““There is indeed a spirit of reform in the air, to make the conventions (UN drug conventions) fit for purpose and adapt them to a reality on the ground that is considerably different from the time they were drafted. ”

-- Executive Director on UN Office on Drugs and Crime, in the report "Making drug control 'fit for purpose': Building on the UNGASS decade"

Contents

Introduction

Transform News

• UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Vienna

• European Parliament, Brussels

• Scottish Futures Forum

• World Map Project

UK News

• Cannabis Again...

• New appointment to rid prisons of drugs

International News

• Director of UN Office on Drugs and Crime declares international drug control system is not 'fit for purpose'

• South Park Drug Panic

A day in the life of a Research Associate

What you can do

• Volunteer Community

• Donate

• Blog

Introduction

It's been yet another busy month for Transform, we've been attending a number of events and starting to build an international alliance, we've also been busy with the media responding to yet more cannabis scare mongering and the latest tussles between the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and Gordon Brown. This month we've featured an exclusive look at a day in the life of our Research Associate. Please read on for the latest news and ways in which you can be involved.

Transform News

UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Vienna

Steve attended the UN commission on Narcotic Drugs

His reports from the conference can be read on our blog here:

http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2008/03/unodc-and-ngo-forum-yet-again-sir-you.html and here:

http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2008/03/discussion-on-un-commission-on-narcotic.html

European Parliament, Brussels

Danny was invited to take place in a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels entitled 'Evaluation of the Implementation of the 1998 UN plan' on the 6^th March.

Scottish Futures Forum

Danny also attended the Scottish Futures Forum in Edinburgh on March 12^th where they discussed ways in which Scotland can reduce the damage caused by alcohol and drugs by half, by the year 2025.

World Map Project

Transform launched the World Map Project on our Volunteer website this month. This is going to be a unique website resource that contains information on different countries drugs policies and laws (covering legal and currently illegal drugs). We're currently trying to research and add content and links to this developing resource, a good example of how you can contribute to what is essentially and open source wiki-style evolving resource. (Remember to cite references for all contributed information - or we can't use it for the finished product).

You can log onto the Volunteer community at:

 http://www.transform-volunteers.org.uk/

UK News

Cannabis Again....

Yes cannabis is back in the news again. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) have recommended that cannabis should remain Class C after its latest review of the evidence, yet Gordon Brown has announced that he still wants to see cannabis reclassified back to Class B. What happens next remains to be seen, but what is clear is that we're up for some interesting months ahead if Brown really does choose to ignore the experts.

Please see the blog for more detailed information on the story

Here's a list of Transform's media appearances around cannabis this month:

• The Today Program, BBC Radio 4 (listen again to the 4 minute section here - real media format) - also featuring in news snippet at 8am
• BBC breakfast television (live sofa interview after a news item - then used in snippets throughout the day on news 24)
• BBC News 24 - studio interview
• BBC1 evening news (6 and 10 o'clock) pre-recorded interview
• BBC Radio Scotland live interview
• Press Association multimedia interview
• Independent Radio News interview (syndicated around the country)
• various other local BBC radio
• Talk Sport radio
• BBC news website quote
• Guardian website quote

New Appointment to rid prisons of drugs  

The Ministry of Justice have recently appointed David Blakey CBE QPM in a new drive to reduce illegal drugs in prisons. His role will be to examine the current measures (such as sniffer dogs and searching procedures) and look at ways in which these measures can be improved.

For more information on the story please click on the link below:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/newsrelease110308d.htm 

Danny has tried to contact him to feed into his work but to date with no luck - obviously not to keen on receiving evidence.  We are trying to find out how individuals and organisations can feed into this process and will include details in our next newsletter.

International News

Director of UN Office on Drugs and Crime declares international drug control system is not 'fit for purpose'

In the report "Making drug control 'fit for purpose;' Building on the UNGASS decade' the head of the UN agency (responsible for overseeing the international conventions on drugs) describes the multi-lateral drug control system as not 'fit for purpose.'

For Transform's analysis of the story please click here

Please click below for the report

"Making drug control 'fit for purpose;' Building on the UNGASS decade.'

 South Park Drug Panic

This month in US series South Park (3^rd episode of the 12^th series) the residents are hit by an epidemic of 'cheesing' the latest drug scandal (involving sniffing cat urine). This episode is well worth watching for an excellent critique of prohibition.

You can view a trailer of the episode here.

 A Day in the Life of a Research Associate

In January 2008 Transform recruited a new Research Associate, Emily Crick. As a one off exclusive we thought that we'd try and describe a typical day for Emily, to provide an insight into office life in the Transform headquarters in Bristol. We're also planning to recruit a new Research Associate in the not so distant future, so if this sounds like the kind of thing you'd be good at, and interested in, keep watching our website for details about how to apply.

April 1^st 2008

Emily starts the morning as usual chatting with Steve, Transforms Information Officer (and her boss) over skype and checks for any new emails. This morning she's received an email (amongst others) from someone who works at the Times of India asking her to write an article on legalisation (very exciting given it's 7.9 million readership). She also does a quick search around the main papers for any relevant news stories, looks at Daily Dose and a number of other websites for any urgent blog posts that need writing.

Today Steve has asked Emily to carry out some background research for Transform's latest publication 'Blueprint for a regulated market.' This publication will be the final instalment to Transforms "trilogy" (following on from, The War on Drugs; Options for Control and our more recent publication Tools for the Debate) and is intended to provide answers to some of the questions surrounding what a legally regulated market might look like. Her research today focuses mainly on the legal production of opium and cocaine which involves reading about the UN Single Convention (and contacting the International Narcotics Control Board for some explanation of some of the articles within the convention -all very confusing if you give this exceptionally dull document a read), conducting some web searches for related articles, and writing a number of emails to a range of Australian companies involved in growing opium poppies for some more information about how the legal system works. She writes up a quick summary of her reading, 'skypes' it to Steve and goes for lunch.

Returning from lunch Emily writes a press release based on Steve's blog post that morning which refers to a statement made by Ban-Ki-Moon (UN Secretary-General), at a launch of a major new report on HIV in Asia, in which he calls for Asian governments to amend their outdated laws which criminalise injecting drug users and other stigmatised group. She then adds some new journalists to the press list on the new contact database before distributing the press release to our main contacts.

Emily then has a brief meeting with Danny, Transform's director, about feedback from a two day working event organised by Transform at the UK's foremost international affairs think tank, Chatham House.  After some discussion they agree that she should pitch an article summarising the event's conclusions to various international newspapers and magazines.

 The afternoon concludes with an extended team meeting where all staff meet to discuss Transform's five year strategy and staff work plans before taking the plans to the Board next week. After a two hour meeting, and with the strategy nearly in place Emily heads home for the day.

What you can do

Volunteer Community

Our new volunteer community is now up-and-running. Once again you can log on to the website at http://transform-volunteers.org.uk/user/register and register as a member.

Donate

As Transform relies solely on funding from charitable trusts and donations from individuals we are always looking for people to support our work. You can make donations through our website at: http://www.tdpf.org.uk/AboutUs_TdpfFunding.htm or please email, or give us a call and request a form - many thanks!

Blog

If you're interested in finding out about other relevant drug stories please see our blog:

http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/