The Caribbean Drug Policy Forum lead by the Caribbean Drug & Alcohol
Research Institute, and supported by The Caribbean Vulnerable Communities
Coalition and the Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition is planning 3 drug
policy conferences, one to be held on each of the three campuses of the UWI.
We plan to bring together academics, policy makers, law enforcement and
activists to have an open debate on where Caribbean drug policy is and where
it should go. Given the increase in positive drug policy debates that have
been taking place around the world we decided to move forward with this
series of Caribbean conferences to ensure that drug policy issues received
the attention they deserve.  The first of this series will be held at Mona
Lodge, UWI Campus, Kingston, Jamaica on *2-3 November 2009.*



We are interested in receiving submissions for papers on Caribbean / Jamaica
Drug Policy Issues and plan to compile submissions for a volume entitled
“Caribbean Drug Policy”



For the past few years there have been a number of forums that were designed
to examine existing drug policy and their “unintended consequences[1]<#_ftn1>
”  In fact the UNODC paper “Fit For Purpose” released at the 2008 CND
clearly outlines five unintended consequences of the current drug control
system that need to be addressed.



   1. huge criminal black market that thrives in getting product from
   producer to consumer feeding corruption
   2. policy displacement that created competition for limited resources
   between law enforcement and public health  . The consequence was that
   public health was displaced into the background
   3. geographical displacement or “balloon effect” because squeezing (by
   tighter controls) one place produces a swelling (namely, an increase) in
   another place,
   4. substance displacement, where when one drug made unavailable by
   reducing supply, suppliers and users moved on to another drug
   5. the way we perceive and deal with the users of illicit drugs. A system
   appears to have been created in which those who fall into the web of
   addiction find themselves excluded and marginalized from the social
   mainstream, tainted with a moral stigma, and often unable to find treatment
   even when they may be motivated to want it.



So far in 2009 we have seen

In February, a Latin American drug policy commission of the former
presidents of Brazil, Columbia and Mexico concluded that the ''drug war is a
failure''. It recommended breaking the ''taboo on open debate including
about cannabis decriminalisation''. While on the 12th of February in Vienna,
US Chargé Geoffrey Pyatt, in his statement[2] <#_ftn2> on the debate over
the content of the Political Declaration state for the first time the US
support for needle and syringe exchange programmes thus opening the way for
the greater support of evidenced based HIV prevention among drug users.* *



In March, the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs[3] <#_ftn3> at its
high-level segment and the culmination of a 10-year review of global drug
policy adopted the “Political Declaration and Plan of Action on
International Cooperation towards an Integrated and Balanced Strategy to
Counter the World Drug Problem” which noted with great concern the alarming
rise in the incidence of HIV/AIDS and other blood borne diseases among
injecting drug users, reaffirm our commitment to work towards the goal of
universal access to comprehensive (HIV) prevention programmes and treatment,
care and related support services, …taking into account all relevant General
Assembly resolutions and, when applicable, the *WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS Technical
Guide[4] <#_ftn4>*,.

In April, Michel Kazatchkine, Director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids,
Tuberculosis and Malaria, called for the decriminalising illicit drugs to
allow efforts to halt the spread of HIV to succeed.



In July, the Economic and Social Council, a UN body more senior than the
Commission on Narcotic Drugs, approved a resolution requiring national
governments to provide ''services for injecting drug users in all settings,
including prisons'' and harm reduction programs such as needle syringe
programs and substitution treatment for heroin users.



In August, Mexico removed criminal sanctions for possessing any illicit drug
in small quantities while Argentina is making similar changes for cannabis.
Portugal, Spain and Italy had earlier dropped criminal sanctions for
possessing small amounts of any illicit drug, while the Netherlands and
Germany have achieved the same effect by changing policing policy.



It is now clear that support for a drug policy heavily reliant on law
enforcement is dwindling in Western Europe, the US and South America, while
support for a policy that is sympathetic of a public health and human rights
approach with drug law reform is growing.  Even in the USA President Obama's
new director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske,
stated that he wanted to change to focus from fighting a ''war on drugs''.
As quoted in the Wall Street Journal "Regardless of how you try to explain
to people that it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a
war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this
country." [5] <#_ftn5>,



It is important that the Caribbean start to chart its way in this discussion
and develop culturally and contextually appropriate models of drug policy.
This Jamaica conference is the next step in that direction.







------------------------------

[1] <#_ftnref1> Antonio Maria Costa “Making drug control ‘fit for purpose’
E/CN.7/2008/CRP.17

[2] <#_ftnref2> http://vienna.usmission.gov/090212-unodc-cnd.html

[3] <#_ftnref3> (Commission on Narcotic Drugs Report on the fifty-second
session (14 March 2008 and 11-20 March 2009) Economic and Social Council
Official Records, 2009, Supplement No. 8)

[4] <#_ftnref4> WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS Technical Guide

The WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS Technical Guide on target setting spells out, what
the UNAIDS family understands by comprehensive prevention programmes for
injecting drug users, namely nine essential interventions:

·         Needle and syringe programmes

·         Opioid substitution therapy and other drug dependence treatment

·         HIV testing and counselling

·         Antiretroviral therapy

·         Prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections

·        Condom programmes for injecting drug users and their sexual
partners

·         Targeted information, education and communication for injecting
drug users and their sexual partners

·         Vaccination, diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis

·          Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis.



[5] <#_ftnref5> 14 May 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124225891527617397.html




 *JAMAICA** / CARIBBEAN DRUG POLICY CONFERENCE *

*2 - 3 November, 2009   *

*Mona Lodge, UWI Campus Kingston Jamaica*

* *

*REGISTRATION SHEET*

*To be completed and returned to [log in to unmask]
*

*before 15 October *





*PARTICIPANT INFORMATION*

* *

Last Name:



First Name:                                                     Title



Institution:



Country:



Citizenship:



Phones:   Office:                                 Fax #
                         Cell #



E-Mail address:





Special meal requests: such as vegetarian





*Registration Type*:    Regular        Student        Speaker
Scholarship





Registration Fee:

Regular USD $200.00

Student USD $50.00







PAID                           UNPAID






-- 
Dr Marcus Day DSc
Director
Caribbean Drug & Alcohol Research Institute
Box 1419
Castries
SAINT LUCIA

1-758-458-2795 Office
1-758-458-2796 Fax
1-758-721-7278 Cell -


“Harm reduction” is often made an unnecessarily controversial issue as if
there was a contradiction between prevention and treatment on one hand and
reducing the adverse health and social consequences of drug use on the
other. This is a false dichotomy. They are complementary.

Taken From UNODC (2008) Reducing the adverse health and social effects of
drug use: A comprehensive approach.