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. […]
2016 Articles RSS feed for this section
The Details of Prince’s Death Are Dizzying
“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. […]
Whirlwind Reform This Most Definitely Is Not
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. […]
Asia’s War on Drugs
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. […]
President Obama Commutes Prison Sentences for 58 Non-Violent Drug Offenders
In a post on Medium.com, President Obama wrote that he will continue to review clemency applications, but said that “only Congress can bring about the lasting changes we need to federal sentencing.” Recent bipartisan efforts in Congress to reform federal sentencing laws are encouraging, he wrote, especially regarding “harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.” […]
The public scorns the addiction treatment Prince was going to try. They shouldn’t.
If we really want to stop the overdose epidemic, we need to get serious about providing the only treatment known to reduce the death rate by 50 percent to 70 percent or more: indefinite, potentially lifelong, maintenance on a legal opioid drug like methadone or buprenorphine. The data on maintenance is clear. […]
Students Can Now Get Drugs Safely Tested at Newcastle University
The UK’s Newcastle University has made drug test kits available to students, in a progressive, pioneering move towards safer, sense-based drug policy on campus. […]
Why the “Disease Model” Fails to Convince Americans That Addiction Is a Health Issue
You can’t simultaneously criminalize addiction and destigmatize it. Nor can you call it medical at the same time as you treat it like a moral issue—at least if you want to convince anyone that you actually believe what you say. To move forward, we need to separate self-help and social support from medical care. […]
Drug Addiction Cannot Be Decoupled from Mental Illness
People with mental health and substance use problems need counseling and medication-assisted treatments, like methadone maintenance. Community programs should expand the use of harm reduction practices, such as naloxone distribution, which aim to mitigate the harms of drug use. […]
UNGASS 2016: Evolution Rather Than Revolution In The War On Drugs
UNGASS 2016 was controversial by UN standards. While it stopped well short of a drug reform revolution, it has provided some very important first steps in the evolution of global drug policies. […]
Region’s harsh drug policies slammed by experts
Countries in the region seem “unable to confront the realities of steadily growing drug markets and to contemplate a rational approach to drugs that would cause less harm to individuals and societies”, said Gloria Lai, senior policy officer for the International Drug Policy Consortium. […]
Why America Can’t Quit the Drug War
After 45 years, more than $1 trillion wasted, and the creation of the world’s largest prison system, America still lacks the political will to change its failed drug policy
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Why governments worldwide are changing tack in the war on drugs
Rather than prohibit all drugs, a number of countries are exploring new approaches to regulating them […]
Australia is about to introduce pill testing in all but one states
Applying helpful and proactive methods of safety, like welcoming testing kits and professionals into the festival atmosphere, is a very positive step in the right direction for Australia. […]
Former top cop Mick Palmer backs drug consumption rooms trial in Australian cities
A high-profile former police chief has joined a group of doctors who want more safe centres for drug users to be rolled out in Australia’s capital cities. […]
UNGASS: The World is Failing to Learn the Right Lessons from its ‘War’ on Drugs
The discussions before and during the UNGASS clearly indicated the divisions within the international community on drug issues. Even as the special session failed to usher any revolutionary changes, there was a tacit acknowledgement of the sentiment that an all inclusive debate is not possible. In an unstated manner, this UNGASS was also confronted with doubts about the consensus approach and even the universal applicability of the three UN drug conventions. […]
NSW Govt’s Stance Against Pill Testing Could Result In Trial Outside State
Due to the NSW Government’s firm stance against pill testing, talks of the initiative have commenced with senior politicians and police in other states which could see it be trialled at summer music festivals throughout the country. “We continue to progress,” said Dr David Caldecott of the pill testing proposal. […]
How the UN Drugs Summit Excluded Young Voices and Failed Youth All Over the World
To us, as students, the most maddening part of the whole ordeal was the growing realization that although the drug war is waged in the name of protecting young people from the dangers of drugs, our voices are continually shut out of the debate about the negative impacts that criminalization policies have on our generations. […]
Rethinking Drug Prohibition on a Global Scale
The meeting did clearly illustrate one reality: Because the US itself is violating international drug conventions by allowing individual states to legalize marijuana, America has basically resigned as the world’s lead narcotics cops. And that means countries like Canada and Jamaica, which are legalizing or plan to legalize marijuana, will be able to do so without facing threats of trade war or other sanctions, as they have in the past. […]
Above All, Do No Harm: Searching for HIV Harm Reduction Strategies at the UN Special Session on Drugs
On the first day of the UNGASS, UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidebé gave a speech that highlighted the organization’s most recent report addressing the ways in which the world can reduce HIV infection due to drug use. Entitled “Do No Harm: Health, Human Rights and People Who Use Drugs,” the report’s advocacy for the universal implementation of a “people-centred, public health and human rights-based approach to drug use” is a refreshing departure from UNGASS’s intransigence. […]
There’s something missing from our drug laws: Science
At a minimum, responsibility for determining drug classifications and other health determinations should be completely removed from the DEA and transferred to a health or scientific body. Congress should overhaul the entire scheduling process to ensure that decisions on whether to criminalize a drug or not, and whether and how to regulate it, are decided by an objective, independent scientific process. […]
A year after the Bali Nine executions, Indonesia prepares firing squads again
According to Amnesty International, there were at least 165 people on death row in Indonesia at the end of 2015, and more than 40% of those were sentenced for drug-related crimes. Indonesia has some of the harshest drug laws in the world, and Jokowi has stated that no drug prisoner will receive a pardon from him. […]
UN Fails to Solve ‘World Drug Problem’ at UNGASS
While the UN Special Session failed to make significant progress, global partners and activists outside of the event laid groundwork for positive change and offered real hope. […]
The Deaths of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran One Year on
The bullets may have killed Andrew Chan and Maran Sukumaran, but it was Indonesia’s war on drugs that sent them to their deaths. At the time it happened, few outside the country could understand how Indonesia might shoot apparently reformed men. […]
On a downer
At the 1998 UNGASS, delegates pledged to deliver “significant and measurable” reductions in demand for drugs by 2008. That meeting even used the slogan: “A drug-free world, we can do it”. The deadline has slipped, but the intention seems to remain the same. Who are they kidding? […]
What Ever Happened to New Zealand’s Lauded Drug Regulation?
If we have learned nothing else from the drug wars, it is that a non-negotiable principle in any reform, must be that personal possession of any substance must never be an offence. But our ‘world leading’ kiwi drug ‘reform’ has succeeded in outlawing personal possession of all new psychoactive drugs – even those not yet invented. […]
The Guardian view on cannabis and psychosis: how do we protect teenagers?
One of the effects of prohibition has been to drive up the THC content and thus the potency of what’s on sale, because this is maximises the ratio of profit to risk. Whether that is what consumers would choose if they could is another question. It’s not entirely fanciful to suppose that legal cannabis, intelligently taxed, would tend to be less powerful than much of what is on the market now, just as most of the drink sold in Britain is not spirits. […]
Rethinking the Global War on Drugs
The United States will need to play a much stronger role in shaping new policies. It is in the untenable position of violating the existing treaties — now that four states have legalized the sale of recreational marijuana — while arguing that they remain a viable framework. Clearly, those accords need to be updated, heeding the experiences and lessons learned by the nations that have paid the highest price in the drug war. […]
Did the global war on drugs just die in New York?
A huge global drug summit has just wrapped up at the United Nations. Was it the turning point that many hoped for? The NZ Drug Foundation’s Cameron Price was there. […]
We Need A Joint Approach On Drug Reform
There has been a shift. We are close to a tipping point, thanks to the consistent work of many stakeholders and activists who have spent years fighting these tough battles in the political minefield that is illicit drug policy. […]
‘It Is Impossible to Arrest Our Way Out of This Problem,’ Canada Tells UN Drug Conference
“We know it is impossible to arrest our way out of this problem,” Philpott told the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on drugs on Wednesday morning, which happens to be the counterculture holiday devoted to smoking weed.Philpott is Canada’s health minister, and she’s become an unlikely champion for marijuana policy reform at the UN. […]
U.S. Should Seek Bold New Approach on Drugs
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. […]
It’s Time to Abandon the War on Drugs for a Health-Focused Drug Policy
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. […]
Portugal’s Example: What Happened After It Decriminalized All Drugs, From Weed to Heroin
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 to heroin. […]
Countries should put women at the forefront of the UN drug policy debate
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, their families and their communities. […]
The World Needs a Healthier, Rights-based Approach Towards People Who Use Drugs
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. […]
The war on drugs has failed: time to stop fighting and start thinking
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. […]
Plan to increase cannabis penalties to match harder drugs under attack
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. […]
A drug-free world is an impossible dream
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. […]
We Need A Level Playing Field For Illicit Drugs Policy
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 course, is the overwhelming majority of us. […]
Read: Today’s Remarkable Letter From Over 1,000 Leaders and VIPs Demanding Better Drug Laws
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. […]
The Real Reason Heroin, Cocaine and Other Drugs Are Really Illegal
The reasons that drugs like heroin, cocaine, marijuana and others are illegal today have far more to do with economics and cultural prejudice than with addiction. […]
Ten Compelling Reasons to End Drug Prohibition Today
n Mexico alone, more people have lost their lives due to cartels’ bloody battle over drug-trafficking routes to Western markets than in Afghanistan and Iraq combined in the last decade. […]
Why drug law reform matters for families
Those who would seek to dismiss reform as ‘going soft on drugs’, ask yourself: if it was your family member, wouldn’t you want a system that supports them to make positive change, instead of one that punishes them and leaves them worse off? Less punitive drug law doesn’t mean increased drug use. […]
High on Irrationality: At the UN Drugs Summit, It’s Time to Climb Down
“A Drug-Free World—We can do it!” That’s the slogan that was agreed upon and adopted as the United Nations’ mandate when this body last convened in a major summit in 1998 to discuss global drug policy. Today, there is little question that global drug control has been misguided, overly punitive and largely ineffective, and has steered national drug policies in disastrous directions. […]
Medicinal cannabis legalised in Victoria
Victoria has become the first state in Australia to legalise the use of medicinal cannabis.The legislation enables the manufacture, supply and access to medicinal cannabis products in the state. […]
Illicit Drugs Are Not the Only Problem — It’s Outdated Drug Policy That Needs Fixing
If drugs alone are treated as “the problem”, then we are lost. No one disagrees that drugs can be addictive and can negatively impact health and well-being. But drugs on their own are not the right starting point. The better way to think about this is how we, as governments and societies, choose to deal with drugs. […]
Canada expected to promote harm reduction at UN drug meeting next week
“Harm reduction is here to stay. Canada’s drug regulation approach is going to grow around the world, as countries start to explore different options.” The government’s support of harm reduction and the legalization of cannabis was made clear last month at the latest Session of the Commission of Narcotic Drugs in Vienna. […]
Regulate, Evaluate, Educate on Cannabis
Crucially, all policy recommendations have to be based on the most robust evidence; this was no place for dogma, unfounded theories or wishful thinking. What the report makes painstakingly clear is that to legalise responsibly, you need to regulate, then reevaluate to see where you’re going wrong and readjust. […]
The old global consensus on the war on drugs is crumbling
The drug war is now the subject of a raucous debate within the U.S., they might sound strangely familiar. The reasons why U.S. citizens are rejecting the war on drugs are, it turns out, also the reasons why it is being rejected all over the world, from the Caribbean to Europe to South America. […]
The overdose crisis is making America finally consider supervised injection facilities
The U.S. has buried its head in the sand for the last couple of decades and ignored health-based strategies to deal with addiction and drug use. Instead we have waged a war on our citizens, filled our prisons with people who have drug problems and watched as hundreds of thousands of people have died from preventable overdose and HIV. […]
Drug experts say Australia’s presence at UN summit a waste of money
The president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, Dr Alex Wodak, has questioned Australia’s attendance at a meeting of UN member countries to debate global drugs policy later this month, describing the conference as “the last big international forum before global drug prohibition collapses”. […]
Top Reformers Share Hopes and Disappointments as UNGASS Looms
A high-powered group of reformers ushered in the month of UNGASS—the first special UN drugs summit since 1998—at the Open Society Foundations in New York this morning. They expressed hopes and disappointments about the progress and lack of it surrounding the event.Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, noted the much-improved context of this summit versus the last one, 18 years ago, which adopted the clueless tagline: “A Drug-Free World—We can do it!” […]
Why ‘marijuana turns users into losers’ is a bad argument for prohibition
Never in modern history has there existed greater public support for ending our nation’s nearly century-long experiment with pot prohibition and replacing it with a taxed and regulated adult marketplace. […]
The UN’s war on drugs is a failure. Is it time for a different approach?
A policy of prohibition has put the drugs trade in the hands of criminals and led to suffering for millions. Now there are hopes a special United Nations session will see reform […]
Global consensus and dissensus on drug policy
U.N. member states will convene to reassess global drug policies. Some countries, particularly within Latin America and Western Europe, see the existing policies as ineffective and counterproductive. Others, particularly in East Asia and the Middle East (as well as Russia), staunchly support them. As a result of changing domestic policies, including state-level marijuana legalization, the United States is no longer interested in playing the role of the world’s toughest drug cop. […]
Blockbuster report backs U.N. cannabis regulation, end to prohibition
A major report by The Lancet urges the United Nations to rethink its drug policy and adopt a number of major changes, including an end to cannabis prohibition. […]
From cannabis cafes to death row: drugs laws around the world
The Guardian looks at how some countries deal with drug-related issues. […]
Lancet commission recommends drug legalization
As the U.N. prepares for a special session on “the world drug problem,” 22 experts catalog the costs of prohibition. […]
Drug War: ‘Humanitarian crisis’ label debated
With growing support for ending the war on drugs, activists worry too much talk about humanitarian concerns will remove governments from the business of drug control at a crucial time. […]
Obama: ‘Drug addiction is a health problem, not a criminal problem’
Speaking at a drug abuse summit in Atlanta, the US president committed to tackling heroin and prescription opioid epidemic with prevention and treatment. […]
‘Drug users need treatment,’ says President Obama. Not so fast, says Dr. Carl Hart
The Columbia University neuroscientist wants to shift the focus to harm reduction. […]
The roots of mass incarceration
The prison-industrial complex can be traced back to the school-to-prison pipeline. Our children are punished at alarming rates, setting them up for a bleak future in our revolving-door prison system. […]
Peter Dunne takes health, rather than criminal, approach to drugs
New Zealand’s Associate Health Minister, Peter Dunne, has reiterated the Government’s commitment to review drug policy and make sure drug offending is primarily seen as a health matter. […]
HIV activists fear UN ‘War on Drugs’ conference is already doomed
On April 19, the UN is set to hold its first major conference on drugs policies in nearly 20 years. But activists are warning that certain member states are clinging to status quo policies that have failed in the past and will fail in the future. […]
Pressure mounts on UN to create positive change at UNGASS
Two new reports, released to mark the beginning of the 59th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna this week, have once again laid bare the harms caused by prohibition and the need to radically change the way we look at drug policy in the build up to UNGASS 2016. […]
Report: Decriminalizing drugs saves money and improves health
The decriminalization of drugs does not lead to a surge in drug use, according to new report that says it actually leads to positive outcomes. […]
A quiet revolution: Drug decriminalisation across the globe
The aim of this report is to inform the public and policymakers alike on the impact of decriminalising drug possession offences, showing that decriminalisation does not lead to increased rates of use while equally demonstrating that law enforcement led approaches have little impact on this metric. […]
Opponents of the war on drugs are not satisfied with the UN’s plan to end it
After decades of prohibition, 2016 could be the year governments around the world admit that the war on drugs has failed. Or, just as easily, they could maintain the status quo. […]
Canadian official causes stir with ‘progressive’ speech at UN narcotics conference
The Liberal government used its first foray into the global anti-narcotics arena this week to signal a clear shift away from the war-on-drugs philosophy, promising more safe-injection sites, promoting “harm reduction” and touting its plan to legalize marijuana […]
White House scrambles to grant clemencies before Obama’s term ends
The Washington Post reported last Friday that the president, who has so far commuted the sentences of 187 federal inmates, will do the same for a new group of drug offenders. […]
The UN’s drug meeting in Vienna: Russian trolling, Jackie Chan, and lots of propaganda
The countries with the world’s deadliest drug laws have been on full display — literally — this week during the UN’s annual narcotics meeting in Vienna. […]
Pacey & MacPherson: Drug policy should focus on harm reduction
The flurry of new initiatives introduced by the federal government signals a major philosophical shift on drug policy issues. […]
Safe-injection sites don’t just protect drug users
The importation, sale and use of illicit drugs is complex and there is no easy solution to its elimination. We have tried for years, with little success and we will, and should, keep trying. […]
Drug control reformers must remember our commitment to human rights
With the United Nations General Assembly meeting this April, a paradigm shift is needed in our drug control system. […]
Blumenauer, Conyers, other Members call on Obama to highlight importance of public health-centered approach to international drug policy
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives in sending a letter to President Obama urging the Administration to highlight the importance of a less punitive and more public health-centered approach to international drug policy at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the World Drug Problem in April. […]
The U.S. wants to adopt a more humane drug policy. Just be careful what you call it.
A top drug official says he’s open to a “harm reduction” approach to illicit drug use, but wants to find a new term for it. […]
NCB President Werner Sipp speaks at CND side event on Portuguese drug policy
At the reconvened 58th CND in Vienna, a number of side events were held on 9th December 2015, including’Public health as a basis for drug policy in Portugal’. The Permanent Representative of Portugal, Pedro Moitinho de Almeida, opened discussions by explaining that the Portuguese policy model is no longer an experiment; instead, it is a success. […]
Commission wants UN to adopt alternative drug policies
The Global Commission on Drug Policy says that the preparation documents for a special session of the UN are relying too heavily on traditional methods of fighting drug trafficking and related crimes. […]
The Senate just passed a bipartisan drug bill - one that’s not meant to put people in prison
With a nearly unanimous vote on Thursday, the US Senate passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), the first major piece of legislation aimed at drug addiction in more than a decade. […]
Recreational marijuana considered in senate committee hearing
The Senate Economics References Committee held a hearing in Sydney on the legalisation of marijuana for recreational purposes, as part of a series of hearings on personal choice and community impacts. […]
We spoke with some experts about the future of pill testing in Australia
Thump talks to Alex Wodak and Will Tregoning about pill-testing. […]
Doing drugs differently
Does Australia have the courage to changes drug laws in ways that will actually save lives? […]
Three concepts you need to grasp if you want to know whether to legalize drugs (yes, even heroin)
The arguments for the war on drugs are collapsing all around us. Today, some 53 percent of US citizens think this war has not been worth the cost—while only 19 percent think it has. […]
A regulated cannabis market for the UK
The most comprehensive framework for how a regulated cannabis market could work in the UK has been published by an independent panel of experts set up by the Liberal Democrats. […]
‘You can overcome an addiction, but you can’t overcome a conviction’
Greg Denham believes we need to try another way to deal with drugs rather than continuing to criminalise users. In fact, he would go so far to say that it is policies such as criminal laws that are dangerous, not drugs per se. […]
Australia’s recreational drug policies aren’t working, so what are the options for reform?
Illegal drug production is unregulated and many drugs are manufactured in backyard labs. Users cannot be sure what’s in them or how potent they are, so the risk of adverse reactions, including overdose and death, is high. […]
We need to reform drug policy to help the person behind the problem
Hard evidence needs to be the basis upon which our drug policies are formulated. rather than emotion or politically-driven attitudes. […]
Stereosonic have fully endorsed pill testing and that’s great news
Stereosonic Festival has announced their full support of pill testing at their events to keep punters safe and, y’know, not dead and it’s exciting to finally see some major Australian events publicly announce their endorsements. […]
Voluntary drug-testing ‘a priority’ to save lives, say MPs
Pressure is mounting on state governments to allow drug-testing trials of illicit substances at public events after a federal parliamentary group declared they were a “matter of priority”.
On Wednesday, experts from Australia, New Zealand and the US addressed cross-party MPs on the latest strategies for dealing with illicit drugs. The event culminated in a draft declaration, which included support for drug checking (also known as pill testing) and moving away from “failed punitive enforcement”. […]
‘A laughing stock’: doctors to continue pill testing despite threat of arrest
Two doctors planning to test illicit drugs at Sydney music festivals have vowed to continue their campaign despite threats of arrest and condemnation from NSW Premier Mike Baird. Dr David Caldicott, a Canberra-based emergency medicine specialist, said the trial was a common sense precaution and the government’s resistance to pill testing had become “a laughing stock overseas”. […]
Drug decriminalisation helps minimise harm
This week federal parliamentarians will discuss with world experts ways to minimise harm caused by illicit drugs. At a national drug summit, legislators will also be reminded of the sobering reality that Australians consume illegal drugs at concerning levels. […]
Outflanking the war on drugs?
In April, the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) will adopt a consensus position on drug control, but few are expecting a shake-up to the current, conservative, global framework.
That’s why some reformers are turning to the Sustainable Development Goals as a blueprint for the future. […]
End polarising stand-off and trial pill testing
No one wants another summer of deaths at music festivals. Prominent doctors are convinced that pill testing will make a difference, so convinced they are prepared to break the law to conduct pill-testing trials. […]
Address other life problems to get at-risk young people off methamphetamines
New research has found use of methamphetamines has increased significantly in young people already at risk of other drug- and alcohol-related dependence and harm. […]
Criminal sanctions only exacerbate Australia’s drug problem
The inaugural National Family Drug Support Day is an opportunity to speak out and ask for understanding, support and changes in attitude. […]
Family members speak out ahead of National Family Drug Support Day
Behind every alcohol- and drug-related death or arrest statistic, there is a family in desperate need of support. But these families often go unaided, forced to live in a “cloud of stigma and shame”. […]
Tonight, Frontline chases heroin through Seattle
PBS’ Frontline news series airs a two-hour documentary “Chasing Heroin,” which details Seattle’s cutting-edge response to the heroin epidemic. Spoiler: harm reduction works. […]
Alex Wodak. Endgame in the protracted drug policy debate: are we there yet?
The long running debate about illicit drugs policy has moved a great deal in the last five years. But social policy reform is a different matter from a debate. […]
Campaigner who lost his son to heroin calls for radical overhaul of drugs policy
Tony Trimingham is today calling for radical changes to Australia’s drug policy. […]