Why is drug policy reform important?
Reasons for drug policy reform: people who use drugs are denied evidence based treatment. Prohibition can prevent access to harm reduction treatment, including methadone, for people who inject drugs, writes Michel Kazatchkine. Why is eastern Europe the only region in the world that still has a growing HIV epidemic?
What is resistance and outright opposition to strategies to minimise the health risks associated with injecting drug use?
Resistance and outright opposition to strategies to minimise the health risks associated with injecting drug use, despite evidence of effectiveness and increasing international acceptance, rely on narratives that prioritise prohibition.
Why is Russia so high in drug use?
The reasons for Russia’s high figures include the prohibition and effective criminalisation of drug use, repressive law enforcement, and stigma around drug use. These factors lead people to inject in unsafe conditions for fear of police and arrests and result in needle sharing and overdose. 4
What did Ban Ki Moon say about controlled drugs?
In 2015, the United Nations’ secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, called for “careful rebalancing of the international policy on controlled drugs.”. “We must consider alternatives to criminalisation and incarceration of people who use drugs,” he said. “We should increase the focus on public health, prevention, treatment, and care.” 5.
Is Russia a prohibitionist country?
Russia, however, is strongly prohibitionist and rejects all such policies. Accepting harm reduction, it says, would require implicit acceptance of people continuing to use drugs. Hence access to clean needles and antiretroviral therapy there is very low.
Is buprenorphine illegal in Russia?
And treatment with methadone and buprenorphine is illegal because Russia views their medical use as effectively substituting one addiction for another, even though they are designated essential medicines by the World Health Organization . In the past decade, Russia has expressed these views in all relevant international forums, ...
Why is Russia so high in drug use?
The reasons for Russia’s high figures include the prohibition and effective criminalisation of drug use, repressive law enforcement, and stigma around drug use. These factors lead people to inject in unsafe conditions for fear of police and arrests and result in needle sharing and overdose. 4
Is Russia a prohibitionist country?
Russia, however, is strongly prohibitionist and rejects all such policies. Accepting harm reduction, it says, would require implicit acceptance of people continuing to use drugs. Hence access to clean needles and antiretroviral therapy there is very low.