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Harm Reduction International |
Vilnius, 2013
Rates of homelessness were also high. ‘I am a harm reductionist, so what should
I do?’ she said. ‘Officially, harm reduction service providers state that they don’t
offer services to children, but they do.’ This could often lead to confrontations
with police, she added.
‘There are also moral questions – is it right to give syringes to a child, for
example – as well as lack of funding and lack of proper instruments to create
child-friendly services. But changing the law is an important issue and something
that we’re trying to do on an ongoing basis.’
It was also vital to standardise the methods by which the number of children
using drugs was monitored internationally, she stressed. ‘We need to know our
epidemic and how it differs to that of adults, and make guidance specific,
accessible and relevant. We have a lot good practice – we just need to bring it
together internationally and fill the many urgent gaps.’
ENGAGING WITH INDONESIA’S
YOUNG STREET USERS
YOUTH PEER-SUPPORT PROGRAMME THRIVES ON TRUST
‘Young people who use drugs have unique developmental and situational needs
that aren’t addressed by traditional adult-orientated services,’ said Tesa Sampurno
of Indonesian peer-support programme Rumah Cemarah. Just over 2 per cent of
the Indonesian population used drugs, he said, equivalent to between 3.8 and
4.2m people, with his service targeting young people in the city of Bandung.
‘Many of them are street-involved, poly-drug users and experience a wide range of
harm due to their drug use,’ he said. ‘And programmes are failing to reach them.’
Harassment from law enforcement made it even harder for services to access
vulnerable young people, he stressed. ‘They can be beaten up, and even
hospitalised, by police officers or security staff just because they’re walking in the
mall, for example. So they become closed off.’ His organisation, however, was
directly engaging with young people in different parts of the community, he stated.
‘Importantly, Rumah Cemarah has established the trust of young people who use
drugs, who now freely share their experiences, seek advice and bring their friends.
Flexibility and creativity were essential when working with young people, he
said, as were demonstrating respect for, and belief in, them. ‘You need patience
and the ability to demonstrate a safe and supportive environment, as you need
to provide holistic, integrated programmes that recognise drug use as just one
part of the broader needs of young people. We don’t just talk about drugs, but
about their life problems, their social problems – every aspect of their lives.’
CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO
THE LAW STANDS IN THEWAY OF TREATMENT FOR TOOMANY
YOUNG DRUG USERS IN KYRGYZSTAN AND TANZANIA
‘When I started to use heroin I was only 18,’ Irena Yermolayeva told delegates.
‘There is a moment when all drug users want to quit, but in my country of
Kyrgyzstan there was no accessible, free detox or rehab available. So I had to wait.’
Several years later she had met other drug users involved in harm reduction
services and was inspired to help people in a similar position to herself, one of whom
was a 15-year-old girl. ‘She had syphilis but it wasn’t possible to treat STIs without
parental approval. Her partner was also beating her and forcing her to provide
sexual services. She needed shelter, but the laws in our country meant that she
couldn’t get it.
‘Young drug users must have the chance not to be imprisoned and not to
become inmates,’ she said. ‘In Kyrgyzstan, there are no rehab centres available for
young people and teenagers.’ Young drug users were also experiencing violence
from the police, she said, while Inspector Abdallah Kirungu of the Tanzanian police
also described how drug users in Tanzania were being criminalised.
Forty-two per cent of injecting drug users in Dar es Salaam were HIV positive,
he said, and the Tanzanian AIDS Prevention Project had initiated meetings with the
police to discuss the impact that arresting drug users was having on their work.
This prompted him to go incognito to see the actions of the police for himself.
‘I found to my shock and dismay that the police were furthering drug-related
harms,’ he said, with officers ambushing drug users to confiscate and sell their
drugs, harassing clients at HIV and methadone services, and extorting money and
demanding sexual favours from sex workers.
‘These practices called for an integrated harm reduction intervention for police
officers. We need to educate our police force about drug harms to individuals and
society, and the police need to be mandated and supported to take drug users for
treatment rather than arrest. Police officers who extort sex workers and sexually
violate them should also be subject to disciplinary action and prosecution, and we
must also empower drug users and sex workers to protect their human rights.’
The Tanzanian police were not able to do this alone, however, he stressed. ‘It
needs to be supported by those already in the field.’
‘Young drug users must have the
chance not to be imprisoned and
not to become inmates.’
IRENA YERMOLAYEVA
‘We don’t just talk about drugs,
but about their life problems, their
social problems – every aspect of
their lives.’
TESA SAMPURNO