Following the format used for the thematic discussions held within the CND since 2016, Member States developed a multi-year workplan in 2019 and will hold, every autumn, inter-active meetings aiming to address the challenges identified in the “stock taking”- part of the Ministerial Declaration.
The second of these thematic interessionals took place October 19-21 2020, in Vienna, Austria. The meetings were held as a virtual meeting with limited in person participation and covered the following challenges:
- 19.10.2020: Drug treatment and health services continue to fall short of meeting needs and deaths related to drug use have increased; and the rate of transmission of HIV, the hepatitis C virus and other blood-borne diseases associated with drug use, including injecting drug use in some countries, remains high;
- 20.10.2020: The adverse health consequences of and risks associated with new psychoactive substances have reached alarming levels;
- 21.10.2020: The availability of internationally controlled substances for medical and scientific purposes, including for the relief of pain and palliative care, remains low to non-existent in many parts of the world.
The VNGOC held an open call for speakers in September to select up to 5 NGOs for each thematic segment.
19 October – Treatment & Harm Reduction
Civil Society Speakers – Challenge A “treatment and health services”
- Panelist: Phaedon Kaletorakis – World Federation of Therapeutic Communities, Greece
- Laurène Collard – Civil Society Forum on Drugs, European Union
- Sharif Mohr – Drug Free America Foundation, Inc., United States
- Kathleen Gannon – Karim Khan Afridi Welfare Foundation, Pakistan
Civil Society Speakers – Challenge B “high rate of transmission of HIV & hepatitis C”
- Panelist: Colleen Daniels – Harm Reduction International, International
- Stacey Doorly-Jones – Social Transformation Action Defined (STAND), South Africa
- Maria Angélica de Castro Comis – Centro de Covivencia É de Lei, Brazil
- Stelio Craveirinha – Mozambican Network of People Who Use Drugs, Mozambique
20 October – New Psychoactive Substances
Civil Society Speakers
- Panelist: Shane Varcoe – Dalgarno Institue, Australia
- Professor Dr. Munir Moosa – Global Forum for Teacher Educators, Pakistan
- Nazlee Maghsoudi – Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation (CDPE), Canada
- Eliza Kurcevič – Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA), Lithuania
- Mauro Adrián Díaz Moreno – Corporación Acción Técnica Social, Colombia
21 October – Access to controlled medicines
Civil Society Speakers
- Panelist: Marta Ximena León – Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia
- Diana Nevzorova, Hospice Care Professionals Association, Russia
- Prof David Nutt, Drug Science, UK
- Bishnu Fueal Sharma, Recovering Nepal – National Federation of PUD and Drug services Organizations, Nepal
- Mark Donald Bikosa Mwesiga – Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU), Uganda
