Evidence shows that penal measures alone, regardless of their strictness, fail to achieve their aim of reducing drug use. Moreover, in many cases, laws that criminalize drug use lead to negative consequences, such as stigmatization of people who use drugs, violation of human rights, difficult access to treatment and re-socialization etc. Author: Vlatko Dekov
Jaka Bitenc is activist of the Slovenia Cannabis Social Club (SKSK) and together with other SKSK members he is fighting for change of law for cannabis in Slovenia, for which he thinks it’s senseless, as well as wider in the Balkans. He uses cannabis oil to resolve diabetes consequences, from which he suffers in the past 23 years. In this interview done by Zarir Simrin, Jaka speaks about his personal experiences with medical cannabis and about activities of SKSK.
In 2012 Diogenis Association took the initiative to set up a project on Drug Law reform in South East Europe. In cooperation with the organisations of the drug policy network in South East Europe and researchers affiliated with researches institutes and law faculties of universities in South East European countries, a research has been carried out that resulted in the publication “Drug policy and Drug Legislation in South East Europe”. More about the resullts from this research we find out from Thanasis Apostolou.
How much control do you have over your drug use, health and life. Take the test and pick the answer that you relate to best. Find out how much of a grip you have on your use with this test. Good luck!
I came to the NA after a typical drug user’s drama of deceit, larceny and violence, all related to drugs. In all that despair, not knowing what else to do or where to go, I remembered that an old acquaintance mentioned NA to me and that it helps dependent people. I decided to call and to this day I consider that to be the most important phone call I had made in my life. It was the first time I called somewhere where I could get help instead of calling the dealer. It was the first time I heard a voice that gave me hope that understood the language of a dependent person, and told me where to go to an NA meeting.
“Through my practice as a psychotherapist at the Centre for re-socialization and rehabilitation in HOPS – Healthy Options Project Skopje, I managed through separate cases, to confirm that the destructive life script of people using drugs can change. The only precondition is awareness of the person that it exists, what its content and processes are, and the areas it affects. ” – Despina Stojanovska.
In the past couple of days, at the beginning of the election campaign for presidential and parliamentary elections, we witnessed a pompous police action called NETWORK which was spectacularly announced and shown in the media, and the result from this action was 5 grams marihuana, two joints and 300 seeds confiscated. Authors: Irena Cvetkovikj and Anastas Vangeli
As the Ministry of Interior reports, the Inter-Departmental Committee on Drugs of the Republic of Macedonia, in March 2014 brought a decision to ban 15 new substances and to classify them on the list of opioid drugs and psychotropic substances. This bans their production, possession, purchase and use.