UNDUN

• INPUD Consensus Position
  INPUD, the International Network of People Using Drugs, has released a Consensus Posistion document. This document has been produced following a consensus building process among stakeholders in INPUD. The Consensus Position sets out a strategy for taking INPUD forward over the next 18 months. It seeks to empower the INPUD Board to lead the organisation with a clear mandate from drug user activists and groups around the world.
  
  The INPUD Board is asking all supporters of INPUD to help it reach as many drug user activists and groups as possible. Please help to circulate the Consensus Position to all user activists you have contact with.
  
  Download the Consensus Position here (please note Board Letter as well).



• 100 years of failed Canadian drug policy
  Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy is hosting a conference on Canada's failed drug policy in Ottawa from November 7-9. See News
  



• Quebec planning on several safer injection sites
  Quebec is intending to open a safer injection site in Montreal soon, and considering several other sites throughout the province. Quebec feels the recent court ruling in B.C. gives provinces the right to open safer injection sites without needing pre-approval by the federal government. See article.



• B.C. Supreme Court Judge rules in favour of inSite
  On May 20 a landmark decision regarding the human right to health services for illicit drug users declares that health facilities should be able to operate without requiring an exemption given by the federal government regarding the Controlled Substances Act. In effect, this removes the ability of the feds to shut down the inSite safer injection site facility in Vancouver. The federal Health Minister immediately announced that the ruling would be appealled. See News



• Danish Drug Users Memorial Day
  The Danish Drug Users Union hold an anunal remembrance gathering for friends and loved ones who have been victims of the war on drug users. View a photo display from this year's event which took place on July 21.



• International Harm Reduction Conference
  UNDUN coordinators will be attending the international conference in Barcelona, Spain from May 11-15.
  We will be participating in the 3rd International Drug Users Congress during the conference. The Users Congress is organized by INPUD
  You can follow their impression of the conference at their Xanga blog



• Sign the Petition!
  Sign petition asking the Parliament of Canada to develop a comprehensive strategy for all drugs, including alcohol and the non-medical use of prescription drugs, and that this comprehensive approach include evidence-based prevention, harm reduction, treatment and enforcement strategies.



• Burpenorphine is finally permitted in Canada
  After many years of haggling about how buprenorphine will be prescribed, it is finally going to be available to patients through prescribing doctors (much like methadone was prior to wide-spread establishment of methadone clinics).



• Dangers of Dusting
  A Calgary Police Office tells of his teenage son's death from a new fad called "dusting" which has been getting popular with experimenting teens.



• Email initiative to education Stephen Harper
  Every week throughout 2008 drug policy researcher Dr. Susan Boyd will be sending an informative email to Canada's Prime Minister. You can view the emails (or send your own) at Educating Harper.



• February 4th Lobbying MPs on Parliament Hill
  There will be a mass effort to lobby MPs for a more sensible drug policy. This effort is being organized by Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Following a day of lobbying, a public forum on drug policy will be held on Parliament Hill in the evening.



• NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs Online Survey
  Fill in the online survey and help contribute to a worldwide effort to provide a unique and important platform on which civil society can contribute to the reflection on the 1998-2008 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on illicit drugs. This effort is being spearheaded by the Vienna NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs (website which is an organization that provides a vital link between NGO's, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND).



• International Drug Users Day - November 1
  On International Drug Users Day 2007, ‘just say no’ to treating people who use illicit drugs as second class citizens. Events organized around the world. CounterFit Harm Reduction in Toronto organized a celebration. International observations took place in many cities around the world. LINK



• World Drug Report 2007 from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has been released. Very worthwhile overview of global situation. Download the 282 page report here



• INSITE, Vancouver's safer injection site, needs public support in order for it to remain operating past December 2007. Please take a little time to send a letter of support



• Anti-harm reduction troops are challenging the results of research that demonstrates Vancouver's inSITE safer injection site is having a positive impact. View a brief chronological outline of the research debate.