István Gábor Takács is a human rights activist, videographer and trainer. He ran the Video Advocacy Program of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union between 2007-2015. He worked as a needle exchange program counselor for 5 years. He is author of several articles on harm reduction and cameraman, editor, director and co-director of more than 700 online videos, among them longer documentaries, such as “Kostya Proletarsky” (2020), “Taking Back What’s Ours: An Oral History of the Movement of People who Use Drugs” (2020) ”A Day in the Life: The World of Humans Who Use Drugs” (2016), “Without Rights” (2009), “Without a Chance” (2014), “Room in the 8th District” (2014) and “The Invisible” (2011). Since 2016 he works at the Rights Reporter Foundation, where besides producing films, he is training activists in video advocacy.
At the 28th Harm Reduction International Conference, we spoke with Diego Andrés Lugo-Vivas about the impact of the Drug War in Colombia and how the philosophy of harm reduction could be applied to the coca leaf. Watch the video!
At the 28th Harm Reduction International Conference, we spoke with Catherine Cook from Harm Reduction International about the state of harm reduction funding and the global impact of U.S. foreign aid cuts under Trump. Watch the video!
At the 28th Harm Reduction International Conference, we had the chance to speak with Ethan Nadelmann, founder of the Drug Policy Alliance in the United States, about the present and future of drug policy during Donald Trump’s second term as president. Watch the video here!
Watch Drugreporter’s new video about Coss Marte, a former convict who, thanks to New York State’s Social Equity Program, now runs three cannabis retail shops and a gym where he employs other formerly incarcerated individuals.
More than a thousand harm reduction professionals gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, to attend the 28th Harm Reduction International Conference. Watch Drugreporter’s recap video here!
The Trump administration’s slashing of foreign aid is already having a devastating impact on harm reduction and HIV services around the world. But the harmful effects extend far beyond that. Drugreporter interviewed key experts at the annual UN drugs meeting, the CND in Vienna, to provide a clear picture of the real impacts.
This side event at the 68th CND explored the growing body of evidence highlighting the shortcomings of current drug policies to achieve their stated goals of safety, security, public health and ending stigma, while contributing to significant human rights violations. Organised by Norwegian Association for Humane Drug Policy.
Each year, the UNODC reports an estimated half a million drug-related deaths – deaths thatcould be prevented with well-funded harm reduction services and an enabling political andlegislative environment that provides care and support for people who use drugs, instead ofpunishment. This side event was organised by the International Drug Policy Consortium.
The Foundation for Social Education (FES) has opened a new voluntary counseling and testing site at a women’s health center in the heart of Warsaw. As part of the CORE EU project, we had the opportunity to visit the site and interview their CEO, Magdalena Ankiersztejn-Bartczak, about the services they provide.
