Abstract: Rien n’est plus aidant pour les enfants vivant avec un parent alcoolodépendant que des relations solides en dehors du cercle familial. Il n’est cependant pas facile du tout de construire de telles relations. Un nouveau site Internet d’Addiction Info Suisse, qui comprend un forum de discussion, entend devenir un premier point de contact anonyme pour les enfants concernés.

Abstract: Results of needle and syringe exchange programmes (SEPs) in prisons based on 10 years experience in Switzerland, Germany, Spain and Moldova are presented. SEPs have been introduced in 46 European prisons, predominantly as pilot projects. Forty-three of these projects were still operating at the time of writing. In 11 prisons, SEPs were evaluated to assess feasibility and efficacy. Results did not support fears that commonly arise in the start-up of implementation of SEPs. Syringe distribution was not followed by an increase in drug use or injection drug use. Syringes were not misused, and disposal of used syringes was uncomplicated. Sharing of syringes among drug users reduced. Based on these experiences, it can be concluded that in these settings harm reduction measures, including syringe exchange, were not only feasible but efficient. Despite these positive results, syringe exchange in prison is far from general acceptance. However, a governmental decree released in Spain in 2001 that all prisons in the country are required to provide drug users with sterile injection equipment may lead to a breakthrough of this harm reduction measure in the future. The discrepancy concerning the success of SEPs in prisons on the one hand and its low acceptance on the other hand is striking. Suggestions for the installation of SEPs in prison are given to assist a more objective discussion.

Abstract: Respect for human rights is a defining feature of harm reduction, which is commonly characterised as a public health-based movement. The importance it attaches to ‘user-friendliness’ and the view that drug users have a right to the same respect and dignity that other users of health and social care services receive is largely undisputed among harm reductionists. Within harm reduction there is also a developing discourse identifying drug use itself as a human right; nudging harm reduction towards being a rights based movement. This allows us to describe two philosophies of harm reduction: a ‘weak rights’ version, in which people are entitled to good treatment and a ‘strong rights’ version that additionally recognises a basic right to use drugs. Prioritising human rights or public health can lead to different concepts of harm reduction and different forms of ‘right action’. Privileging health may even, in some circumstances, be consistent with prohibitionary policies if these reduce harm. By contrast, the strong rights version of harm reduction subordinates public health considerations to the right to use drugs and implies support for policies that may sometimes increase harm. In the UK, the publication of ‘The Angel Declaration’, which recognises a right to use drugs and proposes a skeletal regulatory framework for a post-prohibition era, adds to the impetus for harm reductionists to clarify whether they fully embrace a right to use drugs within their understanding of harm reduction. This paper elaborates these issues in the context of the constraints upon the development of an evidence-based approach to controlling drug use that arise from the UN Conventions of 1961, 1971 and 1988.

Abstract: Respect for fundamental rights, protection of public health, well-being, social cohesion and security are the objectives that guide the actions taken by the European Union in the field of illicit drugs. The EU drugs strategy 2005–12 provides the framework for enhanced coordination between action taken at national, EU and international level and commits the members of the EU to tackle illicit drugs by striking a balance between reducing supply and demand. This joint publication between the EMCDDA and the European Commission brings together some of the key frequently asked questions on the EU’s drugs policy and how it functions. Further details can be found via the websites and other links provided at the end of each answer. The brochure exists in English and French language versions.

Abstract: Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s have found that people who smoke skunk, the most potent form of cannabis available in UK, are almost seven times more likely to develop psychotic illnesses than those who use traditional cannabis resin (hash) or grass.