Wednesday 16 May 2007

Themes emerging...

Morning! Upon waking up to a rather overcast Polish day, many themes and issues are emerging from this conference and the agenda for today is sure to restore a bit of energy. Firstly, in terms of themes emerging - one thing keeps springing up - and that is that harm reduction groups and activists need to liaise a lot more closely with drug law reform and drug policy groups. The simple fact is, we will keep having to continue with more and more innovative harm reduction measures - in prisons, for the homeless, to prevent people getting iller and more isolated - until we start tackling the root cause of why we need such measures - the drug laws themselves. If we used all our alliances, energy, ideas and research and directed it consistantly towards trying to challenge, change, inform the laws themselves, then maybe we wouldn't end up at conferences like this talking of deaths, persecutions, infections, violence, and the social isolation of drug users.
It really is time we started moving up a notch, changing gear and beginning to address the reasons WHY people are so ill, stigmatised and scapegoated. Why the laws get away with continuing to demonise and imprison millions and millions of people around the globe - for taking drugs. For taking a substance that because it isnt alcohol or tobacco (which kill more people than all the other drugs combined) - your an outcast, your forced to hide, to be ashamed, to lose your family to lose your livlihood and as we hear in the US - to lose the chance of ever gaining an education or even public housing - and sometimes as in the good 'ol USA, the chance to have children - or more generally for the rest of us, to keep your children with you. Just unbelieveable....