Reflections on the 3rd Annual Peer Delivered Syringe Exchange Conference from Liam, Brian, Davian and Karen and visioning ahead to the National Harm Reduction Conference in Baltimore http://harmreduction.org/conference/

The Baltimore Student Harm Reduction Coalition (BSHRC) http://baltimoreharmreduction.org/ is helping to shape the direction of harm reduction and drug policy in Baltimore. This week’s podcast is an interview with Jen Kirschner of BSHRC. Jen mentions the pending Good Samaritan law in the interview. Good Sam (House Bill 416). It passed unanimously and now moves to Governor O'Malley's desk for signature into law.

Audio from a side-event at United Nations headquarters in New York on “Women, drug policy and incarceration in the Americas”. The panel discussion was organized by the Permanent Mission of Uruguay, in collaboration with the Inter-American Commission of Women, the Organization of American States, the International Drug Policy Consortium, the Harm Reduction Coalition and the

Washington Office on Latin America.

Discussion is a mix of English and Spanish.

Portugal decriminalized possession of all drugs in 2001. This week’s podcast is a conversation with Nuno Capaz of the Dissuasion Commission of Lisbon. He talks about the history and the successes of the initiative.

An interview with Rebecca Tiger, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Middlebury College, about drug courts. Rebecca’s book “Judging Addicts: Drug Courts and Coercion in the Justice System” was published last year. http://bit.ly/1fKkzKR We mention the podcast that appeared on This American Life a few years ago. Here’ a link to it. http://bit.ly/1aaPBYo

This year’s meeting of the Commission on Narcotics Drugs is an expanded version of proceedings featuring a two day High Level Segment. Heather Haase of International Drug Policy Consortium http://bit.ly/1lRWKmR and Allan Clear get down to discuss the fracturing consensus among nation states and the control of poppy seeds and related bagel misuse.

The overdose risk of using alone is well established. We put the message out to the drug using community that people shouldn't use alone. However there are really normal reasons as to why people like to do it. Ro Giuliano and Allan Clear explore this in the podcast.

The actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died of an apparent drug overdose on February 1st, 2014. Harm Reduction Coalition's Allan Clear and Sharon Stancliff pick through the response and ask “what can be done to avoid more unnecessary deaths?”

Drug policy change is afoot in the Americas. This podcast is a conversation with Donald MacPherson of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition http://drugpolicy.ca/ It is a report back from the December meeting of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) http://www.cicad.oas.org/main/default_eng.asp. It reflects upon regional developments and how governments are coping and responding.

This week’s podcast focuses on International Overdose Awareness Day, August 31st. It includes interviews with Eliza Wheeler who advertises the Overdose Awareness Day Memorial March and Celebration of Life in San Francisco, Sharon Stancliff talking about the newly released Samsha toolkit http://store.samhsa.gov/product/SMA13-4742, Narcotics Unit Commander Pat Glynn talks about the role police play in reducing overdose deaths using naloxone in Quincy, Massachusetts http://vimeo.com/47686862, Nigel Brundson of HIT and Injecting Advice http://injectingadvice.com/ fills us in on the UK scene, Heather Edney, Executive Director of La Ventana Treatment Program http://www.laventanaed.com/, talks about the newly created mural ‘The Memory Lives On’ http://tinyurl.com/nol5bos and also surviving multiple overdoses and Lisa Raville Executive Director of the Harm Reduction Action Center in Denver talks about syringe exchange developments and their overdose anti-stigma work http://www.harmreductionactioncenter.org/index.html