Just Say Nyet to Russias

War on Drug Users!

Russia is a leading voice for continuing the War on Drugs, and
they have the worlds fastest growing HIV epidemic as a result.

Anti-Harm Reduction Policies are Killing People

Who Use Drugs: Russia was one of the first
countries in Eastern Europe to adopt harm
reduction. But President Vladimir Putin has
destroyed the movement, cutting off funding and
shutting down all but a handful of programs. As a
result, Russia has the worlds fastest growing HIV
epidemic and more people living with the disease
than the U.S. despite having less than half the
population.
A Ban on Methadone and Buprenorphine: Despite having a huge population
of people who use heroin and other opiates, Russia bans the use of methadone
and buprenorphine (Suboxone) for drug treatment. The World Health
Organization has designated these drugs as essential medicines
Torture in the Name of Drug Treatment: Russian drug users dont just get
poor quality drug treatment, they often get tortured by sadistic drug
treatment programs. Many such programs in Russia have been exposed for
shackling people who use drugs to beds for long periods, administering
electric shocks, beatings, and more.
Robbing People Who Have Drugs of a Voice: The Putin government passed
laws to criminalize even talking about drugs in ways that dont match what the
government wants to hear, and the government crushes dissent at every turn.
Want to promote safer injection practices or evidence-based drug treatment?
That could lead to prosecution or harassment by the government.

Pushing Russias Disastrous Drug Policies on Other Parts of the World: For
years, Russia has been twisting the arms of its neighbors to follow its reckless
drug war ideology. Now that countries from Western Europe, Latin America,
Canada and increasingly even the U.S. government are changing course,
Russia is one of the biggest barriers to global drug policy reform. That means
that the Russian governments evil drug policies impact the health and safety of
people who use drugs all around the world, especially in low-income countries.
Brave Russian Drug Users Fighting Back: Russia has a great history of drug
user activism in fact an early drug user group in Moscow, called Kolodets,
even helped inspire the original VOCAL Users Union. Today groups like the
Andrey Rylkov Foundation named after a pioneering activist and harm
reduction outreach worker are continuing the fight against tough odds.
For all these reasons, we stand with our brothers and sisters
in the Russian drug user rights movement and
Just Say Nyet to the war on drugs!