SSDP UK have recently launched a drug testing initiative in Newcastle university.

It’s obvious that the safest way to use drugs is not to use them at all and whilst no substance is inherently safe, drug use surveys at universities around the country have consistently shown that over 50% of students claim to have tried drugs. After more than 40 years of the failed war on drugs, drug deaths are at their highest since records began in England and Wales. The reality is that expecting young people to ‘just say no’ is inadequate and to claim that it works, avoids the real issues at hand.

Picture from SSDP campaign "Test your drugs, don't test yourself".

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Thumbnail: CC Students for Sensible Drug Policy UK

‘Just say no’ has failed our generation: What you need to know about our drug testing initiative

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The Trinidad and Tobago government is examining the possibility of decriminalising marijuana and is reviewing existing legislation as well as planning wide consultation before adopting any position, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has said.

He told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper yesterday that there has been “a full exercise of analysing the types of crime in our prisons and the pre-trials detention or remand statistics for a range of offences, including possession of narcotics, and particularly possession of cannabis.

“From that perspective there’s certainly a drive to gather statistical information, as the issue of decriminalising of marijuana isn’t a simple one on the public side,” he said.

Al-Rawi told the newspaper that “if one were to argue for decriminalisation, the limits to be applied must be considered”.

Click hehttp://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/T-T-mulling-decriminalising-ganjare to read the full article.

Trinidad and Tobago mulling decriminalising ganja

A few weeks ago we attended the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS) in New York. This was the first time in 18 years that such a high level meeting has taken place to debate drug policy. For many working on the issue it was a significant opportunity to challenge the prohibition paradigm, and sow the seeds of reform.

Yet for us and other civil society attending, the meeting was a constant battle against exclusion. Despite having followed every process necessary to ensure access, the rules of admission changed not only daily, but hourly in some cases. This led to surreal levels of bureaucratic and security restriction, which limited and denied access to meetings and debates which many had travelled far to attend. The closed process of negotiations prior to the meeting in New York excluded not only civil society, but also more than 100 UN member states, largely from the Global South.

Whilst disappointing overall, the final outcome document adopted by all member states at the meeting contains some promising points on development. These include strong commitments to ensure access to controlled drugs for medical use, by targeting barriers in national legislation and regulations, with the aim to improve capacity, education and training, and affordability, all of which currently limit access to essential medicines.

The need to mainstream a gender perspective across all drug control policies, and to address specific gendered needs and vulnerabilities associated with involvement in the drugs trade was also recognised. Commitments were also made to address the disproportionate numbers of women being imprisoned on drug related charges, and gendered barriers in access to health, care and social services.

Reflecting on UNGASS: Disappointment and hope for sustainable development

Over the past decade, alternative development has come a long way. The recently launched "Sustainable Development Goals" and the "United Nations Guiding Principles on Alternative Development", which Thailand is proud to have played an active role in helping to shape, serve as valuable references to guide our alternative development efforts.

However, our work is far from over. We need to ensure we move forward from words and recommendations to actual implementation with measurable and sustainable outcomes. So please allow me as a development practitioner to speak frankly based on more than 50 years of experience working on the ground with the people.

Light shines on development goals in Thailand

The new government has pledged to press ahead with plans for supervised drug injection centres. The Fine Gael-led minority administration will also support a health-led rather than criminal justice approach to drugs, it was confirmed today in the new Programme for Government.

There were concerns among campaigners that plans for the injection rooms, which were championed by former drugs minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, could be set aside by the new government.

after losing his seat in the general election, the former Labour TD said he had “no idea” what would happen to the plan he had set in train.

The new government has committed to bringing in drug injection rooms

The April 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem offered a unique opportunity to re-examine the approach of punitive suppression that underpins global drug control. As the first such meeting to be held since 1998, it was a chance to set a new course, leaving behind what the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has called the negative ‘unintended consequences’ of the ‘war on drugs’.

Part of setting a new course must mean bringing human rights into the heart of drug control. For too long, States have approached international drug control law in isolation, as if these obligations exist separate and apart from the broader framework of international law, and may be interpreted and applied as if no overlapping treaty obligations come into play. This approach has contributed to the growth of human rights violations linked to drug control in all regions of the world – the death penalty; torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary detention; denial of due process rights; violations of the right to health; mass incarceration; and many more.

However, the obligations established in the drug conventions cannot be interpreted and implemented in isolation, and must take into account concomitant obligations in other legal regimes. This principle has driven efforts – sometimes successful, other times not – to forge a more humane and rights-based approach to drug control within the UN system.

The human rights ‘win’ at the UNGASS on drugs that no one is talking about, and how we can use it

With an increasing number of jurisdictions enacting or contemplating reforms creating legal access to cannabis for purposes other than exclusively "medical and scientific," tensions regarding the drug conventions and evolving law and practice in Member States continue to grow.

Thumbnail: Youtube WOLA: Washington Office on Latin America

Cannabis and the conventions: UNGASS and beyond

Following a UN conference on drugs last month, countries in the region are being accused of sticking with ineffective and harmful anti-drug policies

Last month in New York, governments and civil society attended the UN’s General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) to discuss the global drug problem. There were high hopes, particularly as Latin American countries most affected by the so-called “War on Drugs” had strongly pushed for the session, that there could be a revolution in drug policy. What resulted was, at best, a small evolution in thinking.

It may lead to more flexibility from the UN on drug treaties, increased acceptance that harsh drug laws are not working and a change in the language used around drug users. But for Southeast Asian governments, and in particular Asean as a whole, it seems a revolution is still some way off.

“The UNGASS event itself clearly marked a shift in thinking and a widening gap between reform-minded countries and those that want to retain the status quo,” said Tom Blickman, programme coordinator for policy group Transnational Institute. “Unfortunately, most Southeast Asian countries and China belong to latter category and Asean is still committed to the unrealistic goal of a drug-free society.”

Region’s harsh drug policies slammed by experts

It takes a little getting used to: bringing an illicit substance to an official booth at a rave to have its contents analyzed before you ingest it. At first people tend to be skeptical. Is this some sort of trap? Will I be arrested and thrown into jail? This is Mexico, after all—a country firmly entrenched in the war on drugs.

Ending this war is the main objective of our youth drug policy organization ReverdeSer Colectivo [site in Spanish]. And a key part of that effort are the services we offer at raves and festivals, where you can find us handing out information about drugs, helping patrons having physical or psychedelic problems, and analyzing their pills before they take them to make sure they’re safe to ingest.

This is the essence of harm reduction—an approach that accepts drug use as a fact of life, and works to minimize the risks of such usage. In that spirit, ReverdeSer Colectivo is working with other organizations like Espolea and CUPIHD to implement a substance analysis project in Mexico City. We are engaging with the local addictions institute and human rights commission to establish a lab that could not only analyze substances but also serve as a key place for harm reduction programs for people who use drugs.

Our work doing substance analysis at festivals and raves gives us an opportunity to talk about safer ways to use drugs and to hand out information to people about the drugs they’ll be using.

Why “harm reduction” means something different in Mexico

Government Calls for Reforms at UNGASS, but Backtracks at Home.

On April 18, the Colombian government restarted use of the harmful and ineffective herbicide glyphosate to destroy coca crops, months after the governmentsuspended aerial spraying because the chemical was found to likely be carcinogenic. While spraying will continue on the ground instead of from the air, the move will still harm the health and welfare of rural Colombian farmers involved in the cultivation of illicit crops. The new practice also undercuts President Juan Manuel Santos’ calls for drug policy reform—most recently, at the April United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drug policy in New York.

Last year, the Colombian Ministry of Health accepted the evaluation from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization, that found sufficient evidence to state that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” This finding comes after more than 30 years of aerial spraying of coca, cannabis, and poppy crops, during which local communities repeatedly denounced the negative effects the chemical had on humans and animals alike. In addition to the health effects, the practice puts local food security in jeopardy due to the fact that spraying campaigns have destroyed licit and illicit crops alike. Following the IARC’s announcement, the Colombian Health Ministry called on the National Drugs Council (

, CNE), to suspend fumigation. The CNE ordered a stop to fumigation in August 2015, and the practice ultimately ended in October.

Meanwhile, however, Colombia’s counter-narcotics police began to explore alternative chemicals and techniques to continue forced coca eradication—a policy long-supported and funded by the U.S. Department of State.

Thumbnail: Flickr Policía Nacional de los colombianos

Colombia’s contradictory return to coca fumigation

Survivors and victims of the War on Drugs are travelling from Honduras in a caravan for peace, life and justice to present their case to UNGASS 11 next week.

I first smoked marijuana when I was thirty years old. I found it to be more fun than alcohol. And more spiritual. It reminded me why I became a Quaker. It helped me see the inner light in people.

The next realization was that it was insane to make this simple plant illegal. In reading books on the subject I learned a surprising fact: the legal prohibition of cannabis, coca and poppy plants is determined at the highest level, not by God, since after all it is reported that Jesus used a cannabis extract in healing, but by the UN’s Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961. In 1970, Richard Nixon signed the legislation implementing national prohibition in compliance with the Convention: the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act.

So just to make that clear, US drug policy is determined by a United Nations Convention.

A potentially momentous reconsideration of that Convention will take place next week in New York City at the second United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS).

Olmyra Morales, secretary to the Small Coca Farmers Cooperative, Colombia - Open Democracy

Thumbnail: Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

Women and the war on drugs

Lieutenant governor called the Adult Use of Marijuana Act a ‘game changer’ and an antidote to what he described as the failed and racist war on drugs.

Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday that the first of more than a dozen initiatives proposed to legalize recreational marijuana inCalifornia, the biggest pot producer in the US, has collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in November.

Flanked by sober-suited supporters, a doctor in a white coat, the head of the state NAACP and one very conservative Republican congressman, Newsom called the Adult Use of Marijuana Act – which was bankrolled by Napster founder Sean Parker – “a game changer”, an antidote to what he described as the failed and racist war on drugs.

“It’s unlikely that any others will qualify,” Newsom said of the competing measures. “We have qualified. We are north of 600,000 signatures. That is beyond what is needed. We need a little less than 400,000. You can rest assured this will be on the November ballot.”