A staggering 64,000 people in the United States died in 2016 from drug overdoses, marking a 22 percent rise from the previous year of a cause of death that now annually exceeds those caused by motor vehicle accidents and gun violence.

The failure of global drug prohibition, now increasingly acknowledged, demands urgent consideration of an alternative approach which is politically feasible while also respecting powerful market forces. Regulating as much of the drug market as possible is the only realistic option notwithstanding the political and other difficulties of achievement.

How does the risk of overdose change with the number of days with concurrent opioid and benzodiazepine use?

This paper describes the impact of benzodiazepines misuse on the health and treatment of high-risk opioid users.

Among patients dependent on prescription opioids, ongoing maintenance therapy using a legal opiate substitute (buprenorphine–naloxone) produced better outcomes than tapered withdrawal, with patients less likely to have used illicit opioids and considerably more likely to have remained in their allocated treatment.

The National Drug-Related Deaths Database (NDRDD) was established to collect detailed information regarding the nature and circumstances of people who had a Drug-Related Death (DRD) in Scotland. This is the seventh report and covers the calendar years 2015 and 2016 with trend data from 2009.

To examine the effect on the trade in opioids through online illicit markets (“cryptomarkets”) of the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s ruling in 2014 to reschedule hydrocodone combination products.

Penington Institute has a vision of a world where nobody dies from an accidental drug overdose and where people can talk openly about their experience without stigma.

Naloxone is an easy-to-use, lifesaving antidote to overdose from heroin or other opioids. Used in hospitals for decades, the medication has no abuse potential, costs as little as one dollar for a lifesaving dose and can be administered with basic training.

Committed to providing a platform to acknowledge the grief felt by families and friends who have lost a loved one to overdose. We aim to raise awareness that the tragedy of overdose death is preventable.

Between 2010 and 2016, Asia and the Paci c registered one of the steepest declines in HIV infec ons globally, with prevalence rates dropping by approximately 13%. Despite this overall reduc on, HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs in Southeast Asia remains among the world’s highest.

Supervised drug consumption facilities, where illicit drugs can be used under the supervision of trained staff, have been operating in Europe for the last three decades. These facilities primarily aim to reduce the acute risks of disease transmission through unhygienic injecting, prevent drug-related overdose deaths and connect high-risk drug users with addiction treatment and other health and social services.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is the largest funder of harm reduction globally, but its eligibility policy currently precludes certain Upper Middle Income Countries (UMICs) from applying for funding.

"It’s easy to think of human rights as in some way innate, as something we and our ancestors have all simply been born with." says Jonathan Leighton, Executive Director, Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering (OPIS)

Harm reduction is a realistic, pragmatic and non-judgmental approach based upon openness, understanding and respect.

Current estimates suggest that 15% of all prisoners worldwide are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and this number is even higher in regions with high rates of injecting drug use. Although harm reduction services such as opioid substitution therapy (OST) and needle and syringe programs (NSPs) are effective in preventing the further spread of HCV and HIV, the extent to which these are available in prisons varies significantly across countries.

‘Taking a New Line on Drugs’ assesses the situation in the UK as regards rising health harm from illegal drugs, with reference to their context within the wider ‘drugscape’ of legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, and sets out a new vision for a holistic public health-led approach to drugs policy at a UK-wide level.

Challenges related to the drugs trade in Eastern Africa are far from being resolved. While it used to be mostly a transit point, domestic demand is increasing. In 2012, Africa is estimated to have received about 9% of the global heroin trade.

Last Friday evening, 23 March 2018, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council concluded its 3-week long session by voting to adopt a Resolution reaffirming that human rights must play a central role in the ongoing international debate on global drug policies.

Even after accounting for deprivation, mortality rates are higher in Scotland relative to the rest of Western Europe. Higher mortality from alcohol- and drug-related deaths (DRDs), violence and suicide (particularly in young adults) contribute to this ‘excess’ mortality.

In 2016, the Kingdom of Thailand formally de- cided to re-allocate responsibility for drug de- pendence treatment from the Ministry of Jus ce (MOJ) to the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) by the end of 2018.

Annual Report and Oral Update by the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of his Office and recent human rights developments Statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein

The UN General Assembly (GA) is responsible for passing the three main international drug conventions of 1961, 1971 and 1988 that shape modern drug policy. Specifically dedicated to drug policy are the UNODC and the CND. The INCB is a quasi-judiciary body with the task to oversee the implementation of the three conventions. Amongst these three entities, the support for the conventions and the prohibitionist approach is high. But what about other UN entities?

The United Nations Special Rapporteur, Dainius Pūras, reflects on his career as a medical professional and why human rights in the day to day care of his patients became a powerful tool to strengthen his practice and ensure the dignity and well-being of those he served.

This is the tenth year that Harm Reduction International (HRI) has been working on the death penalty for drug o ences and, regrettably, prohibitionist and punitive approaches to drugs continue to result in the execution of hundreds of people for non-violent drug o ences every year.

Drug injection remains one of the drivers of new HIV infections due to punitive responses and lack of harm reduction resourcing. In the midst of this situation, adolescents are a forgotten component of the global response to illegal drugs and their link with HIV infection.

The recent publication of two single pieces of legislation - the amended 1993 Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law and the first National Drug Control Policy - is likely to form the basis of Myanmar’s drug policy for several years to come. What does it mean for the country’s transition towards an evidence-based approach to drug control, and how can the gaps between the two documents be addressed?

“Hepatitis C among people who use drugs – the global state and recommendations”

The opiate epidemic is directly involved with our mass incarceration crisis. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

The Ukrainian government is increasing the scope of the country’s state-funded opioid substitution therapy (OST) programme – a harm reduction tool which reduces the risk of overdose and disease transmission.