INPUD Activists Feedback on Methadone-form AIDSMexico2008 Conference

Methadone:

Article on www.INPUD.org website:

INPUD Activists Feedback on Methadone-form AIDSMexico2008 Conference

Dear Fellow Activists,

I thank Karyn Kaplan (Thailand), Milena Naydenova (Belgium) and Jason Farrell (USA) for the input they gave on the Methadone Form and the provision of methadone and Harm Reduction Services for the AIDSMexico2008 Conference.

The finalized INPUD comments on the proposed procedure and treatment form will be:

The as a whole the procedure is acceptable, but many important details are not clarified well enough.

Concrete the information card should include:

In what languages the document will be accepted? Spanis Only? In this case: translations needs to be authorized?

For people on non-methadone substitution treatment for opiate dependencies – are there other substitution programs that will accept clients from the delegates. If not – will these people (in case they cannot bring their own medication) get the equivalent of their dose in Methadone. If yes, how they'll convert the dose? If these people can bring their own medication – what are the local customs regulations?

What are the regulations for people who have prescription for non-opiate dependencies like amphetamine or prohibited substances – like Dia-morphine (heroine)?

In what form is the Methadone available:

- Sulphate or Alkaloid?

- In pills?, injectable?, syrup?

Al round Questions

Contacts and Information

Is the contact person reachable 24h a day?

To have not just one but TWO numbers to call if any problems?

Are translators available in the Spanish speaking only clinic?

Are there volunteers available to escort people to the clinic (especially first time)?

Can you provide a map showing the clinic in relation to the IAC venue?

And on this map the routs by public transport and taxi.

Is it possible to have a daily van to facilitate access?

Harm Reduction

Will the clinic have a list of people they expect to need services?

Is it possible to spread information on the availability of buprenorphine?

Is the clinic open on Sunday? What do people do on Sundays, if the clinic's closed?

Is there a local Harm Reduction center to provide (the best) HR equipment and DU-support?

Can they get takeaways, or do they have to go every day?

Is there free access to Narcan/Naloxone? Do hospitals offer it, do harm reduction centers offer it?

Health Emergencies; Contact person, procedures

Related to liver problems

Related to Hepatitis C

Related to HIV

Related to OD.

Customs

Are there travel restrictions pertaining to all medications?

What are allowed substances and what are prohibited substances?

What are allowed amounts of carry on medications and what documents do the people need?

Do people need import certificates? (in what language?)

The teleconference with the organizers is at 3.30pm CET (Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris) that is in 1 hour. (half an hour earlier than previously mentioned)

This means that the currently online INPUD Activists still have an hour left to review and if things are missing to hit the reply button and let me know.

That's all for now.

grtz
Stijn

DrugUsersNeverQuit

www.Inpud.org
www.HarmReduction.be (DrugWarLog)

www.HarmReduction.eu (ArtCoreFromTheHardCore)

www.HaRdCOREhARMREdUCER.be

Eurasian Harm Reduction Network Enables DU to speak for themselves in EC Forum on Drugs

Drug User Activists :

Belgium, Romania, Ukraine and France

Dear colleagues at the European Commission,

Thank you for your commitment to have better involvement of the civil society and inviting Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network (now Eurasian Harm Reduction Network – EHRN) into newly established Commission’s Civil Society Forum on drugs.

The recent letter from the organizers indicated possibility to have two persons from the Civil Society Forum’s member organization. We had a discussion inside EHRN and we would like to allocate our second seat to INPUD, International Network of People Who Use Drugs.

We understand that INPUD was not selected to the Civil Society Forum on drugs as indicated in previous communication of the Commission. However, our expectation is that using the second EHRN’s seat for having the voice of wide network of people who use drugs will be allowed.

Milena Naydenova is indicated as INPUD’s representative and we are very glad if she is available to represent INPUD at the Civil Society Forum on drugs using her multi-year experience in the organization of people who use drugs in “Hope-Sofia” (Bulgaria) which was in the core of organization and current activities of INPUD and has long experience in development of organizations of people who use drugs in Central and Eastern Europe.

I copy this letter to colleagues in INPUD and representatives of the EHRN’s Steering Committee.

We look forward to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,

Raminta Stuikyte

Director, Secretariat

Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN)

Formerly: Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network (CEEHRN) NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

Address: Siauliu 5/1-21, 01133 Vilnius, Lithuania

Tel. (+370 5) 269 1600, 260 9007

Fax (+370 5) 269 1601

Cell (+370 699) 666 77

Email raminta@harm-reduction.org, info@harm-reduction.org (general)

http://www.harm-reduction.org

WWW.HaRdCOREhARMREdUCER.BE
DrugWarLog
ArtCoreFromTheHardCore

Milena Naydenova "this is my street"

For Milena, leaving her street

Milena Naydenova, Sofia, Bulgaria

A Street Others Are Afraid of,

Posted by maria dimitrova 21-04-2006

I live in Patriarch Evtimiy Boulevard, but if I have to talk about my street, I’ll choose Pirotska Street, formerly Zhdanov Street. I’ll choose it not so much because of the National Centre for Addictions where I go daily or the Green Café where I spend most of my time. I call Pirotska my street because it’s where most of my friends are. Most of the time they hang around in the stretch between Opulchenska Street and Odrin Street.

I’ve heard the so-called normal people warn their friends and relatives that this is a dangerous part of town, especially at night. It’s a strange feeling when I hear this. What other people consider a dangerous place is the only place where I feel safe and accepted; I am myself, without a sense of guilt or separation from society.

What more can I tell you about my part of my street? The buildings I usually notice are the St. Nikola Church, the National Centre for Addictions and the Green Café. But there are also the former Jewish school, with a pair of policemen always patrolling the area in front, and numerous smaller and bigger shops. Every now and then there is a luxurious empty space with a for-rent sign on the window. There are also dilapidated buildings whose owners can’t agree on their property rights for years and which my friends have turned into places for drug-injection. The backyards are used by the homeless even when the temperatures are below zero…

I know and love every square metre of this street and it’s sad that other people think of it as dangerous. It is not. Perhaps if, before rejecting us, others try to understand us first, they will be able to see it through my eyes.

To see Milena's picture's click here

WWW.HaRdCOREhARMREdUCER.BE
DrugWarLog
ArtCoreFromTheHardCore