On June 26, we will celebrate the World Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The day aims to combat misinformation and promote sharing the facts about drugs - from health risks and solutions to tackle the world drug problem, to evidence-based prevention, treatment and care.  The campaign highlights key statistics and data from the World Drug Report published annually by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), providing facts and practical solutions to the current world drug problem. , in order to achieve a science-based vision of health for all. This campaign first saw the light of day in 1987, with the creation of UNODC, which since its inception has worked to combat human trafficking, drugs and Related Crimes This office is headed by Ms. Ghada Waly of Egypt, who took office on 1 February 2020. She holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. We will start with a factual and statistical reminder of drug trafficking in the world before focusing on the strategies and policies implemented to counter this phenomenon.
 
First, the drug market is now the second largest market in the world with an estimated turnover of 243 billion euros per year. Thus, if drug traffickers were a country, they would have the 21st world GDP just behind Sweden. Despite the repression, the UN estimates that only 42% of the world's cocaine production is seized (23% of that of heroin). According to the UNODC annual report, the production of drugs such as cocaine or opium is on the rise, with cocaine production increasing by 30% between 2011 and 2016. It should of course be noted that these figures are estimates, because the drug market is an opaque environment. Some economic studies include the drug market in the GDP, thus significantly increasing the calculation of national wealth, thus showing the economic importance of this sector.
 
 Second, according to the World Drug Report of 2013, although the use of traditional drugs such as heroin and cocaine appears to be declining in some parts of the world, the abuse of prescription drugs and new psychoactive substances (NPS) is increasing. Sold as “legal highs” and “designer drugs”, NPS are proliferating at an unprecedented rate and posing unprecedented public health challenges. According to the report, the number of NPS reported to Unites Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes by Member States increased from 166 at the end of 2009 to 251 by mid-2012, representing an increase of more than 50%. The number of NPS has, for the first time, exceeded the total number of substances under international control (234). As new harmful substances enter the drug market with unrelenting regularity, the international drug control system now has to deal with the speed and creativity of the NPS phenomenon. This problem is alarming - yet these drugs are legal. Sold freely, including on the internet, NPS are not tested to know if they are risk-free. They can therefore be much more dangerous than traditional drugs.
 
The drug market may be old, but it is more lucrative than ever and has been changing for several years. If the 1980s and 1990s were those of the advent of economic globalization, drug traffickers very quickly understood how globalization worked to use it for their fraudulent business. Moreover, the proliferation of conflict zones around the world has led to an even stronger demand and establishment of drugs in regions of the world affected by war and poverty where drugs seem to have become the only escape. Drugs have thus become a major public health problem that spares no one.
 

1979. Germany is in a slump. The counterculture of the time was still marked by the dying hippie utopia, drowned in the ravages of drugs and addictions that had claimed the lives of those who would later become the famous "Club of 27".  It was no longer a question of using substances such as LSD or mushrooms to "access a higher consciousness", to discover oneself and explore one's unconscious. Heroin is growing in Berlin as well as in the major German cities. Drugs only serve to forget boredom, pessimism after utopias and forced injunctions to happiness. Outside, ultra-liberalism is beginning to take hold with a new ideology: that of self-made mans, money and the stock market. The policy of German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt marked the beginning of the 1980s with his shift towards inflation control and austerity.
 
Christiane Felscherinow was born on 20 May 1962. She grew up in a destroyed and absent family: her mother abandoned her to go to work while her father, following a failed business project, slowly and painfully plunged into alcoholism and violence towards her and her sister. When she was six, she moved to Gropiusstadt, a grey suburb of West Berlin. His parents' divorce happened when he was eleven. To escape the toxic family climate, Christiane begins to attend "The House", a center for teenagers where she experiments with hard drugs for the first time, driven by her desire to integrate. She is not yet thirteen but has already experimented with a long list of hard drugs: hashish, Valium, Mandrax, Captagon, LSD, Ephedrine...
 
She took heroin for the first time when she was thirteen, initiated by the man who would later become her first love. David Bowie's "Heroes" resounds in the concert hall where she takes her first hit. This is how her new life begins. She goes to school during the day, then becomes a prostitute at the Berlin Zoologischer Garten, known as "the Zoo". The book tells how she hid her experiences from her mother: the back seat passes, how she got her heroin, the symptoms of withdrawal, sometimes death. She finally confesses to her mother, who sends her to her maternal grandmother's house to be weaned.
 
The book was initially rejected by eight German publishers before being published by a then confidential publishing house. It was a bombshell. For the first time, Germany is becoming aware of the major public health problem that is developing before its eyes: its youth is becoming intoxicated. For the first time, the face of the drug addict is no longer that of the glassy-eyed vagrant, but that of a young girl like any other, with a mischievous look and a sharp mind. Christiane fascinates: she is the icon of a generation fascinated by the counter-culture for some, or Germany's most famous martyr.
 
The book was adapted the following year in Germany, with the exceptional participation of David Bowie. It was a box-office success. Germany adopts an extremely repressive drug policy. Zero tolerance is introduced. Nevertheless, the young figures at the Berlin railway station continued to exist until the 90's.

The 24 of February 2022, is a date that the future generation would have to learn in class of history. It marks the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The entire Western world felt directly concerned by the invasion, indeed some Western leaders, like Joe Bidden or Emmanuel Macron tried few times to talk with Vladimir Poutine in order to find an agreement and prevent war. As everyone knows, Poutine remained on his positions and decided to attack Ukraine.
Since then, the Ukrainian people have been running away from their country to others to seek safety and protection. Poland is one the countries who hosts the most Ukrainian refugees since it’s at the Ukrainian boarder like Moldova, Romania, or Hungary. These countries are not used to host refugees and are not enough equipped and lack institutions to deal with refugees. Moreover, they lead a strict and closed migration policy which doesn’t help. For example, in Poland, the current deputy prime minister and leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, stated that refugees “will not abide by the Polish law" Or the Polish President Andrzej Duda feared they will carry a risk of “possible epidemics.” In 2015, when millions of Middle East and African refugees flew to the European Union, Poland refused to take part in the refugee relocation process. Accepting even several thousand refugees from Syria and Iraq would have neither affected the ethnic composition of Poland’s population of almost 38 million people nor created a noticeable drag on the state budget. It would have, however, been an opportunity to modernize scarce and obsolete migration-related units of the administration and create much-needed new ones.
Over the 6.6 million of Ukrainian refugees half of them went to Poland while Polish government has been refusing all the other refugees. Most Ukrainians in Poland are moving on to the other countries since there is no boarder control with Schengen areas members. Moreover, the EU has granted to the Ukrainians the right to stay and work throughout its 27 members nations for up to three years but why to them and not the others? The EU members have proved that they are able to help refugees if they want to. Journalists, politicians have shown their support to Ukrainians……. like the journalist Daniel Hannan, in Telegraph “They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. Ukraine is a European country. Its people watch Netflix and have Instagram accounts, vote in free elections and read uncensored newspapers. War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations.” Or the Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer who stated that “of course we will take in refugees, if necessary”. Nehammer was known as a hardliner against resettling Afghan refugees in Austria. “It’s different in Ukraine than in countries like Afghanistan,” he told Austrian TV. “We’re talking about neighborhood help.”
These statements reflect how the Western world is focus only on himself, normalizing wars and tragedy happening far from the Occident like in Africa, Middle East or South America. Ukrainians need our help since the 24 of February 2022 while some people have needed our help for 10 years... Let’s lend a hand to every refugee EQUALLY no matter where they are from and what they lived through.

Bullying is characterised by a difference in peer power and is described as an aggressive harmful conduct that is repeatedly displayed over a timespan. Due to its negative consequences on young people's adaptability, wellness, and academic performance, school bullying is classified as a significant public health issue.

Additionally, we should also make the distinction between direct bullying (which involves relatively explicit attacks on the victim) and indirect bullying (which takes the form of exclusion from a group and social isolation). It is particularly crucial to pay attention to the second one since it is a less obvious form.
 
Bullying leads to a number of negative consequences such as physical, social, and educational. Teenagers who are bullied have worse social, emotional, and educational performance than their peers who do not experience bullying.

According to earlier studies, bullying has also a major negative effect on children's and teenagers' mental health and wellbeing. When compared to adolescents who do not suffer bullying, victims tend to experience poorer school performance. Furthermore, they are also more likely to suffer and report more psychiatric symptoms, and emotional and behavioural issues such as conduct problems, somatisation, panic attacks, and depressive symptoms. In particular, melancholy, anxiety, physical sensations (namely withdrawal and loneliness), and suicide ideation are all identified as prevalent symptoms.

Therefore, it is essential and should be a top priority for schools to consider bullying interventions and prevention programs to improve wellbeing and reduce emotional behavioural issues. Hence, these programs should be promoted and implemented in schools in order to develop and build positive psychological orientations.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is commemorated each year on June 15th to highlight elder abuse. Elder abuse is any act that causes harm to an older person and is carried out by someone they know and trust, such as a family member, a helper or friend.

There are different types of violence:

• Material or financial: pressuring to change a will, stealing, depriving of money...
• Psychological: humiliating, threatening, intimidating, manipulating, ignoring, rejecting, isolating, scaring…
• Sexual: harassing, touching the body without consent...
• Physical: hitting, pushing, depriving of comfort or safety or of care or medication…
• Violation of rights: imposing medical treatment, not respecting privacy, not helping a person in distress…
• Ageism: excluding on the basis of age, treating an older person like a child…

In many parts of the world, elder abuse occurs with little recognition or response. It is a global social issue that affects the health, well-being, independence, and human rights of millions of older people worldwide and an issue that deserves the attention of all in the community.

These abuses occur everywhere, in the street, in their homes, but more and more in nursing homes (ehpad/retirement homes...). However, these are specialized places, where the elderly should feel confident and above all respected. But this is not always the case. Indeed, if the covid has had a positive effect, it is to have shown us the failings of the ehpad.

It is important to note that institutional abuse in EHPAD can be:

• Voluntary or involuntary
• Be conscious or unconscious (both for the perpetrator and the victim).

Perpetrators of institutional abuse in EHPAD can be: carers, doctors and other staff, but also other residents.

To really understand what institutional abuse is, it is necessary to point out that much abuse and neglect is caused by poor working conditions, such as stress, overwork, understaffing or low pay.

In residential institutions, too, there are factors that can cause unintentional elder abuse, such as poorly trained care staff. Overwork, burnout or lack of motivation of staff. The existence of dysfunctions within the team or services in charge of daily care (lack of dialogue...). Problems of financial management and human resources within the institution...

This explains why so much of this institutional abuse is neither conscious nor voluntary.

If you have witnessed abuse, you can:

• Notify the management of the establishment.
• Report the event to the Regional Health Agency to which the establishment belongs.

But above all, we must listen to the elderly and not judge them.

​Remember that we are all getting older and one day we will be those old people.
​So we have to do something about it to make it change.

Zoé is a French volunteer involved in the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

“When we go into the mine, it’s very dark in there and we are terrified of all the rocks falling on us. I saw a lot of children get hurt and I saw a kid’s head split open. I am scared to go inside. If debris falls on me, I will die “. This is what Pooja Bhurla, one of the children involved into the mining of mica, said.
 
What is mica? As unknown as it might sounds, mica is an ingredient found in electronic devices, paint and toothpaste. But it is not because of these products that the mica industry became so popular that is now worth it over half a billion dollars. The cosmetics industry’s demand for the glowing-radiant-shimmer effect increased the one of mica and thus the number of children working in mine to extract it. India and Madagascar are the two largest exporters of sheet mica globally, with most mining happening illegally. These areas involve families with a high-poverty economic background that, in order to survive, are forced to let their children work instead of studying and shaping their future. 
Once again on one side there are the perpetrators and on the other the victims. On one, people sacrifice their childhood and life in order to survive, on the other, people make money out of the wounds, broken bones, respiratory illness and deaths of the former.
 
We can’t change this industry in one day but by being conscious of our purchases and raising awareness, a small difference will be noticeable.
How long are we going to deprive these children of their childhood?

There is an element that the everyday life of each of us has in common. Wherever we look, wherever we are, we will certainly see something made of plastic around us. After the development of the first synthetic fibers towards the end of the 1800s, plastic found widespread use starting from the 1950s. Thanks to its ductility and resistance, this innovative material lends itself to multiple applications and invades the culture and customs of millions of people. Kitchens, clothes, car parts are made of plastic. It is literally everywhere.

Its production, since its diffusion, has grown exponentially. Between 2019 and 2020 it is estimated that 370 million tons of plastic were produced in the world, in addition to the 8 billion tons already present. Despite having multiple uses, 40% of the plastic materials produced are intended for packaging, and therefore are disposable. At this point, a question arises. How is it possible that a material designed to be strong and durable, which takes more than 400 years to degrade, is used in the manufacture of disposable items?

All the plastic produced since the dawn of the first syntheses is still present, in one form or another on our planet, and not just on land. As many as 8 tons of plastic waste are dispersed every year in the oceans, waste that following the currents are grouped into giants and boundless floating masses. The largest is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located in the North Pacific Ocean, whose surface is twice that of Texas. There are 4 other large masses, including another south of the Pacific Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean and one in the Indian Ocean. They are obviously not islands on which you can walk, but rather dense swirling clouds of marine debris. Not only large-sized waste contributes to this plastic soup, but also the so-called microplastics, fragments smaller than 5mm in most cases resulting from the degradation of larger elements. Microplastics are extremely dangerous for the marine ecosystem and its fauna. Fishes and molluscs, as well as birds, not recognizing them as dangerous, eat them, not only directly compromising the digestive system. Very often plastic is infact treated with chemical elements which, once ingested, are released into the body with devastating consequences.
​
We also are at the expense of this environmental disaster, drinking water and eating food contaminated by microplastics and harmful chemicals. According to a study by the University of Newcastle, Australia, every week each of us ingests 5 grams of microplastics, the equivalent of a credit card. Research into the effects of microplastics and the even smaller nanoplastics are still in its infancy, but more and more scientists are starting to worry about their effects on human health. Another risk factor is that plastic contains hazardous hormone disruptors and also absorbs toxins that are in the environment, causing diseases such as diabetes, obesity, thyroid disorders and infertility.

The solution to such an extensive and complex problem is certainly not simple and immediate. The process of abandoning plastic, which today is an integral part of our life and the comforts we are used to, must turn to the search for more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives. As research progresses, however, our single role is key, starting with the famous "3 Rs": reduce, reuse, recycle. Each of us bears the responsibility of protecting, every day, the environment around us.

Officially presented by the European Commission in December 2019, the Green Deal has been defined by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the EU's "new growth strategy" aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. while creating jobs and improving our quality of life”. This is the No. 1 priority of his mandate (2019-2024). However, certain countries are still reluctant to act in the face of climate change (Poland, Hungary) or deep disagreements (France vs Germany on nuclear energy).
 
For several years, the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been warning about the need to act to combat climate change. In its 2018 report, the group of experts noted that the rise in global temperatures should be contained to 1.5°C to limit extreme weather events and the announced development of natural disasters. The 2019 European elections saw a surge of green parties on the continent. Proposed by the Twenty-Seven EU Member States for the post of President of the Commission after the election, Ursula von der Leyen defended before the new MEPs in July 2019 the idea that “our most pressing challenge is the protection of the planet”. “It is the greatest responsibility and the greatest chance that we have today,” she added. The Twenty-Seven Member States, like the European Union, are also signatories to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which commits the most developed countries to limiting greenhouse gas pollution. The Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 during COP21, has completed this arsenal of international agreements. It aims to limit global warming to less than 2°C, and ideally to 1.5°C. The Green Deal is thus a set of policies aimed at giving concrete form to the EU's commitments.
 
The main objective of the Green Deal is for Europe to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This would mean that all greenhouse gas emissions, which must therefore be considerably reduced, would be captured or absorbed by forests, soils or even the oceans, which we call “carbon sinks”. The beating heart of the Green Deal, the European Climate Law was definitively adopted in June 2021. It set the objective of climate neutrality in European legislation, as well as the intermediate target of a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse effect of at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
 
As part of the Green New Deal, Europe is implementing a number of tools that will have a dual interest: financing this plan, and directing growth towards greener investments.
 
The main tool is the European taxonomy, which has partially entered into force for nearly 11,000 organizations since 1 January 2022. The European taxonomy designates a classification of economic activities having a favorable impact on the environment. Its objective is to direct investments towards so-called "green" activities. These activities are defined according to a set of very specific criteria.
This classification includes gas and nuclear energies, which have "a role to play in facilitating the transition to renewable energies" and to climate neutrality. This means that these two energies can be integrated into the labeling system which aims to guide private investment in sustainable activities.
 
The "Taxonomy" regulation requires investors, as well as companies to publish a report on their social and environmental commitments, to communicate on the percentage of their activities, investments, and/or financial products considered "green" under the taxonomy.
 
Beyond the taxonomy, there are other fiscal and financial incentives to achieve the ecological transition.
 
Last July, the climate package presented by the European Commission included various projects, such as a carbon tax at the borders and an extension of the carbon market to fuels and heating oil, a controversial device among the States.
On December 22, the Commission notably detailed its proposal, which will have to be approved by the States and the European Parliament, to tax imports from the EU in five sectors – steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizers, electricity – according to the carbon emissions linked to their production and the European price per tonne of CO2.
 
This “carbon border adjustment mechanism” must be accompanied by the gradual abolition of free emission quotas. These are currently allocated to European companies to enable them to face competition from countries with less restrictive rules.
 
After a transitional period in 2023-2026, this carbon border tax would bring one billion euros in revenue per year to the EU budget. According to the Commission, over time, between 2026 and 2030, these new sources of revenue should generate on average between 17 and 20 billion euros for the EU budget. This shows that the fight against global warming also requires the extension of the European budget, greater competence of the Union in the matter, its autonomy in relation to States.
 
Finally, a third important financial measure is the financing of businesses through green loans. That is to say that the European Central Bank now wants to include the fight against climate change in its mandate in addition to price control.
 
In concrete terms, this involves the purchase of “green assets”, therefore the purchase of financial assets that are consistent with respect for the environment. According to a study by the New Economics Foundation & Greenpeace, 63% of the 242 billion euros of private assets held by the ECB in July were "intense" in emissions, while they represent only 10% of jobs and 20% of activity in Europe. Almost a year ago, Christine Lagarde took over as head of the European Central Bank and called for people not to “sit around doing nothing” in the face of climate change. From now on, it is the institution that is called upon to urgently green its policy.
 
In conclusion, it is important to specify that European countries no longer have a choice. They no longer have a choice because the climate deadline is getting closer and the ecological awareness of European citizens is growing ever stronger. Finally, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has led to a deep rift between the EU and its main supplier of fossil fuels. The environmental and energy transition is therefore more than ever a vital issue for the European continent.

“Capitalism tends to destroy its two sources of wealth: human beings and nature”. Karl Marx
 
It is not necessary to be a communist to recognize that Karl Marx is undoubtedly one of the greatest theorists and critics of capitalism. At the beginning of the industrial-area, the German philosopher already warned us of the dangers of capitalism for the planet and human’s vital environment.
 
Capitalism can be defined as an economic and social system based on the private ownership of the means of production and the permanent search for profit in order to accumulate capital. Capitalism has a history and like all systems, it has known various evolutions. However, the Industrial Revolution that spread in Europe in the 19th century constitutes the real beginning of capitalism. It is not only an upheaval of techniques with the introduction of machines, it is also about deeper changes, whether demographic with the explosion of the population in Europe or even institutional with the lifting of regulatory barriers hindering economic activity.
 
One hundred years later after Karl Marx, the Club of Rome took up the same critique as Marx with its 1972 report : The Limits to Growth, also called the Meadows report. This club, made up of economists, scientists, industrialists and senior civil servants from all over the world, has been publishing reports for 50 years now questioning the link between the endless search for economic growth inherent in the capitalist system and the sustainability of our planet. In the long term, this represents an existential threat to the human species and therefore raises the question of the compatibility between capitalism and the protection of the environment. More clearly, how can one seek infinite growth in a world of finite resources?
 
A good example of the difficulty of solving this equation is the overshoot day indicator. Overshoot Day is the date from which humanity is assumed to have consumed all the resources that the planet is capable of regenerating in one year. After this date, humanity would therefore draw irreversibly from the "non-renewable" reserves (on a human time scale) of the Earth. From year to year, this day continues to recede.
 
Starting from this, many economists or philosophers postulate the radical incompatibility between capitalism and the environment, our economic system leading irreversibly to the destruction of our planet.
 
This is all the more true with the last transformation of capitalism, at the turn of the 1970s, the economic crisis caused by the oil shocks led to a transition to neoliberalism. Capitalism is based on the perpetual search for growth, if it is in crisis, it must therefore find new sources of wealth or change its mode of accumulation of wealth. This transition to neoliberalism resulted in the abolition of all economic regulations, considering that “the state is the problem, not the solution” (Ronald Reagan). Following this, the fall of the USSR and communist ideology together with the neoliberal ideological revolution and a technological revolution concerning transport as well as the means of communication and information brought about economic globalization such as we know her. This is characterized by the connection at the global level of all economic actors or the deregulation of economic and financial activities and has been made possible by the digital revolution and that of transport.
 
According to the journalist Naomi Klein, this new form of capitalism behaves like a “drug addict” who can never be satisfied and always wants bigger doses. Cela a entraîné un nouveau regain de la croissance économique et donc une destruction encore plus profonde de l’environnement. Aujourd’hui, le secteur des transports est le premier responsable des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, la délocalisation des activités dans des pays avec une main-d'œuvre à bas coût a certes permis de réduire le prix des produits mais, en contrepartie, cela a décuplé le coût écologique de la production.
 
As you will have understood, the negative and deeply destructive impact of the capitalist system on the environment no longer needs to be proven. However, it is possible to qualify it. Indeed, one of the characteristics of capitalism is its great plasticity, or its ability to transform itself. This is why some still defend capitalism and want “green capitalism”, “green growth” and “green finance”. However, the transformation of capitalism into an ecological system compatible with the sustainability of our environment is not easy and will require profound reforms.
 
In conclusion, as Karl Marx said, “philosophers have only interpreted the world, it is now up to us to transform it”.

The COVID-19 pandemic has required individuals all across the world to re-evaluate their work habits, social interactions, and mobility. Mobility was severely restricted during lockdowns. People favoured individual means of transportation over communal ones, which were utilised far less. Consequently, evidence from some cities suggested that people started looking to cycling as a low-risk, resilient, and reliable option.
 
As a result of the surge in demand, some governments have responded by adding more bike lanes, prohibiting vehicles on some streets, lowering bike-sharing schemes prices, or even providing financial incentives for the purchase of new bicycles.
 
The pandemic threw our routines into disarray, prompting individuals to reassess their travel choices. This provided a window of opportunity to test new policy initiatives, improve bike rides of active cyclists, and attract new cyclists, given the authorities' objective to encourage bike utilisation. People are responsive to policy initiatives and political action to rethink prior choices as long as this window is open.
 
However, long-term cycling use is unlikely to increase unless policy measures are implemented. Governments and authorities should seize this opportunity to boost cycling and contribute to a society that is more resilient, accessible, safe, and sustainable.