of Municipalities, the Municipality of Tivat, the Municipality of Niksic and NGO 4 Life then worked in partnership to apply for funding to IPA in order to build a rehabilitation and re-socialization center for women dependent on drugs in Montenegro. The project was approved and the construction of the center will begin in January 2014, next to the institution for the treatment of men dependent on drugs “Kakaricka gora” in Podgorica.

NGO 4 Life appreciate their partnership with the city, which has been helpful in giving prominence to, and making efforts towards resolving, the issue. The representatives of Podgorica also participated in the writing of the project proposal, and provided logistical and technical support to ensure that the project could be fully implemented.

Centre for rehabilitation and social reintegration of women dependent on drugs to open in Montenegro

Drug courts are promoted as a more humane alternative to incarceration for people who use drugs in the United States. But in our recent study, we found judges in New York were ordering patients to stop treatment with methadone or buprenorphine as a condition of participation in, or graduation from the drug court. This practice is unjust, ungrounded in medical evidence, and bad for patients and the public.

Methadone and buprenorphine are medicines prescribed to reduce cravings for and injection of heroin and other opioids. Medical evidence on opioid dependency shows that relapse to opioid use is generally the rule, rather than the exception, when people who are dependent on opioids stop taking them. This is especially true when they stop abruptly.

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