The reluctance for the UN to include harm reduction in their overall drug abuse reduction plan in previous years is an unsetteling dilema. In my opinion the war on drugs could fit the criteria of a worl war without the massive mobilizations of troops, a silent world war. I believe the UNODCP has a new director different than the previous one (ding dong, the witch is dead), and hopefully we will see a world wide shift to harm reduction as an imperative.
jam:
Chief McNamara makes this point: if you read his article he talks about dehumanizing the enemy (drug user he seemed to be particularly refering to.)
Ebola?
As a worker in the health care field, even in theoretically more progressive CA, drug users of illegal drugs or legal ones like alcohol and nicotine are treated with contempt, and their care often reflects this. "Drug seeker" is a term used too often. Thin veiled punitive or "tough love measures" and a goal of total absitinence- enforced total abstinece is the rule in rehab centers. The philosophy perpetuated is that any measure to reduce harm would endore drug use, despite real evidence in the literature to the contrary. Needle exchanges and medical marijuana are steps in the right direction but is as far as the USA will go- and methadone maintenance is following out of favor. This line of thinking is probably routed in the missionary/women's temperance movement of the turn of the previous century and Hertz's control of the media (the media mogul from the USA's west coast that essentially had cannabis outlawed (or out taxed) for purely racist considerations. The USA tried narcotic maintenance and the programs were closed down in the 20s (I believe in Louissiana and New York. Not only this, MDs were jailed and made examples of- that influenced the conceptualization of the user as a liability for practitioners, and image the persists to this day.
By contrast Canada, Switzerland, and some of the EU members like portugal have had success with their harm reduction policy. Lessons that countries with more punitive approaches have dismissied (the exception being Mexico which is facing corruption and the dissolution of federal central control) d/t the drug war. And users that go into rehabs have been shot on numerous occasions.
Jam-I'll try to prune the thread but most of the links go back to the McNamara link and evolution of the swiss harm reduction thread.
But I think some important points are brought up.
Thujone
Your words are music too my ears (excuse the pun). I happen to like the Strategic Defense Initiative as presented to the public. But I agree with you on many counts. Two the 2 major player I'll add a third which you aluded to elsewhere, NGOs worldwide and their apparti which are profitering from this war. There is much discontent and I'm overhearing average American citizens, the types that fly flags and vote for their traditional parties are becoming more discontent with the status quo- the belief that the US has become a facist regieme that is growing more repressive- people are paying attention. End prohibition and i guarantee that harm reduction measures will be studied and implemented.
My forcast: Growing discontent in the EU, with defaulting banks and curtailing of freedom will come organized resistance, first small then big. I can see mass protest that massively overshadow what has transpired. The youth are the key. Revolution is a real possibility. Then, maybe they will inspire their Wii playing apathetic cousins on this side of the pond. Or else, China might have to bail everyone out, and economic engine aside, they still have totalitarian ideals. I read an article that they invented excecution vans to keep up with the volume of excecutions. Their version (well Mao's version of harm reduction) shoot the addict in the head, and you eliminate the addict and the harm they cause society as a whole. On the horizon currency wars involving South American Countries, Asia, North America, Europe, and trade wars. If the thirties were an example, the next step are real wars.
What does this have to do with harm reduction. A transparent government working to provide for the common welfare and to insure liberty is more likely to care about the individual and minimizing the harm that drug use, a reality in a free society, can do. Atleast not impeding work and real research into the topic,
psychodelierium
I feel that the poster makes a good point. The countries with the most progressive HR policies (Canada, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Autralia, Portugal) are willing to implement policies to reduce harm like sage injection rooms or decriminalize drug use and make addicts subject to softer penalties. But no one is willing to go on to full legalization (maybe b.c of the international treatise) and the attitude/climate regarding harm reduction and practices tend to fluctuate. The Swiss voted in Heroin Rx by referendum. The UK is getting away from that and other types of replacement therapy, so the conservative, pragmatic swiss have made it a medical issue and seen tangible results in improved patient social functioning, decrease crime, decrease new heroin users, decreased ODs, less unslightly open drug use which conforms to their neat and tidy issue. But they probably don't want a repeal of brohibition any more than the USA, mexican cartels, or corrupt Burmese officials because alot of money in Swiss banks is probably generated directly or indirectly from the Global drug market.
The other areas that are repeated and that the poster very perceptively pointed out is the harm that is being done to individuals with ciminal records not getting jobs, corruption in high levels, failing states, property crimes, deaths from drug violence, and the dimunition of essential liberties and fundamental human rights. Legalization would solve alot of these problems and HR practices, in the traditional sense, will flourish in a climate unfettered by repression INHO. The poster makes these points very concisely
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/08/coalition-drugs-strategy-abstinence-recovery
This was a guardian article posted by someone in the EADD discussion. Anyway, it would appear that the UK was contemplating getting away from harm reduction and moving towards abstinence only programs with the goal to get everyone off replacement therapy. The plans were apparently shelved- but people over there have mentioned long waiting periods to get on MMT and I hear nothing about heroin maintenance.
jam:
Chief McNamara makes this point: if you read his article he talks about dehumanizing the enemy (drug user he seemed to be particularly refering to.)
Ebola?
As a worker in the health care field, even in theoretically more progressive CA, drug users of illegal drugs or legal ones like alcohol and nicotine are treated with contempt, and their care often reflects this. "Drug seeker" is a term used too often. Thin veiled punitive or "tough love measures" and a goal of total absitinence- enforced total abstinece is the rule in rehab centers. The philosophy perpetuated is that any measure to reduce harm would endore drug use, despite real evidence in the literature to the contrary. Needle exchanges and medical marijuana are steps in the right direction but is as far as the USA will go- and methadone maintenance is following out of favor. This line of thinking is probably routed in the missionary/women's temperance movement of the turn of the previous century and Hertz's control of the media (the media mogul from the USA's west coast that essentially had cannabis outlawed (or out taxed) for purely racist considerations. The USA tried narcotic maintenance and the programs were closed down in the 20s (I believe in Louissiana and New York. Not only this, MDs were jailed and made examples of- that influenced the conceptualization of the user as a liability for practitioners, and image the persists to this day.
By contrast Canada, Switzerland, and some of the EU members like portugal have had success with their harm reduction policy. Lessons that countries with more punitive approaches have dismissied (the exception being Mexico which is facing corruption and the dissolution of federal central control) d/t the drug war. And users that go into rehabs have been shot on numerous occasions.
Jam-I'll try to prune the thread but most of the links go back to the McNamara link and evolution of the swiss harm reduction thread.
But I think some important points are brought up.
Thujone
Your words are music too my ears (excuse the pun). I happen to like the Strategic Defense Initiative as presented to the public. But I agree with you on many counts. Two the 2 major player I'll add a third which you aluded to elsewhere, NGOs worldwide and their apparti which are profitering from this war. There is much discontent and I'm overhearing average American citizens, the types that fly flags and vote for their traditional parties are becoming more discontent with the status quo- the belief that the US has become a facist regieme that is growing more repressive- people are paying attention. End prohibition and i guarantee that harm reduction measures will be studied and implemented.
My forcast: Growing discontent in the EU, with defaulting banks and curtailing of freedom will come organized resistance, first small then big. I can see mass protest that massively overshadow what has transpired. The youth are the key. Revolution is a real possibility. Then, maybe they will inspire their Wii playing apathetic cousins on this side of the pond. Or else, China might have to bail everyone out, and economic engine aside, they still have totalitarian ideals. I read an article that they invented excecution vans to keep up with the volume of excecutions. Their version (well Mao's version of harm reduction) shoot the addict in the head, and you eliminate the addict and the harm they cause society as a whole. On the horizon currency wars involving South American Countries, Asia, North America, Europe, and trade wars. If the thirties were an example, the next step are real wars.
What does this have to do with harm reduction. A transparent government working to provide for the common welfare and to insure liberty is more likely to care about the individual and minimizing the harm that drug use, a reality in a free society, can do. Atleast not impeding work and real research into the topic,
psychodelierium
I feel that the poster makes a good point. The countries with the most progressive HR policies (Canada, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Autralia, Portugal) are willing to implement policies to reduce harm like sage injection rooms or decriminalize drug use and make addicts subject to softer penalties. But no one is willing to go on to full legalization (maybe b.c of the international treatise) and the attitude/climate regarding harm reduction and practices tend to fluctuate. The Swiss voted in Heroin Rx by referendum. The UK is getting away from that and other types of replacement therapy, so the conservative, pragmatic swiss have made it a medical issue and seen tangible results in improved patient social functioning, decrease crime, decrease new heroin users, decreased ODs, less unslightly open drug use which conforms to their neat and tidy issue. But they probably don't want a repeal of brohibition any more than the USA, mexican cartels, or corrupt Burmese officials because alot of money in Swiss banks is probably generated directly or indirectly from the Global drug market.
The other areas that are repeated and that the poster very perceptively pointed out is the harm that is being done to individuals with ciminal records not getting jobs, corruption in high levels, failing states, property crimes, deaths from drug violence, and the dimunition of essential liberties and fundamental human rights. Legalization would solve alot of these problems and HR practices, in the traditional sense, will flourish in a climate unfettered by repression INHO. The poster makes these points very concisely
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/08/coalition-drugs-strategy-abstinence-recovery
This was a guardian article posted by someone in the EADD discussion. Anyway, it would appear that the UK was contemplating getting away from harm reduction and moving towards abstinence only programs with the goal to get everyone off replacement therapy. The plans were apparently shelved- but people over there have mentioned long waiting periods to get on MMT and I hear nothing about heroin maintenance.
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