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29-09-09 What is Harm Reduction? A position statement from the International Harm Reduction Association

The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) have released a detailed position statement defining the term ‘harm reduction’. The statement outlines a set of underlying principles which best describe this approach. 

Harm reduction refers to policies, programmes and practices that aim to reduce the harms associated with the use of psychoactive drugs in people unable or unwilling to stop. The defining features are the focus on the prevention of harm, rather than on the prevention of drug use itself, and the focus on people who continue to use drugs. 

The position paper can be found at http://www.ihra.net/Assets/2316/1/IHRA_HRStatement.pdf

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21-09-09 Beckley Briefing Number 19: Comparing the Drug Situation across Countries

The Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme briefing paper compares the drug situation in ten developed countries. 

Data from eight indicators are compared across six European countries, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 

The research is helpful since drug markets are, in many respects, global and can be usefully examined from this perspective, but there are difficulties in assessing some of the indicators. Differences in how drug-law arrests and punishments are measured is apparent; some countries report offences, others arrests, and there is a marked variability in frequency of occurrences. The data on some punishments (community sentences, fines and warnings) are not routinely reported.  Imprisonment was found to be a more comparable indicator.  The paper highlights the need to improve harmonization of measurement and the quality of data and suggests some areas for future work.  The report is useful in informing the search for effective policy and programme responses to the global drug problem. 

The briefing paper can be downloaded from:  http://www.idpc.net/sites/default/files/library/Beckley%20Briefing%2019.pdf

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03-08-2009 Smugglers' Tales

On 3rd August 2009, the BBC broadcast a fascinating documentary on how drugs enter prisons - in prisoners' orifices, vistors' underwear or officers' bags - and the methods being used to block them. You can view it through BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lz9g2/Panorama_Smugglers_Tales/

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24-07-2009 Harm Reduction in Prison: The Moldova Model

The report published by the Open Society Institute International Harm Reduction Development Program describes the genesis and implementation of harm reduction in Moldova’s prisons, and provides recommendations for other countries wishing to start similar programs.

An increasing number of countries have introduced HIV programs in prisons since the early 1990s. However, many of these programs exclude necessary interventions such as needle exchange and methadone treatment. Not so in Moldova, whose experience with introducing and expanding a comprehensive HIV program, including such interventions, is described in this report.

The report is available in English and in Russian at the following link: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/health/focus/ihrd/articles_publications/publications/moldova_20090720 

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6-07-2009 Home Office, UK - Drug Misusing Offenders: Ensuring the continuity-of-care between prison and community

“Effective management of the continuity-of-care journey depends on the right people sharing the right information at the right time”. 

The recently published Home Office guide on continuity of care provides specific guidance on managing the continuity-of-care journey that drug misusing offenders follow on entering prison from the community, whilst in prison, and exiting prison. It is the product of an extensive consultation with front-line workers and managers from Counselling, Assessment Referral, Advice and Throughcare (CARATs) and prison healthcare and Criminal Justice Intervention Teams (CJITs) in the UK, conducted by the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and National Treatment Agency between January – March 2009.  

During this consultation, a continuity-of-care “journey map” was devised charting the journey that a drug-misusing offender undergoes when entering prison from the community, whilst in prison, and exiting prison, and the “journey map” helped to clarify specific roles and responsibilities between the agencies involved in managing an offender’s continuity-of-care journey. 

The document can be downloaded at  http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/publication-search/dip/continuity-of-care/guidance?view=Binary

 

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20-06-2009 Annual evidence update published in the UK on Drugs misuse treatment in offender populations

In order to help the National Health Service and its partner organisations to reduce the impact of drugs misuse, the National Library for Public Health focused its first Drugs misuse Annual Evidence Update on drugs misuse treatment in offender populations. 

The literature search started from January 2005 through March 2009 in order to identify systematic reviews and meta analyses. Experts in drugs misuse were brought together to provide advice on the included literature. 

The information provided should be useful for clinicians, public health practitioners, commissioners, crime and disorder partnerships, voluntary and community organizations, and the general public.  

Visit http://www.library.nhs.uk/publichealth/ViewResource.aspx?resID=314438&pgID=1