Retail cannabis shops in California opened their doors on Monday for the first time, inaugurating what proponents say will become the world’s largest market for legalized recreational marijuana. […]

2017 has seen a worsening opioid deaths crisis in North America, egregious brutality against people who use drugs in the Philippines, and the maintaining – or intensification – of prohibitionist drug policies in a number of countries. However, there have also been a range of progressive steps regarding harm reduction, cannabis reform, and more – all around the world. […]

In recent weeks, there has been an escalation in misleading media coverage of fentanyl – a powerful synthetic opioid used in anaesthesia and to manage severe pain. This coverage could create moral panic of an imminent overdose crisis like those unfolding in Canada and the US. […]

When considering the social stigma surrounding people who use drugs—as a moral failing—the harshest judgments are often directed towards women, particularly those pregnant or with children. […]

Melanie O’Brien, of the University of Queensland, says the punishment Roberts will face could come down to negotiations between the Indonesian and Australian governments. Australian traffickers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015, 10 years after their arrest as the ringleaders of a heroin smuggling operation. […]

This government has an opportunity to take up Peter Dunne’s legacy and move away from the failed prohibition advocated by Brown. Drugs are consumed by the most vulnerable members of our community. We owe them a duty of care. […]

Australian ecstasy has the highest rate in the world of unexpected ingredients, says drug law reform proponent Shane Rattenbury. Mr Rattenbury recently encouraged colleagues in the ACT’s cabinet to consider pill testing not just at music festivals such as Split Milk, but on an everyday basis within the community. […]

The report from Mexico’s interior department, the country’s National Women’s Institute and the UN Women agency said the annual femicide rate was 3.8 per 100,000 women in 1985 before it began a steady decline to 1.9 in 2007. From there it rose sharply to peak at 4.6 per 100,000 in 2012, tapering off in the following years and then rising again last…

There are more options for treatment or diversion out of jail or prison, but people are still getting arrested. Sentencing reforms mean some people won’t do as much time as they did in the past, but people are still getting arrested. And the drug war industrial complex, with all its institutional inertia and self-interest, rolls on. […]

Dozens of children have been killed by Philippines law enforcement in the last 18 months, claims Amnesty International. The group is urging the International Criminal Court to look into these deaths and bring justice to the youths wrongfully killed in President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug crusade. […]