Drug Policy and Harm Reduction Platform (DPHRP Malawi Chapter) has reiterated requires the Government of Malawi to decriminalize drug use in an effort to scale back hurt amongst customers.

Chairperson of the DPHRP Malawi Chapter, Undule Mwakasungula, was reacting to revelations by the 2024 Global State of Harm Reduction Report that stigmatisation and criminalisation of people that use medicine as among the main obstacles in direction of mainstreaming and utilization of hurt discount providers in most international locations.

The report observes that 108 international locations embrace hurt discount in nationwide insurance policies. However, criminalisation and punitive responses to medicine stay dominant in most locations.

“These approaches undermine harm reduction efforts and continue to fuel stigma and discrimination and deter people who use drugs from seeking vital, life-saving services. This key contradiction must be addressed for meaningful progress to be made,” reads the report partly.

Malawi is among the international locations that also preserve punitive drug insurance policies that criminalize drug use and, in accordance with Mwakasungula, sustaining these punitive drug insurance policies exacerbates stigma, discourages entry to hurt discount providers, and undermines public well being efforts.

“To solve this, Malawi should focus on treating drug use as a health issue, not a crime,” he stated.

On inadequate funding, Mwakasungula noticed that identical to different international locations, Malawi doesn’t manage to pay for to assist hurt discount applications regardless of the applications being inexpensive and saving lives.

He stated Malawi must push for extra funding from each native sources and worldwide donors.

Commenting on revelations that prisoners abuse medicine and are at better danger of hurt, Mwakasungula emphasised the necessity to improve provision of hurt discount providers, comparable to drug therapy applications, which might assist scale back these risks inprisons.

“Much as Malawi faces challenges with drug use, such as criminalization, stigma, lack of funding, and health risks in prisons. However, the government is making efforts to improve. Reviewing drug laws, working with partners to provide health services, and addressing issues in prisons through HIV prevention and other programs.  But more work, funding, and focus on treating drug use as a health issue are needed to make progress. Further Malawi must prioritize harm reduction to improve public health and protect vulnerable populations,” he stated.

Another hurt discount activist, Chimwemwe Ngoma, disclosed that safer nicotine merchandise (SNP) have a optimistic influence on lowering smoking-related mortality throughout the globe.

Ngoma was talking in Nairobi, Kenya, the place dozens of hurt discount specialists, activists and journalists have converged for this yr’s Harm Reduction Exchange – an annual convention the place delegates and individuals focus on methods of lowering adverse penalties of drug use.

Ngoma requested governments to significantly take into account making better funding in hurt discount interventions.

“Evidence suggests that SNP have a positive impact on reducing smoking-related mortality. A good example is Sweden where the rate of lung cancer cases amongst Swedish men in 2022 was less than half the European average,” he stated.

But journalists attending the convention lamented the unavailability of concrete information on drug use in most African international locations, saying this limits their reporting on hurt discount issues.

This yr’s convention is being held below the theme: “Enabling innovation in harm reduction through science-led regulation and policy-making”.

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