The Australian Drug Foundation (ADF) is launching the "Get the effects by txt!" scheme to coincide with Schoolies week in the hope it will be used by young people. The service works by sending a message listing the effects of a drug when a person texts that substance's name to a phone number.
In Tanzania, a group of drug users encourages individual and group development through the creation of songs and videos. This song was part of the Participatory Video Program, a project funded by Medecins du Monde and managed by Openair Media Communications.
Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan covered 154,000 hectares in 2012, 18 per cent higher than the 131,000 recorded the previous year, according to the 2012 Afghanistan Opium Survey. Cultivation increased despite a significant 154 per cent increase in Government eradication efforts.
The Sentencing Council's published a new guideline for drug offences in England and Wales to ensure sentences are consistent and the punishment proportionate. The guideline was launched in February 2012.
More people than ever before are receiving antiretroviral therapy globally. However, the gap that remains is daunting and many more resources will need to be mobilised to meet the UNAIDS target of 15 million people on treatment by 2015.
Until recently, most Latin American countries had zero-tolerance rules on drugs inspired by the United States. But after souring on the prohibition-style approach of the violent and costly U.S.-led war on drugs, these countries are turning to Europe.
The President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Raymond Yans, has voiced concern about the outcome of recent referenda in the USA that would allow the non-medical use of cannabis by adults in Colorado and Washington.
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria appointed as its new Executive Director Ambassador Mark R. Dybul, a former United States Global AIDS Coordinator on 15th November.
The Directorate General for Justice (DG Justice) of the European Commission invites NGOs and networks to apply for membership of the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs. The deadline for applications is 4 January 2013.