Users United Around the Globe in Support of their Russian Peers

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 Protest

Speeches 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.”

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 protest was an exciting, moving and empowering event for all concerned, however everyone -

The white slippers and carnations outside the Russian Embassy in Canberra, Australia

- 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. 3 countries took part and (Budapest, Berlin and Barcelona) 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.

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) and -in the UK – a big thanks to members of the LGBT community (particularly, the transgender community for attending and speaking in London -Charles Celeste and Roz)

Dec 1st at 9 cities around the globe

On Dec 1st, 2011, World Aids day, people in 8 countries around the world will descend on Russian Embassies -To protest at the criminal treatment of people who use drugs – in the biggest catastrophe in the history of HIV in recent times. (See below for where and when).

In Russia today, we are bearing witness to one of the biggest,

avoidable catastrophes in the history of HIV – the lack of response to the epidemic in Russia. We must point directly to the specific responsibility that Russian medical and public health officials bear for creating and sustaining this disastrous situation. Of particular concern are Russia’s, brutalising drug policies and its recently revised Total War on Drugs, which has resulted in further pushing people who use drugs into hiding, prison, and enforced detention, and severely compromising efforts from the international community to revert the trajectory of HIV/AIDS. The world is approaching a crossroads; a strong and decisive downward trajectory in the epidemic is possible in all countries -but it will only happen if the people who are most vulnerable to infection are supported and their human rights realised. Governments have legal obligations to act. Indeed, the implementation of harm reduction measures is consistant with and required by states obligations under international human rights law. 1,2.

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 1million. With this in mind, recent projections forecast an additional 5 million people could become infected with HIV in the near future, unless Russia transforms the way it is dealing with its HIV pandemic.6

Russian authorities have repeatedly come in for fierce international criticism over their policy towards the treatment of drug dependence, which relies almost completely on the promotion of abstinence to the exclusion of harm reduction.  Russian officials claim, incorrectly, that the effectiveness of opiate substitution therapy (such as providing methadone and buprenorphine) has not been adequately demonstrated, and as such it is prohibited by law. Yet, despite the addition in 2005 of these two drugs to WHO’s list of essential medicines, and multiple position papers by international experts calling for substitution treatment as a critical element in the response to HIV (IOM, 2006; UNODC, UNAIDS, and WHO, 2005), methadone or buprenorphine remain prohibited by law in Russia and promotion of its use – punishable by a jail sentence.

With over 30,000 people dying from drug overdoses every year, numbers that can be shown to markedly reduce with the implementation of OST, and 150 becoming infected with HIV each day (2/3rds of which are injecting drug users), also evidenced to drastically reduce with the roll out of Needle and Syringe Programmes (NSP), it is upon everyone who cares about humanity, to demand an immediate transformational shift in Russia’s approach to HIV prevention and its treatment of drug users.  Access to NSP and OST is in itself, a human right;  UN Ruman Rights Monitors have specifically stated harm reduction interventions as necessary for states to comply with the right to health. 5

Related articles

• Protest at Russian Embassies Worldwide: Dec 1st World Aids Day (russianembassyprotest.wordpress.com)
• Russia at risk of HIV Hitting Catastrophic Levels (russianembassyprotest.wordpress.com)
• Russian Embassy Protest – Dec 1st 2011 (russianembassyprotest.wordpress.com)
• Shame Russia Shame! (russianembassyprotest.wordpress.com)
• ‘Eastern Europe has fastest growing HIV epidemic in the world’ – UN official (rt.com)

Irina Teplinskaya

I have been most afraid of this since I started litigation against the Russian Government. In February 2011, I made a request to the Ministry of Health in Kaliningrad Oblast to provide me with drug dependency treatment in the form of opioid substitution therapy (OST) based on my drug treatment medical records, which date back to 1983. My request was denied on the grounds that OST is prohibited in Russia. I appealed the [Kaliningrad] Ministry of Health’s decision in the District Court of the Leningrad Oblast, with reference to the Russian Constitution and all international legal instruments. On May 27, 2011, the District Court of the Leningrad Oblast did not satisfy my appeal in which I challenged the Ministry of Health. After having received this response, I appealed to the Regional Court of Kaliningrad. On August 3, 2011, the Kaliningrad Regional Court upheld the District Court’s decision. I was then going to file a complaint with the Constitutional Court of Russia and the European Court of Human Rights.

From May 14th to yesterday, August 18th, I underwent drug rehabilitation in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, my trustees were dealing with the legal process of filing complaints to the Constitutional Court of Russia and the European Court of Human Rights.

Yesterday, August 18, 2011, I arrived at Kaliningrad from Kiev at 14:45, and at the passport control, I realized that something was wrong. After I had my passport stamped and crossed the border, I placed my hand luggage on a baggage carousel. In this bag, I had two Kiev cakes, which I myself put into an absolutely empty bag. I still had to collect my check-in luggage (a sports bag). However, I was not allowed to enter the Russian territory. Indeed, four men in civilian clothes, an agent with a sniffer dog, and four women from airport services were waiting for me in the security aisle. The men in civilian clothes introduced themselves as Federal Security Service officers from the airport, showed me their identity cards (a person named Eugene Drapp led this process) and told me that I had to undergo a personal search. I was brought into a room; and the dog sniffed my hand luggage. The dog did not find anything, because I had nothing. When I said that I still had a check-in bag to collect, the Federal Security Service officers wanted to take the baggage ticket/tag from me and find this bag. I refused. I explained that the bag was not locked; and that it would be easy to open and plant something inside the bag. I therefore went with them to the luggage compartment. They called customs – there were now about 15 people. I found my bag and they began to search it. They only searched the checked-in luggage since the customs officials are not responsible for hand luggage. All other present witnesses were airport employees; I was therefore isolated from civilians.

They wrote up a report on the interrogation (I have the copy). The report included the list of all items that were in the bag and concluded that no illegal items intended for trafficking were found. In the bag were my personal belongings, soap supplies, washing powder and anti-retroviral therapy (ART). The washing powder was in a plastic bag–I packed it this way as it did not fit into my bag. I had a week supply of ART drugs, but it was largely in bulk, because a trusted person from Kaliningrad sent the drugs to me by postal mail when I was in Ukraine. There were 14 tablets of Epivir, 14 tablets of Ziagen in a jar labelled Epivir, and 28 tablets of Intelens in a plastic bag – as packaged as I received them by mail. In the inventory, the powder was recorded as a washing powder and the tablets – according to their names. I told them that I was taking HIV treatment. After that, I was again taken to the room for a personal search and was left with the two female employees from the airport: they did a search on me but they were also witnesses. I was strip searched; yet, they found nothing. They sealed my laptop and other belongings, and searched the sports bag once again. Only powder and therapy already set aside as seized were found, and marked “unknown powder” and “unknown pills”. Even though the pills were thoroughly described – color, size, shape, numbers and letters carved on them. After my urgent plea (ARV therapy cannot be interrupted), and calls to the authorities, they gave me ARV drugs for 2 days. The rest has been sealed, signed, and the same airport employee-witnesses may have put their signatures on these items.

The cakes were pulled out of the shopping bag, unpacked and everything was searched again. Having searched the cakes, the Federal Security Service officers suddenly asked me to give them my bag, although it was obvious that the bag was empty. I was surprised, but passed the bag to them, because I saw that there was nothing in there. When one of them began to shake it, one pill came out, as if from a sleeve. I had never seen such a pill before. It was the size of a Tsitramon, bright white, with one side stating “40″, and the other side deeply divided into 4 parts– each part of the convex and sharp like little pyramids. The pill was also sealed. I wrote in the report that the ART drugs and washing powder are mine, but I had never seen this pill – it was not there when I was packing. I realized the full horror of what had happened: I would not be allowed into the Russian Federation territory due to accusations of drug smuggling. This pill did not appear by accident; it is an illegal drug.

I was then taken to the border control directorate (Federal Security Service), and ARV tablets and powder were sent for a test. I wrote an explanation, personally describing all that had happened, and expressed my concerns. In addition, I described the story with the pill, and stated that this pill is not mine. I was at the border control until 23:30. They took both passports so that I cannot leave Russia.

I would like to emphasize that the search was conducted illegally– the witnesses who attended were the same women who searched me – the airport customs officers.

Today, the investigator told me that the examination results of the tablet, which they planted on me, showed that this tablet was methadone. Now, I’m going to an investigator. I do not know what happens after that.

I think that they planted methadone just because I fought and argued for the removal of legislative barriers in Russia to the treatment of drug addiction with substitution therapy with methadone and buprenorphine. I believe that this was done in order to discredit my social position, out of revenge for my attempts to protect the rights of people who use drugs in the national and international bodies, including courts of Kaliningrad.

I want to say that the past two months that I spent in Ukraine, I did not take methadone or any narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances. My rehabilitation was in a drug-free environment. I am ready to do all necessary tests to confirm this.

Please provide any help in protecting my rights violated by the actions of law enforcement agencies. Herewith, I trust the Andrey Rylkov Foundation (FAR) to represent my interests in all Russian and international bodies and organizations, and disseminate information on everything that happens to me to all the media, web sites and other information sources. Also, I trust FAR to disclose my medical information on the diagnosis and my personal data in my interest as necessary.

Irina Abdyusheva (Teplinskaya) August 19, 2011, Kaliningrad

Click here to link to the Andrey Rylkov Foundation

Author: Mikhail Golichenko, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

16 July 2011 marked the second anniversary of the arrest of Denis Matveyev, a Russian Human Rights activist who was accused of drug trafficking and sentenced to six years in a high-level security prison. During his three-year fight against corruption in the Russian city of Naberezhnie Chelny, Matveyev got under the skin of authorities on several occasions.

Two months before his arrest, Matveyev managed to disclose a scheme that police officials were using to pocket public money and that of detainees in temporary detention centres[1].

In addition to his anti-corruption and human rights activities, Matveyev volunteered for harm reduction projects to help people who use drugs to reduce negative health consequences of illicit drug use, such as HIV and other blood-borne diseases. He often had contacts with people who use drugs, which apparently played a role in how police retaliated.

Matveyev was apprehended on 16 July 2009 and has remained in custody since then.

On 21 July 2009, the Press Service of the Tatarstan Interior Ministry released information on the detention of Matveyev, who was suspected of drug trafficking. The same information was also made public on the website of the Russian Federation’s Interior Ministry[2]. Not many offenders in Russia are awarded with such high-level attention.

On 18 March 2010, Matveyev was convicted and sentenced to six years in a high-security prison.

In violation of the “fair-trial” principle, the court completely ignored defence arguments for entrapment, lack of sufficient proof for incriminating acts and the incorrect qualification of their severity. In total, there were more than 60 gross violations of the right to fair trial in the case of Matveyev.

The prosecution was based on the results of three test purchase operations. The first operation has been carried out by the undercover police officer who mimicked a drug user suffering drug withdrawal syndrome. The other two test purchase operations were carried our with help of a drug user whom police use as an undercover agent. Police documented that, upon request of police undercover agents and for their money, Matveyev purchased heroin from another person (a drug user Fedorchuk) and handed over it to agents. There was no information produced by police to prove that Matveyev was ever engaged in any of the illicit drug activities apart from those instigated by the police agents. Matveyev denied his guilt in the drug trafficking.

It was obvious that he was incited by police agents, who were or pretended to be people addicted to drugs suffering withdrawal, in order to purchase drugs to alleviate drug withdrawal symptoms. Aside from the police entrapment, there was no other evidence that Matveyev’s had ever engaged in illicit drug use. The court did not assess these facts, despite numerous motions of the defence. These circumstances of the case of Matveyev clearly resemble those of Khudobin v. Russia and Vanyan v. Russia, where the European Court of Human rights found a violation of the right to a fair trial because the domestic court “did not analyze the relevant factual and legal elements which would have helped it to distinguish entrapment from a legitimate form of investigative activity”.[3]

For more on the story click here

INPUD will be covering more issues about Russia over the coming up to round up in a World Aids Day Protest at Russian Embassies across the world, on Dec 1st. Please comment or email INPUD to find out more.

Related articles

• Final Founding Statement of EuroNPUD (inpud.wordpress.com)

Here is an interesting and succinct piece by Australia’s Bill Whittaker,one of the architects of Australia’s response to AIDS, discussing in a nutshell what just happened at the JUNE 2011 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. Worth a quick read to catch up on what happened at the UN, and hear about the bold steps the UN Declaration called for and that member states pledged to implement. Take it away Bill! (Note: Although Bill refers in part to Australia’s role in commiting to the pledge, it is a message all countries can take away. Link to full article here)

Bill starts off with some current insights…

The global fight against AIDS is at a crossroads. On the one hand we have exciting new scientific evidence which could dramatically reverse the pace of the HIV epidemic and prevent millions of new infections, sickness and deaths.

On the other hand, there is weariness and complacency after 30 years of the epidemic as well as a global financial crisis putting tremendous pressure on national budgets around the world and threatening funding essential to reverse the relentless spread of HIV.

Mind-numbing statistics speak for themselves about the scale of the HIV epidemic and the work to be done: 30 million lives lost; another 33 million people living with HIV; and 7000 new infections occurring every day, mostly among young people.

New HIV treatments are having a tremendous impact in reducing illness and AIDS-related deaths, but the sustainability of providing HIV treatment – especially in low to middle-income countries – is threatened by the reality that for every one person put on HIV treatment, another two people become infected.

(He then gives some background to what took place in June this year in New York)

Recently, the United Nations agreed to a bold new Declaration to fight AIDS which Australia played a leading role in getting all UN Member States to endorse. A centrepiece of the UN Declaration are bold new HIV prevention targets for the global community to reach by 2015.

These global targets include reducing sexual transmission of HIV by 50 per cent; reducing HIV transmissions through injecting drug use by 50 per cent; and eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmissions – all by 2015.

So how would these targets be achieved under the UN Declaration?

Firstly, by dramatically scaling up prevention programs; by freeing up access to HIV testing; by increasing HIV education alongside wide availability of condoms and sterile injecting equipment; by promoting male circumcision in certain contexts; and by fully exploiting the potential of new technologies for communication and connecting people – such as social media, mobile phones and the internet.

The UN Declaration also calls for global action to ensure prevention programs properly focus on the three populations which are universally at higher risk to HIV, specifically men who have sex with men, sex workers and their clients and people who inject drugs.

Combination Treatment & ‘Combination Prevention’

Finally, the Declaration calls for new scientific evidence about the additional prevention benefits that HIV treatment can deliver to be capitalised on. So just as HIV treatment was revolutionised 15 years ago by combining different drugs – termed “combination treatment” – the Declaration heralds an era of “combination prevention”, where proven prevention programs and communication innovation are combined with wide availability of HIV treatment to help drive down rates of new HIV infections….

….Now is the opportunity for us to embrace “combination prevention”, re-double our efforts and set bold HIV prevention targets aligned with the 2011 UN Declaration to really drive down [Australia's] HIV infection rates. (Bill goes on to say what these additional targets could include, for example, in Australia…eo) These targets should include:

Reducing sexual transmission of HIV among men who have sex with men by 80 per cent by 2015. Eliminating HIV transmission from injecting drug use by 2015. Eliminating HIV transmission among sex workers and clients by 2015.

These are the kind of bold actions that the 2011 UN Declaration calls for and that all countries, including Australia, have pledged to implement.

(Bill passionately concludes…)We must not miss this opportunity to re-vitalise our HIV prevention strategies and to help lead global efforts to stop the spread of HIV and its devastating impact on so millions of people around the world.

*Bill Whittaker is one of the architects of Australia’s response to AIDS and has worked in HIV policy and strategy for more than 25 years.

Related articles

• Scientists find new ‘sugary solution’ to prevent sexual transmission of HIV (news.bioscholar.com)
• House Spending Proposal Sets Back Domestic HIV/AIDS Programs (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Letter: Cut in Aids funding is a high-risk move (guardian.co.uk)
• New Microbicide Targets HIV’s Sugar Coating (medicalnewstoday.com)

Marseilles, France

On Wednesday 5th October, European drug user activists from 10 countries (#1) met in Marseille to discuss the development of drug user organising. The meeting reviewed and discussed the interim findings of an audit of drug user organising in Europe. The meeting also took the important decision to form a European Network of People who Use Drugs (EuroNPUD).

The meeting recognised that Europe has a long and proud tradition of both harm reduction and drug user organising. Drug user activists have contributed to this positive history as advocates, watchdogs and innovators. The positive benefits of this history in terms of harm reduction provision and the promotion of drug user rights needs to be defended in many parts of Europe and initiated in those areas where it is far from established. At the same time, EuroNPUD welcomes the introduction of such new harm reduction innovations, such as consumption rooms and heroin assisted treatment (HAT) in certain countries and commits to promoting these approaches across Europe in partnership with our harm reduction allies.

EuroNPUD notes that Europe is also home to a range of drug policy initiatives whose results are creating great excitement and interest. EuroNPUD will make drug law reform advocacy and campaigning a particular focus of its work over the next two years.

EuroNPUD is developing an online directory of drug user groups and we invite other European drug user groups to contribute to this living resource. We hope this will support better networking and understanding of the positive contribution of activist drug users in Europe. We call on other European drug user groups to endorse and join this exciting and important new initiative. We have also prioritised reaching out to the younger generation of people who use drugs to secure the future of our network.

We would like to thank the EU for funding this important initiative and commend our harm reduction partners EuroHRN for recognising the importance of the meaningful participation of people who use drugs and we look forward to continuing our collaboration together.

#1 Portugal, Spain, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Romania, Albania,

by Mat Southwell

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• Closing Vancouver’s Insite drug clinic would violate Charter of Rights: Top court (theprovince.com)
• Addicted to crime: Russia considers jailing drug-users (rt.com)
• The Supreme Court of Canada Strikes a Major Blow Against Prohibition and For Harm Reduction (slog.thestranger.com)