Wow, what a strange period we live in. A lot has happened since our last event in Birmingham back in December 2019. Drug Related Deaths are still, sadly, far too high, although, thankfully, there has not been much of an increase in some parts of the country that have adapted.

The NNEF have now joined the membership of the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs (VNGOC). The Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs (VNGOC) was established in 1983 to provide a link between non governmental organisations (NGOs) and the Vienna-based agencies involved in setting drug policy: the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

One thing that has remained unchanged for our clients in the UK is that, when using brown heroin and crack cocaine, they need an acid and water source to prepare the drug for injection. Fortunately, one thing that has changed in the last 20 years is that they now have access to sterile acidifier powders and other paraphernalia as part of the harm reduction response. But new research published in 2019 (and showcased at the NNEF Forum in December 2019) highlights why these basic elements of needle exchange cannot be overlooked.

A week ago, the National Aids Trust (NAT) published a briefing on the HIV outbreak in Glasgow. I was shocked and saddened when I first saw the figures of the HIV outbreak in Glasgow. (I thought it was bad enough in Birmingham, with around 20 cases in the last 18 months). If the high toll of Drug Related Deaths was not enough, HIV is rearing its ugly head, again. I really thought we buried that one years ago.