By Brun González – Youth RISE IWG, Espolea Harm Reduction Program Coordinator

Harm reduction started as a response to the AIDS epidemic and the undeniable link it showed with a drug use through specific methods of consumption, and within a few specific populations (mainly heroin used intravenously and within people who use drugs, sex workers and men who have sex with men). This is why the strongest pillars of harm reduction services, practices and recommendations around the world focus mainly on condom distribution, opiate substitution treatment (methadone or buprenorphine) and needle and syringe exchange programs.

Although each of these areas of work are very important and to some extent go beyond their initial goals, for example condoms are useful to all people other than just heroin users or sex workers, and syringes and needles can be used to inject other drugs and not just heroin or opiates. However, many aspects of harm reduction ignore the majority of people who use drugs and who could really benefit from a harm reduction perspective for their own drug using situation and the impacts it has on their life.

These kind of harm reduction interventions include, besides the condoms and maybe sometimes the possibility to access clean and sterile injecting equipment, practical, friendly and objective information regarding different substances, both new and old, that are usually consumed via methods other than injecting.

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The importance of broadening harm reduction for non-injecting drug users

As President Obama prepares to sit down for meetings with President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico and other fellow elected leaders from the Americas at the Summit of the Central American Integration System (SICA) in Costa Rica, over 145 civil society organizations from 10 countries throughout the Americas, including the Latin America Working Group, sent a letter to their respective presidents urging them to address their concerns regarding the dire human rights crisis in the region.

Citing an increase in violence and human rights violations, the letter calls for a shift away from the failed militarized security policies which have exacerbated violence and human rights concerns in the region towards policies that address the root causes of violence...

A common practice throughout Latin America has been the use of the armed forces for citizen security tasks, a practice justified as necessary to combat organized crime and drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). However, the undersigned organizations call for a shift away from such policies that promote an inappropriate role for the military in the region, including those supported by the U.S., noting that these policies have played a harmful role and contributed to an increase in human rights abuses perpetrated by security forces.

Over 140 groups call on Obama and Mesoamerican leaders to tackle root causes of violence at SICA

Former President Olusegun Obansanjo of Nigeria and Chairman of WACD, said that “discussions with the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Republic of Ghana and law enforcement agencies confirmed a regional reality that many drug users and small traffickers end up in jail with harsh sentences while the “big fish” often escape arrest and prosecution” at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday,

He added that said consultations with the Ghanaian Financial Intelligence Centre indicated that while Ghana has put in place appropriate institutional and regulatory framework, there is still a great concern that drug money is being laundered.

The WACD delegation to Ghana led by Mr Justice Bankole Thompson of Sierra Leone, met representatives of the civil society, the international community and health experts to discuss the impact of drug trafficking and consumption on governance, security and public health in Ghana and West Africa.

West Africa Commission on Drugs: 'Drugs users need help, not prison'

For the past seven years, Mexico and the United States have put aside their tension-filled history on security matters to forge an unparalleled alliance against Mexico’s drug cartels, one based on sharing sensitive intelligence, U.S. training and joint operational planning.

The December inauguration of President Enrique Peña Nieto brought the nationalistic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) back to power after 13 years, and with it a whiff of resentment over the deep U.S. involvement in Mexico’s fight against narco-traffickers. The new administration has shifted priorities away from the U.S.-backed strategy of arresting kingpins, which sparked an unprecedented level of violence among the cartels, and toward an emphasis on prevention and keeping Mexico’s streets safe and calm, Mexican authorities said.

Interviews with more than four dozen current and former U.S. and Mexican diplomats, law enforcement agents, military officers and intelligence officials — most of whom agreed to speak about sensitive matters only on condition of anonymity — paint the most detailed public portrait to date of how the two countries grew so close after so many years of distance and distrust, and what is at stake should the alliance be scaled back.

U.S. role at a crossroads in Mexico’s intelligence war on the cartels

Police ethnic profiling involves singling out people for checks because of their race, ethnicity, or religion. Ethnic profiling is unfair and discriminatory. It is also an inefficient way of fighting crime. We are working with communities to document the problem and working with police to find solutions.

Prejudice in policing

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) elected Professor Sri Suryawati (Indonesia) as a member of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

The election by secret ballot was held at the organizational session of ECOSOC in New York on 25 April 2013 to fill the vacancy for the remaining period of the five year term of Professor Hamid Ghodse, member of the Board, who passed away on 27 December 2012.

In line with the provisions of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, Professor Suryawati was elected from among three candidates nominated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to fill the remainder of the term until 1 March 2017.

Sri Suryawati (Indonesia) elected as member of the INCB

With the help of Viva Rio, the Brazilian Commission on Drugs and Democracy and a set of partner organizations, seven ministers of justice that served under the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Fernando Henrique Cardoso governments signed a manifest attesting the unconstitutionality of the criminalization of the penal repression of drug possession for personal use. The document was presented last Thursday, April 16th, by the ex-minister of Justice José Gregori to the minister of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Gilmar Mendes.

Gregori said that these ministers were dissatisfied with the drug policies in effect during their administrations and that Brazil is now ready to discuss the issue. “The fact that criminal statistics are so high shows that we have to reevaluate certain policies, such as drug laws, which are without a doubt violence sensitive”.

This event marks an important step in the future drug law changes that our campaign and organization hopes to see implemented in Brazil. Moreover, revealing the impact and success of the proposal, media outlets widely published articles claiming the importance and positive repercussion of the manifest.

The manifest that the seven ex-ministers presented to the minister of the Supreme Federal Court is available below.

Manifest presented to Brazil's minister of the Supreme Federal Court

By R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

The president has outlined his vision of an America built to last -- where an educated, skilled workforce has the knowledge, energy and expertise to compete in the global marketplace. Yet -- for far too many Americans -- that vision is limited by drug use, which not only diminishes the potential of the individual, but jeopardizes families, communities and neighborhoods.

The economic costs of drug use are enormous: In 2007 alone, illicit drug use cost taxpayers more than $193 billion in lost productivity, healthcare, and criminal justice costs. But the human costs are worse. Nationwide, drug-induced overdose deaths now surpass homicides and car crashes as the leading cause of injury death in America.

Drug policy reform in USA in Action: A 21st century approach 

Several cities in Canada are planning for the implementation of safer consumption services in their communities. That was the conclusion of the speakers at a lively event on feasibility of scaling up supervised consumption services in Canada held at the recent Canadian Association of HIV Care (CAHR) conference in Vancouver.

Sponsored by the Dr. Peter Centre, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, this half-day workshop brought together speakers from Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to discuss their plans for the scale up of these services across the country. This work builds on the two existing sites in Canada: Insite and the Dr. Peter Centre, both in Vancouver, BC.

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Safer consumption services – Plans are underway for more than two

In early April, the BC Provincial Health Officer released a report that warns that recent changes to sentencing and other justice practices brought about by the enactment of the Canadian Safe Streets and Communities Act (SSCA) will have very negative effects on the health of Aboriginal people – changes brought about by the SSCA like mandatory minimum sentences will put more Aboriginal people in prison.

This report also notes that the SSCA appears to conflict with other federal programs aimed at reducing prison time, specifically section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code, which requires sentencing judges to consider all options other than incarceration.

The imposition of mandatory minimum sentences flies in the face of evidence of their ineffectiveness. Convicting people of drug-related offences does not reduce the problems associated with drug use, nor do these sentences deter crime.

Aboriginal people in Canada will bear the brunt of Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Drug Crimes

72% of respondents in a recent poll say the US Federal Government’s Efforts Against Marijuana "Cost More Than They are Worth". For the first time in more than four decades of polling by the Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans supports the legal regulation of marijuana.

According to the nationwide poll of 1,500 Americans, 52% back marijuana legalization, reflecting majorities of Democrats, independents and liberal and moderate Republicans almost uniformly across every region of the country. Majorities of Americans no longer consider marijuana consumption immoral, nor do they consider marijuana to represent a “gateway” to other illicit substances.

Breakthrough pew poll: Marijuana legalization wins majority support nationwide

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse in conjunction with the National Advisory Council on Prescription Drug Misuse recently released a strategy on prescription drug misuse that calls for action to address the increasing harms associated with prescription medication use.

The strategy focuses on opioids, sedative-hypnotics (i.e. diazepam) and stimulants and makes a series of recommendations to government to ameliorate the harms of these substances.

The strategy also attempts to address the harms of prescription drug use while acknowledging their beneficial medical purposes especially for the relief of pain. The strategy includes 58 recommendations focused on prevention, treatment, education, monitoring and surveillance (data collection).

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