As momentum for drug policy reform grows in Colombia, the growers of northern Cauca insist on a clear demand: that profits from legal regulation do not go to armed groups or big business, but to the growers themselves.
Harm reduction activists and researchers take part in a multi-part series to deconstruct the disease model of addiction, discuss alternate ways of thinking about drug use and present ways to reform current prohibitionist drug policies.
Huge profits from the drug trade are financing illegal industries responsible for destroying much of the Amazon, highlighting the often overlooked and complex relationship between drug prohibition and environmental degradation.
Despite half a century of increased funding, more seizures and heavier policing, the DEA have failed to prevent the flow of drugs into the U.S, and the number of overdose deaths as a result of a toxic drug supply continue to rise.
The government declared the bill sought to replace failed cannabis policies, reduce the informal market and protect young people, but it is likely to face fierce parliamentary debate.
Recent media coverage oversimplifies and misrepresents the root causes of homelessness, drug dependence issues and crime, which respond not to drug decriminalisation but broader socio-structural factors, including social exclusion, the housing crisis, economic insecurity, and the lasting impacts of a global pandemic.
Falling prices have plunged thousands of coca-growing families into hardship, underscoring the need for sustainable solutions to rural communities' precarious dependence on this unstable illicit market.
Drug policy reform, non-custodial measures and tackling the root causes of involvement in criminalised activities are among the many ways states can curb skyrocketing women incarceration rates.
By flattening the complex relationship between state actors, citizens and globalised informal drug economies, the term often serves to fuel stigma, harmful stereotypes and further violence.
