[ANNOUNCEMENT] Abstract Submission System Open! Harm Reduction 2013 in Vilnius, Lithuania 第23界国际减低伤害大会开始接收摘要投稿

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The 23rd International Harm Reduction Conference will be held on 9th – 12th of June, 2013, in Vilnius, Lithuania, and is being organised by Harm Reduction International in partnership with the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network. The official conference theme is ‘The Value’s of Harm Reduction‘, which will provide focus on the urgent need to ensure sufficient political and financial support to address the HIV epidemic driven by injecting drug use in many parts of the world, and well as the ethical basis of the harm reduction philosophy.

第23界国际降低伤害大会将于2013年6月9-12日|为在立陶宛首都 维尔纽斯召开。大会主题为”降低伤害的价值”，主要关注世界各地毒品注射而导致的艾滋病感染问题，呼吁针对该问题号召全球政治与经济支持。

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[COMMENTARY] Chinese Drug Users Have to Protect Our Own Rights 成瘾者：维护自身权益还得靠你自己

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By Wang Wen 
王文 
Recently, I read a short piece with no headline that was posted to an email group. The author, one of our fellow drug users in Kaiyuan City, Yunnan Province, said that when he took a make-up test for one part of his driving license exam on September 6, the local traffic management department told him that his license has been revoked based on The Notice about Strengthening the Management of Automobile Driving for Drug Addicts. Because he had been detained by the local police station on August 21, 2012 for using drugs, the police labeled him as an unreformed drug user. 
日前我从一个邮件组里看到一篇没有标题的短文，里面讲述了9月6日云南省开远市一位成瘾者同伴去补考驾驶证的一项科目，被当地交管部门告知，他2012年8月21日在某地吸食毒品被当地公安机关某派出所抓获，所以，已经将他定为吸毒成瘾未戒除人员，他的驾驶证已经按照公安部《关于加强吸毒人员驾驶机动车管理的通知》吊销了。

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[NEWS] Activists Arrested Protesting Ban on U.S. Funding Syringe Exchange Programs

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By Brian Bonci

Yesterday marked the National Day of Action on Syringe Exchange in the United States.  Activists from around the country have mobilized to protest a recent reinstatement of the ban on federal funding for clean needle programs.  Several harm reduction advocates were arrested, including Charles King, CEO of Housing Works. Current estimates are that 32 were arrested in Washington, DC alone.  The Actions were organized by the We Can End AIDS Coalition, which is coordinating a mobilization around the International AIDS Conference on July 24th.

 

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[COMMENTARY] Drug Users and the Legal Framework: The Failure of the War on Drugs in Asia

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Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group protesters – Photo by Rico Gustav

By Karyn Kaplan

Kaplan’s electrifying essay on the human rights of drug users in Asia is excerpted from her plenary speech given at the
International Conference on AIDS in Asia/Pacific (ICAAP), Busan, South Korea, August 27, 2011 and reprinted from the Health and Human Rights Forum.

Here in Asia, home to more than half the world’s opiate users,  more than 16 million drug users and at least 6.5 million injectors, where HIV prevalence among injectors is among the highest in the world, where the HIV epidemic is largely driven by unsafe injecting practices, where less than 10% of heroin injectors are on methadone, and where injectors can access an average of just two sterile syringes per month, we lack 90% of the resources necessary to provide the
essential harm reduction services necessary for realizing the right to health. But while resources are a significant challenge, I would argue that even when we have the resources, it does not ensure access.

 

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[COMMENTARY] Harm Reduction in China – Where Are We Now?

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By Gisa Hartmann

In response to the rise of drug dependence, China has begun to embrace harm reduction,
scaling up policies such as methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) and needle
exchange programs (NEP) in a growing number of areas. This shift in policy is expressed
in the new Anti-Drug Law, which categorizes drug addiction as a medical condition rather than a criminal issue or moral failing. But how far along is the development of MMT and NEP in China, and what does the state plan
for the future? How do current policies play out for drug users on the ground? This
two-part blog will explore these and related issues.

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