Vancouver health officials will distribute new crack pipes to non-injection drug users this fall as part of a pilot project aimed at engaging crack cocaine smokers and reducing the transmission of disease such as hepatitis C, HIV and even respiratory illnesses. The program, part of Vancouver's harm reduction strategy, is expected to start in October and run for six months to a year. The intent is to connect health care workers with crack cocaine smokers to evaluate how many of the drug users are in the city and what equipment they need to lower their risk of catching diseases. A kit with a clean, unused pipe, mouthpiece, filter and condoms will be handed out to the participants.

Vancouver police have arrested drug policy activists Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum after executing search warrants on the Drug User Liberation Front office and their homes. Since 2020, Nyx and Kalicum have held protest events and operated a compassion club to supply tested heroin, cocaine and meth to drug users, despite the risk of arrest for breaking Canada’s controlled substances laws. Nyx and Kalicum said they were driven to break drug laws through firsthand experience of the overdose crisis. Vancouver police say Nyx and Kalicum were arrested so police could question them as part of an ongoing investigation. DULF has operated a compassion club for months and has frequently spoken to media about the specifics of the model. (See also: Study shows selling tested drugs saves lives)

The amount of active ingredients in ecstasy pills in the Netherlands has almost doubled in 10 years, according to the Trimbos addiction institute, which runs a nationwide testing service. In 2005, there was an average of 81 mg of MDMA in a pill but last year that had gone up to 150 mg, according to the institute’s 2015 monitoring report. The highest concentration of MDMA recorded last year was 293 mg. (See also: Drug users favoring “ecstasy light” as street XTC rises in potency | A new study says MDMA purity levels are at an all-time high | Recent changes in Europe’s MDMA/ecstasy market)

For nearly two decades Estonia battled a fentanyl epidemic so severe its overdose death rate was almost six times the European average. Once fentanyl landed, heroin disappeared. After Estonian police choked off fentanyl supply in 2017, users turned to cocktails of other kinds of synthetic drugs, including amphetamines, alpha-PVP, a dangerous stimulant also known as flakka, and prescription drugs. There are signs that the U.S. is on a similar path, tipping from plant-based drugs like heroin to synthetic ones like fentanyl and methamphetamine. That could herald big changes and cement the role of China -- an important source of illicit synthetic drugs -- as a vital link in the worldwide drug trafficking business. (See also: What we can learn from a tiny Baltic country's two-decade fentanyl crisis)

A decision to stop a clean crack-pipe distribution program has disappointed those working to rehabilitate street addicts. Since 2008, Alberta Health Services had been giving out crack-pipe kits as part of the Safeworks program, an effort to reduce transmittable diseases. The kits contained a glass pipe, mouthpiece and cleaning tool and were handed out in an AHS van. More than 14,500 crack pipes were given out as of June 2011. The program was an effective first step in engaging hardcore, street-involved crack cocaine addicts. However, AHS has discontinued the Safeworks crack pipe program, citing the “potential for a legal challenge with respect to distribution.”

The Government of Ireland should increase funding to residential drug treatment facilities to provide an alternative to custodial sentences for convicted people dealing with problematic drug use, a Citizens’ Assembly has said. Some 85 per cent of members opposed retaining the current criminal justice approach to personal drug possession, instead calling for a health-led approach to illegal drug use. The citizens voted by 39 to 38 for a comprehensive health-led strategy, rather than legalisation of cannabis. The assembly has been meeting since April to consider changes to drug policy, with a final report now to be prepared on its recommendations and sent to Government. (See also: Citizens' Assembly on Drugs ends in disarray)

Oposición e independientes radicaron un paquete legislativo para prohibir el glifosato, cambiar la política prohibicionista por un enfoque de salud y cesar la persecución a pequeños cultivadores. Con estos proyectos se consolida una alianza interparlamentaria para replantear la política antidrogas del país. Una perspectiva novedosa que propone un enfoque diametralmente opuesto al del gobierno de Iván Duque. La iniciativa madre de dicha alianza es una reforma constitucional que busca que el enfoque en la lucha contra las drogas abandone la estrategia prohibicionista y asuma la perspectiva de salud pública y prevención del consumo como su bandera.

The not-for-profit model adopted by Malta for drug policy reform is resonating across other countries. The emphasis on a harm reduction approach, including considerations for social justice and the negative consequences caused by the ‘war on drugs', will remain key to ensuring cannabis reform promotes the well-being of society and protects the most vulnerable. Transnational Institute Program Director Martin Jelsma spoke about the relationship between drug policy reform in consumer countries, such as countries in the EU, and socio-economic development in producing countries predominantly in the global south, such as Morocco.

Obliging Maltese cannabis smokers to register for them to have access to cannabis will achieve the opposite of the government’s stated aim of adopting a harm reduction approach, according to the pressure group ReLeaf. Earlier this month, reforms parliamentary secretary Julia Farrugia said that government was actively considering having a user registration system as part of the proposed reform of laws regarding recreational cannabis use. While it agrees that some form of interaction between the user and wherever they are purchasing it from is required to promote responsible use, ReLeaf believes a centralised register would stigmatise users and drive those likely to need help to the black market.

Malta is poised to become a centre for the production of medical marijuana – while also relaxing its cannabis legislation further – after decades of a no-compromise, ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards all drugs. Some see this as a direct U-turn, that will turn the country into a drug traffickers’ paradise. But Julia Farrugia-Portelli, the parliamentary secretary entrusted with the reform, argues that the whole point is to eliminate trafficking, and maximise the user’s safety. "What is happening today is a continuation from the previous legislature. Our argument was: if someone is caught with a joint, it shouldn’t lead to a situation where that person’s criminal record is tarnished. That reform was affected in the last legislature; now, we are taking it a step further."

The recognition that people who sell drugs can play a crucial role in reducing the harms caused by drug criminalization is not limited to reformers, syringe service workers and researchers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also aware—although the evidence of this comes from a leaked intelligence report, rather than any public FBI acknowledgment. In an April 9, 2019 “Situational Information Report” found on a hacked server sharing intelligence with North Texas law enforcement—among the documents published by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets—the FBI’s Denver Division recorded that drug sellers were practicing common harm reduction measures amid the arrival of a fentanyl-adulterated supply, dubbed “Sleepy Dope,” to Pueblo, Colorado.

Hace 25 años que São Paulo, la ciudad más poblada de América, combate sin éxito su mayor foco urbano de consumo de crack. Un megaoperativo policial recuperó este año el territorio dominado por el narcotráfico y dispersó a los usuarios por el centro. El uso de la fuerza para luchar contra la adicción ha reavivado el debate entre las dos posturas principales: el tratamiento obligatorio y la reducción de daños. Desde la megaoperación, la policía ha encarcelado a 166 personas y los usuarios que siguen en la calle no han vuelto a concentrarse en un solo lugar. La dispersión es la estrategia. “El principal problema es tratar una situación de salud pública con fuerzas de seguridad. La policía debe dedicarse a la inteligencia y combate al narcotráfico, no a intervenir con los usuarios”.

The non-descript white van parked at the mosque entrance went mostly unnoticed. In conservative Malaysia, very few of the Muslim faithful on their way to prayers could ever have imagined its true purpose. After a 40-year war on drugs that has seen countless thousands of drug users locked up, the van is a symbol of a dramatic shift in Malaysia's approach to narcotics. It's a mobile methadone clinic, set up to provide support on the ground as the nation prepares to decriminalise drug use. "Looking at drug addicts as suffering a form of a disease is crucial," said Nurul Izzah Anwar, a Malaysian Government MP at the forefront of the push for what many proponents simply call "decrim".

El mercado de cocaína fumable se estableció hace décadas, por lo que no se trata de un fenómeno nuevo. En lugar de desaparecer, está experimentando una expansión paulatina, y ha pasado de constituir un hábito bastante localizado y aislado en la región andina en la década de 1970 a tener un alcance que se despliega en todas las direcciones, en toda América del Norte y del Sur, incluidas las regiones del Caribe y América Central. Las sociedades del continente americano han convivido con las cocaínas fumables durante más de cuatro décadas, pero —aunque resulte sorprendente—, existen pocos estudios sobre la evolución del mercado y pocas pruebas de primera mano sobre cómo se comercializa realmente esta sustancia y cómo la utilizan millones de personas en la región.

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Over the past decade, methamphetamine use has grown more popular in Myanmar, Thailand and Southern China. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with individuals who use methamphetamine, this briefing sheds light on the importance of promoting an environment that reinforces, rather than undermines, the ability of people who use methamphetamine to regulate their drug use, preserve their health and adopt safer practices.

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With drug poisoning (overdose) now the leading cause of death in British Columbia, there remains an urgent need to invest in and scale up safe supply programs in addition to supporting existing models, broadening the range of safe supply medications and removing barriers to access. We also need to address the root cause of this crisis: a toxic, unregulated drug supply. What we do not need are more police crackdowns directed at people who are stepping up to save lives and who are forced to do so illegally because of government inaction. As harm reduction nurses, we condemn the recent Vancouver Police Department arrests of Drug User Liberation Front organizers. (See also: Study shows selling tested drugs saves lives)

A vending machine for powerful opioids has opened in Canada as part of a project to help fight the Canadian city’s overdose crisis. The MySafe project, which resembles a cash machine, gives addicts access to a prescribed amount of medical quality hydromorphone, a drug about twice as powerful as heroin. Dr Mark Tyndall, a professor of epidemiology at the University of British Columbia, came up with the project as part of an attempt to reduce the number of overdose deaths in the city, which reached 395 last year.  “I think ethically we need to offer people a safer source,” he said. “So basically the idea is that instead of buying unknown fentanyl from an alley, we can get people pharmaceutical-grade drugs.”

Downtown Eastside residents at high risk of overdose now have Vancouver’s support to get untainted drugs, but the federal government has the final say whether they’ll get access to a legal supply. A motion to support an application from the Drug User Liberation Front — to run North America’s first compassion club to give members access to untainted heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine — was approved by Vancouver council last week. Drug User Liberation Front co-founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx submitted an application for a federal exemption to Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act on Aug. 31 and had asked for city support. While awaiting the federal decision, Liberation Front is considering whether to purchase more illicit drugs from the dark web to hand out in the DTES.

Drug addicts should be allowed to use illicit substances in “supervised injecting facilities” with medical staff on hand to ensure no one dies, health groups are urging ministers. Senior doctors, public health specialists, drug experts and health charities want the government to approve trials of “overdose prevention centres” (OPCs) to cut Britain’s soaring toll of drug deaths. Supporters of the idea say that while letting users consume hard drugs in safe places, watched over by nurses and doctors, is controversial, it reduces fatalities and drug-related crime. Scores of organisations and individuals working in the health and drug fields have signed a statement co-ordinated by the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) calling on ministers to permit the creation of some centres in order to save lives.

Canada’s other epidemic, the opioids overdose crisis, is more deadly than ever this year. Deaths in British Columbia hit new highs over the spring, including a monthly record of 181 illicit drug toxicity deaths in June, and Alberta revealed that opioid poisoning killed 301 people in the spring – also a record. In both provinces this year, overdoses have taken far more lives than COVID-19. This public-health challenge, like the fight against the virus, is far from over. Work to date has saved thousands of lives, but more must be done. Last week, B.C. took a major step toward ensuring a safer supply of clean drugs, regulated and overseen by medical professionals. The goal is to protect addicted people whose lives are at risk because of the toxicity of illicit drugs sold on the street.