Tackling Harm Reduction, Human Rights and Drug Uses on Recreational Environments: Tensions, Potentialities and Learnings from the Kosmicare Project (Portugal)

Soares, Mónica; Carvalho, M. Carmo; Valbom, Mónica; Rodrigues, Tânia F.

doi:10.4000/rccs.6535

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Meanwhile, the harm reduction movement has challenged global prohibitionism [ 30 ] and establishes itself, at least potentially, as a motor of social transformation. The liberation of the drug use phenomenon from the War on Drugs paradigm [ 31 ] seems to be at the core of the double HR - harm reduction and human rights (see Soares et al [ 32 ]) - in particular in its strong version , which fully recognizes the right to use drugs, as opposed to its weak version , that advocates mainly health rights [ 33 ]. The latter, distant from the activism that originally opposed prohibitionism, unfolds the historic tension between health priorities and profound political change regarding drug use [ 34 ], which is also found, as we shall see, in the challenges the PDPM faces.…”

Section: Oscillating Between Public Order and Public Health (1970–2000)mentioning

confidence: 99%

20 years of Portuguese drug policy - developments, challenges and the quest for human rights

Rêgo

Oliveira

Lameira

et al. 2021

Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy

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Portugal decriminalized the public and private use, acquisition, and possession of all drugs in 2000; adopting an approach focused on public health rather than public-order priorities. Arguing that the Portuguese Drug Policy Model has not proven influential enough to emancipate drug use from the stigma that associates it either with crime or pathology, this article critically discusses the developments and current challenges the Portuguese drug policy confronts, namely the growing diversity of drug use patterns observed in Portugal as well as in Europe. To this end, international and national legal instruments concerning drugs and official local data were analysed. Despite encouraging results, conclusions indicate that these policies are marked by contradictions and ambiguities that have permeated its history since the very beginning, and modest ambitions, particularly regarding the implementation of harm reduction measures. Moreover, the polemical Supreme Court judgment that reestablished, in 2008, drug use as a crime when the quantities at play exceeded those required for an average individual’s use for 10 days, might have impacted the landscape of drug use penalization. The last decade saw an increase of punitiveness targeted at drug users, including criminal sentences of jail terms. We finish with some suggestions that could be employed in the practical application of drug policy.

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Section: Oscillating Between Public Order and Public Health (1970–2000)mentioning

confidence: 99%

20 years of Portuguese drug policy - developments, challenges and the quest for human rights

Rêgo

Oliveira

Lameira

et al. 2021

Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Indeed, the main aim of harm reduction interventions is to promote self-regulation and protective strategies that users put in place naturally by enabling and reinforcing peer-to-peer support. It is well known among HR operators that interventions that do not start from users’ intentions and experiences are prone to failure (Van Schipstal et al, 2016), which does not mean that the risk assessment should be overlooked, but that it is necessary to recognize the “relevant entanglements between risk and pleasure, cost and benefit, autonomy and support” in drug prevention (Soares et al, 2017, p. 21).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Telegram as a Space for Peer-Led Harm Reduction Communities and Netreach Interventions

Rolando¹,

Arrighetti²,

Fornero³

et al. 2023

Contemporary Drug Problems

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To date, studies of peer-led online harm reduction communities have focused on web forums, arguing that online spaces are strategic settings for both obtaining up to date information on substances and patterns of drug use and implementing new forms of outreach on the web. The present study analyzes the content and dynamics of a spontaneous users’ group on Telegram, where a team of peer workers was invited to intervene. The study’s aim was to learn more about people who use drugs’ communities on chat apps and provide insights to professionals wishing to implement harm reduction interventions in this type of environment. After obtaining the chat administrator’s permission, all content posted on the chat from March 1 to May 31, 2020, was analyzed adopting an abductive approach. It was found that peer-led communities based on a chat app are not very different from earlier web forum communities. The findings also show that the chat’s activity does not run counter to the public health perspective on drug use, provided that harm reduction is recognized and accepted as an important and effective strategy, and that people who use drugs are quite open to dialog and discussion with professionals who adopt the non-judgmental peer-to-peer approach typical of outreach interventions. Such an approach can be successful in gaining the attention and trust of people who use drugs, thereby boosting their spontaneous harm reduction attitudes.

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“…This reduction can be in the form of finding more time to rest, take vacations, eat, drink, meditate, exercise, play games, or other similar things. In many cases, tension reduction can be in the form of drinking (Dvorak, 2018), drugs (Soares, 2017), or other negative things. However, the assumption of this utilization can still be studied further due to the paradox of the benefits provided to humans.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Blame and Tension Reduction: Self-Criticism Stability Study on The Students

2022

Nusantara Science and Technology Proceedings

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Anxiety and stress are still a massive conversation on the academic scope. One of the factors in it is self-criticism. The main effort to control it is done by coping with stress. There are two types of stress coping used by students, namely self-blame and tension reduction. However, the influence and relationship between both are still debated clinically and psychologically. The purpose of this study was to determine how the influence of self-blame and tension reduction clinically and psychologically on students' self-criticism. We invited 304 students in Makassar (P=231, L=73). Data were collected using the self-criticism scale and The Ways of Coping (Revised) scale and analyzed using multiple regression techniques. The results of the study found that simultaneously self-blame and tension reduction affected the stability of students' selfcriticism (p < 0.05). From this, we know that self-blame and tension reduction as stress-coping techniques have a greater effect when used together. These results give rise to a new schema for the stability of self-criticism and mental health. In the future, we suggest an in-depth review of the forms of negative associations of the tension reduction type in Indonesian students.

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Tackling Harm Reduction, Human Rights and Drug Uses on Recreational Environments: Tensions, Potentialities and Learnings from the Kosmicare Project (Portugal)

Cited by 4 publications

References 32 publications

20 years of Portuguese drug policy - developments, challenges and the quest for human rights

20 years of Portuguese drug policy - developments, challenges and the quest for human rights

Telegram as a Space for Peer-Led Harm Reduction Communities and Netreach Interventions

Self-Blame and Tension Reduction: Self-Criticism Stability Study on The Students

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