Protesters gathered at the Philippine embassy in D.C. Wednesday to call for an end to the drug war and freedom for a leading Duterte critic. Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in June 2016, police and mysterious “vigilantes” have killed more than 16,000 alleged drug users and sellers in a massive wave of extrajudicial killings condemned by human rights organizations,…

This disgraceful piece ignores official guidance, veers away from interviewing any health or medical expert and alarmingly and possibly deliberately uses the term ‘meth’ for convenience and further shock effect. The potential consequences of such a story could be patients reluctant to seek treatment and further misinformation being peddled in the community for what has been proven to be an…

Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced that there would be a preliminary examination on extrajudicial killings in the context of police anti-drug operations. This is an important step forward for the many victims, advocates and international supporters who argue that justice is not possible within the Philippines when the highest levels of government have…

People were coming to the Denver Public Library to find a private place to inject drugs such as heroin away from the eyes of police. The needles were found in books, furniture, and on the lawn, and a dead man was found in the bathroom in February 2017. The Library, searching for a humane solution, took action. […]

Critics of such sites raise legitimate concerns about normalizing drug use that could be fatal. But so far, the wealth of available evidence shows two things: Most of America’s past policies have failed catastrophically, and the regions that have tried these sites have saved people. States and other cities should follow the lead of Seattle and Philadelphia to open safe injection…

An Australian politician has finally drafted a law which seeks to provide access to medicinal cannabis and is broad enough to get real product into the hands of patients who desperately need it. Leader of the NSW Opposition in the Legislative Council Adam Searle introduced the Medicinal Cannabis (Compassionate Access) Bill 2018 into the state’s upper house on February 15. […]

A study of the six months before and after the programme’s implementation has shown overwhelming reductions in post-incarceration overdose deaths, lowering them by 61 per cent, from 26 overdose deaths of recently-incarcerated people before the program started to just nine after implementation. This accounts for a 12 per cent drop in the state’s overall overdose death rate. […]

Outspoken UK drug expert David Nutt argues for regulated access to any drug less harmful than alcohol, including cannabis and Ecstasy.   […]

Americans are sick of dying in the ‘war on drugs,’ and will stand on the right side of history with or without you. Cannabis will no longer be a government tool for enslaving and oppressing people of color, nor for foisting pain and undue cost upon us all. […]

” Prohibition and punishment has never stopped anyone from ruining their lives, all it has ever done is to make the vulnerable the prey of the criminals and added a terrible burden to that of addiction through the loss of reputation and opportunity by their treatment as criminals by our society and our judicial system.” […]