Psychedelics, mental health, COVID-19, and our drug laws: The Silent Pandemic and the search for innovation in the treatment of mental health problems. Please read this article by Beatrix Vas – and watch the movie they produced about research on psychedelics!
Hungary
The Militarisation of Hungarian Schools is On the Way
While a growing number of American schools are now considering removing policemen from schools, the Hungarian government has cut drug prevention budgets, and will hire police officers equipped with handcuffs and batons to punish misbehaving students.
The Effects of COVID-19 on the Hungarian Drug Market
The Hungarian drug market was affected by the COVID-19 crisis but it is far from being disrupted – read an English summary of an online survey conducted by Drugreporter among its Hungarian readers.
Harm Reduction Responses to COVID-19 in Europe: Regularly Updated Infopage
On this info page Drugreporter provides regular updates about resources and news on how harm reduction service providers respond to the COVID-19 Epidemic.
The Unchallenged Rule of the Designer Drugs in Hungary
Although the drug strategy adopted by the Hungarian government in 2013 aimed to make the country drug-free by 2020, the (not so) new synthetic drugs still rule the country. After the municipal elections, there is some hope that harm reduction can return to Budapest.
Following Up With the Clients of the Closed Harm Reduction Programs in Budapest and Belgrade
Our report, based on the findings of research conducted among the clients of closed needle and syringe programs in Budapest and Belgrade, sheds light on the dire consequences of declining support for harm reduction in Central Eastern Europe.
Beyond the Medicalisation of Psychedelics – An Interview with Levente Móró
Levente Moro is a well-known member of the European psychedelic community. He earned his PhD in 2017 at the University of Turku, on the subject of hallucinatory altered states of consciousness. In 2012 he started PsyHelp, an organisation by partiers, for partiers, to make psytrance and Goa concerts and festivals safer. Read the interview made by our intern, Jonathan Brozdowski!
Crackdown on Civil Society – The Movie
This film – produced by the Rights Reporter Foundation, supported by AFEW International – features activists and civil society organisations who are being increasingly targeted by repressive governments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The movie presents a story of oppression, resistance and survival seen through the eyes of human rights defenders. They dedicated their lives to support the human rights of some of the most stigmatized and criminalised groups in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to be able to access health services.
The Colour of Drug Use in Central Eastern Europe
Although Roma people now compose the majority of the clients of many harm reduction services in many countries from the Baltic to the Balkans, racial justice as an issue is very rarely addressed by the harm reduction community in the region.
Migrants Are Not Responsible for Spreading Disease – But Bad Policies Are
While the Hungarian politicians, similarly to other populist forces in Europe, falsely claim that migrants brings disease, they ignore the evidence about what really works in stopping disease.