The LADDER project was concluded, and Diogenis was part of it!
The final conference of project LADDER was held in Strasbourg on 21-22 November 2017, and constituted a key opportunity to create new bonds and strengthen existing partnerships for the localisation of SDGs in the next years.
The conference marked three years of joint work within an extremely ambitious project, co-funded by the European Union and led by ALDA, gathering 27 partners and 19 associates from 19 EU and 17 non EU-countries. The unanimous commitment to continue the great work done so far in the field of development education is a great satisfaction for all of us, as well as the sign of LADDER’s sustainability. Read more
Conference in Cyprus, 19 – 21 October.
With the participation of representatives of Civil Society, National Agencies and experts from 12 European countries, the conference titled “Services for the Treatment and Harm Reduction in Times of Economic Crisis: Developments and Challenges” was successfully held in 19-21 October, in Nicosia, funded by the European Commission and the Open Society Foundations and organized by “Diogenis – Drug Policy Dialogue”.
During the conference, participants had the opportunity to exchange information, good practices and policies on drugs in their countries as well as Europe-wide, amid economic difficulties and social challenges in Europe.
The conference was held in the context of the EU-funded project “New Approaches to Harm Reduction Policies and Practices”, involving the Transnational Institute (TNI) – Netherlands (Leader Organization), “Diogenis – Drug Policy Dialogue” (partner), “Forum Droghe” (FD) – Italy (partner) and “International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service” (ICEERS) -Spain (partner).
The results of the conference will be announced shortly on the Diogenis’ website www.diogenis.info.
Photo credits: Evita Paraskevopoulou
The new EU Action Plan on Drugs, 2017 – 2020.
In early July, the European Union issued the long-awaited action plan on drugs, 2017-2020.
The final text includes actions and recommendations on prevention, harm reduction, treatment and reintegration, as well as on better handling of illicit psychoactive substances.
However, Article 8 highlights the role of civil society organizations either as a source of information or as supervisors for the development of the implementation of the action plan by country and in the European Union. In particular, it refers to the Civil Society Forum on Drugs, as the official forum for dialogue with the relevant Commission bodies, in which “Diogenis” is a member of its thematic committees, as well as participant of the annual meeting in Brussels.
You can read or download the action plan text here.
Annual meeting of CSF on Drugs: “Diogenis” was there!
The Civil Society Forum on Drugs (CSF), an expert group of the European Commission with more than forty members representing leading European NGOs, held its annual plenary meeting in Brussels last week (7-8/11). The Forum has become an important voice, but it needs more inclusion and funding from EU institutions. “Diogenis” is an official member of the CSFD and at that meeting was represented by Nikos Stergiou.
The Forum, is a diverse group of NGOs representing different fields, regions and ideological approaches an it has four working groups. Read more
New EMCDDA Publication on NPS
The European new psychoactive substances (NPS) market has increased at a speed that established drug control laws struggle to match. Various countries have therefore introduced new legal responses to this phenomenon, based either on existing laws that focused on consumer or health protection or medicinal products, or by developing innovative new legislation. In 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that substances are not medicinal products if they do not have beneficial effects on human health, thus restricting the use of such laws for NPS control. This joint report prepared with Eurojust combines the EMCDDA’s top level monitoring activities with Eurojust’s operational experience in transnational prosecutions. The first part of the report is aimed at policymakers, and lists the challenges in NPS control and the solutions adopted in selected Member States. The second part is for legal practitioners, and focuses on the judgment of the Court of Justice and its practical effects on the transnational prosecution of NPS cases, describing the responses of some of the Member States most affected by the ruling.
You can access the publication at the follow link:
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/3353/TD0416736ENN.pdf