The problem has been amplified, public health experts say, by the stigmatization of the drugs, partly from fear of what has happened in the United States, where opioid misuse is a growing cause of death. […]

Any more time wasted on chasing the illusory objective of a drug-free country, region or world should increasingly be recognised as ideologically driven self-indulgence. […]

NSW Premier Mike Baird opened the Medicinal Cannabis Symposium in Western Sydney and gave an opening address on Saturday. The symposium was run by United in Compassion, a company run by Daniel Haslem’s mother, Lucy Haslem. Daniel Haslem died of terminal cancer. He campaigned extensively for cannabis legalisation till his death. […]

Indonesia is quietly preparing to execute 15 death row inmates, including 10 foreigners jailed for drug crimes, according to local media accounts, lawyers and activists. The group reportedly includes Chinese and Pakistani nationals, and inmates from three African countries: Nigeria, Senegal, and Zimbabwe. […]

Two fingers on Lim Jit Wee’s right hand are ugly stumps; a legacy, he says, of the torture that led to him falsely implicating a man he had never met in a crime punishable by death in Indonesia. […]

Students for Sensible Drug Policy recently launched a drug testing initiative in Newcastle university, with plenty of media coverage this week, here’s the roundup of what you need to know. […]

Indonesian Attorney-General H.M. Prasetyo said that the present inmates to be put of death are all drug offenders “so they know we are really at war with drugs.” But many rights activists say capital punishment does little to deter drug crime, with the number of drug convicts rising despite the executions last year. […]

“A rational discussion of the death of Prince—and of so many others—should not be guided by notions of ‘doctor-shopping,’ an opioid ‘epidemic,’ or vague images of those in pain enslaved by drugs,” wrote Dr. Jerrold Winter, a pharmacologist at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University at Buffalo. […]

Peter Dunne MP, New Zealand Minister for Internal Affairs – and long running voice of reason in New Zealand’s debates on drug policy – provided new hope of progress for the country’s tortured reforms yesterday. […]

Half a million drug users are held annually in compulsory detention centers in China and Southeast Asia, according to estimates from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Arduous physical exercises and military drills are often routine there, as is violence – former detainees described shocks with electric batons and whipping with electric wires to Human Rights Watch. […]