The “War on Drugs” has been lost. Not only has it failed to reduce problematic drug use, it has cost more than a trillion dollars over the past few decades, and produced horrific unintended consequences. It has left in its wake a trail of violence, human rights abuse, and infectious disease. […]

We need to allow individual countries and specific regions the freedom to explore drug policies that better suit their needs.History is in the making. […]

As diplomats gather at the United Nations in New York this week to consider the future of global drug policy, one Portuguese official, João Goulão, will likely command attention that far outstrips his country’s influence in practically any other area. That’s because 16 years ago, Portugal took a leap and decriminalized the possession of all drugs — everything from marijuana…

Globally, women make up one-third of all drug users, including around 3.8 million women who inject drugs. Women who use drugs are at higher risk than men of acquiring disease, including HIV. These unique challenges are due to biological differences, social and structural vulnerabilities, and decreased economic opportunities.UN drugs summit can change the lives of the world’s most disadvantaged women,…

There is a unique opportunity to begin to treat people who use drugs with dignity and respect, to provide people who use drugs with equal access to health and social services, to greatly reduce the harms of drug use and to take a step towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. […]

Many countries are exploring different policy and programme solutions. These include alternatives to arrest and incarceration for minor drug offences, harm reduction programmes, decriminalisation of drug users and small farmers and increased access to pain medication. […]

Plans by the Queensland government to increase penalties for cannabis possession and trafficking to match those for “harder” drugs has been described by drug policy experts as a “retrograde” and “uninformed” step. […]

The vision of a drug-free world has faded. We are instead presented with a nightmare scenario, where a multi-billion dollar black market funds organised crime and terrorist organisations. […]

The recent unofficial disclosure of positive illicit drug tests for some elite football players has thrown up some interesting responses on the use of illicit drugs in sport. However, it has also served to highlight the inherent discrimination and unfairness of our approach to drugs in general, particularly for those that don’t happen to be elite sportspeople — which, of…

The letter below was released today by the Drug Policy Alliance, which orchestrated the project to gather over 1,000 international signatories, including politicians, celebrities and leaders in many fields. Some of the most prominent signatories are listed underneath; the full list is here. […]