HARM REDUCTION
BE ACTIVE!
A webinar to mark International Overdose Awareness day heard ideas from
peer networks in the Netherlands, Ukraine and Norway. DDN reports
months ago
we identified that we
don’t hear the voice
of active drug users.
‘Eighteen
So we set up a group
for injecting drug users in Glasgow
City Centre.’ Jason Wallace, senior
development officer at the Scottish
Drugs Forum (SDF) explained how
the groups, at each end of the city
centre, were working well. ‘We have
our voices heard, for better drug
treatment and better health.’
Chairing the SDF webinar,
he then asked Theo Van Dam,
‘founding father of drug using
movements in the Netherlands’,
to talk about how he organised
the groups effectively. ‘With the
first group, my interest was health
promotion,’ said Van Dam. ‘We got
money for this. We wanted eight
field workers. This was a serious job
so it needed to pay serious money.’
The government made the
point that the workers might buy
Olga Belyaeva from
Ukraine described
how 30 years
of propaganda
had ‘legalised
discrimination
against people who
use drugs’.
drugs with this money. ‘But my
response was, “So what? I don’t
know what you’re doing with your
money.”’ Undeterred, he got groups
together and paid travel costs
immediately. They talked about
what was going on in each city, the
methadone programmes and the
‘ridiculous’ fact that people had to
International Overdose Awareness
Day is a global event held on 31
August each year that aims to
raise people’s awareness around
overdose and reduce the stigma of
drug-related death.
attend every day at the same time.
They spoke to social workers and
policymakers and politicians.
Having structure was an
important part of successful
progress, says Van Dam, and to be
‘a serious partner to whoever you’re
talking to’. The groups looked at
how things were being done, right
down to house rules in the day
centre – ‘We said it’s too much, too
many.’ They ended up with one rule:
to ‘behave normal’.
There have been serious
setbacks – including the closure of
the day centre by police. But there
have also been successes, such as
getting police and social workers
along to see drug users taking
drugs – a huge step forward in
understanding and empathy.
Olga Belyaeva from Ukraine
described how 30 years of
propaganda had ‘legalised
discrimination against people who
use drugs’. As coordinator for the
Eurasian Network of People who
Use Drugs, she had been fortunate
to meet like-minded activists
and hear about naloxone – much
needed in a country that ignored
harm reduction. ‘To come into OST
you have to be HIV positive, so
some people tried to be infected,’
she said. Mental health issues were
prevalent within her community
and it was difficult to get a job.
There was great need to create
social enterprises.
Arild Knutsen of the Association
for Humane Drug User Policy
shared experience in Norway. The
country’s first drug consumption
room in 2005, alongside harm
reduction and calls for legalisation,
had come against opposition from
the Drug Abusers Association, an
organisation from the temperance
movement. ‘So we realised we
needed representation – more
substitution treatment and more
access to treatment,’ he said.
With ‘big political pressure’
against drug consumption rooms
and ‘more police actions against
open drug societies’, the association
organised a rally and protested
against drug policy. ‘We were invited
into parliament,’ he says, ‘and this
became drug users’ day. We go in
every year to discuss policy.’
The dialogue needed to extend
to talking to people all the time,
including reaching out to media.
‘We did this in a respectful way, so
we can live in harmony,’ he says, but
the message was firm: ‘Many people
are dying of overdoses.’ As a field
worker Knutsen was in a position
to make an immediate difference,
handing out naloxone. The
association had a ‘switch’ campaign,
encouraging people to smoke heroin
instead of injecting it.
Since then there have been
important milestones, including
involving politicians in a
decriminalisation campaign and
improvements in substitution
programmes. Oslo and Bergen
have developed heroin-assisted
treatment (HAT) programmes, ‘so
drug policy is changing now,’ he
says.
In a Q&A session chaired by
Kirsten Horsburgh of SDF, speakers
were asked for the key difference
people who use drugs could make
when changing drug policy.
‘You have to be an organiser’
and ‘you have to cooperate’, said
Van Dam. ‘If people can count on
you, you can make steps.’ Knutsen
agreed that it was important not
to be seen as ‘the enemy – just
drug users, drug abusers’ but as
people who can run democratic
organisations. ‘We are important
resources,’ he said. DDN
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM SEPTEMBER 2020 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • 15