Around 1,000 people who use drugs, activists, scholars and policymakers have gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, for the 28th annual Harm Reduction International Conference, which opened on April 27. High-profile speakers also include Colombian Minister of Justice Ángela María Buitrago, and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, who sent a video salutation.
“Welcome to the city that represents global change,” stated Harm Reduction International Executive Director Shaun Shelly in his opening speech. “Welcome to the convening of a movement that has never wavered in its pursuit of social justice, restoring dignity to the Global South, and transforming drug policy to one rooted in dignity, health, and rights.”
Delegates from 70 countries are attending the event, which is held every other year. The organizers’ choice of Bogotá for 2025 carries symbolic weight, when Colombia has long been at the epicenter of the drug war. Two years ago, President Gustavo Petro signaled a new direction, launching the National Drug Policy 2023-2033 with the motto, “By sowing life, we banish drug trafficking.” The Petro administration is working toward legalizing cocaine.
“HR25 is not just a conference. It is a milestone at a time when exclusionary ideologies are gaining ground and inequity threatens our progress.”
“We have experienced the failure of fumigation, the failure of the expansion of war, the imprisonment of institutions, and nothing has been able to stop the increase in cultivation, processing, and consumption [translated from Spanish],” said Julián Quintero at the conference. His organization, the nonprofit Acción Técnica Social, advocates to end the drug war.
“But we are also becoming experts at innovating for regulation,” he continued. “Today, we are here, shoveling more dirt onto the grave of prohibition so it can end its life, because a world without drugs is impossible, and we must learn to live with them.”
“This is not about promoting drug use [translated from Spanish],” said Minister of Justice Buitrago. “It is about promoting a policy of clear analysis and harm avoidance.”
She described the policy as targeting three key areas. First, enabling individuals to make autonomous, free and informed decisions around drugs. Second, providing education about risk and risk determination.
“But above all,” she continued, “it also means understanding that there are [drug-war] policies that damage the ecological environment and that, from that perspective, they will also generate death, hunger and, obviously, poverty in our territories.”
Bogotá
Ecological harm reduction is one of the major themes of the 2025 conference. Other topics under discussion range from syringe programs to chemsex to decolonization to radical rest. The dizzying array of subjects covered by talks, panels and other sessions are intended to share a fundamental core: human rights.
“HR25 is not just a conference,” Shelly said in his opening address. “It is a milestone at a time when exclusionary ideologies are gaining ground and inequity threatens our progress. This gathering has never been more vital.”
Amidst rising inequity and a global resurgence of oppressive policies spearheaded by United States President Donald Trump, several speakers emphasized the urgency of harm reduction work at this particular moment.
“This recognition carries deep meaning, especially in the current political climate where harm reduction principles are being challenged and devalued.”
Sue Purchase, whose organization, Harm Reduction Sisters, works in northern Minnesota, was presented with the conference’s Gill Bradbury Award, for outstanding service to people who use drugs.
“I have to say,” Purchase said, “this recognition carries deep meaning for me and for all of us at Harm Reduction Sisters, especially in the current political climate where harm reduction principles are being challenged and devalued.”
Quintero shared a similar sentiment. “The most severe drug pandemic in the past 150 years is not being solved by chasing Mexican cartels or imposing tariffs on China. It is being solved with community-based harm reduction, from the bottom and went up [translated from Spanish].”
Inés Elvira Mejía Motta giving her award acceptance speech.
“Harm reduction is resistance against censorship and the control that societies and states try to impose over free bodies and consciences [translated from Spanish],” said Inés Elvira Mejía Motta, known as the “Mother of Harm Reduction in Colombia.” She won the National Rolleston Award, reflecting outstanding contributions to harm reduction in the conference’s host country.
The event continues until April 30. When they’re not participating in sessions, delegates can browse stands offering everything from harm reduction information to local coca teas. Drug checking is among the services available on site. The conference will be broadcast on Colombian news stations, as harm reductionists strategize on how to make headway in an increasingly hostile world.
All photographs by Anna Wilcox
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