Opioids, which include both heroin and legal pain relievers, were responsible for around two-thirds of drug-related deaths in 2017, a new UN report revealed on Wednesday [26 June 2019]. The number for global opioid users contained within the World Drug Report, some 585,000 people, is more than double the previous estimate.
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UNAMA/Eric Kanalstein | On the outskirts of Kabul, the Afghan Ministries of the Interior and Counter-Narcotics burned more than 20 tons of illicit drugs and alcohol.
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The study from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), also shows that the negative health consequences associated with drugs are more severe and widespread than previously thought, with around 35 million people suffering from drug use disorders and requiring treatment services.
Climate change “threatens to undo the last 50 years” of development, global health and poverty reduction, a United Nations expert said on Tuesday [25 June 2019], citing the risk of a new era of “climate apartheid” where the rich buy their way out of rising heat and hunger.
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UNICEF/Wikus De Wet | Two young men walk in the flooded Shibaburi area of Pemba after heavy rains poured down in the Pemba region of Mozambique (April 2019).
Many of the world’s 25 million refugees are confronted with the prospect of a life in limbo. They are unable to go back to their own country because of continued persecution or violence there. They do not have the option of becoming citizens in the state that has offered them asylum. And they are unable to move on to another country because they lack the passports and visas that would allow them to do so.
24 June 2019 (Wall Street International)* — People often seek psychotherapies to remove symptoms, to solve problems considered to be caused by the family, relationships, work, society, always thinking that one has problems and never that one is the problem or that the problems are constituents of his/her being-in-the-world as attitudes and behaviors.
Whenever a solution is sought, this can be done by dedicating oneself to the data, that is, the problematic structures, or by moving away from them in an attempt to clarify them.
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 24 2019 (IPS) – With a new report projecting a rise in population, specifically in Asia and Africa, the United Nations has warned that continued rapid population growth presents enormous challenges for sustainable development in the world’s 134 developing nations.
About 3,340 women, children and men have been given support to restart their lives after falling prey to sexual exploitation or abuse (SEA) by United Nations personnel, thanks to a Trust Fund established in 2016.
MONUSCO/Michael Ali | The UN Trust Fund in support of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse has supported women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo receive vocational trainings like mushroom farming. (October 2018)
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 21 2019 (IPS)*– A recently-released report by the Washington-based Center for Global Development (CGD) shows that generic drugs, like omeprazole (used to treat heartburn), can cost 20-30 times more in low and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.
Food is not a commodity, it is not “stuff” put together mechanically and artificially in labs and factories. Food is life.
Prof. Vandana Shiva
Food holds the contributions of all beings that make the food web, and it holds the potential of maintaining and regenerating the web of life.
Food also holds the potential for health and disease, depending on how it was grown and processed. Food is therefore the living currency of the web of life.
As an ancient Upanishad reminds us “Everything is food, everything is something else’s food. “
21 June 2019 (UN Environment)* — Exposure to asbestos has been a long-standing issue, threatening the health of both the environment and human population for centuries.
Photo by flickr/ Patrick Alexander
Hundreds of millions of people are exposed to the toxin worldwide each year, despite its known health risks. One study from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health estimates that roughly 250,000 people die as a result of asbestos exposure annually.
Digital currencies have great potential, but ceding control to a cartel of tech companies is not the answer.
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Image: Anthony Quintano, CC BY 2.0
21 June 2019 (openDemocracy)* — Facebook sent shockwaves through the world of finance this week with its vision to create ‘Libra’ – “a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people”.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 