Howard Lotsof presenting on Ibogaine
long shot of the Danish Drug Users Union
office hallway in Copenhagen
Rokki(NAMA) and Berne ( NAMA's Swedish representative)
We received this from UNDUN - Unified Networkers of Drug Users Nationally...
International Drug User Activists Meeting in Warsaw, Poland May 13-17, 2007
Several hundred drug user activists from around the world are gathering in Warsaw, Poland to take part in user-organized events, as well as the 2007 International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm.
The international conference is hosted by the International Harm Reduction Association (www.ihra.net). Now in it's 18th year it attracts some 2,000 participants annually. Attendees come from every stripe to which harm reduction is a viable philosophy in which to approach problematic substance use and HIV/AIDS prevention for injection drug users. Flocking to numerous workshops will be doctors, nurses, government officials and bureaucrats harm reduction academics, street-based program staff, and active drug users. They come to listen, learn, and share ideas for how to better manage the realities of drug use world wide.
The international conference was held in Vancouver last year. Coinciding with the main conference, drug user activists organized their own International Drug Users Congress, during which they worked out the Vancouver Declaration. The Declaration has subsequently been translated in 18 languages.
"We are people from around the world who use drugs. We are people who have been marginalized and discriminated against; we have been killed, harmed unnecessarily, put in jail, depicted as evil, and stereotyped as dangerous and disposable. Now it is time to raise our voices as citizens, establish our rights and reclaim the right to be our own spokespersons striving for self-representation and self-empowerment" begins the Vancouver Declaration.
The Declaration provided a springboard for international drug user activists. Following Vancouver, user activists returned home to work in their own communities and they also continued communicating with their counterparts internationally. Working throughout last fall and winter, through email mailing lists and other means of online communication, international drug user activists formed their organization, the International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD). In March INPUD launched their website at www.inpud.org.
INPUD is comprised of many member groups and individuals, including national drug user organizations from countries such as Germany, Denmark, Indonesia, and Australia, as well as many drug user groups. In Canada the groups are VANDU, UNDUN,(www.undun.mammjamma.org ) CANDU and MANDU. The most prominent among the drug user groups is VANDU, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (www.vandu.org) which is largely located in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver, and the Methadone Alliance (www.m-alliance.org.uk), a U.K. based organization that provides training and assistance to persons on methadone maintenance treatment. INPUD truly comprises an international network of people who use illicit drugs and attempts to give voice to the some of the most marginalized, stigmatized people in countries around the planet.
This week in Warsaw, INPUD is finally meeting person-to-person as an organization for the first time. For months in advance of Warsaw, INPUD members have been preparing the agenda for the 2nd International Drug Users Congress which if formally recognized as a Satellite of the International Harm Reduction Conference. The agenda is posted online at the official Conference website (www.harmreduction2007.org).
INPUD activists attending the Conference are regularly providing updates for members back home who were unable to attend. Some of their updates are posted to the INPUD website, and others are appearing on You Tube as video reports.
Here is the link to the video....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzR5EYXIogU
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