Atmospheric Pressure: Russian Drug Policy as a Driver for Violations of The UN Convention Against Torture & The International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights

Responding to problematic drug use in Russia, the government promotes a policy of "zero tolerance" for drug use and "social pressure" against people who use drugs (PWUD), rejecting effective drug treatment and harm reduction measures.

In order to assess Russian drug policy against the UN Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, we reviewed published data from government and non-governmental organizations, scientific publications, media reports, and interviews with PWUD.

Drug-dependent people (DDP) are the most vulnerable group of PWUD. The state strictly controls all aspects of drug dependence. Against this background, the state promotes hatred towards PWUD via state-controlled media, corroding public perception of PWUD and of their entitlement to human rights. This vilification of PWUD is accompanied by their widespread ill-treatment in health care facilities, police detention, and prisons.

In practice, zero tolerance for drug use translates to zero tolerance for PWUD. Through drug policy, the government deliberately amplifies harms associated with drug use by causing PWUD (especially DDP) additional pain and suffering. It exploits the particular vulnerability of DDP, subjecting them to unscientific and ideologically driven methods of drug prevention and treatment and denying access to essential medicines and services. State policy is to legitimize and encourage societal ill-treatment of PWUD.

The government intentionally subjects approximately 1.7 million people to pain, suffering, and humiliation. Aimed at punishing people for using drugs and coercing people into abstinence, the official drug policy disregards the chronic nature of drug dependence. It also ignores the ineffectiveness of punitive measures in achieving the purposes for which they are officially used, that is, public safety and public health. Simultaneously, the government impedes measures that would eliminate the pain and suffering of DDP, prevent infectious diseases, and lower mortality, which amount to systematic violations of Russia's human rights obligations.

Full article at: http://goo.gl/0F2Gp3

By: Golichenko M1, Sarang A2.

• 1Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
• 2Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice.  

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Discovery of a Partner Affair & Major Depressive Episode in a Probability Sample of Married or Cohabiting Adults

Prior research has found that humiliating marital events are associated with depression. Building on this research, the current study investigated the association between one specific humiliating marital event-discovering that one's partner had an affair-and past-year major depressive episode (MDE) in a probability sample of married or cohabiting men and women who were at high risk for depression based on the criterion that they scored below the midpoint on a measure of marital satisfaction (N = 227). 

Results indicate that (i) women were more likely than men to report discovering their partner had an affair in the prior 12 months; (ii) discovering a partner affair was associated with a higher prevalence of past-year MDE and a lower level of marital adjustment; and (iii) the association between discovering a partner affair and MDE remained statistically significant when holding constant demographic variables and marital adjustment. 

These results support continued investigation into the impact that finding out about an affair has on the mental health of the person discovering a partner affair.

Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/sHJ5yh

By: Whisman MA1.

• 1Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO.  

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