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view on challenging stereotypes , presenting his digital storytelling initiative , Story Turns ( www . storyturns . org ). Working with people who used heroin , he involved them in workshops to make a short video telling their personal story . Instead of the ‘ dark , seedy , anonymous ’ portrayal of drug users , the project resulted in ‘ humanising ’ stories and images – the message that ( in the words of one participant ) ‘ there ’ s more to me than addiction ’.
Psychologist Dr Suzi Gage shared another imaginative initiative , the ‘ Say why to drugs ?’ project , which uses podcasts to look at the harms and the potential benefits of drugs , with ‘ no judgement , no spin and no hyperbole ’. Her first series , in conversation with rapper Scroobius Pip , took the conversation to young people and aimed to take them into territory where they could ask questions and build up a full and fair picture of drugs and people who use them .
the theme of changing the narrative continued , from both a UK and international perspective . Michael Shiner from the London School of Economics focused on disproportionate policing , particularly stop and search , which had ‘ engulfed policing since 1980 ’ and intensified since the Stephen Lawrence inquiry gave
police ‘ more power with less accountability ’.
He explained that he was part of an organisation called Stop Watch , which was trying to change the narrative around stop and search , including tackling the ‘ massive disproportionality in relation to drugs ’.
Maria Phelan of Harm Reduction International ( HRI ) widened the view to the global state of harm reduction . While there had been progress on opioid substitution therapy ( OST ) in Monaco , Senegal and Kenya , funding cuts – and in some cases the lack of momentum to prioritise harm reduction – had scaled down progress in many countries .
Referring to HRI ’ s latest biennial report , she highlighted that harm reduction in prisons ‘ lies far behind what ’ s available in the community ’, with several programmes closing since the last report and Spain being ‘ the only country that has anything up to scale ’.
While Europe was seen as the ‘ leader of a harm reduction approach ’, there had been a decrease in needle and syringe programmes in the last two years , including in Portugal – the result of its financial crisis . Hepatitis C among injecting drug users remained a serious concern .
‘ There has been growth , but not fast enough ,’ she said . ‘ The biggest question is how do we get countries to invest and sustain funding ? It ’ s about protecting the gains we ’ ve made .’
in a talk about supervised injecting facilities , the Scottish Drugs Forum ’ s Kirsten Horsburgh suggested that doubts about their advantages tended to relate to lack of knowledge . When presented with clear benefits ( from the results of 135 research projects ) and ‘ myth busting ’ facts , most people were persuaded that providing a sterile environment was beneficial all round and did not perpetuate drug use .
Sharing this kind of research and information was of great benefit to drug users – the ‘ popular scapegoats ’, according to Mat Southwell ( main pic ) of the European Network of People who use Drugs ( EuroNPUD ).
‘ Drug user organising is no longer seen as separate , marginalised work ,’ he said . ‘ Europe has a strong network of drug user activists and we realised there was a need to get our act together and mobilise … We need to seize the opportunity to be active partners – we are high level advocates and technical providers .’
Looking at developing joint advocacy plans with other networks and running simultaneous campaigns would ‘ help to create more noise ’ and move towards meaningful representation with government and the EU .
But above all , the close working and informationsharing had the potential of much greater results – a key message from this year ’ s Hot Topics . ‘ We are committed to solidarity ,’ he said . ‘ Changes can ’ t happen in isolation .’ DDN
HINER |
MARIA PHELAN |
KEITH SABIN |
MAGDALENA HARRIS |
KIRSTEN HORSBURGH |
www . drinkanddrugsnews . com February 2017 | drinkanddrugsnews | 7