The report condemns the drug war as a failure and recommends immediate, major reforms of the global drug prohibition regime to halt the spread of HIV infection and other drug war harms.

This article supports recent analysis that indicates that such policies also hold relevance for producer countries by drawing on recent policy innovations in Bolivia. When Evo Morales, the president of the national coca grower confederation, was elected the country’s first indigenous president in 2005, he promised to fundamentally change 25 years of the U.S.-funded “drug war” that had generated repeated human rights violations. The new policy, which implicitly incorporates harm reduction principles combined with respect for human rights, recognizes coca leaf’s traditional use and cultural importance and relies on vigorous local organizations to implement a community-based programme called social control.

Presentation given by Safet Blakaj - Drejtor Ekzekutiv - Labyrinth, on June 23, 2012 at the (South Eastern European and Adriatic Addiction Treatment Network conference in Tirana, Albania.

The remarkable failure of drug law enforcement policies in reducing global drug supply, noting that the worldwide supply of illicit opiates, such as heroin, has increased by more than 380 percent in recent decades. The Commissioners also stress the drug war’s contribution to the growth of organized crime and violence, and urge countries that under-utilize proven addiction treatment and public health measures to immediately scale up evidence-based strategies to reduce HIV infection and protect community health and safety.

This report connects international aid for drug enforcement to gross human rights. Drug enforcement funding from donor states, often via the United Nations, to countries where executions, arbitrary detention, physical abuse and slave labour are weapons in the war on drugs.

The study aims to identify dose-tapering strategies associated with sustained success following methadone maintenance treatment (MMT).

This newsletter highlights the IDHDP upcoming meetings at the AIDS 2012 conference, hot topics on the discussion forums, new publications and more.

IDHDP joins other medical experts and advocates in filing this Amici Curiae brief in U.S. Federal Court to help call attention to the neglect of prisoners' addiction treatment needs in U.S. prisons.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a prevalent chronic blood-borne infection among opioid-dependent patients on methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). Despite case reports and case–control studies, a randomized controlled trial (RCT) examining HCV treatment adherence in methadone-maintained patients is lacking and was the impetus for this ongoing RCT examining modified directly administered therapy for HCV treatment integrated within a MMT.

The International HIV/AIDS Alliance urges the Global Fund Board to revoke the 55% rule immediately and therefore stop its application to existing grants, grant renewals and future new grants.

International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy. Articles in this volume address coerced drug treatment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the INCB and ayahuasca, and the death penalty for drug in China. There are also two case summaries on the Canadian Supreme Court decision on Insite, and on the Irish Press Ombudsman decision against an Irish newspaper for hate speech against people who are drug dependent.

The ACMD concludes that naloxone provision is an evidence-based intervention, which can save lives. Naloxone provision fits with other measures to promote recovery by encouraging drug users to engage with treatment services, and ultimately, keep them alive until they are in recovery. This report recommends actions for government to take to consider naloxone’s role in steps to make an impact on drug-related death rates.

International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies (IDHDP) comment on the European Union Committee’s Twenty-Sixth Report, EU Drugs Strategy.

UNODC Studies and Threat Analysis Section (STAS), Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs (DPA), in the framework of UNODC Trends Monitoring and Analysis Programme/Afghan Opiate Trade Project, with the collaboration of the UNODC Country Office in Afghanistan and the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia.

This report was compiled as a supporting document for the evaluation of the 2005–12 EU drugs strategy and its two action plans: 2005–08 and 2009–12. It reviews the main trends and changes in the European drug situation and in the responses developed by the EU Member States. Four main areas are covered by the report: drug use and drug-related problems; drug supply; drug policies; and demand reduction interventions.

EHRN aims to assess whether national funding allocated for drug-related measures achieves the goals of slowing down or reversing drug epidemics and protecting society from drug-related harms. The report draws on country costs assessments done in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Romania and Russia as well as analysis of data from other countries of the region, including Ukraine and Tajikistan.

This document reviews the current situation concerning access to medicines in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Lamiaa M. Elsayed, examined the policies, constitutional provisions and other legal instruments of the Member States.

This report highlights what the EU's current eight-year Drugs Strategy has achieved, and what should come next. They welcome the practical application by the EU of the principle of subsidiarity in this area and agree with the witnesses that most aspects of drugs policies should remain within the competence of the Member States.

Harm Reduction International is the first to calculate the total number of females in prisons on drug offences in Europe and Central Asia.

International HIV/AIDS Alliance demonstrate that a crisis in the Global Fund is a crisis for harm reduction, as the Global Fund has become the largest funder of global HIV and harm reduction programmes targeting people who use drugs. The report includes a set of recommendations, most prominent of which is a call to the Global Fund to ensure that it continues to support HIV and harm reduction programmes, so that global commitments to reduce HIV transmission of HIV among people who inject drugs by 50% by 2015 can be met.

African HIV in Prisons Partnership Network April Newsletter 2012

This new strategy builds on the final evaluation of the 2000–2004 EU drugs strategy and action plan on drugs (COM (2004) 707 final) and on Europol and EMCDDA contributions in this context (Snapshots 1999-2004 and thematic papers). The strategy aims to provide added value to national drug strategies in the EU while respecting the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality set out in the Treaties.

In this interview, Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch discusses the negative impacts of the war on drugs, the role of current drug policies in fuelling the global HIV epidemic, and examples of successful drug policy reforms such as those introduced in Portugal and Switzerland

EMCDDA explores whether a common definition of ‘drug mules’ can be developed in the European context and assesses the implications of this for data gathering and future research.

In this issue: 2012 EMCDDA work programme; ECDC-EMCDDA HIV rapid risk assessment; Romania passes law to curb distribution of new psychoactive substances; European summer school on illicit drugs; multicity project on wastewater analysis; upcoming events on new psychoactive substances; and new EMCDDA products and services.

The joint statement has been signed by twelve United Nations entities. They are calling for the closure of compulsory drug detention and rehabilitation centers.

This document analysis the dynamics of prison medicine as it relates to the issue of mental disorders.

CIDE’s Región Centro campus, located in the city of Aguascalientes, Mexico, is calling for submissions for the position of Visiting Professor in the area of drug policy.

This newsletter highlights; Drug Policy in Argentina: changes in several agencies, Latin America does not take vacations in drug issues, Global Technical Meeting on Stimulant drugs use and HIV and Reflection on the role of school: Get mixed up to care them or to annoy them?

This official journal of EUROPAD (European Opiate Addiction Treatment Association), is a peer-reviewed publication for professionals wanting to stay informed of research and opinion on opioid misuse treatment in Europe and around the world. A particular emphasis is on medication-assisted treatments for opioid addiction.