The conference was attended by 1,280 people from some 80 countries. The programme included the screening of 30 film documentaries from around the world as part of the 5th International Drugs and Harm Reduction Film Festival, which was hosted by the conference.  At the opening session, the IHRA launched the first in a series of major publications from its new HR2 (Human Rights and Harm Reduction) programme.1

 

The conference theme was to promote a global approach to the policy and practice of harm reduction. The IHRA executive director, Dr Gerry Stimson, addressed this topic in a plenary session and reported that 82 countries currently support or tolerate harm reduction responses; 77 operate needle- and syringe-exchange services and 63 provide opioid substitution treatment. He said that, despite these advances, obstacles remain to the universal implementation of harm reduction, such as the adoption by countries of a ‘war on drugs’.  He stressed the need for a global approach to increasing the coverage of harm reduction services.

 

Acknowledging that most harm reduction interventions target opiate-injecting drug use, Dr Stimson pointed to the need for improved interventions to reduce the harm associated with the use of other drugs (including alcohol and tobacco).

 

The conference programme offered a wide range of experiences and evidence from around the world. The Irish researcher Paula Mayock spoke about an ethno-epidemiological approach to understanding and reducing drug-related harm, as used in her study on the initiation of heroin use among high-risk youth in Ireland. Mayock reported three pathways to initiation: criminal careers, intimate relationships, and homelessness.2

The 20th IHRA conference will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, on April 19–23 2009. The conference theme will be ‘Harm reduction and human rights’.

  

1.    Cook C and Kanaef N (2008) The global state of harm reduction 2008: mapping the response to drug-related HIV and hepatitis C epidemics. London:International Harm Reduction Association.

2.  Mayock P (2002) Drug pathways, transitions and decisions: the experiences of young people in an inner-city Dublin community.  Contemporary Drug Problems, 29(1) 117–156