Annex B
DEVELOPMENT OF INJECTING ROOMS: INTERNATIONAL
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Extract from the 1998 Declaration from the United
Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs
"Demand reduction programmes should cover
all areas of prevention, from discouraging initial use to reducing
the negative health and social consequences of drug abuse. They
should embrace information, education, public awareness, early
intervention, counselling, treatment, rehabilitation, relapse
prevention, aftercare and social reintegration. Early help and
access to services should be offered to those in need."
Extract from the Council of Europe declaration
on Harm reduction — made after the October 2000 ministerial
conference
"We stress the need to reach drug abusers
at the earliest possible point of their drug use career and to
facilitate their contact with health and social services, even
where they do not express the immediate wish to become drug free,
and will ensure that care services are sufficiently available,
diversified and accessible to meet this objective and assist drug
abusers in reducing health risks;
We encourage States to adapt risk reduction
measures to both the individual and society, taking into consideration
the local drug abuse situation and the related cultural context;
We also stress the importance of public health
aspects related to drug use and of the need to take measures and
reinforce health promotion, preventive activities and risk reduction
programmes against HIV infection, hepatitis and other infectious
diseases".
International Narcotics Control Board: Extract
from 1999 Annual Report
"Drug injection rooms, where addicts may
inject themselves with illicit substances, are being established
in a number of developed countries, often with the approval of
national and/or local authorities. The Board believes that any
national, state or local authority that permits the establishment
and operation of drug injection rooms or any outlet to facilitate
the abuse of drugs (by injection or any other route of administration)
also facilitates illicit drug trafficking. The Board reminds Governments
that they have an obligation to combat illicit drug trafficking
in all its forms. Parties to the 1988 Convention are required,
subject to their constitutional principles and the basic concepts
of their legal systems, to establish as a criminal offence the
possession and purchase of drugs for personal (non-medical) consumption.
By permitting drug injection rooms, a Government could be considered
to be in contravention of the international drug control treaties
by facilitating in, aiding and/or abetting the commission of crimes
involving illegal drug possession and use, as well as other criminal
offences, including drug trafficking. The international drug control
treaties were established many decades ago precisely to eliminate
places, such as opium dens, where drugs could be abused with impunity."
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