The Support Don’t Punish Campaign:

Support. Don’t Punish is a global grassroots-centred initiative in support of harm reduction and drug policies that prioritise public health and human rights. The campaign seeks to put harm reduction on the political agenda by strengthening the mobilisation capacity of affected communities and their allies, opening dialogue with policy makers, and raising awareness among the media and the public.

The campaign’s yearly high point is the Global Day of Action, which takes place on, or around, 26th June (the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking). Historically, this date has been used by governments to showcase their drug control “achievements” in coercive terms. The campaign’s Global Day of Action seeks to reclaim and shift that day’s narrative.

You can find more information on the Support Don’t Punish website - https://supportdontpunish.org/about/campaign/

EuroNPUD and Support Don’t Punish:

In recent years, EuroNPUD has provided a small grant from our Robert Carr Fund (RCF) funding to 8 country drug user groups. These supported drug user group to undertake actions linked to the SDP global day of action on 26 June. EuroNPUD developed a specialist logo for drug user led actions linked to SDP called Self-Support. Don’t Punish Us! This has been used by drug user activists and groups in Europe and beyond.

In 2019, EuroNPUD combined funding from RCF with an unrestricted educational from Ethypharm, to run a combined coordinated country campaign between SDP and International Overdose Awareness Day on 31 August 2019. By offering a €450 small grant, ten drug user groups agreed to work together to run a coordinated country campaign based around a common theme and advocacy focus. The campaign built on EuroNPUD successful naloxone campaign, which in particular promoted peer-to-peer distribution of Naloxone through the research and publication of a technical briefing describing three models of P2PN from the UK and three other international examples of P2PN. << Link

Working with a designer, the European drug user organisers collectively developed a multi-language poster called Naloxone Saves Lives. This was produced in multiple languages and co-branded between SDP, IOAD, EuroNPUD and one or more local, national and regional drug user groups. The central campaign materials supported virtual campaigning and local coordinated actions based on a consistent theme backed up with a technical briefing.

In 2020 EuroNPUD are committed to running two coordinated country campaigns linked to 26 June Support Don’t Punish Day of Action and the International Overdose Awareness Day on 31 August 2020.

EuroNPUD Support. Don’t Punish! 2020 Coordinated Country Campaign:

A number of EuroNPUD member groups applied to IDPC for small grants to run Support Don’t Punish actions. EuroNPUD picked up the funding for these proposals and provided grants of €450 to support drug user actions by:

·         CATNPUD and Metzineres in Barcelona in Catalan

·         Respect Drug Users Union in the UK 

·         PeerNUPs in Greece

·         ItaNPUD in Italy

·         Društvo AREAL in Slovenia

·         CASO Portugal

The partner groups discussed a coordinated campaign message based on securing the advocacy gains that have been secured in light of COVID-19. These include rapid access to OST treatment, take home doses of OST of a week or more, more flexible support and supervision, the embracing of peer-led harm reduction and housing the street homeless. EuroNPUD commissioned Mali, the designer behind the branding of the wonderful Metzineres project for women who use drugs, to produce a poster based on the message of “Time for a New Normal”. Building on EuroNPUD diverse member groups the poster has been translated into 9 languages. Posters were co-branded with different local or national drug user groups to support their country actions.

Posters were also translated and co-branded with:

·         JES in Germany (German and Russian)

·         Lunest in Estonia (Estonian and Russian)

·         Lancashire Users Forum in England

·         Boro Harm Reduction Union in England

·         Lambeth Service Users Council in England (English and Portuguese)

The different posters can be found by following this link to SDP2020 Dropbox folder.

The posters are set up as JPEGs. The poster is best downloaded to your computer and then uploaded as a picture (JPEG) to your social media. It can then be linked and shared among your country drug user group members and partners. Some drug user groups also receive additional funding from IDPC to support their SDP country campaigns. In some cases, this reflects drug user groups playing extended roles in their countries beyond a straight-forward drug user action. For examples, PeerNUPs is coordinating the Greek SDP campaign on behalf of a consortium of harm reduction and drug treatment partners.

SDP-2020 Report