The Second International Urban Drug Policy Conference (UDPC2016)
Warsaw City Hall
Warsaw, nurturing over 400 years of pride as a capital, is Poland’s largest city and an economic, political, and cultural centre. The symbol of the city is the Mermaid, featured on the city seal. Warsaw is a bustling metropolis and features an unforgettable history.
National Bureau for Drug Prevention
The goal of the National Bureau for Drug Prevention is the implementation and coordination of national policies on counteracting drug addiction directed at the reduction of narcotic drug and psychotropic substances use. The main documents determining the goals, tasks and the scope of operation for government administration and local government bodies in this respect are: the Act of 29 July 2005 on Counteracting Drug Addiction (Polish Journal of Laws: Dz.U. No. 179, item 1485 as further amended) and the National Programme on Counteracting Drug Addiction for 2006-2010 (Dz.U. 2006, No. 143, item 1033).
Polish Drug Policy Network
Polish Drug Policy Network was established as a civil initiative in 2008 by a group of professionals working with drug addicts. They are the therapists, doctors, lawyers, prison service staff, social workers, educators, representatives of non-governmental organizations and users of psychoactive substances. Total working to change drug laws in Poland – one of the most restrictive in Europe. The two primary objectives of the Network is to change drug laws, which currently requires punish punishment of imprisonment up to 3 years for possession of any amount of drugs; second – to increase the availability of substitution treatment (in Poland is still only 9% of people in need may benefit from this therapy)
Partners of II International Urban Drug Policy Conference (UDPC2016):
Foundation of Social Education
Foundation of Social Education is a non governmental and non-profit organization set up In 2002. In 2012 our Foundation was acknowledged as public benefit organization. With the following objectives: To promote in the society better knowledge about social issues through educational activities such as: – drug addiction, alcoholism, and tobacco use – HIV infections and AIDS, – violence, sects, unemployment and related issues, social pathologies To create and ensure proper attitudes of the society towards people that face problems, marginalised and in particular focusing on the problems of young people, To improve quality of life of the marginalized and underprivileged groups.
Foundation of Harm Reduction
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
Jump 93 Association
Jump 93 is an association of methadone maintenance programs. They provide legal advice, therapy and working on changing drug policy mainly to Polish treatment system.
Political Critique
Political Critique is the largest Eastern European liberal network of institutions and activists. It was established in 2002 with an Open Letter to the European Public, demanding more open European policy from the Polish elites, later registered as the Stanisław Brzozowski Association, now Krytyka Polityczna consists of the online daily “Dziennik Opinii”, a quarterly magazine, publishing house, cultural centres in Warsaw, Łódź, Gdańsk and Cieszyn, activist clubs in a dozen cities in Poland (and also in Kiev and Berlin), as well as a research centre: the Institute for Advanced Study in Warsaw. It employs over sixty people and works with a few hundred volunteers. Krytyka Polityczna organises around 1,500 events and actions yearly.
Open Society Foundation / GLOBAL DRUG POLICY PROGRAM
Since 2008, the Global Drug Policy Program has promoted drug policies rooted in human rights, social justice, and public health. We work with policymakers and grassroots groups advocating to end the injustices of the drug war, through research, dialogue, engagement, and action.
Current drug policies are failing. Worse, they’re causing enormous harm to individuals, communities, and entire nations. Around the world, poorly designed drug laws that seek to punish production, possession, use, and even dependence have fueled violence, instability, human rights violations, and health crises. The vast majority of research indicates that in countries which have ended the senseless criminalization of people who use drugs, crime and addiction did not increase. In fact, alternative drug policies that support health services and human rights and that divert low-level offenders from the criminal justice system have proven to be incredibly successful at helping individuals and communities.
Student’s Inistitive of Narco-policy
Students’ Drug Policy Initiative is association bringing together young people, who want to change Polish and global drug policy, that is currently based on criminal law. We want policies based on scientific evidence and respect for human rights and dignity. We support the idea of decriminalization of possession of drugs for personal use, providing people with drug problems with various and effective treatment options, measures for reduction of harms related to drugs, and to ensure that certain psychoactive substances will be available for medical use, if their effectiveness in treatment had been proved.
YODA
Youth Organisations for Drug Action (YODA) is a network of individuals and youth organizations based in Europe, that operate in fields related to the issue of drug use in a broad sense, such as drug policy, harm reduction, tackling discrimination, public health and human rights. Currently, YODA has 11 member organizations and 1 individual member, in 12 European countries: United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Hungary, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Kosovo and Romania. YODA key aims are to provide essential technical as well as financial support to member organizations; create a platform for communication between the members; and to represent them collectively at an international level, including highlighting their concerns on crucial policy issues, in particular in relation to decisions that directly or indirectly affect young people.
TOK FM
One of the biggest commercial Polish radio.
Social AIDS Committee
Social AIDS Committee has been established and formally registered in February 1993 with the initiative of people for many years associated with the issue of HIV prevention, care of people living with HIV and AIDS. Their mission from the beginning of the Association is to develop information, education, counseling and care in relation to HIV / AIDS, and thus – reducing individual and social impact of the epidemic.
The Medical University of Warsaw
The Medical University of Warsaw was founded in January 1950, building on the University of Warsaw’s former Faculty of Medicine, which had been established in the early nineteenth century. The Medical University of Warsaw is the largest medical school in Poland, and one of the most prestigious.
The Stefan Batory Foundation
The Stefan Batory Foundation is an independent private Polish foundation established in 1988 by George Soros, an American financier and philanthropist, and a group of Polish democratic opposition leaders of 1980s. The mission of the Batory Foundation is to build an open, democratic society – a society of people aware of their rights and responsibilities, who are actively involved in the life of their local community, country and international society.