Harm Reduction
Harm Reduction: Revolutions
Folks that come here are law enforcement people.
They're the ones that stand outside of needle exchange programs,
methadone programs, and arrest people.
They are the ones that are going after young kids
looking for half a gram of cannabis.
"The High Level Segment adopted a Political Declaration that does not mention harm reduction at all."
I'm very disappointed harm reduction isn't in there.
It is absolute nonsense that
all parts of the United Nations directly support a set of activities
and one part of the United Nations opposes it.
Its ridiculous. Its untenable, and it must be put right.
"Mr. Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime claimed that the debate about including harm reduction in the political declaration is little more than a storm in a teacup."
For us, harm reduction is important because it symbolizes
a whole route of working with drug users that at this moment is excluded.
We have drug prevention, people not using drugs,
drug treatment for people who want to stop using drugs,
but people who use drugs are excluded,
and harm reduction is incredibly important
because it means that we can include people who use drugs in drug services,
and that they can have a certain autonomy over their own lives.
It’s important for the EU as well as the commission,
to include this because it is part of the EU strategy on drugs.
The word is in the concept and the activities,
and it has been in the last two EU action plans on drugs as well.
So we were a bit surprised
when countries began to try and keep it out of the declaration.
There are many countries outside of Europe that practice harm reduction.
It is becoming increasingly
a preferred option to deal with drug problems.
We have heard Iran, for instance, explain what it’s doing.
They have turned from being very strictly prohibitionist
to doing harm reduction.
To what point is the European Union going to defend harm reduction in the political declaration?
Is Europe united to defend harm reduction policies?
Thank you for your question.
You know, I'll be very open.
I don't care too much about a name.
The content is more important.
And harm reduction is a part
of the rational anti-drug policy based on four columns.
That’s: repression, prevention, therapy, and harm reduction.
And maybe you've noticed that even Mr. Costa
mentioned harm reduction in his speech.
So it shows that the doors for
using not only the content but also the name harm reduction is open.
I think the difficulty around words being in or out,
particularly these words 'harm reduction',
I think for developed countries it has very little meaning.
Countries like the U.K., and Holland, like Denmark,
will continue as they did before to apply harm reduction.
The real challenge is for developing world countries
that are facing new emerging drug problems.
They are looking to the world for leadership,
and looking to the United Nations for leadership,
and the United Nations is saying to them very clearly:
focus on supply reduction, don't focus on harm reduction.
And that is very dangerous because we leave the most vulnerable people in the world
without the policies that saved the developed world from HIV.
And now this is a real contradiction, we're saying:
we've saved ourselves from HIV,
but now we want you to live with a dogma that will destroy your communities,
that will destroy your healthcare systems,
and will leave your people marginalized and alienated.
The fact that this declaration is going to
come back home with no mention of harm reduction
is going to be a real problem.
For folks in Russia,
that are, again, a country with very high HIV rates among drug users,
they are working on donor money.
There is very little, if any, Russian money that’s going into needle exchange.
Harm reduction is not necessarily the favorite of the
law enforcement in Russia.
So I think what we're doing is we're failing,
with this declaration,
those people who need our help the most.
You go around the world and there are battles day in, day out,
in each country, between those who want to treat drug users as criminals
and those who want to treat them as people deserving of health and deserving of rights.
These battles play out in every country all the time.
And the symbolism that comes out of Vienna from not having harm reduction in the declaration
will be used by many people around the world in the coming years to say:
'we would like to help you, but we are just doing what the UN tells us.’
So that is very bad, and it must be put right.
"What's the reason, or argumentation, behind this resistance?"
I think that harm reduction means a new way of looking at the whole issue of drugs,
and that is something that I'd say,
the old thinking, doesn't like to accept.
Because harm reduction means that you accept that in the end
there will be people who will still use drugs.
But you have to help them, you have to not ignore them.
Although harm reduction was forced out of the declaration this issue broke the consensus of member states.
In the end 26 countries supported a pro-harm reduction statement at the CND.
We ended with a very rousing statement of 26 countries,
basically saying they refuse to go along with the consensus,
which is very heartening to see.
Transcribing: Anna Fischer, Subtitles: Hunter Holliman