NEWS - ANNOUNCEMENTS

Press Release: One lawyer | A “street” programme supporting street-connected people


The “Street Lawyering” programme is providing legal aid in vulnerable groups of people/persons who live on the street, such as homeless, users of psychoactive substances and sex workers.

Welfare state was created to balance society’s weaknesses. However, lots of socially marginalized people cannot address to state services for a variety of reasons, including their situation/status but also the structure and operation of the system.

One lawyer | A “street” programme supporting street-connected people

People in the bounds of wretchedness, victims of the financial crisis, drug users, sex workers, recognized refugees, migrants without legal documents in search for food, now can discuss their legal issues or other problems that in many cases may be responsible for the situation they are into and get information regarding their rights.

The aim of the action is the investigation of legal and pending issues of street-connected people which, apart from the personal burden, often are the cause of the situation they are in. An attempt to investigate and resolve these issues may be the first way out, the start for an overall integration, or even the reduction of fear towards the unknown; justice, police, administrative and bureaucratic procedures. At the same time, we aim to discuss with relevant stakeholders all the legal changes and possible interventions in order to improve access to rights and living conditions for homeless people.

Our lawyer, Katerina Pournara, participating in STEPS’s field team is in the streets in the center of Athens providing legal aid to the abovementioned vulnerable groups, three days per week. “Usually the lawyer sits on his or her desk providing advice or solutions already determined from the initial request. By inverting the common practice, in a world already moving upside down, we got out on the street to understand the truth, investigate the request, provide advice and assistance to people who at this point may not be able to ask for it”, she highlights on the work she has taken over through the programme.


For more information:

Tassos Smetopoulos, Street Actions Coordinator/Legal Representative of Steps.

Email: [email protected], Tel: 6931471277

EDUCATION

Guide for Exchange/ Sharing of used Syringes, 1st Edition, November 2018

During street-work, especially in open drug scenes, specific rules need to be followed for the safety of the street-workers and the broader population. Notably, the procedures need to be clear and strictly followed when the street-work includes exchange and collection of used syringes, as the danger of infection gets higher.

In this guide you can find the framework of a street-work team’s function is analysed for the case of syringe collection and/or exchange.

The guide/handbook is provided either on its own or after a 2 hours training seminar in the framework of social and solidarity economy. The guide/handbook is provided either on its own or after a 2 hours training seminar in the framework of social and solidarity economy. For more information you can contact us at [email protected] or by pressing here.

Download for free the guide: Opiate Overdose [[pdf]] EN | ES | GR

CAMPAIGNS

Would you save the one you love?

Would you save the one you love?

World 2019.

“Thank you, I do not want any more, I have eaten a lot of sugar today”
“This course is super-salty but super-tasty.”
“It is the sixth coffee that I drink today to keep working!”
“I want you, I want like crazy!”
“Give me just one more minute, I finish that game and turn the pc off.”
“ …Heroin’s overdose. (S)He does not breath, do come quickly!”

All of the above is a kind of overdose. Isn’t it that all of us experience moments of overdose? Sugar, salt, coffee, pc and love may not instantly kill you but heroin – as any opioid – does.

If you have an overdose from some opioid and the medical staff will not arrive on time, you die. This is the reality!

Specifically, more than 60.000 people in the world die every year from drugs’ overdose.

Is there any antidote to overdose? Yes. Naloxone.

What is naloxone?

In 2014, the World Health Organisation (WHO) positions naloxone as an elementary medicine and it edits guidelines for its proper use, In 2017-2020, naloxone is consisted in the EU and the UN’s policies for drugs. It is an emergency medicine, which brings the body back to normal functioning until medical personnel arrive.

It is an emergency medicine, which brings the body back to normal functioning until medical personnel arrive. Naloxone is the substance that can literally reverse the effects of an opioid (such as heroin) on the body and is used in cases of overdose in order to bring the human back to life.

It can pass into the blood in two ways: intravenous use, via a syringe, or in a nasal spray. Within a maximum of 5 minutes after its administration, naloxone restores the person’s breathing.

In order to save someone from an overdose, naloxone can be used by a simple, unskilled medical person, with the help of a naloxone package containing everything necessary for its safe use. All it takes is a brief training to anyone possibly in need to use it.

Only in the EU countries and based on official data, in 2018, 8,200 lives were lost due to overdose. From 2012 onwards there is a 62% increase in deaths.

At the moment, the Take-Home Naloxone program is being implemented in 10 European countries, including Britain, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Scotland and Wales.

At the same time, in 7 European countries, it is possible to use naloxone in areas of supervised use, in the context of reducing the harm from the use of psychoactive substances.

Greece 2019

The creation of supervisory sites was approved by the Greek parliament by 229 votes, and the national drug plan is a step ahead of its implementation. Free access to naloxone packages with all the essentials for safe use, however, is missing from the plan. Naloxone remains the privilege of medical personnel.

That may be late and when it is, the overdose of heroin -as we said- has the power to kill you – and this never comes late.

Greece 2019. Would you save the one you love?

The claim is clear:

Naloxone should finally be removed from the list of only hospital drugs and made immediately available to the users themselves, their parents, friends, companions and anyone close to people with problematic opioid use.

Support our campaign for the free disposal of naloxone today! – #naloxone-saves-lives #give-naloxone-kits-now

You can find more at: http://www.naloxoneinfo.org/bibliography