21st July REMEMBRANCE DAY

On July 21th we commemorate those who have lost their lives to the War on Drugs. Every year, we lose someone close. It is the moment to promote a human approximation.

That is socially oriented and moreover, more effective.

After almost one century of international polices focused on the repression and the prohibition of certain substances,

The main objective is to protect the health of controlled drugs users

and the recognition of all the affected people in a direct or indirect way.

CATNPUD

Catalan Network of people who use drugs

The 21^st of July is a day for remembering and honouring:

Criminalized or imprisoned people for their addiction.

Those ones who were dead due to adulterant substances, non-regulated, from the black market or from infections related with the ingestion without been able to have any access to a damage reduction program.

People who were dead due to an overdose, have given up on the fight, or cannot fight anymore.

Those ones who were dead due to disease, violence or executions in a prison or challenging the law to obtain the drug or the substance.

The solution to this problem is a better legislation and regularization that is adapted to the reality.

Nowadays, the illegal drug market has become in a lucrative business handled by criminals.

On another note, the main aim from legal approach, mostly of it, is about the punishment

and not about helping and solving the problems.

International Memorial to the victims of the war on drugs. It is estimated that about 187,000 drug-related deaths occur every year.

However, instead of acknowledging that current drug policies are not working, drugs and people who use drugs are still framed as the “problem” and are scapegoated.

In fact, drugs, and people who use them, are not the “problem”. The real problem is actually the “war on drugs”: a system of criminalisation that results in violations of human rights, that actually causes more harm. Harms that are avoidable we intended to avoid.

THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, ACTIONS AGAINST THE USE OF DRUGS ARE GENERATING PROBLEM SUCH AS:

- The black market production of adulterated substances which contain toxic contaminants thereby increasing the risks of morbidity and mortality among people who use drugs.
- Criminalisation and stigma of people who use drugs.
- Imprisonment for drug-related offences.

OPPOSITION TO HARM REDUCTION PROGRAMS, WHICH RESULTS IN THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS, IS NOT BEING ABLE TO ACCESS SERVICES SUCH AS:

- Needle and syringe exchange programmes
- Opiate substitution treatments
- Test of purity of the substance and content testing
- Supervised consumption rooms

The lack of access to harm reduction services has consequences for people who use drugs: most obviously with the transmission of blood borne viruses and the mortality associated with overdose.

These negative impacts affect not only those who use drugs, but the entire community.

As long bans, penalties, and the war against drugs continue,

people who use drugs, their families and communities

will continue to suffer substantial damage,

and will still die needlessly.

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In a nutshell, the war on drugs is totally incompatible

with the promotion of human rights,

health, safety and well-being.

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Jul, 2018