News
-
Teen widows and the war on drugs
“In a country with the highest teen pregnancy rates in the region, Durana is a teen mother. She has lost her coparent and breadwinner to a state-sanctioned drug war that has claimed the lives of thousands of mostly young men. […]
-
To Cut Drug Deaths, City Considers Sanctioned Places to Shoot Up
In 2016, the opioid epidemic claimed 1,374 lives in New York City. That’s roughly four drug overdose deaths each day. One death every seven hours. It’s a harrowing statistic that continues to soar, and New York City officials are floating an idea that so far has not been tried in the…
-
Trump and Sessions Are Playing Bad Cop-Good Cop in the Drug War
Bernie Sanders has a better idea. The independent Vermont senator and 2016 Democratic presidential contender on Wednesday announced a petition calling on Congress to “end the failed war on drugs.” “The criminal justice system is not the answer to drug abuse. Addiction is a health problem and we should start…
-
Rights groups laud Int’l Criminal Court preliminary examination of PH drug war
Human rights organizations lauded the decision of the International Criminal Court to conduct a preliminary examination of the killings under President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Human Rights Watch called the ICC’s action as a “rebuke” of the government’s efforts to deny the existence of extrajudicial killings in the country. […]
-
How labels like ‘addict’ and ‘junkie’ mask class contempt for drug users
A recent report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP) – a group of drug policy reformers including political and business personalities such as Kofi Annan, Richard Branson and Nick Clegg – challenged the stigma surrounding widely held preconceptions about problematic substance use. Many prejudiced views are embedded in…
-
Jeff Sessions Makes False Link Between Marijuana and the Opioid Crisis
A study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2014 found that the ten states that legalized medical marijuana between 1999 and 2010 saw significantly fewer opioid deaths compared to states that completely outlaw pot. And in a report published just this week by the RAND Corporation,…
-
ICC to examine Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ in Philippines
International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors have opened a preliminary examination into Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”, which has led to the deaths of thousands since it began in July 2016. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said on Thursday the examination was a review of whether crimes against humanity had been…
-
Time to think about decriminalising dope
We spend millions searching for and incarcerating people for growing and selling a bit of dope. Who are we to tell someone what they should or shouldn’t do with their lives, so long as they do not directly affect the lives of others? Why not spend all that money actually…
-
Safe drug injection sites in San Francisco expected to open in July, be first in nation
The San Francisco Health Commission on Tuesday voted unanimously to support the opening of safe injection sites, which will offer intravenous drug users a clean spot to inject drugs, despite the fact that this drug use is against the law and could draw the ire of the Trump Administration. This vote comes after years…
-
NZ: Cannabis bills both miss the point
In a continuing effort to stem the tide of male bovine excrement from its polluting effect on our stream of rational consciousness, let’s all understand that, regardless of what opposition politicians claim, neither bill legalises cannabis. They both merely add an exemption from prosecution. […]