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Drug use and the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of health

Drug use and the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of health. Damon Barrett Deputy Director, Harm Reduction International Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development, Stockholm, July 2012.

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Drug use and the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of health

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  1. Drug use and the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of health Damon Barrett Deputy Director, Harm Reduction International Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development, Stockholm, July 2012

  2. “In seeking to reduce drug-related harm, without judgement, and with respect for the inherent dignity of every individual, regardless of lifestyle, harm reduction stands as a clear example of human rights in practice” Professor Paul Hunt, 2008

  3. Drug control: Laudable goals Concerned with the health and welfare of mankind... ...the medical use of narcotic drugs continues to be indispensable for the relief of pain and suffering Preamble, 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs

  4. Narrative of existential threat ...addiction to narcotic drugs constitutes a serious evil for the individual and is fraught with social and economic danger to mankind Conscious of their duty to prevent and combat this evil Preamble, 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs

  5. ‘Unintended Negative Consequences’ UNODC, Making drug control fit for purpose: Building on the UNGASS decade, E/CN.7/2008/CRP.17, 2008

  6. ‘Risk environment’ for drug related harms

  7. Political rhetoric, media reporting “Let's get a few things straight -- I hate junkies more than anything else...If every junkie in this country were to die tomorrow I would cheer...They are worthless” Ian O’Doherty, Irish Independent Feb, 2011

  8. Importance of language

  9. Healthcare and social welfare • NSP/OST • HCV and HIV treatment • Benefits and housing • Domestic violence shelters

  10. Policing and healthcare • Withdrawal to extract information/extort funds • Interference with harm reduction services/use of healthcare setting to arrest on other grounds • Drug users as ‘soft targets’ for arrest quotas

  11. Sentencing and Detention • Prisons • Permanent criminal records • Drug detention centres • Corporal punishment

  12. ‘Insite’ Safe Injection Facility, Vancouver

  13. Canada (A.G.) v. PHS Community Services Society2011 SCC 44

  14. “The fact that addiction is bound up with the hard core of the worst problems confronting us socially makes it discouraging at the outset to talk about ‘solving’ it. ‘Solving’ it really means solving poverty and broken homes, racial discrimination and inadequate education, slums and unemployment...." Robert F. Kennedy 1965

  15. Challenge is undoing the ‘risk environment’ and creating an ‘enabling environment’ for positive health and social outcomes Social determinants of health

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