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“You call each other junkies, so why can’t we adopt the jargon?” our Youth RISE adventures in the 4th Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference “Aren‘t these simply cases of bad police practice that you have just presented?“ asks an audience member at the 4th Law Enforcement and Public Health conference after the Youth RISE International Coordinator…

The courtesy of Jurek Badman Drug policies of the 21st century remain focused on repressive approaches in most of the world’s countries. This can make it harder, if not impossible, to progressively intervene regarding psychoactive substance use, preventing possible benefits to public health. Results of more than half a century of repressive (although slightly milder…

Reagent testing involves the use of reagents to test or ‘check’ drugs for particular substances.  As a result of a chemical reaction a colour change can be compared to reference sheets. Reference sheets associated with a number of reagents can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReagentTesting/wiki/nps) Strengths: Can be used to establish credibility amongst people who use drugs…

Who are we Really Protecting? If we are to address the issue of meaningful youth participation in the design of drug policy and programming/implementation of health services, using a peer-to-peer model is effective for training & capacity-building needs in youth advocacy endeavours within this realm. Youth advocates need collective, self-reflective inquiry in order to engage…

Dr. Bobby Smyth, a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist penned a piece in the Irish Examiner attacking Gino Kenny’s Medical Cannabis Regulation bill entitled ‘It’s time to smoke out the lies about cannabis’. He argued that medical cannabis has “marginal value”  and that the enactment of the legislation would contribute to the  normalisation of cannabis, a trend that he associates with…

The African Union Plan of Action on Drug Control (2013-2017) has continued to provide a solid basis for rethinking drug policy among member states.This I can further affirm as one of the participants at the continental experts consultation on developing and improving responses to counter drug trafficking and related challenges to human security which took…

Having an insight into the setting, Villa Maraini (Rome, Italy), which one might say is a “paradise for people who use drugs”, would help to understand the context in which a 3-day study tour for harm reduction workers, organised by EHRN, took place in mid-November. The foundation was established by Massimo Barra under the Italian branch of…