Century of Lies

The United Religions Initiative along with Alliance India recently hosted a dialogue entitled “Human Rights & Faith For People Who Use Drugs in Times of Pandemic.” We hear from two of the speakers: Ira Madan, Senior Regional Advocacy Officer, Drug Use & Harm Reduction, at Alliance India; and Subhi Dhupar, the Regional Coordinator for URI-Asia. Plus, NASTAD (the National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors) recently hosted a webinar entitled Trans-Inclusive/Trans-Centered Harm Reduction Services. We hear from the facilitator, Sasanka Jinadasa, a Partner at Reframe Health and Justice, and from one of the speakers, Milan Sherry, Co-Director of the House of Tulip in New Orleans, Louisiana.

This week on Century: The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression recently held a People’s Hearing Against Racist and Political Repression. We hear from some of the speakers including Frank Chapman, a leader of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and a field organizer and co-chair of CAARPR; Troi Valles, a Chicago area activist, writer, and actress who’s an experienced community organizer and member of Black Lives Matter Chicago and Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression; and Berma Escamilla, one of the family members speaking out against police violence. Plus, the Reverend Sarah Howell-Miller, Associate Pastor at Green Street United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, introduces a new training guide called the “Spirit of Harm Reduction: A Toolkit for Communities of Faith Facing Overdose.”

The city of Vancouver, BC, is asking the Canadian federal government for an exemption to national drug laws in order to allow the city to decriminalize simple possession of currently illegal drugs. On today’s show we hear from Donald MacPherson, Executive Director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, and from Annie Foreman-Mackey, a first year medical student at the University of British Columbia.

The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, ESPAD for short, is a collaborative effort of research teams in more than 40 European countries and the largest cross-national research project on adolescent substance use in the world. On this edition of Century we hear more about the new ESPAD report from: Alexis Goosdeel, director of the EU’s drugs agency, the European Monitoring Center on Drugs and Drug Addiction; Julian Vicente with the EMCDDA; Dr. Sabrina Molinaro, Coordinator of ESPAD; Elina Kotovirta, Ministerial Adviser in Finland’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Health; and Dr. Annemie Coone from Ghent University in Belgium.