STREETS AHEAD
THE RECOVERY STREET FILM FESTIVAL IS
LOOKING FOR SUBMISSIONS
for this year’s
competition, the third since its launch (DDN,
June 2014, page 20). Anyone with personal or
family experience of recovery from a drug or
alcohol problem is invited to submit a film of
up to three minutes in length, with the
winning entries to be shown in venues across
the country. The films can help ‘show others
they aren’t alone in their journey and
motivate them to make changes to their lives’,
said last year’s winner Ceri Walker.
Full details
at
HEP HELP
WHO HAS UPDATED ITS GUIDELINES
for the
screening, care and treatment of people with
chronic hepatitis C infection to include a
number of new medicines approved since
publication of the original document.
Revised
guidance at
News
A QUIET DRINK
MUCH OF THE UK’S ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION
IS ‘MODERATE AND SOCIAL’
, according to the
latest study by the University of Sheffield’s
alcohol research group. In the two years to 2011
almost half of ‘drinking occasions’ involved
‘moderate, relaxed drinking in the home’, says
the study – which is based on the alcohol
diaries of 90,000 people – although ‘pre-
loading’ remains a significant issue. ‘Far from
the stereotypes of binge Britain or a nation of
pub drinkers, we find that British drinking
culture mixes relaxed routine home drinking
with elements of excess,’ said senior research
fellow John Holmes.
Study at
CRYSTAL CLEAR
A NEW REPORT ON MDMA
in Europe
has been issued by EMCDDA.
Recent
changes in Europe’s MDMA/ecstasy
market
looks at the ‘resurgence’ of
the drug and wider availability of high-
strength tablets and crystals. While the
average MDMA content of pills in the 1990s
and 2000s was between 50 and 80 mg,
reported averages are now closer to 125 mg, it
says.
Document at
Read the full stories, and more, online
THE WORLD NEEDS GLOBAL DRUG POLICIES THAT ‘PUT
PEOPLE FIRST’
, UNODC executive director Yury Fedotov
told the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS)
on drugs in New York, although many campaigning
organisations have expressed disappointment at the
event’s outcomes.
The session, the first since 1998, was originally
scheduled for 2019 but was brought forward following
pressure from Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico – nations
badly affected by the effects of the drug trade and the
violence associated with drug cartels. It saw the official
adoption of an ‘outcome document’ that has been
greeted with dismay by some campaigners, who branded
it ‘disconnected from reality’.
UNODC remains committed to promoting
approaches to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and
reintegration that are ‘rooted in evidence, science, public
health and human rights’, Fedotov stated, adding that it
would work to ‘ensure access to controlled drugs to
relieve pain and suffering’.
‘Putting people first means balanced approaches that
attend to health and human rights, and promote the
safety and security of all our societies,’ he said, adding
that the founding purpose of the existing international
drug control conventions had been the ‘health and
welfare of human kind’.
The event’s outcome document,
Our joint commitment
to effectively addressing and countering the world drug
problem
, contains the reaffirmation by UN member states
of the goals and objectives of these conventions, as well
as a commitment to ‘tackle the world drug problem and
actively promote a society free of drug abuse’. The
document – which was finalised at the UN Commission
on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in March rather than at UNGASS
itself – has been branded ‘a turgid restatement of
“business as usual”’ and a ‘profound betrayal for the many
stakeholders across the world who were promised real
dialogue, new thinking and change’ by Transform’s senior
policy analyst Steve Rolles.
While campaigners have welcomed the inclusion of
sections on alternatives to prison, access to essential
medicines and overdose prevention, the statement could
have been ‘very different’ if ‘more progressive inputs’ had
been included, says Transform.
‘The UNGASS was called for by three Latin American
countries who are desperate for a critical evaluation of
the failings of the global war on drugs, and an open and
honest exploration of the alternatives,’ said IDPC
executive director Ann Fordham. ‘But the outcome
document does not do this. Instead it reflects the lowest
common denominator consensus position that is almost
entirely disconnected from reality.’ IDPC was one of more
than 200 civil society groups to sign a statement
condemning governments for ‘failing to acknowledge the
devastating consequences of punitive and repressive’ drug
policies in the run up to the UNGASS.
See feature page 6
4 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| May 2016
CANADIAN
CANNABIS
CANADA WILL
INTRODUCE
LEGISLATION IN
SPRING 2017 TO
LEGALISE AND
REGULATE
MARIJUANA
, the
country’s health
minister Jane Philpott
told the UNGASS in
New York. The
legislation would
ensure ‘we keep
marijuana out of the
hands of children and
profits out of the
hands of criminals’, she stated. ‘While this
plan challenges the status quo in many
countries, we are convinced it is the best
way to protect our youth while enhancing
public safety.’
‘Legislation
will keep
marijuana
out of the
hands of
children
and profits
out of the
hands of
criminals.’
Jane PhiLPoTT
MUTED RESPONSE TO FIRST
UNGASS SINCE 1990S
The session was originally
scheduled for 2019 but was
brought forward following
pressure from Colombia,
Guatemala and Mexico.
