Open Society Foundation give a great explainer of harm reduction, stating that it is a multi-faceted and the importance of changing drug policy.

Daliah Heller e.t.l explore the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which represents a remarkable opportunity for "criminal justice and drug policy reform advocates to advance efforts to enact policy changes that promote safe and healthy communities, without excessively relying on criminal justice solutions that have become so prevalent under the war on drugs, and which fall so disproportionately on low-income communities and communities of color".

This issue of the the IDHDP newsletter highlights: IDHDP plenary session: Policy, Society, Alcohol and Novelty in Addiction |International Drug Policy Consortium ("IDPC") | Interviews and speeches | New publications on the website | Upcoming events | IDHDP communications

Hepatitis Scotland review recent treatment news, including research presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of the Liver in Washington D.C, along with other stories relevant to the treatment of viral hepatitis. Highlighting a way forward without inteferon but looks like the cost will exclude 90% of people who need them.

The European Association for Palliative Care, the International Association for Hospice and Palliative care, the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance and the Human Rights Watch, urge governments to relieve suffering and recognize palliative care as a human right. The briefing gives and definition of palliative care and state what the groups would like governments to recognize the need for access to palliative care.

Dr. Ghassan Shahrour presentation at the MENA 2nd Conference held in Beirut November 2013 which discussed the regional drug maps.

Reitox Academy for Baltic countries: Monitoring trends in and responses to drug-related infectious diseases among people who inject drugs

Read ground-breaking international collaborative survey, published in Annals of Oncology, shows that more than half of the world’s population live in countries where regulations that aim to stem drug misuse leave cancer patients without access to opioid medicines for managing cancer pain. The GOPI study has uncovered a pandemic of over-regulation in much of the developing world that is making it catastrophically difficult to provide basic medication to relieve strong cancer pain,”

International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), produced this report to develop a better understanding of drug policy advocacy activity in 10 Asian countries: Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. It aims to achieve three goals: 1; Identify organisations engaged in harm reduction and drug policy advocacy, 2;Identify gaps and challenges in harm reduction and drug policy advocacy that remain to be addressed, 3; Develop recommendations for prioritising new activities in harm reduction and drug policy advocacy.

Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme highlights the most current patterns and trends of amphetamine-type stimulants and other drugs of use in East and Southeast Asia and provides overviews for the neighbouring regions of South Asia and the Pacific Island States and Territories. From all 15 countries that contributed to this report, 13 countries reported methamphetamine as the primary or secondary drug of use.

This quick guide for clinicians provides succinct, easily accessible information to clinicians about the use of medications to help patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) deal with chronic noncancer pain (CNCP). The guide includes information on 1)patient assessment; 2)chronic pain management; 3)patients treated with opioids; and 4)treatment agreements.

IAS give an update on their current activities including the 2013 Kuala Lumpur conference and the upcoming conference in Melbourne 2014.

Roundtable on the HIV situation among people who inject drugs in Romania, 19 November 2013, Bucharest

An interview with Andrey Rokhanskiy the director of the Institute for Legal Research and Strategy, which advocates for palliative care and patients who use drugs in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Listen to a great speech from Canadian MP Meagan Leslie about safe injecting sites.

3rd Meeting on detecting and responding to outbreaks of HIV among people who inject drugs: 18 November 2013, Bucharest

Robert K. Brooner et. al study states that “substance abuse treatment incorporating daily methadone and weekly counseling is generally effective in reducing the harmful consequences of opioid dependence disorder. Approximately half of treatment seeking opioid-dependent patients also have a comorbid psychiatric disorder. “ The study concludes ” On-site and integrated psychiatric and substance misuse services in a methadone treatment setting might improve psychiatric outcomes compared with off-site and non-integrated substance misuse and psychiatric care.”

Richard N. Rosenthal et. al conducted a study to “evaluate the safety and efficacy of buprenorphine implants (BI) versus placebo implants (PI) for the treatment”. The buprenophine implantable was developed to address problems with adherence, diversion and non-medical use. They concluded “Compared with placebo, buprenorphine implants result in significantly less frequent opioid use and are non-inferior to sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone tablets.”

An editorial in Addiction states “substance abuse research is undervalued, because research costs are salient while the benefits to research are more diffuse and difficult to quantify. Because of the inherently low value that policy-makers and society place on substance abuse research, it is particularly important for researchers to articulate the benefits of their work.”

Listen to Professor Michel Kazatchkine giving the Alison Chesney and Eddie Killoran lecture - inspiring.

Interview with Ingrid van Beek about the benefits and sense behind injecting facilities.

An editorial in Addiction states that West Africa has recently emerged as a major focus for international drug policy, mainly in response to largescale cocaine seizures. The policy response has been concentrated on the criminal justice system, “However, limited data exist regarding the rates of local drug use in West Africa, and public health initiatives related to treatment have been sidelined.”

Dr M Reisinger discusses how treatment should be available for all patients who need it and there should be no waiting-lists. To reach this availability primary care physicians should provide these treatments. Regulations should be eased, because excessive regulations and controls are counter- productive. They are a barrier to treatment and they increase the risk of death for patients.

Harm Reduction International give a detailed report examines the overlap between people use drugs and sell sex. It provides a "snapshot of available evidence on the factors that contribute to their vulnerability and aims to draw attention to this often neglected area, and inform policy and programmatic discussions."

Sarah Zaidi et. al policy briefing states access to treatment for a whole range of illnesses, infectious and non- communicable diseases, has made survival possible. “Wealthy countries with comprehensive health insurance coverage consider expensive medicines as an acceptable part of health care. But for the vast majority PLHIV and members of key populations including PUD, medicines are unaffordable and economic costs of illness are high for the individual, the family, community, and country. The challenge, for all countries including for Middle Income Countries, is securing treatment that is financially sustainable particularly in the case of HIV”

Catherine Anne Fullerton et. al examined the effectiveness of Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) to assist individuals with an opioid use disorder abstain from or decrease use of illegal or nonmedical opiates. They conclude “MMT is associated with improved outcomes for individuals and pregnant women with opioid use disorders. MMT should be a covered service available to all individuals”

In this report the Hepatitis C Trust state that there must be no more excuses for the rising tide of deaths from hepatitis C, as it is a preventable and curable virus. The report "reveals plainly the link between hepatitis C and deprivation. Almost half of patients with hepatitis C who go to hospital are from the poorest fifth of society. It begs the question: has hepatitis C been overlooked for all these years, resulting in spiralling hospital admissions and deaths, because of the people it impacts?"

International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) response to the UNODC Report 2013, highlighting that the report “represents an impressive and wide-ranging set of data, analysis and policy prescription, and provides an overview of recent trends and the current situation in terms of production, trafficking, and consumption, including the consequences of illicit drug use on health.”

Public Health England report on the changing face of injecting drug use in the UK. Including the people who inject, image and performance enhancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids and melanotan. They are at greater risk of HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C infection than previously thought. To minimize the harm from injecting drug use, changes in the patterns of use that increase infection risk need to be detected and responded to promptly.

NHS Scotland’s report concludes that the results have important policy implications for continued efforts to reduce health inequalities in Scotland. “Evidence that all‐cause socioeconomic inequalities in mortality persist despite reductions for some specific causes, and that inequalities are greater with increasing preventability, suggests that focussing on reducing individual risk and increasing individual assets will ultimately be fruitless in reducing inequalities and may even increase them. Elimination and prevention of inequalities in all‐cause mortality will only be achieved if the underlying differences in income, wealth and power across society are reduced.”