The
International Federation and the Senlis Council, an international
drug policy think tank, are joining efforts to advocate for
global drug policy reform.
The two organizations have just signed an agreement to collaborate
on issues related to drug policies and communicable disease,
and more specifically, on vital questions relating to current
international drug policy and its effects on the global HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
Dr. Massimo Barra, Vice-President of the International Federation
and Director of the Villa Maraini Therapeutic Community in Rome,
which works with drug users, urged a rapid change in the world’s
approach to drug users if an international health disaster is
to be avoided.
“Governments are not addressing the direct link between
the sharing of needles for injecting drugs and the spread of
blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C,”
says Dr Barra. “This is having dramatic consequences on
public health. We are facing one of the biggest epidemics of
all time, yet the sharing of contaminated needles continues
to fuel the transmission of the world’s deadliest virus.”
Emmanuel Reinert, Executive Director of the Senlis Council adds
that it is every government’s responsibility to accept
that there is an urgent need for pragmatic, health-oriented
drug policies. “Resistance to scientific evidence is hindering
progress,” says Reinert.
“Simple policy measures such as needle exchange could
avoid a global AIDS pandemic, but these are not being implemented
for purely ideological reasons. Our principal motivation should
be to reduce suffering and save lives.”
HIV/AIDS infection rates are particularly alarming in Russia
and certain countries in Eastern Europe and Asia, where the
sharing of drug injecting equipment is the cause of a high number
of new infections.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
2005 World Drug Report, injecting drug use causes 30% to 80%
of HIV/AIDS infection in the region. Both the Federation and
the Senlis Council support the inclusion of simple but effective
drug policy measures such as needle-exchange and substitutive
therapies such as methadone maintenance programmes in international
drug conventions.
According to Dr. Barra, care and pragmatism are more effective
than punishment in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Stressing the importance of the new alliance, he notes that
“it is crucial to unify forces. The priority of both the
Federation and the Senlis Council is to help the vulnerable,
regardless of circumstances, and drug users are among the most
vulnerable people in society.”
In a 2003 report on harm reduction related to injecting drug
use, the Federation calls on the international community to
be “guided by the light of science, not by the darkness
of ignorance and fear.” The report states the need for
a more humanitarian treatment of drug users, advocating a wide
range of prevention programmes, including access to sterile
injecting equipment.
In the previous year, the Senlis Council commissioned the British
Institute of International and Comparative Law to draw up a
Draft International Treaty for Drug Policies. It establishes
the international legal foundations for the promotion of innovative
public health responses to drug use such as clean needle exchanges
or substitution programmes.
“We are not satisfied with the status quo and with current
policies. We need a more humanitarian approach in establishing
drug policies and controls,” points out Emmanuel Reinert.
According to Dr. Barra, drug addiction is in fact a social problem
that is closely linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS. As drug users
are not a closed society but live in communities, he notes,
they should have access to treatment and not be discriminated
against.
In order to create a better understanding of the problem of
drug addiction and its connection to HIV/AIDS, the Federation,
the Italian Red Cross and the Villa Maraini Foundation are organizing
training courses for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from
Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Most of the social workers employed by Villa Maraini are former
drug users who have completed a
rehabilitation programme. They work in the streets of Rome,
in close cooperation with police forces, and intervene upon
request, in cases where the arrested person is a drug user.
In 2008, the United Nations and policy makers around the world
will review current international drug policy. This will be
an opportunity to make new choices and to base the international
drug control system on new humanitarian principles. Within the
framework of their agreement, the Federation and the Senlis
Council will join efforts to ensure this goal can be achieved
in 2008.
About the Senlis Council
The Senlis Council, established in 2002, is an international
drug policy think tank which gathers expertise and facilitates
new initiatives on global drug policy. The Council calls upon
politicians, high profile academics, independent experts and
non-governmental organisations. It aims to dialogue with senior
policy-makers, both nationally and internationally, in order
to foster high-level exchanges and new ideas on integrated drug
policies.
For more information on the work of the Senlis Council: www.senliscouncil.net_
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Medical intervention for an overdose victim by a Villa
Maraini/Italian Red Cross team in the streets of Rome.
(p13142)
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A
Villa Maraini mobile street unit, Termini station, Rome.
Most of the social workers employed by Villa Maraini are
former drug users who have completed a rehabilitation
programme.
(p13141)
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Emmanuel
Reinert (left), Executive Director of the Senlis Council,
Dr. Massimo Barra (centre), Vice-President of the International
Federation and Director of the Villa Maraini and Dr. Bruce
Eshaya-Chauvin (right), head of the Federation’s
Health Department in Geneva, at the signing of the agreement,
in Geneva. (p13143)
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