The only way to think sensibly about drugs is to ensure that we pursue humane and ethical purposes:  to keep people alive, allow for differences of view and choices and as far as possible, in every way, reduce the harm associated with drugs.   […]

New Zealand chose to take an innovative, harm-minimisation approach through regulating the market. […]

Decriminalisation had the desired effect of reducing drug-related arrests, while releasing resources and removing a barrier for problematic users to seek help. […]

It is now well-established that the war on drugs has caused more suffering than the drug problem it was supposed to be tackling. The good news is the tide finally appears to be turning. Countries around the world are experimenting with new approaches, from decriminalisation to regulated markets. It’s an incredibly exciting time. […]

It is long past time for political leaders to be held accountable for their cowardly inactions on drug policy reform that result in racist effects and human rights violations. […]

We must now all recognise the violence related to drug trafficking in some countries and regions, and the lack of access to harm reduction measures and treatment in others as a problem for all of us. […]

Drug control measures cannot take precedence over health, safety, human welfare and well-being any longer. Our countries have suffered enough. The human costs are too high. […]

Ultimately this is a choice between control by governments or by gangsters; there is no third option in which drug markets can be made to disappear. […]

The time has come for the international community to acknowledge the evidence, call for and deliver evidence-based harm reduction strategies of global scale to reduce HIV and hepatitis C infections, and so protect the health of people who use drugs. […]

Drug enforcement in one region just leads to the emergence of production and supply in other regions. […]

Capital punishment for drug-related offences should be suspended all over the world, and there are both opportunities and pressures for countries retaining capital punishment to change course. […]

For too long ideology and ‘tough on crime’ posturing have dominated global and national drug policy debates. It is time to be humble about the mistakes of the past and to embrace a rational and responsible policy on drugs. […]

Despite all the resources spent by governments, the global drugs trade is now entirely controlled by violent criminal organisations. […]

There is plenty of evidence that declaring the War on Drugs was essentially a political decision with total disregard for medical or other pertinent scientific considerations about the problem. […]

I believe that drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrong government policies have destroyed many more. In what other areas of public health do we criminalise patients in need of help? Surely it cannot be the job of the criminal justice system to prescribe remedies to deal with public health concerns. […]

As an investment, the war on drugs has failed to deliver any returns. If it were a business, it would have been shut down a long time ago. This is not what success looks like. […]

I have no problem with the medical use of cannabis, just as I have no problem with the medical use of opiates. […]

A preference for policing over treatment and rehabilitation is worrying because evidence from the United States suggests that for every dollar spent on drug treatment we save $7 to the community, compared with $2 for stronger policing.

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This is an issue we’re not going to police our way out of. […]

For social problems like these, law enforcement isn’t the answer. Ice has been on the scene for over a decade and we’ve had a really strong law enforcement approach and it hasn’t resolved the problem. The time’s right now to look at the other options. […]