Europe needs courage: it's time to invest in the health and rights of drug users

The European Union's current drug policy continues to fail because it is based on repression, police control, and criminalization, while overdose deaths, HIV and hepatitis C transmission, and stigma continue to mark the lives of millions of people.

In 2025, the EU will define its new Drug Strategy for the period 2026-2030. Organized civil society is not willing to accept another cycle of ineffective and violent policies. It was in this context that the EU Drug Policy Campaign 2025 was launched by Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN), with the support of several international networks. GAT urgently joins this call: enough criminalization, it is time to prioritize public health and human rights.

A policy paper to change course

The campaign's central document, “Harm Reduction Works!”, presents a clear set of recommendations to transform European drug policy. Among them:

• Make drug use a public health priority in the EU: Because you can't talk about health without ensuring access to safe materials, naloxone, community care, and drug checking programs.
• Establishing dedicated funding mechanisms for harm reduction: Organizations that save lives are on the verge of financial exhaustion, while millions continue to be invested in repressive strategies that have failed.
• Decriminalizing and regulating instead of punishing: Criminalization does not protect. It stigmatizes, marginalizes, and drives people away from services. It is time for political courage to change this paradigm.
• Ensure a balanced and effectively implemented Drug Strategy: Health, human rights, and community participation must be at the center of the strategy for the period 2026-2030.

See the full policy paper here, translated into Portuguese by the GAT Research Commission.

At GAT, we work every day with people who are silenced and left behind by policies that treat drug use as a police matter—not a health issue. We advocate for a policy based on evidence, human dignity, and knowledge that comes from the territories—that the people who live there know, better than anyone else, what they need!

Demand a drug policy that protects, cares, and respects. Because harm reduction works.

Launch webinar

Correlation is organizing a webinar on June 26, 2025, at 11 a.m. (12 p.m.–1 p.m. CEST), coinciding with the Global Day of Action Support, Don't Punish.

The campaign's objectives will be presented and ways in which civil society organizations and allies can get involved will be shared.

Register for the webinar!