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.

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

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.

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

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).

Release of unauthorised prescription opioid use strategy in Canada

In the U.S. a slew of recent bills have been introduced or laws have been passed that improve access to naloxone. Naloxone is a safe, highly effective chemical compound that reverses the effects of opiates such as heroin. The US FDA first approved it in 1971. Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that blocks the brain cell receptors activated by heroin and other opioids, temporarily restoring normal breathing within two to three minutes of administration.

Naloxone works by taking up opioid receptor sites in the brain; it has a higher affinity for the opioid receptor sites and stays bound longer than the opioid activators that bind and release rapidly. It “tricks” the brain into thinking there are no opiates in the body. If someone is overdosing on an opiate, administering naloxone can speed up their breathing and temporarily bring them out of an overdose. Currently 8 states have naloxone access laws including Washington, California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Illinois, and Rhode Island and bills are pending in Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia.

Good Samaritan overdose prevention laws map

TS Hub Kiev provides technical support to AIDS Care China (a new country partner of CAHR project in China) on development of Peer Driven Intervention (PDI). This specially designed outreach model helps to target the hardest to reach groups of people who use drugs and employs peer education concept to raise clients’ awareness about the risks and harms of drug use.

As a first step in developing the intervention, Lu Liu and Qiu Feng (AIDS Care China) together with Pavlo Smyrnov and Oksana Matiyash (TS Hub Kiev) delivered a workshop for 14 representatives from partner organisations of AIDS Care China.

Peer Driven Intervention will be implemented in four sites: Ruili, Xindu, Jiuni and Jiegao. PDI projects are expected to establish a link between underserved active people who inject drugs and harm reduction services available in local sites.

Developing peer driven intervention to prevent HIV among people who inject drugs in China

With a large and attentive audience, the launch of Intercambios’ new publication took place, “Working practices on drugs. From action to reflection … and back”,by Paula Goltzman and Eva Amorín. The appointment was at the Classroom Meyer Dubrovsky, Cultural Center of Cooperation “Floreal Gorini” in the City of Buenos Aires, and had the participations of Ignacio O ‘Donnell, Undersecretary of Prevention and Assistance SEDRONAR, Graciela Zaldúa, Consultant Professor of the University of Buenos Aires, and Aldana Herrera Director of Children and Youth Policies of the Municipality of Morón. They discussed the publication to the audience, to then give way to the words of the authors Paula Goltzman and Eva Amorín.

Edited by Intercambios with the support of the Levi Strauss Foundation, this publication retrieves working strategies used by different teams that address problematic drug use; in order to lead from the action to its reflection, and from there, as social praxis, go back to an action transformed by reflection.

Launch of the book "Working practices on drugs"

The technical report entrusted last year by the presidents to the agency is ready and would be presented in Colombia on May 20. In addition, the Drugs issue will be the main topic in the General Assembly to be held in June in Guatemala, one of the countries that has promoted a new approach on the subject

The debate on a new strategy to address the drugs issue which has for years been promoting activists, specialists, health workers, users and civil society organizations, has finally reached the governmental level. For this reason, during the last Summit of the Americas, regional presidents instructed the Organization of American States (OAS) to develop a hemispheric study on Drugs.

Work started immediately and, in late February, was held in Panama the second consultation on new alternative scenarios to address the drug problem. Once completed, both the analytic report and the scenarios report, were delivered to Secretary General of the OAS and would be submitted in Bogotá, Colombia, on 20 May.



According to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos,

 "This report will be another valuable contribution to understand more precisely what we are facing and how we can adjust our approach to achieve better results in this fight." 

"it is time to rethink our strategies" and "examine how we can continue our work in a more rational and efficient way."

"it is not only a study for American countries. At the CELAC and the European Union Summit, held in Chile last January, I called on European countries to join us in considering the results of this study and to agree on taking actions that guarantee the success of the Special Session that the United Nations is planning for 2016."

From 6 to 8 June Guatemala will host the OAS General Assembly, which will include all the foreign ministers of the continent. According to the Foreign Minister of the host country, Luis Fernando Carrera, is expected to achieve a 

that turns around the approaches to address the drug problem

 "alternative strategies to fight drugs."

 Carrera said the intention is to pass five subtopics: 

"Strengthening the public health systems in prevention of drug consumption and addiction; reducing homicides and drug-related crimes; promoting local economic development and the legalization of crops; reducing arms trafficking and money laundering, and decriminalizing of consumption to reduce the prison population."

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Governments in Latinamerica analyze a change in drug policies

This week the Prison Governors Association became the latest organisation to sign up in support of an international initiative that calls upon the government to 

“quantify the unintended negative consequences of the current approach to drugs, and assess the potential costs and benefits of alternative approaches”.

50 Years of the War on Drugs – Time to Count the Costs, is a global project that has the support of nearly 70 NGOs around the world and two former presidents.

Eoin McLennan-Murray of the PGA said: “The blanket prohibition on class A drugs allows criminals to control both the supply and quality of these drugs to addicts who turn to crime to fund their addiction. The Prison Governors' Association believe that a substantial segment of the prison population have been convicted of low level acquisitive crimes simply to fund that addiction.

UK Prison Governors Association calls on government to explore alternatives to the war on drugs

The campaign "15 ideas for a new law on drugs", whose aim is to promote discussion on key issues in the reform of the narcotics law 23.737, completed its second phase, which incorporated the voices of celebrities, journalists, officials, specialists and members of civil society.

Intercambios launched in May 2012 the campaign "15 ideas for a new drug law," which aims to promote a debate in society on a new regulation to replace or insert deep reforms in the current drug law. After a first phase of installing the issue on social networks and media, while efforts were made to take the proposal to congressmen and senators and civil society organizations not specialized in the subject of drug, a new phase took place in February and March of this year, in which different voices spoke in favor of the initiative.


These voices that joined the campaign belong to different sectors, and were divided into four segments: Civil Society, Families, Celebrity and media, and Specialists and State. Among those who participated we can mentioned the former head of the SEDRONAR Rafael Bielsa, who at the time of his testimony was still in that position, judges Martín Vázquez Acuña and Adrián Grünberg, Gabriela Torres, an official of the Ministry of National Education and former national deputy Leonardo Gorbacz, author of the national Mental Health Act.

Alexis Medina, of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH) of La Matanza, Marcela Alsina, of the Network of People Living with HIV in Buenos Aires, Alberto Ascolani, of the Association for Cultural Studies of Rosario (AREC), and Veronica Russo, of the Argentina Network for the Rights and Welfare of Drug users (RADAUD), among others.

From civil society gave their opinion in favor of the 15 ideas, the Lutheran pastor Lisandro Orlov, Rabbi of the Bet El community Silvina Chemen, Luciana Pol, Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), Alexis Medina of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH) of La Matanza, Marcela Alsina, Buenos Aires Network of People Living with HIV, Alberto Ascolani, Rosarina Association for Cultural Studies (AREC), and Veronica Russo, Argentina Network for Rights and Assistance / as users / as Drug (RADAUD), among others.

Actress Valentina Bassi, singer Erica Garcia, well-known athletes like former tennis player Martin Vassallo Arguello and fitness coach Fernando Signorini, and journalists Luisa Valmaggia, Silvia Martinez and Emilio Ruchansky Cassina also expressed themselves. Ordinary people with concerns about the issue also joined, featured in the Families section.

These voices –over thirty- were collected through personal interviews and were reflected in a special section of Intercambios website. You can see them at http://www.intercambios.org.ar/category/15-ideas/15ideas/voces/, and were also spread through social networks Facebook and Twitter.


In May and June of last year, Intercambios had implemented the first phase of the campaign 

 At that time, the document with 15 proposals (which can be read in full http://www.intercambios.org.ar/15-ideas/texto-completo/) was presented at various meetings with legislators, under the ongoing debate in the National Congress about the drug law -23,737- reform. It was also complemented by an action on the social networks that had a major impact.

The campaign received the support of organizations and institutions such as the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), the New Earth Center, the Red Cross Argentina, the Public Defender's Office, Huésped Foundation, Mothers Against Paco and Pro Life of Lomas de Zamora, the Procurator's Office of the Nation and the Anthropological Society of Medicine Argentina, among others. Summing in total 36, of which 31 are from Argentina and the rest from abroad.

The second phase of the campaign 15 Ideas was launched

A new report considers how police forces can balance these challenges. From Boston to Brazil, the briefing paper, “Focused deterrence, selective targeting, drug trafficking and organised crime: Concepts and practicalities,” describes different law enforcement techniques that have successfully minimized harmful impacts while deterring the most dangerous kinds of criminal behavior.

The report, written by Open Society Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown, was produced by International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), with support from the JP Getty Jnr Charitable Trust.

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