News
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NZ: Majority back decriminalisation of cannabis use, poll suggests
The New Zealand Drug Foundation, which commissioned the survey, said it was the first such poll to show a majority backing the loosening of rules on the personal use of marijuana. […]
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NZ and Australia to take part in world’s biggest ketamine trial
NZ and Australia are to conduct the world’s largest trial to find out whether ketamine can cure depression. Previous trials have shown ketamine “produces rapid antidepressant effects within hours”, says research leader UNSW Professor Colleen Loo, but the long-term effects aren’t yet known. […]
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Killings of Drug Suspects Rise to 525 in the Philippines
Some local news agencies have reported considerably higher death tolls, some as high as nearly 1,000, in counts that included drug suspects killed by unidentified attackers since Duterte emerged as the president-elect following the May 9 elections. […]
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Sydney injecting room doctor hits back at Deputy Premier Troy Grant
The Sydney doctor in charge of Sydney’s lone supervised injecting centre has decried as “hurtful” and “offensive” suggestions by the NSW deputy premier that the centre was trying to “tout” for business among pregnant women. […]
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Decriminalisation of drug use a sound and pragmatic public health policy
Decriminalisation of personal drug use and possession not only saves public money, it has significant public health benefits, according to a report prepared by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW. […]
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Duterte’s war on drugs leaves jails bursting, sees mass surrenders
From severely overcrowded prisons to exhausted funeral parlour operators and parents turning their own children in to avoid vigilante bounty killings, people in the Philippines are scrambling to respond to the effects of President Duterte’s war on drugs, slightly more than a month after he took office. […]
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Colombia’s New, Legal Drug Barons Focus on Medical Marijuana
Officials hope the new law will put a dent in Colombia’s drug trafficking business by creating a legal opportunity in an industry historically controlled by the black market. The authorities believe the new law will also help attract investment and give the economy a lift. […]
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The kill list: how the Philippines’ leader is letting people get away with murder
President Rodrigo Duterte is exploiting the rivalry of China and the US to wage a ‘war on drugs’ that is cover for a tide of extrajudicial killings. […]
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Finding a better way to treat drug addiction than by jailing people
In Australia we have known for decades that although treatment for drug addiction is sometimes expensive, it is always much less expensive than the costs of escalating incarceration. As Dan Satterberg, a prosecuting attorney from King County in Washington, says: “Jail is the most expensive and least effective way to…
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Hysteria about drugs and harm minimisation. It’s always the same old story
Debates about harm reduction follow the same pattern: relentless hostility, proof that it works, then more relentless hostility. This is the ‘drug problem’ problem. […]