The Declaration of the International Network of people who use Illegal Drugs in German
Wir brauchen ein internationales Netzwerk Drogen gebrauchender Aktivist(inn)en!
Wir sind Menschen aus der ganzen Welt, die Drogen gebrauchen. Wir sind Menschen, die man ausgrenzt und diskriminiert, ins Gefängnis steckt, als „böse“, „gefährlich“ und „nutzlos“ bezeichnet und tötet. Es ist höchste Zeit, dass wir als Bürger/innen unsere Stimme erheben, unsere Rechte einfordern, unsere Belange selbst vertreten und unsere Selbstbestimmung und Autonomie erstreiten. Worum es uns gehen muss:
* Befähigung und Stärkung der Konsument(inn)en legaler und illegalisierter Drogen weltweit, damit wir überleben, als Menschen wahrgenommen und gehört werden und uns in alle Entscheidungen einbringen, die unser Leben betreffen
* Förderung des Verständnisses für unsere Erfahrungen und Lebensumstände; zu verdeutlichen sind insbesondere die schädlichen Auswirkungen der gegenwärtigen Drogenpolitik auf Drogenkonsument(inn)en wie auch Nichtkonsument(inn)en, wie sie auf örtlicher, nationaler, weltregionaler und internationaler Ebene zu beobachten sind
* Nutzung unserer eigenen Fähigkeiten und Kenntnisse für die Aufklärung und Fortbildung anderer Menschen, vor allem unserer Peers und all derjenigen Mitbürger/innen, die das Thema Drogen betrifft
* Zugang zu bzw. Schaffung von Angeboten der Schadensminderung, dazu gehören Drogentherapien, angemessene medizinische Versorgung, legaler Zugang zu verschreibungspflichtigen Medikamenten (Originalstoffen), Vergabe von Konsumzubehör für Safer Use (einschließlich Spritzen und Nadeln) und Möglichkeiten der Entsorgung, Programme aufsuchender Peer-Arbeit, objektive Informationen über Drogen und deren Gebrauch, Drogenkonsumräume
* Anerkennung unseres Rechts auf evidenzbasierte, objektive Informationen über Drogen und über Schutzmaßnahmen hinsichtlich der möglichen negativen Folgen des Drogengebrauchs durch Schaffung eines gleichberechtigten Zugangs zu umfassender gesundheitlicher und sozialer Versorgung, zu angemessenem und bezahlbarem Wohnraum und zu Arbeits- und Beschäftigungsmöglichkeiten
* Unterstützung der bestehenden örtlichen, nationalen, weltregionalen und internationalen Netzwerke und Organisationen von Menschen mit HIV/Aids und/oder Hepatitis sowie anderer im Bereich Schadensminderung tätiger Gruppen; dabei ist sicherzustellen, dass aktive Drogengebraucher/innen auf allen Entscheidungsebenen einbezogen werden, in den Vorständen vertreten sind und für ihre Ausgaben, die aufgewendete Zeit und die eingebrachte Kompetenz angemessen entschädigt werden
* Anfechtung der nationalen Gesetzgebung und der Regelungen internationaler Konventionen, durch die den meisten von uns ein sicheres und gesundes Leben verwehrt wird.
Uns ist bewusst, welche Herausforderungen mit der Schaffung eines internationalen Netzwerks verbunden sind. Umso mehr sind wir gefordert,
* Vielfalt zu respektieren und wertzuschätzen, indem wir je unterschiedliche Lebengeschichten und -bedingungen, Kenntnisse, Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten anerkennen und das Netzwerk zu einem geschützten Raum machen – egal, welche Drogen die Einzelnen gebrauchen und wie sie diese gebrauchen
* über unsere Arbeit zu informieren, um Drogengebraucher/innen überall dort, wo es noch keine User-Organisationen gibt, zum Aufbau solcher Organisationen zu ermutigen und dabei zu unterstützen
* Toleranz und Zusammenarbeit zu fördern, indem wir eine Kultur der Einbeziehung und aktiven Beteiligung pflegen
* nach demokratischen Prinzipien zu handeln und Strukturen zu schaffen, die ein Maximum an Beteiligung an Entscheidungsprozessen ermöglichen – mit Blick vor allem auf diejenigen, die aufgrund ihrer geschlechtlichen Identität oder sexuellen Orientierung, ihres sozioökonomischen Status, ihrer Religion usw. besonders gefährdet sind, unterdrückt zu werden
* zu verhindern, dass Drogen gebrauchende Menschen inhaftiert werden; zugleich müssen wir uns dafür einsetzen, dass man bereits Inhaftierten das Recht auf Haftbedingungen zugesteht, die ihrer Gesundheit nicht schaden, ebenso das Recht auf Behandlung (einschließlich Drogentherapie), Zugang zu Mitteln der Schadensminderung (z. B. Spritzen und Nadeln, Kondome) und zu medizinischer Versorgung (sie sollte wenigstens der in Freiheit verfügbaren entsprechen)
* weltweit gegen Hinrichtungen von Drogen gebrauchenden Menschen und andere gegen sie gerichtete inhumane Maßnahmen zu protestieren.
Die Notwendigkeit, ein internationales Netzwerk zu schaffen, ist umso dringlicher aufgrund der Tatsache, dass unterdrückten Bevölkerungsgruppen immer nur dann Gleichberechtung zugestanden wurde, wenn sie sich selbst dafür eingesetzt haben. Gemeinsam wollen wir deshalb dafür kämpfen, dass die auf lokaler, nationaler und internationaler Ebene bestehenden Drogengesetze und -Regelungen geändert werden, und dass eine von Moralismus, Stereotypisierung und Lügen gespeiste Drogenpolitik durch eine evidenzbasierte Drogenpolitik ersetzt wird, die die Menschenrechte und Menschenwürde respektiert
Der Internationales Drogen Gebrauchender Aktivist(inn)en
30 April 2006, Vancouver Canada
The Declaration of the International Network of drug-users (in Macedonian.)
Zoto na svetot mu treba me|unarodna mre`a od aktivisti koi koristat droga
Nie sme lu|e od cel svet koi koristat droga. Nie sme lu|e koi bile marginalizirani, diskriminirani, sme bile ubivani, bez potreba povreduvani, zatvorani, pretstavuvani kako zli, i stereotipizirani kako opasni i lu|e bez koi se mo`e. Sega e vreme da go kreneme svojot glas kako gra|ani, da gi vospostavime na{ite prava i da go vratime pravoto da bideme sopstveni portparoli i da se borime za samoopolnomo{tuvawe:
Da im se ovozmo`i na lu|eto vo svetot koi koristat drogi, dozvoleni ili nedozvoleni od zakonot, da pre`iveat, uspeat vo `ivotot i da se slu{nat na{ite glasovi kako ~ove~ki su{testva za da imame zna~aen udel vo site odluki koi se odnesuvaat na na{iot `ivot.
Da se ovozmo`i podobro razbirawe na lu|eto koi koristat nezakonski drogi, a osobeno na destruktivnosta na sega{nite politiki koi vlijaat vrz korisnicite na drogi, kako i vrz nivnite sogra|ani koi ne gi koristat: ova e va`en element vo razvojot na vakvite socijalni politiki na lokalno, nacionalno, regionalno i me|unarodno nivo.
Da gi upotrebime sopstvenite ve{tini i znaewe za da podu~ime drugi, osobeno na{ite bliski i prijateli i site drugi sogra|ani koi se zagri`eni vo vrska so drogata vo na{ite zaednici.
Da barame op{t pristap do site dostapni vidovi pomo{ koi mo`at da ja namalat {tetata so koja vo sekojdnevniot `ivot se soo~uvaat lu|eto koi koristat drogi, kako 1) le~ewe od zavisnosta, soodvetna lekarska pomo{ za tie lica koi aktivno koristat drogi; 2) reguliran pristap do kvalitetni lekarstva koi ni se potrebni; 3) dostapnost na pobezbedna oprema za koristewe, kako {pricovi i creva kako i 4) uslovi za nivno bezbedno otstranuvawe; 5) pomo{ me|u prijatelite i otvoreno informirawe za drogite i se vo vrska so nivnata upotreba; 6) uslovi za bezbedna konzumacija koi se potrebni na mnogu od nas.
Da go vospostavime na{eto pravo na objektivno informirawe za drogite, potkrepeno so dokazi, i za toa kako da se za{titime od potencijalnite negativni posledici od koristeweto drogi, preku op{t pristap do ramnopravni i temelni zdravstveni i socijalni uslugi, bezbedno, ne preskapo smestuvawe vo okolina koja n# prifa}a i priliki za vrabotuvawe.
Da obezbedime poddr{ka na postoe~kite lokalni, nacionalni, regionalni i me|unarodni mre`i na lu|e koi `iveat so HIV/SIDA, hepatitis i drugi sli~ni grupi za pomo{, za aktivnite korisnici na droga da bidat vklu~eni na site nivoa od donesuvaweto odluki, a osobeno da mo`eme da slu`ime kako ~lenovi na odborite (upravni) na takvite organizacii i da dobivame soodveten nadomestok za na{ite tro{oci, vreme i znaewe.
Da gi predizvikame nacionalnoto zakonodavstvo i me|unarodnite konvencii koi se u{te n# spre~uvaat da `iveeme bezbeden i zdrav `ivot.
Svesni za potencijalnite predizvici od formiraweto takva mre`a, nie:
Ja cenime i po~ituvame socijalnata raznolikost i gi priznavame razlikite vo potekloto, znaeweto i sposobnostite, i kultivirame bezbedno opkru`uvawe polno so poddr{ka vo ramkite na mre`ata bez ogled na vidot na drogata i na~inot na nejzina upotreba;
[irime informacii za na{ata rabota za da go pomogneme razvojot na korisni~ki organizacii vo zaednici/zemji vo koi nema takvi organizacii;
Se zalagame za tolerancija i sorabotka, neguvawe na kulturata na prifa}awe i aktivno u~estvo;
Maksimalno vklu~uvawe so osoben naglasok vrz onie koi se nesrazmerno ranlivi kako meta na diskriminacija vrz osnova na nivniot pol, seksualna opredelba, op{testveno-ekonomskata polo`ba, religija itn.;
Se borime protiv pogubuvaweto i drugi ne~ove~ki postapki so lu|eto koi koristat droga vo svetot.
Vo krajna linija, najdlabokata potreba od vakva mre`a poteknuva od faktot deka niedna grupa lu|e vrz koi se vr{ela represija ne uspeale da se oslobodat bez u~estvo na samite zasegnati od taa represija. Preku zaedni~ko deluvawe, }e se borime za promena na sega{nite lokalni, regionalni i me|unarodni zakoni vo vrska so drogite i za formulacija na politika vrz osnova na dokazi, koja }e gi po~ituva ~ovekovite prava i dostoinstvo mesto politika zasnovana vrz moralizam, stereotipi i lagi.
Me|unarodni aktivisti-korisnici na drogi
30 april 2006, Vankuver, Kanada
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July 2005
Letter from AIDS Activist of European AIDS Treatment Group
In November 2003, a small group of people living with AIDS, drug users,
women and gay men met with the Director General of the World Health
Organization Dr. Jong Wook-Lee and the new head of the HIV/AIDS
Department, Dr. Jim Kim. This was the first meeting in the history of the epidemic
between a Director General and a delegation of PLWHAs from around the
world.
One of the priorities for the activists at that meeting was the
inclusion of methadone on the WHO’s Model List of Essential Medicines, since this
drug is life saving for those struggling with addiction and is a key adjunctive
therapy with antiretroviral treatment for drug users. Right after the
meeting a follow up letter urged WHO to “consider the inclusion of
methadone hydrochloride into the List of Essential Drugs as part of the AIDS kit
that will be crucial for making antiretroviral therapy (ARV) treatment
available for the majority of HIV-positive people in Asia and Central and Eastern
European countries” (the letter is attached for easy reference)
It is my pleasure to inform you that methadone (and buprenorphine as a
medicine with a similar clinical performance within a pharmacological
class) are on the WHO Model (Complementary) List of Essential Medicines!
Yesterday the report was finally approved and in several days the report of the
WHO Expert Committee and WHO Model List of Essential Medicines will be in
the public domain.
“Complementary” list is used for medicines when specialized diagnostic
or monitoring facilities and/or specialist medical care and/or specialist
training are needed. Another achievement is the introduction of a new
section in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, namely -
Medicines used for substance dependence (programmes). This is an opening for
other medicines used for treatment of substance dependence, including
alcohol.
In November 2003, Dr. Kim said he would push to get methadone on the
Essential Drug list. It took 18 months to do it, but he fulfilled his
promise.
Mauro Guarinieri
Chair, Board of Directors, Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP
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ARGENTINA: 23,000 PERSONS SUPPORTED THE DEPENALIZATION BILL IN THE BIGEST RELATED PUBLIC ACTS IN THE COUNTRY
Last Saturday aproximatelly 8,000 persons were involved in the fouth edition of MMM in Rosario city with a great festival with concerts and performance organized by the Argentinean Harm Reduction Association ARDA. The Festival was on the Municipal Open Anfiteathre with the bands Rosario Smowing, Urganos del Sur, Mobil Vision and Manos de Filipi.
On Sunday over 15,000 persons participated on the Buenos Aires edition of MMM with another open-air festival on Palermo area. The concerts involved Intoxicados, Manos de Filipi, Resistencia Suburbana, Orge & Caro and Concha Man.
Main speakers on both festivals were the Executive Secretary of ARDA Gustavo Hurtado, Diputy Eduardo Garcia, author of the bill for depenalization and a representative of the argentinean Drug User Organization. The famous musician Andres Calamaro sent greetings in a very sensitive letter asking for “freedom, freedom and freedom” , as it is written in the national hymn and reminding that “from the skin to inside I am the owner of my body”.
Also some people concentrated In Cordoba in park Las Heras and the bar 990.
MMM activities organized by ARDA are associated with the organization ´s National Depenalization Campaign and also claim for depenalization of personal use of all drugs -as the proposals of law on Diputies and Senators Camaras support-. The critical point is that the bills needs to be discussed in the Camaras and 2005 MMM with over 23,000 persons has claimed for that.
For more information or the Argentinean Harm Reduction Association ´s Bulletin with details and photos write to arda@fibertel.com.ar
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Drugs, Advocacy & Me
by Bijay Pandey of Recovering Nepal -2005
I am a drug user from Kathmandu, Nepal. I started using drugs when I was 18. Initially I was just doing marijuana and other local drugs like cough syrup, sleeping tablets etc later on I did heroin and other drugs. I was very attracted to drugs from that age.
Slowly I started having problems in my college, my grades were very poor in my class, started having fights inside the college. My parents then decided that I should go to India for further studies. It was the same case in India but I somehow managed to spend 4 years and finish my engineering degree. Afterwards I came to Nepal and things started getting worse. Nepal is no place for drug users. Here human rights are violated all the time and rights of drug users don’t exist at all. I started having troubles with my using and got arrested several times. The bottom line is I couldn’t survive. The society government started to treat me like a criminal and I decided to quit. I had hard time to quit and several times I failed.
Finally eight years back I was able to give up drugs for good. However after quitting drugs I had nothing to do. My job was gone and nobody wanted to hire me cause I am a drug user. For one year I was like a alien even in my hometown. I had no friends, my family didn’t trust me and I had nowhere to go and nothing to do.
I decided to work with the drug users; since I have been a drug user all my life and I thought I am capable of helping them and which in turn will help myself. I started working in rehabilitation center as a volunteer. I started getting my life together and found happiness in helping people like me.
I kept working with my drug using friends found my internal peace, I am able to hear what is really inside me, and that is unconditional love and help to the people like me this resulted in contentment and joy. Since I understood all I ever had to do was just listen to my heart and do what I love doing. I’m not afraid anymore either, because when something comes up, I don’t run around screaming, “What do I do? What do I do?” but, instead, I just turn to my friends who were there for me and I was there for them.
From my previous explanation one can assume the situation of drug users is getting worse day by day. I along with some of my drug using friends decided to do something about it. We were all doing better comparing to those old days however thousands and thousands of other were suffering. They were ignored by the government, society and community. They never received a human value and living a life of drug user is like living a life of a parasite. Something must be done to upgrade their life style and living conditions. So we formed a loose network called Recovering Nepal. We did advocacy for the drug users and people living with HIV and AIDS. We held media campaigns and awareness programs. Finally small changes and glimmer of hopes beginning to appear. People started listening to us, newspapers and other electronic media started talking about us and most of all we all drug users are united to fight for the right of drug user.
We have not accomplished much but we are hoping that someday we will be there. Now we have a formal network of drug users in which more than one thousand drug users are affiliated. The government had finally acknowledged our existence and invited us in a Steering Committee of Harm Reduction, which is going to be implemented in couple of months. We are voicing for the policy change of drug user so that we will not be regarded as criminal or antisocial.
What we believe is that “every drug user has right to live and enjoy life and he or she should never be punished for using drugs”.
Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt MSc
On 21 April 2005, ‘addicts,’ people living with AIDS, other drug users, MEPs and other European Authority diplomats met in the European Parliament to discuss the inclusion of civil society in drug policy debate and drug policy generally. Here is a short report by Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt MSc
It was an interesting and extraordinary scene to have the dreadlocked guys around the suits in an otherwise ‘diplomatic session.’ NGO delegates, mostly organisational or individual members of ENCOD came to take part in a drug policy hearing initiated by ENCOD, a major part of whose remit was to remind the EU, as a democratic institution, that it has a responsibility to consult with Civil Society when designing drug policy. It was even more heartening to hear Olivier Hartman of an Illicit drug user union in Belgium acknowledge, along with the panelists, that we do indeed have to help kids not get in a mess with drugs for as citizens, we have both collective as well as individual responsibilities.
We had our man behind the camera, Thorri Johanssen and then there were NGO delegates and ENCOD members from Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the U.K. Other NGO delegates included Pien Metal of the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Marco Perduca of the International Prohibitionist League(IAL), both of whom were speakers along with ENCODs coordinator, Joep Oomen. Mr Barra of the International Redcross Federation, who is an ally of harm reduction, also spoke passionately about stigma kills more people than the drugs themselves; he also addressed the AIDS plenary in Vienna at the annual Commission on Narcotic Drugs last month advocating strongly for NEPs as well as maintenance substitution therapies. I liked him..it transpired that he had worked with drug users for 3O yrs.
Franco Frattini, an Italian European Commissioner of Justice and Home Affairs informed the gathering that the parliament was “homing in on this issue due to citizens interest.” Bob Keizer of the Pompidou Group, Council of Europe went as far as to say that many useless prevention interventions were still being applied, adding that ethics and human rights must be brought into the equation when designing drug policy for Europe. He stipulated two other observations; 1) that all of the functions of drug policy must be implemented and 2) by different organisations with a recognition of these different organisations roles in regard to the EU action plan, which will be ratified in June. He noted regretfully that the WHO as well as the Pompidou group had not been mentioned in this plan which was a serious oversight and “missed opportunity.”
Paul Griffiths of the EMCDDA, spoke of the seriousness of the HCV pandemic amongst IDUs and that this had implications for the health budgets of EU member states. Later, Mr Barra referred to some of the harsher behaviour-therapy therapeutic comunities as having led to the deaths of some IDUs and implored the assembled MEPs gathered not to use the issue of drug dependency as a political football. Mr Keizer made it clear that there must be a more open debate and the Pompidou group were willing to collaborate on a report into the effectiveness (or not) of our current drug policies. By the time it came for Oomen to speak on behalf of the ever-growing ENCOD network, we were all well aware that at least 80% of the assembled throng were allies if not advocates of non-criminalising drug policies.
Joep Oomen began his speech by noting that the 2000-2004 report of the EMCDDA left serious doubts on the likelihood of achieving the goals of reduced drug use, blood borne diseases (BBDs) and crime at this point. He reminded us that many of the most effective harm reduction strategies had been initiated by drug-using citizens and their carers and that ‘they were the true architects of new drug policies.’ He asked us all to consider how/if prohibitive drug policy worked, when, for example, in Bulgaria, one can got o jail for 15 yrs for possession of less than a gramme of any illicit drug.. a little later Dr Frederick Polak asked what the official reasons for not re-evaluating drug policy given that five out of six of the major indicators had failed.
During the discussion, Massimo Barra noted the schizophrenic response of the UN bodies where UNODC are railroaded mostly by U.S drug warrior crusadors to maintain repressive policies, while at the same time UNAIDS is saying that NEPs are an important component of drug treatment. The Mayor of Maastricht said, “I am not asking for a complete liberalisation of the drug laws but proper regulation at regional levels and under strict quantities re supply which would eventually lead to the elimination of illegal supplies.” He added that many other Mayors agreed with him, but were afraid to say so publically.
Ms Metaal asked “if alternative development in Latin America is working as the UNODC report, why is that peasant coca growers are throwing stones at the police, who tell them we are only obeying orders of our superiors.” Franco Corleone, of Forum Droghe, in his endearing empassioned way noted that the UNODC counts of on verbal moral manipulations ad infinitum, acknowledging that of the entire Italian prison population, 39% are drug “offenders.” He stated emphaticallly that law should not be confused with morality and that individual nation states should be allowed to decide their own local/national policies.
Towards the end Marco Perduca asked us to consider that there are various ways in which the UN drug conventions are illegal in that they abuse cultural and religious rights. During question time, PWA, Luiz Mendao of the European AIDS Treatment Group, said that it is essential that the the European Commission do not ignore the results and recommendations of the European Parliament´s Catania Report..
Carel Edwards, head of the anti-drug coordinating unit of the European Commission stipulated that Civil Society had overlooked building consensus at the nation state level and was “punching above” their weight. He said that we cannot demand supply reduction at the expense of demand reduction; we have to tread carefully so that the Plan does not end up in the bin ultimately..As for the involvement of civil society, he acknowledged that it was time we were adequately included and that we would be included in the future. He also instructed that we spend some efforts educating the Council of Europe.
Finally it was the turn of the namesake of this report: Giusto Catania. He asked us to consider that there appears to be a democratic rift between the Council and the Commission on a European level but that we should be hopeful that a scientific approach to drug policy is, at least, now being promoted. He recommended that Europe take a more community approach to drugs, with the net effect of improving relationships between us all groups and members of civil society.
As Carel Edwards left the stage, ENCOD member, Christine Kluge, presented a peace-pipe to him, signed by various celebrities, saying “we present this to you with our sincere hope that we can work together to end the ´war on drugs.´ Somewhat befuddled, Mr Edwards answered that he did not believe that there was any kind of drug war going on between us and him but asked us to consider less political lobbying of the EU bodies but that what they really needed was more information and data supporting the legislation we wish they would pursue. Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt took this straight to heart and ran up the aisles demanding Beckley Foundation docments from Mr. Trace, but when she returned to present them to Carel, he said he said he had already seen them. Some other European drug policy reform obssessive had got there first!
