Chaining, public humiliation, abduction, and prayer. If these were treatments offered for diabetes or heart disease, we would see them as cruel and abusive. Yet these are tactics used widely in centers for the “treatment and rehabilitation” of people who use drugs in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Written by Chris Ford, Clinical Director IDHDP

Written by Colin Brewer

New HIV infections among people who inject drugs could be virtually eliminated by 2030 if a small percentage of global drug control spending is redirected towards harm reduction programmes, a new report has said.

By Willem Scholten, PharmD MPA, Consultant – Medicines and Controlled Substances, Willem Scholten Consultancy, Lopik, the Netherlands.

The Count the Costs initiative aims to highlight the negative impacts of the war on drugs in key policy areas: security, development, human rights, public health, stigma and discrimination, crime, economics, children and young people, and the environment.

A systematic review undertaken on behalf of The Scottish National Forum on Drug-Related Deaths.

To assess the effectiveness for Scotland’s National Naloxone Programme (NNP) by comparison between 2006–10 and 2011–13 and to assess cost-effectiveness.

Support. Don’t Punish is a global advocacy campaign calling for better drug policies that prioritise public health and human rights.

The language used to describe health conditions reflects and influences our attitudes and approaches to addressing them, even to the extent of suggesting that a health condition is a moral, social, or criminal issue.

The side event “Improving Access to Controlled Medicines in the Context of the SDGs,” was hosted by the Governments of Lithuania Panama, and Mexico, International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC), Human Rights Watch, and many partner NGOs.

‘Striving for equity in the treatment of severe pain.’

Ketamine is an essential medicine used for anaesthesia and analgesia (pain relief) in adults and children, having been listed on the WHO Essential Medicines List since 1985.

In April, the United Nations will host a General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS), the most significant high-level international drug policy event in almost two decades will take place. The world will come together to talk about drugs. IDHDP has been working towards this meeting for the last 3 years and will be there to add our voice. We, like many others are calling for health, along with human rights to be center stage in the international drug control regime.

Written by Dr Nandini Vallath Consultant Pain Relief and Palliative Care Physician, Bangalore and Shailaja Vallath her cousin and friend.

Report of the LSE Expert Group on the Economics of Drug Policy.

Ketamine is an essential medicine. It is the only anaesthetic that does not require oxygen, electricity, anaesthetic equipment, or trained anaesthesia providers, which remain limited in low and middle income countries.

Pre - Conference Plenary, Events in the Main Conference area, Events in the Global Village, Events off Site, Film Screen in the GV Screening Room.

This IDPC advocacy note offers some reflections and recommendations on the negotiation process itself, and some recommendations on the overarching tone that should be reflected in the final document.

Proposals to restrict access to ketamine by making it a "Schedule I" drug would have a major impact on the availability of anesthesia and surgery in low- to middle-income countries, where ketamine is often the only general anesthetic drug available, according to experts.

Despite widespread implementation of compulsory treatment for drug dependence, there has been no systematic evaluation of the evidence on the effectiveness of this treatment.

Medical provider training, new clinic policies and efforts to 'taper' opioid use for pain treatment could significantly reduce the level of opioid medication that patients used. A limited but positive step for a nation enmeshed in opioid use, abuse and overdose deaths.

Even though prisoners do not forfeit their human rights, such as the right to health, there is an enormous gap between health and human rights standards and their effective implementation in places of detention.

Providing guidance to Health Board Area Drug and Therapeutics Committees on the recommended place in treatment of HCV drugs taking into consideration SMC guidance, clinical effectiveness and price.

High opioid dosage has been associated with overdose, and clinical guidelines have cautioned against escalating dosages above 100 morphine-equivalent mg (MEM) based on the potential harm and the absence of evidence of benefit from high dosages. However, this 100 MEM threshold was chosen somewhat arbitrarily.

Indispensable, adequately available and not unduly restricted.

On Jan 19, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new country-level estimates showing unprecedented rates of drug overdose deaths, with 47 055 deaths in the USA in 2014.

Briefing for Member States at the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy and UN University event ‘Identifying Common Ground for UNGASS 2016: Rethinking Metrics to Evaluate Drug Policy’

The nonmedical use of prescription opioids is a major public health issue in the United States, both because of the overall high prevalence and because of marked increases in associated morbidity and mortality. However coinciding with efforts to reduce nonmedical prescription-opioid use and overdose are reports of increases in the rates of heroin use and deaths from heroin overdose.

Why should fear of drugs like heroin leave 80 per cent of the world’s population suffering unspeakable pain, asks Dr Chris Ford