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Wednesday 14 May 2008 – DAY FOUR –
Daily Update
– 3
One of the main benefits of user
magazines
was the ability to give drug users
a voice and an identity, delegates heard.
‘When
Black Poppy
was started in the UK in
1998 drug users had no say in their treatment,’
said Ms O’Mara. ‘It was a very punitive system
and the only information available was about
the diseases we could give to other people.’
The impetus to launch the magazine came
from ‘seeing friends very ill with no information
and no one to talk to,’ she said. Initial funding
came from a local needle exchange, and
everything was written and laid out exclusively
by drug users. ‘We’ve grown haphazardly,’
she said. ‘We’re still a small team but we’ve
been able to establish a good reputation and
loyal readership because we’ve written how
we felt and haven’t allowed ourselves to be
censored.’
Censorship was often a serious issue when
trying to publish user magazines, delegates
said. Those whose publications received
government funding spoke of the straitjacket
that could be imposed, including having to
seek official approval for every issue before
publication. ‘We are allowed to talk about
discrimination, but not about the pleasure of
taking drugs,’ said Fabrice Olivet of French
magazine
ASUD
.
ASUD
launched in 1992 when 40 per cent
of French IDUs were infected with HIV. ‘There
was little treatment available and harsh drug
laws,’ he said. ‘Part of the reason the
magazine was launched was to see if harm
reduction could be a success.’ It is now
published three times a year with a print run of
20,000 and national circulation across France.
Funding is half public and half private, but
French law means there is little possibility of
developing the magazine outside of the
medical and harm reduction arena.
However, the magazine’s real success has
been to create a genuine network and spread
activism, he stressed, something echoed by
several delegates. ‘The first success of
ASUD
was to exist,’ he said. ‘To give drug users a
voice was astonishing.’
‘User magazines are a vehicle for motivation
for drug user groups,’ said Dirk Schäffer of
German magazine
Drogenkurier
. Launched at
a time when needle exchange was illegal in
Germany and policy was abstinence based,
most of the early readers were doctors and
people from treatment organisations. ‘Then we
sold adverts, went to colour and widened the
content to include drug culture and treatment
reports. But the one thing we’ve never
changed in 20 years is that all the articles were
written by drug users.’
But this doesn’t guarantee a good
response, reported Annie Madden of
Australia’s
Junk Mail
. The magazine aimed to
raise consciousness with longer articles on
policy, but that didn’t suit all the readership.
‘Drug users can often be the most critical
voices,’ she said. ‘Some don’t want to read
long articles, but many do.’
Twice yearly
Junk Mail
now has a print run
of 10,000 and an estimated readership of up to
40,000. Funding initially came form hepatitis C
prevention money, which meant that was all
they could discuss and each issue was subject
to approval. ‘It was killing the magazine,’ she
said. ‘We told the government we didn’t want
their money and it’s now funded privately.
Australia is very much portrayed as a liberal
paradise for drug users, but I would say ‘don’t
believe the hype.’
Some delegates felt that despite the
empowering aspects of the magazines, there
could sometimes be a wider agenda at work.
‘Being a voice and having a view is not enough
to change things,’ said Fabrice Olivet. ‘We are
useful for governments and professionals, but
we need to be become a vehicle for change.’
However, that very empowerment and voice
represented a dramatic change in itself, said
Erin O’Mara. ‘While it might not be an obvious
vehicle for change in terms of politics, it is in
people’s lives.’
A voice in the wilderness
‘Magazines can come from nowhere. They can come from an
idea, a passion, a view,’
Black Poppy
editor Erin O’Mara told
Tuesday afternoon’s interactive
Drug user magazines: a voice, a
view, a vehicle for change
session which heard frommagazine
representatives from around the world.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Don’t miss!
Thursday morning’s keynote address
will be delivered by executive director of
the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC), and UN under
secretary general, Antonio Maria Costa.
The 9am session will offer a not-to-be-
missed opportunity for delegates to
question him on harm reduction issues.
African harm reduction
The Sub-Saharan Africa Harm
Reduction Network (SAHRN) held its
inaugural meeting in October 2007.
IHRA invited over 30 stakeholders from
NGOs, researchers, harm reduction
advocates and representatives from The
United Nations On Drugs and Crime
and UNAIDS, along with key donor
organisations to participate in the
meeting in Nairobi. Key messages to
come out of the meeting included the
need to contextualise harm reduction
work as a development, economic and
human rights issue. An open meeting
being held today at 16.00 in the VIP
Room will aim to allow African delegates
and champions of harm reduction to
share knowledge and experience.
Western Europe Network
Following an early discussion yesterday
there are high hopes for the formation of
a Western Europe Harm Reduction
Network. While Western Europe has
many excellent national harm reduction
organisations and a general acceptance
of harm reduction policies, it is hoped
this new group will help to strengthen
networking and co-operation between
countries. More information is available
from www.ihra.net/Barcelona/Western
EuropeHRNetwork
Beating the drum
www.drumalliance.net the website of the
international network of drug related
media was launched yesterday. The site
provides a portal to worldwide drug
related media, bringing together drug
user publications as well as ‘straight’
drug media to share information across
the different magazine genres and
disseminate good practice internationally.