Marcus Day

Saint Lucia

Marcus Day

Dr. Marcus Day (DSc Geography) is the Director of the Caribbean Drug & Alcohol Research Institute based in Castries, Saint Lucia. The Institute studies the overlap between drug use and HIV infection on vulnerable populations. As a scientist he is the principal investigator on two ongoing research projects:
• Crack cocaine and HIV Risk Street Drug Users in Saint Lucia and
• Drug use and HIV Risk Behaviours among Caribbean MSM community.

Dr Day is a member of the core group of the UN Reference group on Injecting Drugs, The Co-chair of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities, the Vice Chair of the Board of the International Harm Reduction Association, and the Steering Committee of the International Drug Policy Consortium. He is a leading expert on Non-injecting crack cocaine use and HIV overlap and HIV in Caribbean Prisons.

As a diplomat he has served as Saint Lucia’s Head of Delegation for the 2008 and 2009 sessions of the Commission of Narcotic Drugs in Vienna.

In addition to ongoing research projects he has just completed coordinating a two year project to promote the in implementation of non-custodial sentences for non-violent drug offenders in the Eastern Caribbean and has published two manuals: oOne on implementing alternative sentencing for drug offenders and another on drug treatment in Caribbean Prisons.

Dr Day is the co-editor of the 2001 volume on drug use in the Caribbean entitled “Caribbean Drugs, from Criminalisation to Harm Reduction (Zed Publishing London, 2004) and a contributor in the 2009 Ian Randal published volume entitled SEXUALITY, SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND HUMAN RIGHTS with an article entitled Drugs Obscure the Human Rights Issues for Drug Users Are Demons and Jumbies Rights Holders?

He is also the coordinator of the Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition and as such co-authored of the 2002 CARICOM report Drug Demand Reduction Needs in the Caribbean Community, which continues to inform CARICOM drugs policy. He managed a 2-year Caribbean drug treatment and rehabilitation project funded by the European Commission that was instrumental in introducing the concept of harm reduction into the CARICOM Caribbean.

On the practical local front Dr Day founded the first low-threshold drop-in centre for homeless crack users in the Caribbean in urban Castries and currently oversees the operation of a drop in centre in Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia, a ½ way house / shelter for homeless HIV+ men and a safe space / refuge for young MSM.

He is the father of three teenagers and practices harm reduction in his home. “I can not tell other people’s children to do this stuff, if I don’t believe in it enough to guide my own children the same way."