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Nominate someone for an IHRA Award
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Each year IHRA acknowledges those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of harm reduction by presenting a range of awards at the annual conferences. With the 18th International Conferences on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm fast approaching, this is a call for nominations for 2007.
The International Rolleston Award is presented to an individual who has carried out groundbreaking work or excellent service to the reduction of drug and/or alcohol related harm at an international level. Examples of such work include advocating for harm reduction programmes and practice, dedicated delivery of harm reduction teaching and training, advancing scientific research and the evidence-base for harm reduction, or the continued provision of funding or resources for harm reduction initiatives. In 2006, this award was presented to Dr. Robert Newman, a leading advocate for methadone maintenance treatments for over 35 years.
The National Rolleston Award is presented to a group or individual that has made an outstanding contribution to the reduction of drug and alcohol related harm for the nation which is hosting the IHRA conference that year. In 2006, the award (and an exceptional $5000CAD prize) was presented to the Canadian Drug User Advisory Group, for their contributions to the conference and to drug user activism across the country.
Finally, the Travis Jenkins Award is presented at each conference to acknowledge a current or former injecting drug user who has made an outstanding contribution to reducing drug related harm. The previous winners of this award are Jason Farrell from the Positive Health Project in the USA (2006), and Paisan Suwannawong from Thailand (2005). The winner of this prize received a cheque for $500US, which is kindly donated by the family and friends of Travis Jenkins, the late jazz musician who overcame a heroin addiction in order to marry and raise two sons, travel around the world with his anthropologist wife and create his music.
Nominations are now being invited for all three of these awards. In order to put someone forward, please provide the following information:
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1. The name of the person (or organisation) who you wish to nominate
2. The award that you wish to nominate them for
3. Their details (organisation name, address, email etc)
4. A brief summary (no more than 150 words) explaining why you believe they should win the International Rolleston Award
5. Your name and contact details (email address, telephone number etc)
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Nominations for the International Rolleston Award and the Travis Jenkins Award should then be sent to IHRA’s Melbourne Office by fax (+61 3 9328 3008), email or post (addressed to IHRA Secretariat, PO Box 818, North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 3051).
To nominate a Polish individual or organisation for the 2007 National Rolleston Award, please send the information to the Warsaw conference team.
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The closing date for all of the nominations is the 30th March 2007, and the awards will be presented during the conference closing ceremony in Warsaw, Poland (17th May 2007).
Please note that nominees (or nominating third parties) do not have to be IHRA members, and previous winners cannot be re-nominated. For more information about the awards, previous winners and selection processes, please visit the IHRA website’s Awards page.
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Establishing the International Network of People Who Use Drugs
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It has been an extremely busy few months for the developing International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD), under the stewardship of Stijn Goossens, a drug user activist from Belgium.
An international drug user activist movement has been developing alongside IHRA’s annual conferences for a number of years, and the efforts culminated in the 1st International Congress of People Who Use Drugs - a satellite event in conjunction with the 17th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm (Vancouver, Canada; April 2006). This event was attended by over 100 people from around the world. In the Congress, the group wrote and released a declaration describing the prejudice they faced around the world, and their collective goals to overcome this prejudice. This “Vancouver Declaration” has since been translated into 17 different languages (Bahasa-Indonesian, Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Macedonian, Nepali, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish).
To view the declaration, please visit http://hardcoreharmreducer.be/VancouverDeclaration.html
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You can also print out the accompanying petition and gather support and signatures.
In December 2006, IHRA secured funding from the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) for a broad programme of work which includes helping the international drug user network develop into a legal entity. To achieve this, INPUD have formed a Working Group, including representatives from Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Oceania. The group - to be facilitated by Grant McNally from the UK with technical assistance from Stijn Goossens - will discuss and undertake the necessary steps to take INPUD to the next level as an organisation. A place in this group has been reserved for any drug user representatives from Africa or the Middle East who wish to take part, and work is underway to identify people from these regions.
Work is also underway to develop and launch an INPUD website, to enable the network to communicate, recruit, organise and advocate more effectively. A working group has been set up to help build and maintain this resource - and anyone with relevant skills and experience who would like to help should contact Stijn Goossens (see below).
Ahead of the 18th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm (Warsaw, Poland; 13th – 17th May 2007), plans are well underway for the 2nd International Congress of People Who Use Drugs. This will be held on Sunday 13th May 2006 (prior to the opening of the conference), funded by IHRA. There will also be two “Users Choice” major sessions in the main conference programme (“Hepatitis C: Prevention, Treatment and Living With Hep C” and “Policies and Ideologies Against People Who Use Drugs: What About Harm Reduction?”) and some training and skills building sessions for drug users. There has also been an unprecedented level of support available for drug user activists to attend this conference (and Congress), courtesy of further DFID grants to IHRA, and the International Harm Reduction Development Programme (IHRD).
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For more information on any of the above, or to enquire about INPUD and how to get involved, please visit www.hardcoreharmreducer.be or email Stijn Goossens.
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Youth and Harm Reduction Event
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The developing International Youth and Harm Reduction Initiative have announced a satellite meeting to coincide with the 18th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm in Warsaw, Poland - May 13 – 18 2007. The Youth Satellite Meeting will take place on Sunday 13th May, just prior to the opening of the conference.
The International Youth and Harm Reduction Initiative emerged from discussions and networking at the 17th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm. Since then, a small working group has been established and has been working to advance this initiative and, specifically, the satellite event. In keeping with the ideals of “Nothing About Us Without Us”, the philosophy of this initiative is that it must be youth-led and representative of the diverse needs and interests of young people working in and practicing harm reduction around the world.
The Youth Satellite Meeting is a perfect opportunity for key young people from around the world (aged between 18 and 26) to meet, network, and participate in skills building. There will also be a chance to reflect on the first year of the International Youth and Harm Reduction Initiative, and to develop priorities and actions in order to development the group further. The meeting will also help to encourage and support the increased participation of young people in the conference. On the final day of the conference, there will be a major session entitled “Coming of age: Youth living, working and shaping the next generation of harm reduction” (funded by UNICEF), and the Initiative aim to ensure that young people remain a growing and ever recognized presence in future IHRA conferences, and the harm reduction movement in general.
If you would like to know more about the International Youth and Harm Reduction Initiative, please email. They would particularly hear from anyone who is interested in (or could recommend someone for) the Youth Satellite Meeting. If you can help identify (and possibly even support) any young people from your region, network or agency to participate, or if you know a young person working or participating in harm reduction activities (including drug policy, advocacy for the rights of drug users, HIV/AIDS awareness, hepatitis C services etc), please encourage them to participate and contact the Initiative.
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CEEHRN Launch New Strategic Plan
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The Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network (CEEHRN) has developed and launched a Strategic Plan for 2007-2009. The plan, available in English and Russian (the two official working languages of CEEHRN) identifies priority programmes for the network to address the region's drug use and HIV issues.
The plan consists of 5 integral programmes for CEEHRN - providing national and regional documentation and advocacy resources for harm reduction services and policies, capacity building and technical assistance, the provision of an information centre, a focus on the human rights of vulnerable drug users, and special initiatives (such as projects on poly-drug use, and evaluation of Global Fund programmes in the region). The plan covers a wide range of issues and topics, including drug policy, the scaling-up of harm reduction, prisons and incarceration, sex workers, HIV and hepatitis, and poly-drug use.
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 CEEHRN Strategic Plan 2007-2009 - English [PDF: 162KB]
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CEEHRN Strategic Plan 2007-2009 – Russian [PDF: 416KB]
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Announcing the plan, Catalina Iliuta (CEEHRN’s Program and Development Director) said “Many activities will be implemented in partnership with other organisations and sometimes will be led by another organisation. We truly believe that coordinated and integrated partnerships at national, regional and international level will help us to raise awareness of the drug use and HIV/AIDS problems from the region and to find better responses”.
CEEHRN was established in 1997 and currently acts as a network for over 250 individuals and organisations from 25 countries in the region. For more information, please visit the CEEHRN website.
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Buprenorphine Decision is a “Victory for Public Health”
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The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published their official report of the 34th meeting of their Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD). One of the major decisions made at this meeting was not to recommend the rescheduling of buprenorphine into a more restrictive convention. The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) had supported rescheduling buprenorphine from the 1971 international drug treaty to the more restrictive 1961 treaty.
Buprenorphine was added to WHO’s “Essential Drugs List” in 2005, and is important in the international scaling up of substitute and maintenance treatments for opiate drug users to control HIV. In many countries, it is used because legal restriction or medical prejudices restrict or even prevent the availability of methadone.
For more than a decade, the INCB have been pressing for the drug to be moved from the 1971 “Convention on Psychotropic Substances” to the more restrictive 1961 “Single Convention”. Such a move would probably have made it much more difficult for many countries (especially those in the developing world) to provide buprenorphine as a treatment option for drug users. The 1961 “Single Convention”, for example, places much tighter restrictions on drugs in terms of storage, record-keeping and administration – restrictions which may well be beyond the resources of many governments.
Over 160 organisations in 40 countries (including IHRA) argued against the reclassification of buprenorphine in order to ensure that this treatment remained as accessible as possible. As part of this campaign, Professor Gerry Stimson (the IHRA Executive Director) gave expert evidence at the 34th meeting of the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (in March 2006).
Despite the strongly divergent views expressed at this meeting, the committee (once again) agreed not to recommend any changes to the scheduling of buprenorphine. Professor Stimson welcomed this decision, stating that “There are many obstacles to providing good medical treatment for opioid dependence. Rescheduling buprenorphine would have added a further obstacle. The INCB position has been shown to be inconsistent with the evidence and the international conventions”.
The WHO report goes on to comment that buprenorphine “contributes to the efficient prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS among opioid-dependent injecting drug users”, and that “The scheduling of a substance may lead to significant barriers to its availability as a medicine” - which has serious implications for the international provision of narcotic analgesics for pain control, as well as substitution therapies (or “Medicated Assisted Treatments”).
According to Dr. Alex Wodak (from the IHRA Executive Committee), “This is a very substantial victory for public health. It will be difficult for the INCB to mount yet another attempt in a few years to again try to shift the classification of buprenorphine”.
The report is currently available online at http://www.who.int/entity/medicines/areas/quality_safety/WHO_TRS_942.pdf. The present version is in English, but there will soon be French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese versions available on the WHO website.
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Click here to read the WHO Report [PDF: 526KB]
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February 2007 Article of the Month
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Stimson GV (2006) Drinking in context: A collective responsibility (ICAP Reviews 2). Washington: International Center for Alcohol Policies.
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Alcohol is a unique commodity, consumed in many different ways in many different cultures and with many different levels of associated harms. For many, it is consumed responsibly and with minimal harm, and enjoyed for the positive social and emotional impact that it has. For others, however, it can create a huge range of well-documented problems and harms.
Due to the inherently complex nature of alcohol consumption, policies and ideologies that seek to change behaviour, consumption and attitudes at the population-level often stutter. This document review by Professor Gerry Stimson (IHRA Executive Director) proposes a fresh approach to alcohol policies and outlines three of the key themes from a new book entitled ‘Drinking in Context: Patterns, Interventions, and Partnerships’.
The review describes how alcohol policies should be based on a balanced and full assessment of different drinking patterns within a population (rather then the simplistic measure that is often used - national ‘per capita consumption’). Population-level measurements cannot account for different cultures, age-groups, socioeconomic factors, and behaviours within a population, and cannot provide the full picture of alcohol consumption and patterns.
As a result, interventions which are aimed at entire populations (such as taxation, restricting availability, and warning labels) are insufficient on their own, as they do not account for the higher-risk groups and behaviours within a population. Targeted interventions that are aimed towards specific high-risk groups within a population are essential.
The broad range of drinking patterns, alcohol harms, and alcohol interventions requires an equally broad range of stakeholders and partners. At a governmental level, alcohol policies are the business of health, justice, culture, education, trade and finance ministries. At the front-line, alcohol has an impact on a range of specialist and non-specialist workers (such as police, ambulance staff, and bar staff). In order to develop sustain realistic, targeted interventions and policies, working partnerships must be developed involving all of these groups, alcohol consumers and the alcohol industry. Any attempts to achieve change without all of these parties involved faces insurmountable difficulties. The key is collective responsibility rather than blaming one another.
To view this review in full, for more details about the Drinking in Context book, or for a wide range of other alcohol policy resources, please visit the International Center for Alcohol Policies website (www.icap.org).
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Alternatively, click on the links below:
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ICAP Review 2 – Drinking in context: A collective responsibility (English) [PDF: 100KB]
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ICAP Review 2 – Drinking in context: A collective responsibility (French) [PDF: 12KB]
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ICAP Review 2 – Drinking in context: A collective responsibility (Japanese) [PDF: 65KB]
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ICAP Review 2 – Drinking in context: A collective responsibility (Spanish) [PDF: 10KB]
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Drinking in Context: Patterns, Interventions and Partnerships (an executive summary of the book in English) [PDF: 45KB]
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Drinking in Context: Patterns, Interventions and Partnerships (an executive summary of the book in Russian) [PDF: 238KB]
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Drinking in Context: Patterns, Interventions and Partnerships (an executive summary of the book in Spanish) [PDF: 28KB]
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New Vacancies at the Asian Harm Reduction Network
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The Asian Harm Reduction Network (AHRN) currently has some vacancies being advertised on their website – including a ‘Clearinghouse Assistant’ position based in Chang Mai, Thailand.
For more information, please visit www.ahrn.net.
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