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Trees for Ecstasy
Tom BlickmanTuesday, February 4, 2009
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Many people believe that ecstasy is merely a synthetic drug that is manufactured solely with chemicals, so-called precursors. However, the main raw material for ecstasy, safrole, is extracted from various plants and trees in the form of safrole-rich oils—also known as sassafras oil. Preventing ecological damage and unsustainable harvesting of safrole-rich oils is urgently needed to preserve fragile ecosystems. -
Dutch Remain Firm on Harm Reduction
Tom BlickmanMonday, February 2, 2009
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“We will be aiming for no less than securing the inclusion of harm reduction in the political declaration by which member states determine international drugs policy,” the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation Bert Koenders told the Donor Conference on Harm Reduction that took place on January 28-30, 2009, in Amsterdam. “We will do the same when, in 2010, the honour of chairing the UNAIDS governing board falls to the Netherlands. You can count on that.” -
Europe and US split over drugs policy at UN
Tom BlickmanFriday, January 30, 2009
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The fight over the introduction of harm reduction in the Political Declaration of the UNGASS review has now reached the newspapers. A report by Reuters said that the 'US and Europe split over drugs policy'. "US negotiators are trying to push through anti-drug programmes that were promoted during the former Bush administration but which are no longer advocated by President Barack Obama," participants at the talks in Vienna told Reuters. -
Stop US Delegation in Vienna
Tom BlickmanThursday, January 29, 2009
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The US delegation in Vienna continues to block any inclusion of harm reduction in the new Political Declaration – to be approved in March 2009 at the high-level segment of the 52nd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Three members of the US Congress have written a letter to the new US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, to call for new instructions to be given to the delegation. -
US Harm Reduction Coalition calls for change
Tom BlickmanTuesday, January 27, 2009
Nelson Mandela, showing his support for people living with HIV / AIDSAllan Clear of the Harm Reduction Coalition made an urgent appeal on the Obama White House to intervene in the current negotiations about the Political Declaration on the 1998 UNGASS review that has to be adopted in March 2009 at the High Level Segment of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). For more than two million people living with HIV, mainly in Africa, hopes are high for a change in Obama's foreign policy.
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Harm reduction as part of the solution
Tom BlickmanFriday, January 23, 2009
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It is still not clear what the drug policy of President Obama will be. He has not appointed his drug czar. Many high-ranking Bush Administration officials have yet to leave office and are still setting the agenda on drug policy.
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Lifting the Ban on Harm Reduction
Tom BlickmanWednesday, January 21, 2009
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The Obama White House announced today that the new President supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of HIV/AIDS infection among drug users. Will he also lift the ban on the concept of harm reduction, which has paralysed the international drug policy debate under his predecessors? -
The Battle for Harm Reduction
Tom BlickmanWednesday, January 21, 2009
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The issue of harm reduction continues to be controversial during the negotiations in Vienna for the Political Declaration that has to be adopted in March 2009 at the High Level Segment of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). There is severe pressure on delegates to drop their insistence on incorporating the language and principles of harm reduction in the political declaration, or to accept some watered down version. -
Smoking without Borders
Tom BlickmanTuesday, January 14, 2009
Cannabis licenseThe Hungarian Civil Liberty Union (HCLU) produced a video on the debate on cannabis policy and the tolerated sale of small quantities of cannabis by coffee shops in the Netherlands. The debate fired up when the mayors of Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal, two towns near the Belgian border, decided to close their coffee shops.
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Smoking without Borders
An HCLU film about drug tourism in the Netherlands: is it really only the problem of the Dutch? -
UNGASS review restart
Martin JelsmaMonday, November 3, 2008
The review of the objectives and action plans agreed at the 1998 UNGASS on Drugs has reached a critical stage. Today and tomorrow, government representatives will start discussions in Vienna on a draft of the annex to the proposed political declaration. TNI has elaborated a series of comments and recommendations.
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