This film gives you an insight on how the state of Colorado regulates the recreational use of cannabis.

The International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Denver provided us an excellent opportunity to make a film about the new marijuana regulation in Colorado. The law, passed by a ballot initiative last year, makes the recreational use of marijuana legal. But who can cultivate cannabis and who can open a legal store to sell it? How much tax revenue marijuana will generate? What can we expect from the federal government? We interviewed activists to find the answers to all those questions. Please watch and share our film!

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

A mile high in Denver: How Colorado legalised marijuana

L’estensione delle superfici coltivate ad oppio e’ passata da 154.000 ettari del 2012 a 209.000 ettari nel 2013 (+36%), superando il vecchio record del 2007, indica il rapporto dell’UNODC. L’Afghanistan e’ il primo Paese per la coltivazione di papavero, da cui si produce oppio ed eroina. Di conseguenza, la produzione di oppio, da cui e’ derivata l’eroina, si e’ attestata sulle 5.500 tonnellate nel 2013 (+49% rispetto al 2012), riporta il documento redatto congiuntamente dai servizi dell’Onu e l’amministrazione afghana.

Il rapporto sottolinea inoltre che la produzione di oppio avrebbe potuto essere ancora maggiore, se non ci fossero state “condizioni metereologiche sfavorevoli, in particolare nelle regioni del sud e dell’ovest”, vero e proprio granaio di oppio del Paese. L’Afghanistan ha soddisfatto l’anno scorso il 75% della domanda mondiale, una cifra che quest’anno potrebbe passare al 90%, secondo Jean-Luc Lemahieu, rappresentante regionale dell’Unod.

I coltivatori potrebbero aver fatto crescere la produzione di oppio “per preservare i loro averi di fronte alle prospettive di un futuro incerto che potrebbe derivare dal ritiro, l'anno prossimo, delle truppe internazionali”. Le Nazioni Unite temono che il prodotto di questo commercio finisca nelle mani dei “signori della guerra” nel momento in cui le forze internazionali lasciano il Paese. “L’economia clandestina si installa e sembra prendere il sopravvento su quella legale”.

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Tienitiaggiornato congli sviluppi politicidi drogamediante la sottoscrizione diAlertIDPCmensile.

Il 2013 anno record in Afghanistan nella produzione d'oppio

The Drugs, Security and Democracy (DSD) fellowship program supports research on drugs, citizen security and democratic governance, with a goal of producing evidence-based knowledge and influencing drug policy. The fellowship seeks to develop a concentration of researchers who are interested in policy-relevant outcomes and membership in a global interdisciplinary network.

DSD funded research must address the primary theme of drugs in relation to security and/or democracy in Latin America or the Caribbean. These topics may include, but are not limited to, the following issues and areas of study: the relationship of drugs to crime and violence, the impact of drug policy innovations (decriminalization, etc.), and the impact of drug markets on public health and human rights. Proposals must demonstrate the potential of the research to contribute to a sound and credible knowledge base for informed advocacy and decision making for drug policy. Projects that do not have a primary focus on the theme of drugs will be eliminated from the competiton.

The program encourages interdisciplinary and comparative projects and those that address transnational and trans-regional issues. We encourage research in or about countries or themes that have been underrepresented in the program’s previously funded projects. Please click here for a list of previously funded projects.

Applications are welcome from PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers conducting research that addresses the primary theme of drugs in relation to security and/or democracy in Latin America or the Caribbean. Eligible applicants will fall into one of the following two categories:

Dissertation Fellowship: This competition is open to PhD and JSD candidates worldwide who have an approved dissertation prospectus by July 1, 2014, but have not completed writing for final submission.

Postdoctoral Fellowship: The competition is open to PhD and JSD recipients worldwide who have completed their PhD within 7 years of the application deadline (on or after January 20, 2007).

If you are proposing to conduct research in a non-native language, you should provide evidence of the necessary proficiency to carry out the project.

The program strongly encourages citizens and residents of Latin America and the Caribbean to apply.

Open for applications, next deadline is January 20th 2014. Apply Now!

Click here to read more information and to apply.

Drugs, Security and Democracy Fellowship 2014: Now accepting applications.

Rio de Janeiro’s Pacification Police Units (UPP) are celebrating their fifth year in 2013. They do so with generally positive approval ratings from the media and society as a whole. A recent study by Instituto Data Favela indicates that 75% of favelas inhabitants approve of the UPPs. Notwithstanding major crises and criticism, the UPP constitute the single most important public security initiative in the state. And yet the persistent informality of the UPP may eventually undermine its sustainability.

Since their inception, the UPP have enabled an unprecedented reclamation of territory in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Many of the areas where the 34 UPPs were installed had once been dominated by heavily armed criminal groups. According to the Secretaria de Estado de Segurança Pública do Rio de Janeiro – SESEG (Rio de Janeiro State Public Security Department), there are 34 UPPs today, with some 8,591 officers, covering approximately 231 communities. Citizens who were terrorized by a war-like environment now experience a more normalized and stable routine. Many residents have the necessary confidence required to live more productive lives.

Favela inhabitants in Brazil approve the UPPs, according to new study

For a long time, harm reduction has been largely perceived as a reaction to the HIV epidemic among injecting drug users. But drug use can cause other harms, besides blood-borne infections, and pragmatic, humane methods exist to prevent these harms as well. One of these harms is becoming more and more alarming, especially in the US: drug overdose. There are 100 overdose deaths in the US every day, with more people dying from an overdose than in car accidents.

As a harm-reduction activist put it, overdose is the new AIDS. This means that just as the HIV/AIDS epidemic catalysed public support for harm reduction in the early 90s, the growing rate of overdose deaths can play a similar role in our decade. It is not only the unprecedented high level of overdose deaths that makes the headlines, but the fact that most of these fatalities are caused by prescription opiates and not illegal drugs. Consequently, the majority of victims are not street heroin users but middle-class young people. It is unfortunate that the media values the lives of these people more, but at the same time, it helps to bring the issue of overdose prevention into the mainstream. We interviewed several harm reduction professionals in the US about drug overdose deaths, and ways to prevent them. Watch the HCLE video and learn more!

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

How to prevent prescription drug overdose deaths?: A movie by HCLU

Black and Asian people are still far more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police in England and Wales, a report has said.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said in some areas black people were 29 times more likely to be stopped and searched.

Overall, black people were six times as likely as white people to be stopped.

The commission said the disproportion between different ethnic groups remained "stubbornly high".

The EHRC's report for 2011-12 did not include stops carried out under anti-terrorism laws.

The majority of stop-and-searches in England and Wales are conducted under Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Pace).

The figure for these searches fell to 1,137,551 in 2011-12 from 1,222,378 the previous year.

Those from Asian or other ethnic minority groups were twice as likely to be stopped as white people.

Stop and search used 'disproportionately' on black and Asian people in the UK

The European Drug Prevention Quality Standards (‘Prevention Standards’) represent the work of the European Prevention Standards Partnership, working in close co-operation with the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). The aim of this work is to provide guidance and support to those working in the European drug prevention community and to promote awareness and application of high quality policy and practice.

Phase I of this work was completed in 2010 under the project name “European standards in evidence for drug prevention”. The resulting Prevention Standards were published by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in 2011.

Phase II entitled “Promoting Excellence in Drug Prevention in the EU – Phase II of the European Drug Prevention Quality Standards Project” began in April 2013 and is a

 of the Partnership that will report in May 2015. The project is co-funded by the European Union under the European Commission’s DG Justice “Drug Prevention and Information Programme” (DPIP).

European Drug Prevention Quality Standards Project: Phase II

European officials should rethink proposals to seize power from the individual countries like the United Kingdom to regulate and ban legal highs, peers have warned.

The House of Lords home affairs, health and education EU sub-committee said decisions to ban new psychoactive substances should be decided by individual states rather than at a European Union-wide level.

The move aims to help the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction as well as Europol's attempts to fight drug trafficking by establishing common definitions of legal highs across the European Union and better share information.

Committee chair Lord Hannay of Chiswick said: "We share the Commission’s concerns about the risks posed to public health by new psychoactive substances and consider that the EU has an important role to play in helping to tackle the creation, availability and use of new psychoactive substances.

Click here to read here the full article.

Click here to read related information: European Commission takes decisive action on legal highs

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

Legal highs should be regulated in Britain, not Brussels, says UK House of Lords 

Todos os anos, milhares de pessoas em todo o mundo morrem de causas relacionadas com as drogas e a violência que podem ser evitadas. Milhões de usuários são presos e jogados na prisão. Comunidades inteiras são arruinadas pelos crimes relacionados às drogas. Cidadãos veem quantias gigantescas provenientes dos seus impostos gastas em políticas repressivas que não estão funcionando.

Mas, apesar das evidências claras do fracasso, existe uma relutância nefasta em todo o mundo em considerar uma nova abordagem em relação à política de drogas. A Comissão Global de Política sobre Drogas está determinada a ajudar a quebrar este tabu secular. Redigido com base no trabalho da Comissão Latino-Americana sobre Drogas e Democracia, nosso primeiro relatório – 

 – demonstrou como as abordagens repressivas para conter as drogas falharam.

Pedimos que os governos adotem formas mais humanas e eficazes de controle e de regulação das drogas. Recomendamos que a criminalização do uso de drogas seja substituído por uma abordagem de saúde pública. Também apelamos aos países para testar de maneira cuidadosa modelos de regulação legal como um meio de enfraquecer o poder do crime organizado, que prospera com o tráfico de drogas.

Por outro lado, existem algumas evidências de mudanças. Governantes da Colômbia, Guatemala, México e Uruguai assumiram a liderança no sentido de iniciar reformas nas políticas de drogas em seus próprios países. Estes esforços têm tido repercussões em todo a região. Em 2013, a Organização dos Estados Americanos (OEA) publicou um relatório propondo formas alternativas de regulação das drogas.

Registe-se para recever as Alertas mensais do IDPC e obter informação sobre questões relacionadas com as políticas de drogas.

Kofi Annan e Fernando Henrique Cardoso: Pelo fim da guerra às drogas

This video (English subtitles available) by Healthy Options Project Skopje (HOPS) portraits some experiences on drug dependence treatment programmes among young people in Macedonia and Vienna.

Drug dependence treatment among minors in Macedonia and Vienna

The HIV/AIDS section of the UNODC, in collaboration with partners, is preparing a background technical document and a policy brief on HIV/AIDS and the right to health of children deprived of their liberty.

Since the topic has been largely neglected in the past, and there is a lack of data and sources as a result, UNODC is looking for information on:

Data on childrendeprived of their liberty (population size and

characteristics, types of offences, HIV situation, risk and high risk

behaviors, drug use, and HIV infection rates)

Information on the availability of core harm reduction interventions and

Information on legal, political and operational challenges

The aim of UNODC is to produce a first draft by November 22, so please send your contributions before 13 November to Fabienne Hariga (fabienne.hariga@unodc.org) or Marlies Dachler (marlies.dachler@unodc.org).

Call for data: HIV/AIDS and the right to health of children deprived of their liberty

On the 7th – 8th November 2013, the Global Fund’s Board will consider revisions to the Eligibility, Counterpart Financing and Prioritization Policy (ECFP), based upon recommendations from its Strategy Impact and Investment Committee (SIIC). While some of these recommendations are positive; others, if adopted without changes, would have negative consequences for middle-income countries (MICs) and particularly regions with MICs such as Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

We – the organizations representing civil society and including communities of people living with these diseases, i.e. key affected populations from different countries and regions - are deeply concerned about these recommendations and would like to share with Global Fund Board members our position on several critical issues that should be considered by the Board during its deliberations.

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