EuropeanNetworkOfPeopleWhoUseDrugs

From:

The European Network Of People Who Use Drugs

To:
European Commission
Directorate General for Justice Freedom and Security
Unit C2, LX 46 1/88 – 1049 Brussels, Belgium

Feedback to the EU-Commission about the EU Green Paper for the involvement of Civil society in EU drug policy and answers to the question posed in the EU Green Paper by The European Network Of People Who Use Drugs. This document is open to the public.

Antwerpen (Belgium)
29 September 2006

Dear Madame, Sir

First of all The European Network Of People Who Use Drugs wishes to thank the Commission for its engagement in the closer involvement of Civil Society in European drug policy . We share the Commissions beliefs in an open and democratic Europe with respect for human rights and dignity.
Before answering the EU-Commissions questions, I want to provide some information about the people and organisations that have written this document and signed it. We are people from around the EU who use drugs. We've been organising ourselves on the local level for many years. In our network we have treatment and service advocacy groups, drug related peer group organisations, interest organisations and service user organisations. Europe has a long history of organisations of people who use drugs.

Since the late 90's we intensified international communications and started organising internationally. And now we're in a process of developing a European organisation of people who use drugs. We are not alone in doing this work. Many professional European networks and international ngo's , like Correlation-network, IHRA, IHRD, etc. are our allies. We accept their support and cooperate with them to succeed in our goal: the right to be our own spokespersons, striving for self-representation and self-empowerment.

Feedback, Comments and Answers

The paper starts by telling about who exactly the EU Commission wants to work closer to:

“...bringing those most directly concerned by the drug problem more closely into the policy process on drugs at EU level...”

The people who use drugs and their families and friends are the people most directly concerned by the drug problem. These are the people who are the ones most directly affected by drugs policy measures. It is clear that the people and organisations who where involved in writing this answer to the EU consider themselves as the one partner that is the closest to the core idea of Civil society when it concerns EU drug policy.

The people who use drugs want to be involved in the Civil society consultation process for EU drug policies. We're ready to provide the Commission with all the knowledge, insight and expertise that's available in our peer group of people who use drugs. Our common goal: we need to have better understanding and find solutions for real problems concerning people and drugs in our society. The people who use drugs suffer from social and economic exclusion. A lot of us are amongst the poorest in the EU. We need the EU-Commission's support to facilitate what is needed to ensure our involvement.

EU:
What are your views on the benefits, added value or weaknesses of the Civil Society Forum on Drugs as outlined in this Green Paper? Do you agree with the main elements proposed?

We support the idea of the forum being a practical instrument to channel information for policy formulation and implementation. Our network of European people who use drugs can bring useful information to the forum about European-wide local circumstances concerning drugs and about the effects of drugs policy for the people who use drugs. We also have a lot of practical knowledge about how to deal with the negative consequences of drugs in society. Our local groups often are experts in developing innovative measures to reduce drug related harm. We strongly support evidence based work. We can provide our information by carrying out structured questionnaires.
Because the European Network of People using drugs is a new and developing European network, the “credibility criteria” to be in the forum can be an obstacle for our involvement at present. Awaiting the call to select members by the EU Commission, a lot of the work to meet this criterium will be done. If the Commission agrees about the importance of the involvement of people who use drugs, we need the Eu's cooperation and support working together to meet the criteria. A lot of the existing European networks in the drugfield are often already professionalised or have the means to stably maintain their organisations. Our network exists mainly out of local groups who represent marginalised and socially excluded people. Compared to the established networks, we are behind and have a need for a catch up. This is to ensure we have the same chances for involvement as other partners in the field.

EU:
What are your views on the benefits, added value or weaknesses of thematic linking of the existing networks as outlined here and for what thematic areas could this be adopted? Do you agree with the main elements proposed?

As people who use drugs, we welcome the opportunity to link existing networks and develop a unified, pragmatic response to drug policy based around the thematic areas of empowering communities, existing best practise, public health interventions, human rights, patient rights, Harm Reduction, the struggle against hepatitis and HIV and the struggle against poverty and social exclusion.

The thematic linking of networks can again bring back together the forum members as partners along with other relevant actors depending on the issue. After first listening to the core-stakeholders from their specific point of view, it gives a chance to now go a step further and connect partners on common issue's to work together .

The linked networks should be able to integrate the different angels from different players on specific theme's and bring together stakeholder-specific information. All this will   stimulate continuing cooperation among the networks and feedback to the EU-Commission and the drug forum about direction.Tto work towards, or about difficulties to overcome, or about common concerns, etc. There certainly should be enough attention for bringing back the information not only to both the EU-level, and also the local level.

EU:
Do you see the Civil Society Forum and the thematic linking of existing networks as complementary or as alternatives to each other? Please provide details on how arrangements could work out in either case.

The bringing together of different experiences and thoughts should always be viewed as complementary, particularly when we are all focused on the shared goal of preserving life and reducing harm to the individual. The forum would give us the opportunity to provide information and feedback from our specific point of view. At the same time it provides an opportunity to other stakeholders to also inform and feedback from their specific point of view. Apart from the forum being a direct line of communication it can be the start- and feedback point for the linked networks.
The information received in the drugs forum and the input from other EU communication channels feeds the Thematically linked networks and connects some of the forum members to other relevant European networks to work on specific issues. After first listening to the core-stakeholders from their specific point of view in the forum, it gives a chance to now go a step further and connect partners on common issue's to work together t. The linked networks should be able to integrate the different angels from different actors on specific theme's and bring together stakeholder-specific information to formulate advise about directions to work to, or about difficulty's to overcome, or about common concerns, etc.
Arrangements could include EU support for our members to be able to regularly meet, and also to be able to participate in conferences in our interest across Europe. This means the need for covering travel and hotel costs, covered expenses and conference registration fees.

Also modern tools for communication within the network and certainly for communication with all our partners and allies are needed. Tools like telephone lines and Internet, teleconferencing, a website, web-TV (web-cast), etc.

To make all of the above come true, the network of course also needs support for maintaining an organisational staff.

EU:
Do you consider any of the examples of consultation practises listed in the annex to be particularly relevant as a basis for structuring the dialogue on drugs, and if so, why?

There are two examples given that are of interest for our involvement: The Representative civil society (ngo) networks and the combination of two level fora . These two examples cover two major issues of importance for the people who use drugs: health and socio-economic affairs.
On the one hand there's the 'representative civil society (ngo) networks which deal with issues like social exclusion, basic rights and the improvement of the socio-economic position of EU citizens. These are issues of great concern for us because of many of our members ,in every day life, experience difficulties in these fields.

On the other hand we have the combination of the two level fora which covers health as an issue. The health policy forum and open forum covers issues of public health in a broad perspective. Taking in to account that the drug issue is a public health issue, the people who use drugs certainly have their place in this forum. The HIV think tank and civil society forum needs the people who use drugs in it for the obvious reason that HIV and other bbv's are a very real problem for a good many of the people who use drugs.

EU:
Would your organisation be willing to participate in a structured dialogue with the European Commission

The European Network Of People Who Use Drugs wants to be involved in the Civil society consultation process for EU drug policies. We're ready to provide the Commission with all the knowledge, insight and expertise that's available in our peer group of people who use drugs. The most profound need is to establish our network and ensure our involvement in EU drug policy,arises from the fact that no group of people ever attained improvement of unwanted socio-economic positions and improvement in health issues without the involvement of those directly affected by this. Yes we do want to be involved.

Yours sincerely,
The European Network Of People Who Use Drugs

Marianna Iwulska
MALOPOSKIE STOWARZYSZENIE UCZESTNIKOW PROGRAMOW SUBSTYTUCYJNYCH "WYZWOLENIE"
Katarzyny 3
Krakow
Poland
metax.box@interia.pl

José Carbonell Viscasillas
Coordinator / president
Association of Users In Maintenance Metadona Organized
Seeded Enrique remain silent 116 1º 2ª
CP. 08009 Barcelona
Spain
Tle. 0034 615681422
Fax. 0034 2385854
E-mail. aummo@hot mail.com

Stijn Goossens
International Drug User Activist
STeunpunt Antwerpse Druggebruikers
Lange Lozanestraat 14
2018 Antwerpen
Belgium
0032 479 982271
steunpuntantwerpsedruggebruikers@yahoo.com
STeunpuntAntwerpseDruggebruikersOnline

Camil DUMiTRiU
Executive Director
INTEGRATION
Bucharest, Romania
Mobile:  +4 0740.219.111
E-mail:camil.dumitriu@integration.org.ro ,
office@integration.org.ro
URL:  www.integration.org.ro

Joergen Kjaer
President
Danish Drug Users Union/BrugerForeningen
30.3. Korsgade
2200 Copenhagen N.
Denmark
Phone +045 3536 0150
Fax       +045 3524 5231
www.brugerforeningen.dk
jk@brugerforeningen.dk

James Grieve
Chair
National Users Network
120 Greenfield Road,
Carpenders Park,
Watford,
Hertfordshire
WD19 5DQ
United Kingdom
jamesgrieve@ntlworld.com

Zarir Simrin
User Activist
PASSAGE
"Association for Protection of Drug Users Rights"
Mobile:+389 / 70 - 599269
Tel:+389 / 2 - 3176428 (from 13:00 to 19:00)
Fax:+389 / 2 - 3130038
zarsim2001@yahoo.com
passageassociation@yahoo.com
Kapan an lokal 3, 1000 Skopje, MACEDONIA

John Howard
Reading User Forum (RUF)
Bowman House,
2-10 Bridge Street
Reading
Berkshire
RG1 2LU
UK
ruf@sent.com
+447708757416

Suomen Lumme
Finnish Drug User Union
Helsinki
0035 844 911 69 04
suomenlumme@hotmail.com

Milena Naydenova
Executive Director
Hope
Sofia, Bulgaria
Telephone: 00359 898 949583
Email: hope_sofia.bg@abv.bg
Website: www.nadejda.org

Marco Jesse
JES Bremen e.V.
Findorffstr. 94
28 215 Bremen
Germany
+49 / 421 / 35 48 95
jesbremen@aol.com
www.jesbremen.de

Willemijn Loss
Amsterdam Drug Users Union (MDHG)
Jonas Daniël Meijerplein 30
1011 RH Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel. : +31 / (20) 624 47 75
fax.: +31 / (20) 638 28 40
e-mail: willemijn@mdhg.nl
website: www.mdhg.nl

Anna Millington
Parents Who Use (PWU)
North East
United Kingdom
annamilington1994@msn.com

Joep Oomen
Member of the Board
Trekt Uw Plant
Lange Lozanestraat 14
2018 Antwerpen
Belgium
0032 3 237 02 25
TrektUwPlant@yahoo.com
TrektUwPlantOnline

Andria Efthimiou and Marc Goldstein
Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt MSc
C/O Drugscope, 32-36 Loman Street
London, England,
SE1 OEE, UK.
00+ 44 7841 433 187
www.usersvoice.org.uk

Theo Van Dam
International Drug User Activist
LSD (BV)
Nederland
theo@lsd.nl

Daren Garratt
Executive Director
The Alliance
4th Floor, 9 Marshalsea Road
London
SE1 1EP
malliance@btconnect.com
www.m-alliance.org.uk

Zoubëir Khaldi
President
Breakline Peer Support
Vandenpeereboomstraat 71
2140 Borgerhout
Belgium
Zoukhaldi@yahoo.com
BreaklinePeerSupportOnline

Dirk Scaeffer
International Drug User Activist
JES Network,
c/o DAH, Dieffenbachstr.33
10967 Berlin
Germany
Phone:+49-30-69008756
www.jes-netzwerk.de
jes-sprecherrat@yahoogroups.de

Jimi of HUG
Hertfordshire User Group
HUG @ Focus,
Gable House,
Prince Edward Street,
Berkhampstead
Hertfordshire,
HP4 3EZ
United Kingdom

Philippe De Craene
Drug User Activist
VOLVOX
Burchtgracht 14
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium
fa255099@skynet.be
VolvoxOnline

Grant McNally
Drug User Activist
London
United Kingdom
gmc5@btinternet.com