Scottish Drugs Forum
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THE BACKTRACKING by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on its support for harm reduction programmes is an alarming development.
The main impact of such a decision will primarily be felt in the developing world, Russia and many of the former Eastern European countries where harm reduction programmes are either absent or are fledgling, poorly-funded and thus more vulnerable to swings in political philosophies.
But we must not overlook the fact that this zero-tolerance approach has the potential to have a negative impact in the UK – including Scotland – if the quest for a drug-free utopia becomes more of a driving force than evidence-based practice.
We in Scotland have already witnessed the counter-productive impact of the zero-tolerance approach. The embarrassing memory from 1996 of the then Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Forsyth. replete with skip cap and disco-dancing with youngsters, pales into insignificance when we consider the lasting effects of the Just Say No campaign, It set Scotland back many years in developing pragmatic evidence-based approaches to tackling the drugs problem.
We saw then that those who had moral objections to harm reduction began to have more influence on drug policies and strategies at a local level – effective responses, based on what was known to work, were undermined. Problem drug users paying the biggest price of all for the failure of this misguided thinking.
The world of international diplomacy seems like light years away from the day-to-day experience of most of us, but make no mistake. UNODC’s stance may not be immediately apparent but over time it has the potential to be extremely destructive in dismantling hard fought-for harm reduction programmes.
Fortunately, there are counterbalancing forces in Europe – and some do try in the US - and the European Parliament’s stance in trying to push for more pragmatism and greater investment in what works is to be welcomed. We can only hope that this will be translated into the European Commission’s Drugs Action Plan for 2005-2007.
SDF currently holds the Chair of ERIT, the Europena Federation of Professionals working the the field of problem drug use. ERIT has been working with other European networks in attempt to influence the Parliament and the Commission to lay greater emphasis on inclusion and effective treatment.
Non-governmental organisation such as ERIT are likely to have more success with the EU institutions than with the UN. That is why it is crucial that national delegations from Europe make their views known regarding the importance of needle exchanges and drug substitution programmes within the United Nations.
The danger, however, is the reluctance of politicians in the world powerplay arena to be seen promoting harm reduction, when the zero tolerance/drug war rhetoric will play better with electorates desperate for solutions to a massively complex issue.
However, if sensible voices are not taken heed of by the UN, all society could pay the consequences for many years to come.