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Posted by Erin on October 18, 2011
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/order-your-copy-of-bps-latest-issue/
Whitney…A Life Shared?
Whitney's bathroom where she holed up to smoke crack -perhaps not all that different to bathrooms and coffee tables we know?
This was written just after Whitney died though just tidied up and re-posted today.Hi, I just felt I should raise a flag, have a moment, share a thought about Whitney Houston. Now although it isn’t really relevant here I will say Im not a great fan of her music as such, despite acknowledging her incredibly beautiful voice, but that shouldn’t stop me from feeling something for a sister lost the fight to stay alive and function well whilst taking drugs.Whitney, I remember, informed me (through reading about her escapades) of crack smoking methods for the very rich; ie -she made her own ‘the crack blunt’ or ‘crack cigar’ -basically using cigar papers, (or by emptying a cigar) she’d roll up marijuana, stuff loads of it in there, and stick an 8 ball of crack in there as well -and that was how she would smoke! Now thats an 8th of an ounce my friends (3.5 gms yes?). She talked about this on her 2009 Oprah interview.. Now just imagine that to blow your Godamn socks off! And of course she would cook up her crack, it appeared looking at the fotos of her bathroom that were exposed a couple of years back (and re-exposed recently -see pic). She would cook up coke in the spoon, so she had obviously ditched the fussy freebase way and just gone straight for the bicarb. Although her chauffeur of many years has recently come out and said his car caught fire when Whitney and Bobbi were freebasing in the backseat of their limmo which they seemed to do regularly, inbetween her late night limmo rides to Compton, a dangerous gangland area where she could buy crack and dope at any time of the day or night.
whitney's bathroom
Now anyone who has experienced the scary intensity of a stimulant dependence will know, looking at Whitney’s bathroom pics, at what kind of state she would have been in, and when your bathroom gets like that, then things are pretty intense. But it was the psychological stuff that was really concerning, that level of drug activity is going to end up in disaster -and with stimulants you just know that paranoia is going to set in at some stage down that drug smoking road when your using massive amounts of stimulant drugs.
Whitney’s psychosis got so bad (she sent her cleaners home, moved Tina Brown in to tidy up and be her smoking buddy when Bobby wasn’t around-Tina being Bobby’s sister who also had a crack problem) and she just lived in her bathroom and bedroom. Tina, after some time sold her story to the press, with pictures of the bathroom, but worrying had said said that Whitney would be covered in bruises where she used to hit and punch herself really hard becoz she thought demons were coming up through the floor into her body – or she would see them trying to get out of her body and into Bobby Brown so she’d hit herself again. It must have been crazy to live like that and it is incredible really that it seemed to go on for so long.
It really sounded like a painful existence, to have all that money and all those drugs, and because society does not let us discuss our drug user sensibly, and the media will not let celebrities have a drug problem without screwing them to death over it -people just hide stuff, take cover, get out the way of people who will judge you as so often so many do…
Whitney’s daughter seems to have her own problems, her ex boyfriend saying she has a serious coke problem and pictures being leaked of her snorting lines…How on earth she managed to grow up level headed in those extremely intense and excessive surroundings -must have been almost impossible - however she certainly did have a close relationship with her mother – who did seem to share an especially strong bond with her -which surprises none of us as we know how deep that love for our children goes – drugs or no drugs. She ‘appears’ to have a drug problem as cited by ex boyfriends etc, and she was certainly around her mum and dad when things were at their craziest (the chauffeur stating Whitney regularly smoked crack in front of Bobbi, as well as her husband. I imagine the drug taking would pale into insignificance when trying to cope with a large helping of cocaine psychosis. According again, to Tina Brown, (though it clearly has a ring of truth to it mirroring dutifully what really does happen in coke induced freakouts) Whitney would get screwdrivers to pull apart all sorts of appliances and objects thinking she was being bugged and spied on, and would spend months in just her pyjamas. How Bobbi jnr will fare is anyone’s guess in Hollywood with all that money and temptation all around you to just wanna forget…
We are starting to hear now about the days before Whitneys death and her totally wasted state. I dont know what im trying to say about all this except it seems painful indeed to watch (becoz we can watch it all) how someone, who really did have one of the best voices of all time -fall into such a desperate state. Her interviews with Oprah make compelling viewing, she was clearly in love with Bobby Brown, truly madly and deeply, despite him appearing like a temperamental bully, who would flip into a rage at a seconds notice and whom she always seemed to be appeasing. What a mess it all got. How awful to have ones messes thrown across the pages of the worlds tabloids and gossip columns for all to see..However for reading the views of people really quite well placed to comment, Whitney was also a victim of the addiction society has of stigmatising drug using women -there either the victim -usually of bad men -(like Whitney) or the temptress and vixen, like Courtney Love. Amy Winehouse (victim of bad men again), Lyndsay Lohan (temptress and manipulator). Whitneys chauffeur of 4 or so years said it was Whitney that 9 times out of 10 wanted to go and score, demanding to get high, now, and not Bobby the demonized husband. (Though he does appear the violent and jealous type with a huge chip on his shoulder struggling under the shadow of his way more talented wife)…
It is said Whitney has spent her 100 odd million fortune and was effectively broke just recently. That is some serious goddamn money to go through on drugs and fast living and Im sure she had some good times amongst all that! There was a purpose to all that activity! Fun! Imagine what you would do with all that money and drugs and resorts to indulge in! And then, you start taking drugs to forget the mess your leaving all around you…
Again, im not sure what i am trying to say, just that I wanted to remember her, hold up a little torch and say -as a using community – we understand the difficulties of drug dependence when it gets really ugly -and I just wish we didnt have a society that has made it almost impossible for society to learn how to use drugs in moderation, not in excess, that we could buy clean, safer, cheaper drugs…It is perhapsnot suprising at all however that we will probably find Whitney died from prescription drugs given to her by a multitude of doctors who just kept accepting the cheques she gave for another prescription (but we cant blame the Dr’s really either coz we know how they get hassled and pleaded with to prescribe something to help/get through). But it is typical nevertheless -Get her off the illicit drugs only to stuff her full of the legal ones. Im not blaming anyone here, just trying to show some sadness for the way Whitney spent the last years of her life. It doesnt seem right does it? It doesn’t seem right she appeared to be left in this truely psyched out state, for so long. What happened there i wonder? She was clearly a diva and had a rotten temper of late but so many people claimed to adore her…Was she just too difficult and people had pretty much given up? Or were people turning a blind eye, and what they didn’t see every day, didnt happen. Too complicated, too hard, too busy today….
We will remember her amongst our using community, as yet another victim of Hollywood’s massive excess, (though not, as stanton Peele says, because of Hollywood itself) the hypocrisy, and a developing drugs culture in our society that has no ability to guide generations effectively through the tricky minefield of psychoactive substances.
RIP Whitney..
Related articles
- Chauffeur: Whitney Houston, Bobby Brown had ‘wild threesome with A-list soul singer’ in back seat (miamiherald.typepad.com)
- Whitney Houston, Bobby Brown’s stormy pairing (cbsnews.com)
- Bobbi Kristina Brown Drug Photo Surfaces Online? (celebs.gather.com)
Posted by Erin on February 23, 2012
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/whitney-a-life-shared/
Andrey Rylkov Foundation’s website shut down in Russia
Here is an article from our friends at Harm Reduction International, writing about a truly appalling situation (another one) to emerge from Russia -affecting our dear friends and peer activists at Andrey Rylkov Foundation. This courageous HIV/AIDS, drug and human rights organisation has consistently raised their head above the parapet (in a country where it can be literally be beaten off), and given people much needed health and harm reduction information in a climate of fear and intimidation. One can only imagine what that must be like, to work every day knowing that you could be arrested, imprisoned, fitted up on a trumped up charge (which has happened repeatedly to other HIV and human rights activists) while thousands upon thousands of people are desperate for the sterile syringes that you give out, and the HIV information you impart. Last World AIDS day, December 1st 2011, ARF were instrumental in supporting us at BP (and INPUD) to coordinate the global Russian embassy protest, an attempt to shame Russian officials about their inaction and lack of response to the HIV catastrophe unfolding in their country. We are deeply concerned at this latest attempt by the Russian government to silence anyone or any organisations that discuss methadone in what is an ” ongoing assault on HIV prevention” taking things to the “next level by moving to silence public health advocates whose only infraction has been to spread life-saving information online and to criticize the government for its own failures.” We will keep you posted of developments. Catch ARF on facebook, and join to keep up to date with what is looking to be a highly charged time in Russian life and politics.
Authors: Eka Iakobishvili and Claudia Stoicescu
Vladimir Putin wrote a recent column praising the potential for “internet-based democracy”. But the Russian government adopts rules allowing for websites to be shut down on a
Vladimir Putin's iron grip on power continues to circumvent free speech in Russia, as yet again, HIV & drug organisations like ARF are targeted.
whim, and has used those rules to close down HIV prevention sites.
He talked about free medical care being one of the priorities of Russian citizens. But that care denied to millions of Russian people.
While Prime Minister Putin spoke glowingly of digital democracy, his anti-drugs agency is censoring websites for writing about WHO essential medicine.
“[It's over] methadone, plain and simple” said Anya Sarang, President of the Andrey Rylkov Foundation, which had its website shut down over the weekend.
The government’s anti-drugs agency, FSKN Moscow Department demanded that the Andrey Rylkov Foundation’s service provider block their website, utilizing new rules adopted last year. The notification states it was due to “placement of materials which propagandize (advertise) the use of drugs, information about distribution, purchasing of drugs and inciting the use of drugs”
What the Foundation was doing was spreading the word about basic HIV prevention measures and commenting on the Russian government’s policies.
Amidst pro-democracy protests, the Russian authorities have taken what is an ongoing assault on HIV prevention to the next level by moving to silence public health advocates whose only infraction has been to spread life-saving information online and to criticize the government for its own failures.
Russia is home to one of the biggest populations of injecting drug users, and one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world. It is estimated that there are just under two million injecting drug users in Russia. In some regions, more than 80 percent of people living with HIV in the country contracted the virus through injecting with contaminated equipment.
According to the World Health Organization, methadone is an essential medicine, for treating heroin dependence and for preventing HIV transmission by reducing the practice of injecting. Multiple scientific studies back this up.
But the Russian government’s ‘zero tolerance’ approach to illicit drugs is well known and has resulted in the outright denial of methadone (or ‘opioid substitution therapy’). It is illegal in Russia.
The net result of these policies is a massive increase in the number of people living with HIV in the country over the last decade.
According to UNAIDS, “In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, there was a 250% increase in the number of people living with HIV from 2001 to 2010. The Russian Federation and Ukraine account for almost 90% of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region’s epidemic. Injecting drug use remains the leading cause of HIV infection in this region”.
“People all over the world take this medication for granted” says Sarang, “but here in Russia it’s central to our struggle against HIV and it’s banned. Now, even our speaking about it seems to be banned.”
This is not the first time Russia has attempted to censor civil society voices for public health. At the UN General Assembly talk on HIV last March the Russian delegation tried to stop a Ukrainian drug user from speaking about HIV prevention. Fortunately, others were not happy with such censorship and the effort failed.
“The right to information is essential to realizing the right to health,” said Agnes Callamard, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19, in a statement. “A government agency such as Federal Drug Control Service should not have the ability to ban websites at the whim of a bureaucrat. This is particularly so when considering the impact of censoring discussions relating to drug addiction or HIV/AIDS.”
For years, human rights advocates like the Andrey Rylkov Foundation have argued that Russia’s colossal failure to provide vital services is a breach of its obligation under international law to respect, protect and fulfill the right to health. The government’s latest crackdown against public health activists has turned the matter into an issue of freedom of expression.
Mr. Putin says that democracy needs “efficient channels for dialogue… communication and feedback,” while the government’s actions silence people fighting to raise issues the government is refusing to face. This silences the spread of information. It silences the democratic process.
Source of publication: http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Categories: Drug policy in Russia, Russia and OST | 
Tags: ARF, Federal Drug Control Service, HIV, Methadone, OST, press about ARF | 
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Related articles
- Vladimir Putin, Falling Czar (businessweek.com)
- Violent ‘Russian Spring’ protests could follow a Vladimir Putin victory: Opposition leader (news.nationalpost.com)
- Hackers Expose Emails About Bribes Within Russian Media (newsy.com)
- Zakaria: How oil is propping up Putin (globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com)
Posted by Erin on February 10, 2012
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/andrey-rylkov-foundations-website-shut-down-in-russia/
The Meaning of Recovery Has Changed, You Just Don’t Know It | Psychology Today
Stanton Peele writes refreshingly once again in Psychology Today this month, about a remarkable development from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), in the States. This government agency is charged with “formulating drug and alcohol abuse treatment policy, [and] after surveying the leading specialists in the mainstream of the field, has created “Recovery Defined– A Unified Working Definition and Set of Principles.”" Peele goes on to enjoy the fact that SAMHSA actually ends up at his view of recovery — not AA’s and the 12 Steppers– as “A process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential.”
Quoting the article “The definition [of recovery] is the product of a year-long effort by SAMHSA and a wide range of partners in the behavioral health care community and other fields to develop a working definition of recovery that captures the essential, common experiences of those recovering from mental disorders and substance use disorders, along with major guiding principles that support the recovery definition”
Please do click the link at the bottom of this blogs section to find the article in its entirety, but just to summarise things here -and I have to add, I feel this is a very well good definition of recovery and alludes to what many of us have been saying for a long time. That it benefits to shift the focus off drug use per say and embrace the fact that it is about positive, meaningful change, wherever that may take you and whatever that may look like.
But back to the SAHMSA definition – Here is the resulting formulation:
Working Definition of Recovery
Recovery is a process of change whereby individuals work to improve their own health and wellness and to live a meaningful life in a community of their choice while striving to achieve their full potential.
Principles of Recovery
Person-driven;
Occurs via many pathways;
Is holistic;
Is supported by peers;
Is supported through relationships;
Is culturally-based and influenced;
Is supported by addressing trauma;
Involves individual, family, and community strengths and responsibility;
Is based on respect; and
Emerges from hope.
Furthermore SAMHSA’s Recovery Support Initiative identifies four major domains that support recovery:
Health: overcoming or managing one’s disease(s) as well as living in a physically and emotionally healthy way;
Home: a stable and safe place to live that supports recovery;
Purpose: meaningful daily activities, such as a job, school, volunteerism, family caretaking, or creative endeavors, and the independence, income and resources to participate in society; and
Community: relationships and social networks that provide support, friendship, love, and hope.Click below for the rest of the article and hear more from Stanton’s engaging summary.
The Meaning of Recovery Has Changed, You Just Don’t Know It | Psychology Today.
Posted by Erin on February 6, 2012
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/the-meaning-of-recovery-has-changed-you-just-dont-know-it-psychology-today/
INPUD writes to Peruvian Ambassador as 27 die in rehab fire.
Patients' relatives outside rehab centre, Lima (28 January) foto thanks to bbc.co.uk (click for link))
We remember -and we are angry. This is a letter sent by INPUD’s Exec Director Eliot Albers, to the Peruvian Ambassador following the deaths of 27 people in a‘rehab’ facility in Lima. The facility, unregulated and highly questionable in its approach to treatment, is believed to have locked people inside rooms as a matter of course, and it was where they perished when a fire broke out. One can only imagine the terror felt by those inside during the last minutes of their lives, the screams and the panic. This torturous anguish will be only be equalled by the grief and guilt felt by the parents and loved ones who had been duped into paying money to keep their loved ones in, what they now know fully to be, such cruel conditions. Sadly, as Eliot’s letter illustrates -this is not the only instance of a massacre in a rehab, occurring because we are accepting people being ‘treated’ by being locked in, chained to beds, prevented from leaving (so called voluntary centres) by double bolted steel doors etc – with no thought as to fire hazards or emergency access -and all the while taking money from and placating terrified parents, that, yes, your children are in safe hands. Safer here than on the streets, at least you’ll know they are safe in their beds tonight….And the metal doors slam, and the bolts lock ‘em in tight, as inmates at these ‘voluntary’ centres press their ears to the wall to listen out for the echoes, for the crackling and spitting sounds of fire, edging its way up the hall…
‘Find links to bbc news video and newspaper articles on the fire after the letter, below.
Sent: February 3, 2012 10:48 AM
Letter to the Peruvian Ambassador
Your Excellency I am writing to you as Executive Director of the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) on behalf of my membership. We are recognized by theUNODC, UNAIDS and other multilateral bodies concerned with illegal drugs and health issues as the peak international NGO representing this often highly stigmatized community. A substantial proportion of our membership fall into that category of the drug using population who are most likely to seek help should their drug use become problematic, they often live on the fringes of society and are frequently subject to human rights abuses, and subsequently significant threats to their health and well-being. The stigma and discrimination directed at this sector of the population enables a climate in which sub-standard, and in the case that prompts me to write to you, lethal treatment can flourish.
27 dead – ‘Clarion Call’
Sunday’s tragic fire at Lima’s ‘Christ is Love’ facility which resulted in 27 deaths[1] is a clarion call to the Peruvian government to take a long hard look at the quality standards, or lack thereof, under which many such private sector facilities operate in Peru. We note that this problem is not limited to Peru, but that similar lethal fires in erstwhile treatment centres for people who use drugs in which ‘patients’ have been kept chained and behind bars have also been documented in Russia[2], and lethal abuses of human rights committed by the staff of such establishments have occurred in India[3].
Milton Rojas from the Peruvian drug abuse and prevention group CEDRO estimates that only 20% of Peru’s facilities for drug treatment have licences and trained staff[4]. According to your own Health Minister, Alberto Tejada “[t]his rehabilitation centre wasn’t authorised. It was a house that they had taken over … for patients with addictions and they had the habit of leaving people locked up with no medical supervision”[5].
“It was a house that they had taken over … for patients with addictions and they had the habit of leaving people locked up with no medical supervision” Alberto Tejada, Peru’s health minister
Told to Close, Yet Still Operating?
The fact that this sort of ‘treatment’ is so widespread in your country is an affront to human dignity and a clear breach of the human right to the highest attainable standard of health, one that is only compounded by the revelation that the ‘Christ is Love’ facility had been investigated on two previous occasions[6] and been told to close, yet still continued to operate. Keeping people seeking help when their drug use has become problematic behind bars and chained up is a breach of the inalienable right to “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health [that] is one of the fundamental rights of every human being…” enshrined in the constitution of the World Health Organisation, and guaranteed by article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which Peru has both signed and ratified. These two documents enshrine a rights based approach to health that is clearly being breached by the enforced detention and chaining practised in the ‘Christ is Love’ facility.
INPUD Calls for Review of Drug Treatment Facilities
Furthermore, Article 1 of the Peruvian Constitution states that the “defense of the human person and respect for his dignity are the supreme purpose of society and the State”, this standard should also be met by the private treatment sector , and applies as much to people who use drugs as it does to any other sector of the population. Whilst we welcome the fact that the owner of the clinic, Mr. Raul Garcia Albornoz and two others have been charged with homicide we call upon the Peruvian Government to take this opportunity to ensure that all facilities offering treatment to people experiencing problems with their drug use in Peru be reviewed, that the unlicensed ones be closed down, and that science based, human rights compliant responses to problematic drug use be scaled up and made universally available to those who need them in Peru.
INPUD E.D Calls to Meet at CND
I will be present in Vienna in March for the Commission on Narcotic Drugsand would very much welcome the opportunity of talking to your representative about finding means of ensuring that the treatment offered to people seeking help with their problematic drug use meet the highest standards, and are both human rights compliant and based on the best scientific evidence (this is often referred to as the ‘comprehensive package for responding to HIV among people who inject drugs’ and includes nine interventions that should be available to injecting drug users[7]). Deadly fires have also occurred in facilities similar to the ‘Christ is Love’ centre in other countries including Russia; perhaps, Sunday’s tragic events can be used to spur Peru to take the lead on stamping out such malpractice worldwide, an initiative that we would be more than happy to discuss with your representative in Vienna.
Your sincerely Dr Eliot Ross Albers, PhD
Executive Director International Network of People who Use Drugs
Related articles
- Peru drug rehabilitation centre blaze kills at least 20 – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
- INPUD writes to Peruvian Ambassador regarding deaths in rehab. (inpud.wordpress.com)
- Peru’s health minister vows crackdown in wake of deadly rehab fire (news.blogs.cnn.com)
- VIDEO: Peru rehab centre fire kills 26 (bbc.co.uk)
Posted by Erin on February 5, 2012
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/inpud-writes-to-peruvian-ambassador-as-27-die-in-rehab-fire/
The Surprisingly Low Addiction Rates of Crack, Heroin, and Meth
Here is an interesting blog I just discovered -Narco Polo (www.suburra.com), a guy who is devoting his site to the pursuit of recreational drug use. His name is Rob Arthur. In his own words he is “A former inner-city teacher and public defender”. His book, You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos, takes “An anthropological look at how wrong and debilitating our beliefs are about sex, drugs, and more. It won the 2008 Montaigne Medal for most thought-provoking independent book.
Rob explains that the purpose of his blog, entitled Narco Polo is to defend recreational drug use -” and all other consensual adult activities – that the American government deems criminal. When media sensationalism and government propaganda are confronted with facts, it is apparent that the unintended consequences of these prohibitions have caused much greater suffering than the activities themselves.” Well said Rob! He certainly has something to say and would be worth a read and returning to now and again to see what interesting viewpoints he throws up. Here’s a link to an interesting but brief blog, but do look around for some other gems.
The Surprisingly Low Addiction Rates of Crack, Heroin, and Meth
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Posted by Erin on January 30, 2012
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/the-surprisingly-low-addiction-rates-of-crack-heroin-and-meth/
Video of the Russian Embassy Protest Dec 1st 2011
This is a video of the global protest that was held on World AIDS day 2011, in around 12 cities around the world, led by the drug using community and INPUD, the International Network of People who Use Drugs -protesting against to the Russian government’s shameful inaction regarding the drugs and HIV catastrophe unfolding in the region.
Posted by Erin on January 29, 2012
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/video-of-the-russian-embassy-protest-dec-1st-2011/
Frank Sinatra – The Man With The Golden Arm (1955) – Trailer and Theme 黄金の腕
Had to post this, a fellow tweeter tweeted the actual hanging out scene from this film today, the Man With the Golden Arm, which made me start looking about for some other clips. Unbearable in its corniness -and so awful you just cant tear your eyes away. What was worse was in the comments section below it on the you tube site, one guy had said 3 years ago he was shown the film for his court appointed punishment for his ‘Driving whilst Intoxicated’ offence. Can you believe that?!
Frank Sinatra – The Man With The Golden Arm (19…, posted with vodpod
Posted by Erin on December 11, 2011
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/frank-sinatra-the-man-with-the-golden-arm-1955-trailer-and-theme-%e9%bb%84%e9%87%91%e3%81%ae%e8%85%95/
Users Unite Around the Globe in Support of their Russian Peers -an overview
Posted on December 5, 2011
New York City Kicked off the global protest on the eve of World AIDS Day, and were followed by 12 other cities
POST Press Release (please feel free to share this post on your website, but remember to link it back to here! Thanks!)
On World Aids Day, 2011, just a few short days ago, harm reduction organisations led by people who use drugs and supported by the International Network of People who Use Drugs(INPUD) gathered outside Russian embassies in cities across the world in the largest ever global show of solidarity by and for people who use drugs.
The protests, entitled ‘Shame Russia Shame’, was directed at Russia’s highly controversial drug policies which are believed to be driving the EEC regions HIV and TB epidemics. Injecting drugs with contaminated equipment is driving Russia’s HIV epidemic, now the fastest growing in the world and it is reflected in the numbers; as many as 80% of new infections are occurring amongst people who inject drugs (PWID), in a total HIV positive population of approx 1.3million. With this in mind, recent projections forecast an additional 5 million people could become infected with HIV in the near future, unless Russia drastically transforms the way it is dealing with its HIV pandemic.
INPUD member Erin O’Mara says Russia’s drug policies are ‘brutalising’
Erin O’Mara, (editor of UK’s Black Poppy Magazine and INPUD member) who coordinated the global protest said the human catastrophe unfolding in Russia is almost indescribable in its brutality and neglect.”Russia has more heroin users than anywhere in the world yet because they offer no safe alternatives such as methadone or buprenorphine, and corruption has driven the price of heroin above what many Russian users can afford, new home made concoctions like desomorphine (nicknamed krokodil) are gaining ground, with devastating health consequences for the user”. Erin adds, “To scratch the surface of Russian drug policies, you find some of the most brutalizing policies in the world; where their should be harm reduction, regulation, treatment and support, there is neglect, abuse, imprisonment, disease and death.”
New York City groups Harm Reduction Coalition and Vocal NY, led the first of the World Aids Day demos, reading speeches and presenting a statement of demands to the Russian Embassy, which included the demand for Opiate Substitution Therapies (OST) such as methadone to be both legal and accessible to the 2 million or more injecting drug users in Russia.
Mexico lays its candlelight vigil in memory of those who have died of AIDS.Mexico soon followed, again on the eve of World AIDS Day, with their protest led by Espolea, an organisation who’s young people delivered their heartfelt candlelight vigil to remember those who have died of AIDS and those with HIV facing so much oppression in the Russian Federation. It was a very generous tribute from our young colleagues in Mexico at a time in the drugs war when they are facing such enormous troubles of their own. (see video below).
As December 1st -and World AIDS Day dawned, the global domino effect began and cities from Canberra, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Berlin, Bucharest, London, Paris, Porto, Stockholm, Tblisi, Toronto, delivered their protests, and a unified SHAME RUSSIA SHAME rang out in front of Russian Embassies across the world.
Londons’ Russian Embassy ProtestSpeeches were given and a statement of demands were delivered to the Embassies which included demands to see the introduction of Opiate Substitution therapy (OST) and the scale up of needle and syringe programmes, which although currently funded by outside NGO’s and not by the Russian Government, numbers of services are still shockingly inadequate, with around 50 odd for the entire Russian Federation.
The city of Tblisi also took a brave step and protested outside their Swiss Embassy, which currently stands in for the Russian embassy which has been removed from Georgia for political reasons. Nevertheless, Georgians who have also seen the emergence of the drug Krokodil from across the Russian border were keen to show solidarity with their Russian drug using peers, as history has meant they were very aware of the might of the Russian police forces and their attitudes towards drug users. Georgians took a huge risk protesting in Tblisi but seemed buoyed by recent workshops in drug user organising and empowerment and peerwork with INPUD.
New Vector, in Tblisi in support of their Russian peers, and raising awareness of krokodil
Demonstrators had the special opportunity to read out a letter from Russia, from an INPUD member and drug user activist named Alex, who spoke directly to his peers across the world about Russia’s indifference and the strength he gains from a unified drug using community.
Alex writes: “To my despair, I live in a country where the means don’t justify the ends Where it’s easier to save the lives of healthy people by destroying those who are sick. Where ethics and humanity have given way to contempt and cruelty. Where they evaluate prevention not in terms of possibilities and outcomes but dollars and popularity. I express my deepest gratitude to all of you who share my protest. For me, World AIDS Day does not exist in Russia. For me World AIDS Day in Russia means white carnations and condolence cards.I’m alive today thanks to your help and your faith in our united strength. I wish us resilient spirits, and that love fills all of our homes. I’m with you today.”
The white slippers and carnations outside the Russian Embassy in Canberra, Australia
Demonstrators from the LGBT community also joined London’s embassy protest to add their voices against Russia’s recently passed St Petersberg bill, which, having already passed the first hearing, would severely further restrict the rights of the LGBT community. The oppression and marginalisation of the LGBT community also adds to a difficult environment to disseminate HIV prevention/treatment information. (click here for more info on this issue.)
The global protest was an exciting, moving and empowering event for all concerned, however everyone was acutely aware that Russian themselves were simply not safe enough to protest on World AIDS Day, no matter how peacefully. Although this protest had its roots in Moscow in 2009 on International Drug User Day, when 5 Russian activists were arrested after trying to lay red carnations and white slippers (the Russian symbol for the dead) at the steps of the Drug Control Service, the protest expanded on International Remembrance Day 2011. People in three countries took part, Budapest, Berlin and Barcelona and remembered their peers outside Russian embassies, again laying the symbols of the protest. This world AIDS Day,was a call out to the world that we will not let our Russian peers be forgotten -that we will stand side by side them as we all fight to ensure that Russian citizens have the right to humane, evidenced based, enlightened drug policies and treatment.
For more information and/or quotes from INPUD members and city organisers, please do not hesitate to get in touch with INPUD.
Contact: INPUD Deputy Project Co-ordinatorL eliotalbers@inpud.net who can put you in touch with the right person or answer your questions. For more articles on this issue see the protest website at http://russianembassyprotest.wordpress.com
NOTE: A huge thank you to the global coordinators based in London – Women of Substance, Black Poppy Magazine, and Ava Project (London)- -and our partners in Eastern Europe: Andrey Rylkov Foundation, Eurasian Harm Reduction Network and all those organisations who took part in this event. INPUD members; Plataforma Drogologica (Barcelona), Deutsch AIDS Hilfe (Berlin), Harm Reduction Coalition, Vocal NY (New York City) ,ASUD, Cannabis Sans Frontiere (Paris), AIVL, NUAA, CAHMA(Canberra) CASOP (Porto) Association Intergration (Bucharest),Svenska Brukarforeningen (Stockholm), New Vector (Tblisi), CounterFit (Toronto) Chemical Reaction (Edinburgh) , Espolea (Mexico City)
Posted by Erin on December 6, 2011
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/users-unite-around-the-globe-in-support-of-their-russian-peers-an-overview/
Shame Russia Shame – 2011 World AIDS Day London
Londons Russian Embassy Protest World AIDS Day 2011, joining in solidarity, in 12 cities around the world with our Russian peers, against Russias brutal treatment of people who use drugs and its total neglect of the HIV catastrophe in its midst. Shame on you Russia, Shame on you.
Shame Russia Shame – 2011 World AIDS Day London, posted with vodpod
Posted by Erin on December 2, 2011
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/shame-russia-shame-2011-world-aids-day-london/
LONDON PROTEST – for World AIDS Day:
Here is the flyer for the international protest at Russian Embassies in 10 cities across the world – led by the drugs community! Protest on Dec 1st, with us! Scroll down for all the details and links – and for Londoner’s – and those in UK – click the link for the flyer below.
Posted by Erin on November 29, 2011
http://blackpoppymag.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/london-protest-for-world-aids-day/
