<back to map
|
|
|
Overview
|
 The ‘17th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm’ took place in Vancouver, Canada from April 30th to May 4th 2006. The 5-day event was attended by 1,300 delegates from over 60 countries and included keynote speeches, 7 plenary sessions, 8 major sessions, 42 concurrent sessions and hundreds of poster presentations. The conference theme was “Hear & Now: The PEER Conference” – ‘Hear’ to highlight support for global dialogue around harm reduction, ‘Now’ to emphasise the need for immediate actions, and ‘PEER’ to represent Protection, Empowerment, Equality and Respect (“the backbone of harm reduction programmes”).
The conference opened with a formal reception on Sunday 30th April 2006 but there had already been several successful satellite sessions earlier that day. On Monday 1st May 2006, a vibrant spectacle of dancing and music from local Aboriginal families was followed by a plenary session on indigenous people, who represent a disproportionate number of local persons experiencing drug-related harms. The personal, moving accounts from this session provided both a global and intimate context for the remainder of the conference.
Over the following four days, there were well received addresses from Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan (a pioneer of legislation for people with disabilities in Canada who spoke about the transferable lessons between public attitudes towards disability and those towards drug users) and Stephen Lewis (the UN Envoy for AIDS in Africa who gave an impassioned speech about what has been achieved and the international challenges that lie ahead). There were also further plenary sessions on HIV and Hepatitis C, policing, US and UN drug policies, cannabis, alcohol, and young people. Additionally, major sessions covered topics such as human rights, user involvement and amphetamine use, while the numerous concurrent sessions covered subjects such as sex workers, homelessness, tobacco harm reduction, overdose prevention, advocacy and mental health.
Several general themes emerged from the conference proceedings, such as the overall maturation of the user involvement movement. This was evident in the way the conference was conducted, with people who use drugs taking an active role at every level (including organising committees and presentations). The emotive final plenary session on ‘young people’ retold poignant stories from Kyrgyzstan, China, Brazil, Ukraine and Canada - and reinforced the need for programs and safe spaces designed by and for young people. This session closed with the announcement of a newly-formed young person’s harm reduction network.
|
 |
|
Another key conference theme was human rights for people who use drugs (such as access to drug treatment and medical care such as HIV and HCV treatment) and the huge international contrasts in this field. Methadone maintenance is still illegal in Russia and unavailable in many other countries. Iran has become the first Islamic country to established methadone maintenance in prisons and Switzerland has integrated heroin maintenance into its primary health care system. As Canada demonstrated the contrasts can be on a national level too - with presentations showcasing Vancouver’s safer injecting site and heroin maintenance trial while others such as Diane Riley bemoaned the nation’s “decade of dithering”.
Law enforcement was another central issue, especially timely given the situation in Mexico during the conference week - where their groundbreaking bill to decriminalise small amounts of drugs for personal use succumbed to the United States’ relentless interference in international drug policy. Presentations from the USA, Mexico, Canada, Poland and the United Kingdom described how punitive policing strategies could affect the health of people who use drugs, while some police officers also presented on their more positive collaborations and approaches. In Vancouver, police have openly supported the safe injection site and even escorted people to the programme).
In addition to all of these sessions and debates, there was also room for a ‘Drugs and Harm Reduction Film Festival’, the IHRA AGM, the 2006 IHRA Awards Ceremony and a live performance from the ‘Harm Reduction All-Stars’ at the closing ceremony in Vancouver’s prestigious ‘Commodore Ballroom’.
Overall the conference showcased a lot of the current international success stories, such as the listing of methadone as an essential drug by the World Health Organization, peer-based harm reduction initiatives in Cambodia, Vietnam and Brazil and drug consumption facilities being established and evaluated across the world (with no reported overdose deaths at any facility to date). However, this was constantly balanced by the acceptance that more needed to be done. At the opening ceremony, Dr. Prasada Rao (Director of UNAIDS regional support team for Asia and the Pacific) pointed out that only US$200 million is needed to prevent injection-related HIV transmission (compared to the estimated US$11billion needed to stop the global HIV pandemic). What is lacking is not money but political will and this must be the target for the coming year. In the closing words of Conference Co-Chair Sue Currie, “the success of any conference can only be measured by what comes before and what comes after”.
|
|
|
Programme & Abstracts
|
 Click here to view the conference reader (including the programme) [PDF: 3.3MB]
|
Click here to view the conference abstracts book [PDF: 2.01MB]
|
Presentations
|
Sunday 30th April
Opening Session
|
JVR Prasada Rao [PDF:68KB]
|
Monday 1st May 2006
Poster Presentations
|
Jane Fountain [PDF:374KB]
|
Rapporteur Report
|
The appointed Conference Rapporteur for this event was Professor Steffanie Strathdee from the University of California’s San Diego School of Medicine. Professor Strathdee was assisted in her task by the Rapporteur Team - Robin Pollini, Cari Miller, Darlène Palmer, Monica Malta, and Tasnim Azim.
|
Click here to view the Rapporteur Report [PDF:83KB]
|
IHRA Awards
|
The International Rolleston Award
|
 This was awarded to Dr. Robert Newman, the leading advocate for the provision of methadone on a maintenance basis for over 35 years - earning him the title of “The Methadone Pope”. Dr. Newman has advised many governments on their policies for injecting drug users, notably the government of Hong Kong where methadone is now available on demand for people dependent on opiates.
|
Click to view history of the International Rolleston Award
|
The National Rolleston Award
|
 This was given to the conference’s ‘Drug User Advisory Group’ (DUAG), which formed in May 2005 in order to take an active role in the conference planning process. The group consisted of Bill Nelles, Ann Livingston, Darlene Palmer, Jean Francois Morin, Rob Weppler, Rob Morgan, Dianne Tobin, Chris Livingstone, Sook Lee, Kenn Quayle, Brian MacKenzie, Rosemary Fayant, Raffi Balian, Deb Breau, Brent Taylor, Caitlin Padgett, Warren Michelow and Guilia DiGiorgio. The DUAG ensured that there was a wealth of diverse and challenging user participation at the Vancouver conference. The group were also a driving force behind the unprecedented support for drug users at the conference (such as peer support volunteers, health and safety protocols, a medical room, visa support and the awareness training given to hotel staff). Bill Nelles was presented with a prize of $CD 5,000 on behalf of the group, and this will be donated to the newly-formed ‘Canadian Coalition for People Who Use Drugs’, an organisation which has emerged from the conference’s ‘DUAG’ and aims to provide a voice for Canadian people who use drugs.
|
Click to view history of the National Rolleston Award
|
The Travis Jenkins Award
|
 This was given to Jason Farrell - the Chief Executive of Harm Reduction Consulting Services Inc, and the founder and former Executive Director of the Positive Health Project (PHP). For the last 15 years, Jason Farrell has been a leading expert in the design and implementation of outreach strategies for the most difficult to reach populations. As well as providing technical assistance for international HIV programmes, Jason Farrell is a trainer, consultant, advocate and researcher on a wide range of harm reduction topics and a certified HIV counsellor and outreach specialist.
|
Click to view history of the Travis Jenkins Award
|
Film Festival
|
The 3rd ‘Drugs and Harm Reduction Film Festival’ was held during the Vancouver conference in 2006, and showcased a large number of international documentaries. The evening sessions of films (entitled “Best of the Fest”) regularly attracted over 300 delegates.
|
Click here to view the Film Festival programme and abstracts [PDF:70KB]
|
The 2006 Film Festival Award was won by Gretchen Hildebran and Leah Wolchok from the US for their film entitled “Worth Saving”. For more general information about the Drugs and Harm Reduction Film Festivals, please visit www.chr.asn.au/resources/filmfest.
|
|
|
Photos
|
|
|
|
|
Click images to view larger
|
|
|
|
|
Click images to view larger
|
Links
|
International Journal of Drug Policy – Special conference edition
|
Proceedings from the APMG Satellite Session on Harm Reduction Coverage
|
|
|
