Back-to-back panel discussions on drug crop production, poverty and development

Coca, opium poppy, and cannabis are cultivated by millions of people, mostly in the Global South. International law requires governments to uproot and destroy all cultivation of these crops not related to accepted medical and scientific use, but drug crop production still proves to be a promising livelihood for many rural populations. Efforts to replace cultivation with other activities have been mostly unsuccessful, and the current prohibitionist approach comes at an extremely high cost, including endangerment of small-holder farmers as they are pursued by police and military forces.

Please join Open Society Foundations for an international panel of researchers and growers from Colombia, Morocco, Peru, and the United States, who will discuss the role of drug crop production in poverty and development. This event launches a brief report outlining key recommendations on the topic for UN member states to consider leading up to the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs, and will feature photography by Juan Barrero and documentary films on coca farmers from Xenia Grubstein and German Ramirez.

Note: This event will be conducted primarily in Spanish. Translation services will be provided.

Please, find here the detailed program.

Please RSVP to Mariam Tanzilla Mariam.tanzilla@opensocietyfoundations.org

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Thumbnail: Adam Schaffer, WOLA