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DAILY UPDATE
DAY THREE
Wednesday 28 April 2010
‘THERE IS A BROAD CONSENSUS
that the war
on drugs has been a failure and that enforcement
has a central role in creating a lot of the harms that
the harm reduction movement tries to mitigate
against,’ Steve Rolles of Transform told delegates
in yesterday’s
The next generation of drug policy:
decriminalisation and beyond
session.
The harm reduction movement was now
engaging more actively with the notion that
prohibition was the cause of some of these harms,
he said. However, there was ‘only so far you can
go’ with decriminalisation. ‘There’s a clear line in
the sand relating to production and supply – it’s
very absolutist. But the debate about what would
happen if we were able to cross that line has been
burning away for decades.’ This debate had been
muddied by notions of ‘heroin available in school
vending machines and crack in corner shops’, he
told the conference.
Transform’s document
After the war on drugs:
blueprint for regulation
painted a picture of what
that world would look like, he said. ‘We’re not
talking about a libertarian, free-for-all economy.
We’re talking about regulated markets, based on
evidence and public health principles. This is not a
strange idea – almost every risky product is
regulated by government. It’s what governments
do. It’s prohibition and the war on drugs that is the
radical experiment.’
Regulation would apply to production and transit,
products, vendors, outlets and buyers/users, he
said. ‘We know how to regulate things and move
them around securely.’ However, there was abso-
lutely not a ‘one size fits all’ programme he stressed.
Blueprint for regulation
spelled out five different
models – medical prescription and/or subsidised
use; a specialist pharmacist sales model; various
forms of a licensed retail model; licensed premises
for sales and consumption, and finally, unlicensed
sales. Obviously, rollout of any model would need
to be phased and cautious, he said. ‘We could use
regulation gradients and impact assessments. You
can use the application of regulation tools to
shepherd patterns of use away from the most
harmful products and environments – the opposite
of prohibition.’
Transform was about to launch a campaign
marking the 50th anniversary of the 1961 United
Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. ‘Fifty
years of a failed drug war is long enough,’ he said.
Prohibition, not harm reduction,
is the ‘radical experiment’
HIGHLIGHTS
Wednesday 28 April
MAJOR SESSIONS
9.00 – 10.30
Shining a light on the system:
using monitoring and advocacy
to effect change.
A look at drug user and patient
rights in Indonesia, The Ukraine
and Kyrgyzstan.
Tuberculosis and integrated
care for people who use drugs.
Presentations on integrated TB
treatment from Myanmar, the
Ukraine, Russia and Kyrgyzstan.
Responsible hospitality:
reducing harm in the nightlife
economy.
The need for a partnership
approach to reducing alcohol harm
at local level is examined, with a
focus on Liverpool’s responsible
drinking partnership.
DIALOGUE SPACE
12.30 -17.30
Speakers include
Neil McKeganey
,
Roger Howard
,
Jamie Bridge
and
Erin O’Mara
; see programme for
details. The final session starting at
16.30 is still available; if you would
like to use this space please ask at
reception for details.
CONFERENCE PARTY
The conference party including the
IHRA awards ceremony will take
place from 18.30 at the Pan Am
bar on the Albert Dock. We hope
to see you there!