1. Moldovia: The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against the state of Moldovia in a case on the abuse of power on people with drug dependency. The case is about the police’s use of torture on Moldavian citizens who use drugs. Read the case details here (Rus.)
2. Read the personal blog entry of Timur Madatov, a legal expert of the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Radio Liberty: “We must review the police performance effectiveness criteria and stop trying to impress the public by the ‘tons of seized drugs’”. (Rus).
3. INPUD’s report “Drug Decriminalization: progress or political red herring?” has been translated to Russian and available for download here (Rus).
4. Ukraine: on July 13 the Ukrainian Parliament has failed to vote for the draft law 5596 “The Law for Sofiyka” on legalization of medical cannabis. Dmitriy Sherembey, head of All-Ukrainian network of PWLH, said that “this happened because of the black market’s influence”, as Ukrinform reports (Rus). MP Olga Stefanyshyna, who supported the draft law, explained why the law is long-awaited by the 2 million patients in Ukraine. Read more here (Rus).
5. Watch the video interview with Aleksey Kurmanaevsky, the Russian harm reduction activist, who migrated to Israel a couple of years ago, on DUNews Youtube channel here (Rus).
6. Russian media outlet “Knife” published their research on cannabis domestication. To read more details, follow the link (Rus).
7. Ukraine: six police officers were sentenced to 8 years in prison for the abuse of power during the detention of a 22-year old man, who died during the arrest. During the raid in the night club in Lviv, Ukraine, the young man tried to swallow the pack with 2 grams of marijuana. The policemen handcuffed the man, which led to his death by asphyxiation. Read in detail on “Livyi Bereg” media outlet (Rus).
8. “Greed and laziness”. Why drugs in Russia have become a profitable business both for students and for policemen. Read the details for the court case of the Russian student who committed suiside after being accused of drug dealing, at the BBC Russian service (Rus).
9. The history of growing the opium poppy in Kyrgyzstan has been published by Sputnik.kg (Eng).
10. The analysis about alcoholism and drug use in the regions of Russia, based on the available data of 2019, has been published by the Charity Fund “Need Help”. The report is available in Russian here.
