TAKING BACK WHAT’S OURS! – Episode 8. Afghanistan, Tanzania and Mexico
Channel: Drugreporter
Date: 24/08/2020

In this episode of the oral history of the movement of people who use drugs, we introduce three countries with new and emerging user movements: Afghanistan, Tanzania and Mexico.

In both Afghanistan and Tanzania, the driver of change has been the international health organisation, Médicine du Mondes. They introduced harm reduction and methadone treatment, which opened the door for passionate users to stabilise their lives and start advocating for their community.

In war torn Afghanistan, the situation of people who use drugs is dire. There are 3 million people who use drugs in the country, and out of the 19 thousand injecting opiate users, only around 2000 people receive methadone. We escorted Abdur Raheem Rejaey, head of the Afghan user organisation, the Bridge Hope Health organisation, under the famous bridge in Kabul, where they distribute syringes to people who inject heroin under very harsh conditions. Users are abandoned and neglected to the extent that even their dead bodies aren't collected and buried. Forced treatment and torture is the usual treatment option. Raheem asks for the international community to support their organisation serve their community by providing services and advocate for their rights.

In Tanzania, Happy Assan works at the Tanzania Network for People who Use Drugs, TanPUD. The organisation was registered in 2014, and since has been involved in strategy building, guideline development, in educating the user community, doctors and nurses, they worked hand in hand with UNESCO on educating school children and many more. They achieved to amend the drug bill in 2015, which would lessen the penalties for drug offences. The organisation has now 200 thousand members across Tanzania.

The Latin American Network of People Who Use Drugs (LANPUD) is also a relatively new umbrella organisation, representing user groups from the Latin American region. In this film we did not have the capacity to cover the wide range of activities in each country, but we could talk to Brun González from Mexico, who described the major barriers of organising people who use drugs in the past: In the region, people who use drugs are viewed by the majority of the population as part of the "Narco culture," the organised crime groups and violence. The double stigma of being seen as a murderer, rapist criminal, paired with the strong presence of the Catholic view of drug use as a sin, it is very hard to come out as a user and represent the community. Having said that, there are many developments in the region, one of the is drug checking at party settings, which enables users to know what type of adulterants and potential poisons are present in their drugs. https://drogriporter.hu/en/taking-back-whats-ours-episode-8-afghanistan-tanzania-mexico/
https://drogriporter.hu/en/taking-back-whats-ours/

#drugpolicy #harmreduction #drugs #humanrights #decriminalisation #drogok #drogpolitika #ártalomcsökkentés

This video is produced by the Rights Reporter Foundation, a non-profit organisation, which is not supported by any governments or political parties. If you like our shows, please support our work on our website, https://drugreporter.net/support/.  Make a donation today and become our supporting member. Thank you!

A Drogriportert üzemeltető Jogriporter Alapítvány közhasznú tevékenységet folytat, az állam vagy politikai pártok támogatása nélkül. Ha szeretnéd, hogy a jövőben is legyen egy józan hang a drogpolitika terén, kérjük támogasd munkánkat és legyél pártolüó tagunk itt: https://drogriporter.hu/tamogass/ #drugpolicy #harmreduction #drugs #humanrights #decriminalisation #drogok #drogpolitika #ártalomcsökkentés