The Netherlands moved to ban the sale of potent hashish cannabis on Thursday, eroding 40 years of liberal drug policy, over fears that the proceeds were flowing to organised crime gangs.
UNODC, in collaboration with the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of India, has opened the country's first methadone maintenance treatment centre at the Civil Hospital in Kapurthala, in the State of Punjab, to treat heroin and opioid addicts.
The Open Society Foundations are looking for a Program Assistant to support the Global Drug Policy program (GDPp) and report to the Finance and Grants Officer. The post is based in Budapest, Hungary. The application deadline is March 22, 2012.
Russia now accounts for two thirds of the Eastern Europe and Central Asian H.I.V. epidemic, the fastest growing in the world, but refuses to adopt an evidence-based harm reduction approach to drug use.
The UN’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which monitors implementation of the global drug treaties, has trained its fire on Bolivia, this time accusing the country of threatening the integrity of the entire international drug control regime by defending traditional uses of the coca leaf.
Contrary to the impression that India is being used as a transit point by international traffickers to smuggle Afghan heroin to both Europe and the US, the United Nations drug report, 2011, has said that India is the biggest consumer of heroin. Of the 40 tonnes produced in south Asia, nearly 17 tonnes are consumed in India, the biggest consumer in the region with the trade valued at $1.4 billion.
Today is the official launch of the call for applications to form part of the Working Committees of the Washington DC YouthForce. To realize its objectives and better represent the voices of all young people, the Washington DC YouthForce is seeking members to join the 4 different organizing committees.
In an initiative promoted by the Organization of American States, 40 judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, treatment providers and other professions in the healthcare and justice fields in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, The Bahamas, and Grenada will be trained this week in Canada on the workings of Drug Treatment Courts (DTCs), a model that proves to be an effective measure as an alternative to incarceration for violators who are addicted to drugs.
Blaming sick people for system failures is an old problem in public health, particularly when patients are poor or morally suspect. New analysis examines the ways that power structures, rather than individuals, contribute to disease rebound and spread.
This month, IDPC, the Washington Office on Latin America, the International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies and Harm Reduction International wrote to Peruvian government officials to express our condolences for the recent tragedy at “Cristo es Amor” rehabilitation center last January and urge the government to adopt measures to protect people dependent on drugs against involuntary and inappropriate treatment.
The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) announces a call for applications to its 5 day long Video Advocacy Training to be held in Budapest on 20-26 May 2012. Application deadline is 19 March, 2012.
The U.N. agency that fights drugs and crime estimated that cocaine trafficking is generating some $900 million annually in West and Central Africa as South American cartels use the shortest route to transport drugs to Europe.