US 'convinces' the UN to drop Harm Reduction Strategies

Edvard Munch said:
This is your country. This is the policies your country is making. How does one get active in fighting these completely ridiculous Gov. ideas?
Click to expand...

by praying and getting involved, and as a non practicing former catholic, i am not fucking kidding when i say pray, because it will take a higher power to take down the immoral bush admistration and conservative policies.
 
It's a HOAX!

The Story must be a HOAX put out by the Guardian.

There are no other authoritative news reports to cross references it with.


If anyone does find an independent authoritative reference PLEAZE post it here in this thread.
 
Yes, I've wondered about that as well, as the only other site I can find that has mentioned it was stopthedrugwar.org, but it isn't outside the rhelm of possibility that the observer was where the leaked document got handed to.

The fact that the article names the sources involves means that it would have to have some pretty good lawyers if it was just making it up.

Also every single checkable fact is correct (names and positions of participants, next months meeting of the Vienna of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

I think it might be a bit soon to jump and say it's a hoax.

And it is completely likely that the Bush administration would do something like this. I mean the fuck wits are against giving out free condoms in Africa.

THIS is supposidly the original letter, though I don't know about the "Jean Bobby" at the top. But the rest of the article checks out. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is indeed located in the Vienna International Centre, and that is it's correct address... Someone else should check the spelling...

I checked this report out as good as I could before I posted it in the front page, and I'm willing to give it the benifit of the doubt for the moment, though I'd love it if someone could proove it to be a hoax.
 
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Even though I would love to believe a hoax, It simply sounds so true and so easy to believe. Undeniable is the fact that drug consumption will increase as purity decreases (less access to safe IV administration). George W's Heroin smuggling Afghani rebels should have a definate advantage as more #3 heroin will need to be smoked as a result of this political scheming. Drug prices will rise, thereby funding the puppet government that pretends(albeit shadiley) to advocate reducing opium yeilds and heroin stores. All the while promoting known toxic drugs at home and abroad and protecting the CEOs in charge of major pharmacutical companies. Nothing makes me more sick than to realize that the UN is bending over to GW's shameless puppet regime antics. For the sake of all humans alive on this earth please legalize marijuana and all opiates(under some restrictions) and study stimulants further so we can understand the nature of stimulant addiction. THERE IS NO REASON TO KEEP prohibited drugs ILLEGAL except FOR THE GAIN of the PHARMICUTICAL INDUSTRY. please, please if you dont realize this do some independant research and if you dont come to this conclusion--- please make a very,very large post as to why these drugs should be illegal and punishable by extended periods of jail-time.
 
Well the only other group with any clout in UN matters (when it manages to get everyone to pull together) is the EU. We can only hope that they have the good sense to oppose such a policy.

For fucks sake, Tony Blair is a practicing Catholic, yet even he isn't opposed to needle exchange programs, to prevent the spread of HIV. Not that it's much comfort to all the people who will have to be subject to these retarded policies, but I can't see ANY EU country (no, not even the UK) going along with that.

That's what happens when you get someone who openly cites God for the moral authority to carry out these changes. The US has to find a way of separating religion from the state, or else, it's downhill all the way

Aren't you about due for another headcase to take a shot at the president?
 
You know, the longer time goes on, I just am starting to think that GWB simply likes to see people dead and dying. The man is just evil incarnate. And all this in the name of God and freedom. It really is sickening.

Why is the UN even going to listen to him? He didn´t listen to them when he wanted to go to war! Oh, that´s right, the money. Are they even going to have any money left to give to the UN after that hideous budget projection?

George Bush doesn´t care about helping the world. If he put a fraction of his war budget into the AIDS crisis funding, it could make a world of difference, but I don´t want to get too started... It´s late and if I get too worked up I won´t sleep.
 
^ "You can't blow up a social relationship"

I have revenge fantasies too - along the lines of Lemmy in Hardware ( "... acute case of lead poisoning administered to the back of the head with a short piece of pipe" is the phrase I believe)

But in my heart I know that using violence to solve problems is like using a sledgehammer to fix a watch (apologies to particle physicists for stealing their analogy)

Here in Australia, I think NSP (needle exchange) are pretty safe, regardless of the "tough on drugs" rhetoric - it saves too much money to be seriously under threat.

BUT - the current funding is a pittance anyway. No new harm reduction initiatives are possible (like safer injecting rooms or prescription heroin). And there is a danger that existing NSP will be tied closer to clinical (read "treatment") models of delivery - this is already starting to happen to some degree.

I guess we've got to keep on plugging along, trying to keep harm reduction alive until this wave of conservatism passes - it aint been around forever, and it won't last forever either.

Failing that:

"Come along and throw a bomb
Destroy democracy
With L-E-O
N-T-R
O-T-S-K-Y
(Why? Because we love you!)"
=D
 
I think it's more about the DEA achieving it's global objectives and how those are seen to be hampered by current EU and UN policies.

The DEA is gradually tightening it's grip on the quasi legal drug trade by squeezing out related rights and freedoms. As much as supply diversion monitoring, drug culture itself is what's being targeted, with attempts to silence proponents of HR or any groups which acknowledge and support non-consequential use.

The article mentions the decades of European collaborative HR research. This is something the US government has not got. No doubt there will be efforts made by the US to dismiss or discredit these studies.

I think the DEA's view is that if there is any country remaining which does not support a US policy on zero tolerance, it will be seen as a wild card in their plan to globally control and limit availability. Acknowledging that informed drug use can be non-consequential, completely undermines the fundamental basis for a zero tolerance or war on drugs approach. It does more than that; At the loud end of the line, it laughs in the face of zero tolerance. Why? because it's accomplishable; proven everyday by the high percentage of users the media never gets to hear about.

But in a country with HR policies, funding is made available by governments for these trends to be monitored. Drug use figures become more accurate and a large body of evidence is gathered which outlines a profile of the average user. It's this profile which is the greatest threat as it defies the average US citizen's idea on the "evils of drugs" and the widely held belief that all drug users are morally depraved, or at least socially handicapped. Those same studies have also indicated that HR is having a positive impact, and that consequences are often avoided by those who follow sound, scientifically based, and medically supported advice.

While there remains a growing body of evidence to support HR, a zero tolerance policy becomes increasingly exposed as a non-warranted means of persecuting minority groups. It also tends to highlight the billions wasted chasing crime syndicates who continually evade detection or are simply replaced with another group the moment they crumble. The demand is currently far too high to hope for success. And therein lies the essence of their concern. You ain't going to reduce demand if people think it's OK to do.

Loss of employment, future travel restrictions, exorbitant fines, a criminal record, incarceration, future persecution, and fear for personal safety. These are the real evils associated with drug use.
 
well regardless of weather or not this is true or not (and it undoubtedly is, knowing our great drug fighting tactics), i would like to say a few things on behalf of the USA

The government's drug "fighting" policies are not necessarily the opinion of our country

foreigners often ask me, if so many peopl ein the US hate our government's policies towards drugs, then why do we vote for them?

the answer is that no candidate for presidency is going to risk his multi billion dollar investment (the campaign) on such a controversial issue. Id say drugs are considered more controversial than abortions (isnt that warped). Our candidates, whomever they are going to be, know that the general voting mass of the USA are a bunch of idiots when it comes to this issue, have no exposure to the real world of drug use, and all believe drugs are the incarnation of satan himself (thanks to our government's brainwashing tactics beginning 60 some years ago). Because of that, most people would never vote for someone who has liberal views on drugs.

The end result is that since most (voting) people in america have this standpoint on drugs, our idiotic foreign policy pertaining to drugs is always going to be like this.

I think the UN's harm reduction efforts are commendable, and I apologize that the USA tries to boss everyone around. Please dont hate America for this, just hate our current policies. We need to better educate our voter base (BL is a step in that direction!).

And again, i really hope this isnt true. Its very childish. Its like the US saying "IF YOU GUYS DONT PLAY BALL BY MY RULES, IM TAKING THE BALL AND GOING HOME!"
 
I heard it on the radio first, but it's not like most radios get their information from Reuters, you know? They probably got it off the gardian.
 
The question is: who the hell DO you vote for? Republicans and Dems are both fucked up on the whole issue, and Libertarians will never win because our country is full of fucking morons.
 
This press release has come from the Asian Harm Reduction Network

AHRN Press Release: 9th February 2005

UNODC buckles under US pressure: reversal promotes spread of HIV/AIDS

Recent pressure from the US Department of State has led the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa, to state that UNODC will no longer support evidence-based responses designed to prevent the spread of the blood-borne virus, HIV.

As one of the co-sponsors of UNAIDS - the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS - UNODC has previously supported measures aimed at reducing HIV risk amongst high-risk groups, including people who use drugs.

UNODC's prior support for these 'harm reduction' measures - which include the provision of new injecting equipment and pharmacotherapy treatment for drug dependent people - has been important in the ongoing fight to reduce HIV infection and other drug use-related harms, and should be commended.

In UNODC's 2004 publication, 'Drugs and HIV/AIDS in South East Asia', it is made clear that "The UNODC is fully aligned with the World Health Organisation in recognition of the need to adopt a 'harm reduction' approach to the problem of HIV infection among injecting drug users (IDUs)."

Harm reduction is a means, not a goal. It is a means through which health care workers can reach out to people at risk of drug related harms - in particular, HIV. People who use drugs are often discriminated against, and the resulting social marginalisation means that many do not even have access to the most basic health care services. Needle and syringe exchange programmes and pharmacotherapy, in conjunction with outreach activities, are essential components of comprehensive and compassionate harm reduction responses.

The UNODC's own report goes on to state that "Harm reduction approaches have not been adopted to any significant degree in the [South East Asian] region. However, those few cases in which they have been tried, such as in small-scale pilot projects, have found them to be effective in slowing, stabilising and reversing the spread of HIV among IDUs and their sexual partners."

This slowing and subsequent reversal of the HIV epidemic is critical. With current estimates of between 7.4 and 10.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Asia - and further estimates that by 2010 there will be more than 40 million people living with HIV in Asia alone - it is clear that evidence-based responses to the epidemic are essential.

With HIV infection in many Asian jurisdictions being disproportionately driven by the sharing and re-use of needles and syringes by people who inject drugs, harm reduction approaches have the potential to prevent millions of new HIV infections and thus stabilise and eventually reverse the course of this devastating epidemic.

The worldwide scientific evidence that harm reduction approaches save lives is overwhelming. The effectiveness and essential nature of these programs has been highlighted by the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS and UNODC in their 2004 joint policy guidelines, 'Evidence for Action on HIV/AIDS and injecting drug use.' In the policy brief called 'Provision of Sterile Injecting Equipment to Reduce HIV Transmission' it states, "The provision of access to sterile injection equipment for injecting drug users and the encouragement of its use are essential components of HIV/AIDS prevention programmes, and should be seen as part of the overall comprehensive strategies to reduce the demand for illicit drugs…'

The Asian Harm Reduction Network (AHRN) is heartened to see the global alignment of organisations working towards the prevention of HIV presenting a unified voice and urging UNODC to stand by its previous support of measures aimed at reducing HIV risk amongst high-risk groups, including people who use drugs.

In the interests of public health and the common good, the Asian Harm Reduction Network joins the call for UNODC not to bow to short-sighted political imperatives and donor demands, and to continue its active role in supporting effective, evidence-based responses to drug use and HIV/AIDS.

In the absence of clear and unequivocal support of harm reduction by UNODC, the Asian Harm Reduction Network believes that Asia and other regions are facing increasingly dire health, economic and social impacts related to drug use and HIV/AIDS.


You can also download a copy of Antonio Maria Costa's letter from here.
 
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