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NEW PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES – POLICY RESPONSES AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES. Peter Sarosi Drug Policy Program Director Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. Qualitative Study on NPS in 5 countries. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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NEW PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES –
POLICY RESPONSES AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Peter SarosiDrug Policy Program Director
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
Qualitative Study on NPS in 5 countries Aim: to assess how
professionals and affected communities perceive 1) the trends in NPS use and related harms 2) the impact of existing policy responses to the NPS phenomenon 3) the best possible policy responses
We asked our national NGO partners to identify 20 stakeholders with wide professional backgrounds
Public health and social service providers, law enforcement professionals, drug users and club owners
103 phone interviews in 5 countries – wide variety of stakeholders have been interviewed
Drug use patternsRecreational/club drug use
(mostly situational) Young, educated, urban males
with access to Internet Experimenters Major route of use: smoking or
snorting Risks: psychotic episodes,
overdose, aggressive behavior, unprotected sex, HCV
Serbia, Portugal: only this pattern
Dependent use pattern (daily)
Young or middle aged men, low class, uneducated, unemployed, marginalized
Experienced heroin/amphetamine users/methadone clients
Major route of use: injecting
More frequent injecting - needle sharing, rapidly deteriorating health condition, aggressive behavior, paranoia, psychosis
Romania, Poland, Hungary: this pattern is very prevalent
Why the patterns differ so much across countries?Availability of classical
drugs Criminalization of drug
usersAccess to treatment
(OST)Social status of drug
users (concentrated, marginalized Roma communities)
Race: laws are always one step behind drug traffickers
Legislative solutionsPoland: 2010 – Chief Sanitary Inspectorate closed down
more than 1000 shops - amendment of the drug law – introducing the term “substitute drug”
Romania: a new law requires shop owners to register all products containing psychoactive substances – if not, the authorities can close them
Hungary: 2012 generic list of new psychoactive substances was introduced – ban on groups of substances
Portugal: introduced a temporary list with 160 substances, banned all commercial activities with these substances
Assessment of policy responses to NPSs
Media-driven policy making – no evidence base
Creation of black market/replacement of the problem
Lack of transparency of the market
Missed opportunity to regulate the market
No monitoring/evaluation of control measures
Fear-based mass media campaigns: is this effective?
Public health concerns
Injecting NPS use – 10-15 injection per day = growing demand for sterile equipment
Coincided with financial austerity – reduced funding for harm reduction programs
Result: sharing of needles and infections – consequence: HIV epidemics (Romania, Greece)
The treatment system is not prepared to tackle NPS related problems – designed to treat opiate addiction
NEEDS: Trainings Testing of drug samples Treatment guidelines
(not so) balanced approachControlling substances is
not the solution in itself – the solution is on the demand side
Very few public health and social responses to the legal high phenomenon
Policy recommendationsReallocating resources
on education and public health
Research on NPSDecriminalizing drug useRegulatory options – the
New Zealand model Rethinking drug policies
THANK YOU FOR YOUR THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!ATTENTION!
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