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Do curso por University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

1 rating

University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

1 rating

This MOOC is the first of its kind, since it addresses critical issues related to drugs from a multidisciplinary, health and human rights-based approach. Throughout the course you will cover a range of questions including what are drugs and why they controlled? What are the benefits and harms of taking drugs? How public health policies can address drug use? You will also learn about the intricacies of the international drug control framework and the negative consequences of widespread prohibitionist drug policies around the world. Finally, you will examine ways of furthering drug policy reform. The topics will be presented by over 40 speakers from scientific, academic and institutional backgrounds, spokespersons of civil society as well as people who use drugs presenting their views. By the end of the course you will have: - a strong understanding of the major health issues related to drug use and drug policy; - a clear vision of why drug policy is debated today; - and, if you so wish, you will be equipped to engage in the drug policy reform movement at your local or regional level.

Na lição

Module 6: The case for drug policy reform

Welcome to Module 6! Congratulations, you have made it to the last Module of the Course! This week focuses on how prohibitionist drug policies have failed and how it is time for drug policy reform. Some highlights include decriminalisation, legalisation and regulation being broken down for you, so that you really understand what the terms mean and how countries can move towards them in terms of drug policy goals. A big part of this Module also concentrates on how to get involved in the drug reform movement: you will hear from people who have intimate experience with this: from civil society actors working in the field to networks of people who use drugs; before being able to you, yourself think about how and what you could do to join the drug reform movement. By the end of this Module you will be able to: • Give examples of decriminalization and regulation of drugs and discuss outcomes; • Defend the involvement of civil society and people who use drugs in the design and evaluation of drug policies; • Reflect on and develop your potential role in the world drug debate.The final evaluation will consist of a peer – review, during which you will have the possibility to think about how what you have learnt throughout the course applies to the situation in your own country with regard to drug policy (specifically in relation to protecting human rights and promoting health); and to reflect on how people who use drugs are perceived and/or treated and consider what role you could play in this possible reform. Please don’t forget to go through the essential reading list and some of the optional additional resources available to you. We hope you have enjoyed the six Modules and look forward to receiving your peer-evaluations as well any feedback you may have. Best wishes,The Drugs, Drug Use, Drug Policy and Health team

Conheça os instrutores

Michel Kazatchkine
Senior Fellow
Global Health Center, Graduate Institute for International Affairs and Development, Geneva
Barbara Broers
Professor (in Addiction Medicine)
Community Health Departement, Geneva University Hospitals
Aymeric Reyre
Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Medicine, Paris 13 University
Jennifer Hasselgard-Rowe
Researcher and Lecturer
Institute of Global Health, University of Geneva

Dear participants, we have come to the end of the six-week cycle on drugs,

drug use, drug policy and health.

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this work, particularly,

Jennifer Hassle Gadrove, Emerick Yare,

and Barbara Boyse here in Geneva.

Thank the milk factory of the [inaudible] center in Paris and thank our sponsors

the [inaudible] in France and the University of Geneva and thank you all for participating.

I hope that the course helped you acquire new knowledge and new materials and

tools on what remains a very much debated issue across the world.

We hope that you have gained insights into how drugs are used as

medicines and how poor access to

these medicines remains for people who need them in most of the world.

How also drugs, psychoactive substances are used non-medically,

intermittently or for longer time periods

by millions of people every day for their effects on the mind.

How for most people that use remains non-problematic but how for others and

for some drugs more specifically their use

becomes harmful through toxicity or dependence.

We hope that we have helped you gain clarity

on the original objectives, the architecture,

and the weaknesses of the International Drug Control System,

realize how Prohibition has generated

a huge international criminal black market that fuels corruption and spreads violence.

How attempts to prevent the use of drugs by

only punitive measures have not worked and how instead they have resulted in

mass incarceration and criminal sanctions and records that for

young people can be a greater threat than to their well-being than occasional drug use.

How repressive policies have directly and indirectly fueled

the spread of HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis.

How these epidemics continued to expand in Asia and Eastern Europe

driven by unsafe injection drug use and lack of access to harm reduction measures.

We hope that through the analysis of the negative consequences of

prohibition and positive examples of reform presented and discussed throughout the book,

you'll realize that current drug policies have to be

reformed to ensure that they encourage,

adequate information, prevention, and treatment based on evidence of what works.

We also hope at the end that you will be encouraged to take advantage of

the evaluation tools and of

the more specific materials and the references that we have prepared,

that you will join us and the other participants in web debates and fora in

the coming months and consider yourself contributing to fighting stigma,

discrimination, and false perception about people who use drugs

and wherever you are joining the drug policy reform movement.

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